Charlotte and Perry live in London and have a second home in Pine Ridge. They have owned it for several years and Charlotte’s pride and joy is their large summerhouse called the‘Niche’.

Their friends Amy and Linus buy a bungalow on the same cliff top and it needs lots of work done. They are happy to have this new property and look forward to spending many summers in it.

The local activist group are opposed to people coming down from London and buying second homes as there is not enough housing available for local people: they have a campaign of protests and stickering properties including the Niche and Amy’s new summer house named the Nook.

There are lots of small plots going on at the same time in this book which makes for a really interesting read. There are many secrets in both Amy and Charlotte’s families and most of them have something to hide.

This was a fab read and one I would definitely recommend.

Thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Whilst I really enjoyed this novel I don’t think it was quite as good as the rest. It was very wordy and by that I mean there was too many words than was strictly needed.
3⭐️’s

Quite a topical storyline with residents in holiday resorts protesting about second home owners making it impossible for young people to get on the housing ladder, much like Cornwall, as well as Spain, Really interesting and contrasting characters made this a really enjoyable read

Once again Louise has out herself.

I love the way she writes and the book is one them you want keep reading even if it slow in parts.

This was a great slow burn book and I got very involved with the story. I had heard about the issues and the general feeling of how the cost of housing is impacting everyone but especially in rural areas. Like the book I have no idea on how this will be resolved but the issue is not just one area based and impacts so many people.
One of the side plots re the a student was interesting and also got me thinking.
I did learn a lot of new words and also about a whole new subculture - findom and zoomers.

I read this in one sitting as I just wanted to see who died and if it was who I thought it was going to be - spoiler alert - yes it was.

Thank you for allowing me to review this excellent book. I always look out for books by Louise Candlish as her stories are always great reads. This book us no different. However, there are a lot of characters in this book and it took a while for me to understand which family they belonged to. The members of the protest group were easier to work out. This story covers many current issues, particularly in villages with a high second home community. I felt some sympathy for the protesters and the home owners although there approaches towards each other were not always acceptable. Some of the individuals were not very nice and others naive.
The story is complex and it is told from the perspective of different characters and at different times. The story is complex, and the conclusion was unexpected. A recommended read.

Two families ‘down from London’, for their August holiday on the Dorset coast, face local activists fighting for affordable homes for local people.

During an end of summer beach music festival, someone destroys a summer house in one of the DFL families’ homes. But who did it? And why? And with another discovery, things take a much more sinister turn.

What I really liked about this mystery is that it’s not all laid out in the opening chapter. The story builds, giving us time to place all the characters and see how they all link together. That said, if found that it took me a long time to remember who the couples were, which lived where, whose children were whose etc and I couldn’t work out why I was having so much trouble until I realised that I didn’t feel I really knew any of the characters well. And there are a lot of characters to get to know. Most of them are relatively superficially drawn, not much depth to any of them, Charlotte is really two dimensional, none of the adults have much about them and they don’t have a lot of redeeming features - none of them is very pleasant.

The locals are more likeable, with Robbie coming across as the author’s favourite character, he’s witty and principled, as well as a loyal friend.

I don’t know why I didn’t feel connected to these characters as the story was well written and had a good pace and I really liked how the crimes were revealed but I felt like there were a lot of loose ends and aome parts that didn’t feel relevant or to have added anything to the story.

Overall, I enjoyed reading the book but if you haven’t read anything by Louise before, perhaps start with The Only Suspect or Our House.

I enjoyed this book and it kept me engaged throughout. There was an abundance of characters, many with a secret or issue to to hide, and their various actions and interactions provided the main focus of the book despite the opening chapter showing a house literally falling off a cliff.
There are several issues raised in this book apart from the obvious second home debate but they are woven into the characters and the story and not waved like flags and therefore left for the reader to acknowledge or not.

I haven't read many be Louise Candlish so i was really looking forward to reading Our Holiday. It did not disappointed and felt that it was a really well plotted suspense thriller with modern day themes that I felt really added to the plot and i throughly enjoyed. Once you are introduced to the characters the story really does begin to unfold and keeps you in suspense.
I would happily recommend this to anyone and would certainly read another Louise Candlish novel in the future

Our Holiday is a sun-drenched scorcher of a thriller that brilliantly spins out from its central concept to deliver a ticking time bomb of fraught familial relationships.

Opening with a dramatic tragedy, you are utterly ensnared in Candlish’s clutches as you move forwards and backwards in time – trying to work out the who, what and why of it all. By having so many different narrative strands and two timelines to keep track of, it makes for an impressive feat and a tightly plotted narrative that Candlish pulls off with aplomb. You get such a good sense of these characters immediately – there’s the sort of snobby cliquiness and endless invisible competitions amongst the second home owners. Within that group, there are all sorts of secrets and lies to uncover. What I particularly loved about this book is just how messed up and fractured these characters are. They do bad things, sometimes even unknowingly and it creates a tangled web around them all.

Then you add the extra layer of privilege, which glosses over the entire narrative. The main tension in this book is between the holidayers, the wealthy second home owners and the local townspeople, many of whom are from a vastly different economic background. It adds an interesting element, kickstarting a conversation about truly belonging somewhere and the gentrification of certain areas. There is a real issue of people being priced out of an area their family has lived in for generations and this sense that the identity of the place is shifting into something unrecognisable for them. Books like this illustrate that way that the British class system rules everything, intersecting it with a conversation about immigration and race that becomes more prominent in the latter half of the book.

I also have to comment on how well woven the mystery is. You are led down so many rabbit holes, becoming familiar with these complex characters and uncovering their secrets. In the further timeline, you start to unpick what may have happened from clues seeded into the narrative but you are only seeing glimpses of the wider picture. Once it all clicks together, it is magnificently done.

Candlish explores the simmering tension between locals and rich holiday makers in this perfect summer mystery. You know from the start that it will have explosive consequences, but Candlish keeps you perfectly on edge throughout.

I love books by Louise Candlish and this one starts with some really punchy action. However for me, this then slowed down as I tried to get my head around the mass of characters and their roles within the events. I found it difficult to connect with them whilst also trying to follow the story from multiple view points. So expect a slow burn for the start of the book.

That said, once I had got to grips with this, the pace quickened and the layers came thick and fast with so many plot twists, some expected, some totally not. Told from two different timelines, after the incident and the period leading up to it, the pieces all began to fall into place.

The book is set in a beautiful village in Dorset, where the locals are struggling to find housing as the DFL’s (down from London) buy up houses for second homes. Louise does not shy away from reflecting some real problems in society : housing crises, second home owners, seasonal employment, alcoholism,
violence, vandalism and protests. Nor does she leave us in any doubt about the unpleasant traits of human nature: secrets, lies, criminal activities, male rivalry and of course, messy relationships. The satirical nature is portrayed brilliantly, with over emphasis on the ‘haves’ and the lengths they go to for ‘entertainment’ contrasting hugely with the locals, struggling with how to progress in society.

The tension cranks up and I found myself wondering how it could all possibly sort itself out. This is multi-layered with plenty of under-currents and sub plots.

I enjoyed reading this, although I prefer some of her previous books.

I have read other Louise Candlish novels and really enjoyed them but I just couldn’t get into this one. There were far too many characters which often left me confused, I felt I had read a significant proportion of the book without anything actually happening. This was a slow burn indeed, sadly not a book I would recommend to others.

As with all of Louise Candlish's thrillers, this is a fast-paced and fascinating tale peopled with unlikeable characters whose lives are set to be turned upside down. Our Holiday is set in a seemingly idyllic coastal resort but those who own second homes in paradise are resented by the local, and in some cases homeless, locals who are intent on disrupting the incomers' blissful existence. Great fun!

I have read many of Louise Candlish’s novels and have enjoyed several of them but “Our Holiday” left me feeling a little disappointed. There were certainly high points of the novel and there were large parts of the story that completely hooked me but overall felt a little let down.

Pine Ridge is a clifftop village where wealthy second home dwellers encroach upon the local community, resulting tension, resentment, envy and ultimately, tragedy. Charlotte and Perry have owned a luxurious holiday home in Pine Ridge for sometime and re looking forward to another summer of relaxation. Their friends, Amy and Matt, have recently joined them by purchasing a second home nearby hoping for lots of relaxation and friendship.

There is trouble brewing with the arrival of Robbie who is a charismatic and determined local who is heading up a campaign against the second home owners. It starts as a small trickle of hostility but builds up to a full-blown conflict with Robbie and his minions resorting to increasing aggressive behaviour.

The story tells of the tensions that are building up with the two families as they deal with the social and moral dilemmas.

The problem for me personally was the story failed to engage me and I struggled to care what was going to happen. The characters were well written but it was just the story and plot that failed to capture my imagination. I suppose you can’t win them all.

I would like to thank both Netgalley and HQ for supplying a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Charlotte and Perry live in London but, each summer they spend the whole of August at their holiday home in Pine Ridge on the South coast, and have been doing this for the last fifteen years. They are joined this year by friends Amy and Linus who have also bought a holiday property close by and both families will be planning lazy days at the beach and watching the sunset from Charlotte's Nook which stands on the cliff edge overlooking the sea. The locals this year however, have other ideas, a group calling themselves NJFA (Not Just for August) are fed up of city dwellers coming to their town and buying up their homes, leaving the villagers not being able to afford homes of their own and they're determined to make them pay...

Our Holiday follows the topic of second homers, something which is becoming far more prevalent these days especially with the more affluent in Britain, where they spend the summer months in their holiday home and leave them empty for the rest of the year and, after reading this story I sympathised with both sides of the argument. This is a well written slow burner with many layers and characters, which could be quite confusing at times. It's described as a psychological thriller in the blurb but I'd say it's more of a family drama with political connotations, this did make it quite a heavy read, having said that the twists in the tale did make it an enjoyable read.

I'd like to thank HQ and Netgalley for the auto approval, I will post my review on Amazon and Goodreads.

Thank you to @Netgalley, the author and publisher for the e-copy of ‘Our Holiday’ in exchange for my opinions.

I love a Louise Candlish book and have been totally invested in them for the past ten years or so. I love the way she develops characters and some of them are so sinister you can’t help but be obsessed by them. Her books are perfect holiday reading as the fast pace of them just makes them perfect to gobble up whilst lounging the day away.

‘Our Holiday’ looks like a classic holiday read on the cover and it certainly focuses on the concept of leaving behind your normal routine to escape to the holiday home. But these holidaymakers are city dwellers who have privilege with a second home on Pine Ridge, where the locals are unhappy with property prices and are being forced out of the place they grew up. The NJFA group (Not Just For August) have a few tricks up their sleeves and as well as a deep-seated envy they are determined to teach these second-homers a lesson.

I liked this and it certainly was a slow burn. I just felt as though there were far too many characters leading to some confusion and my failure to gel with the story until quite late on. But overall, expect twists, turns and thrills so if you want a holiday read to keep you on your toes, opt for this.

Louise Candlish is the Queen of the Domestic Thriller!

Our Holiday tells the story of two families who are fortunate enough to own second homes at the beautiful English coast, but their summer holiday gets thrown into jeopardy! The locals don't want them there, but how far are both sides willing to go?

A great page-turner!

Overtourism, the scarcity of houses for the local and the disruption of the life of locals: this is a thriller but it also deal with a hot issue, one that is causing protest all over the world.
Local don't usually starts such a series of disasters but it was an entertaining, twisty, and sometimes disturbing way to talks about this issue.
I wasn't a fan of the characters and appreciated the surprising twists.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

This unfortunately was a DNF for me on this occasion.

I found that there were too many characters, none of which I was particularly invested in and this made the storyline a lot less engaging.

It also felt like I had been reading for quite sometime without anything really happening which made it hard for me want to pick this up.

Perhaps I’ll try finishing this again in the future but for now it’s not for me.

I am a huge Louise Candlish fan so I have been so excited to get to read this book. She has always had me on tenterhooks, waiting for plot twists and gotchas to shock and surprise me. This book had a different vibe to books of hers that I've read in the past. It had a slower pace and I didn't get quite as much "domestic thriller" as I was hoping for, but that's not to say that I didn't like it.

The subject matter was very appropriate for the current climate and it did make me think more about the experience of those who live in second home towns. The group protesting about the holiday home owners in Pine Ridge had a very valid argument, but did I agree with all of their actions? Probably not. On the flip side, I didn't particularly like any of the home owners either. Some of them were more entitled than others, but even the more reasonable ones carried a pinch of pompous about them.

Did I absolutely adore this book as much as Louise Candlish's others? I'd have to say no. But I did enjoy it and it was an enlightening read. It was a slow burn for sure but it did pick up in pace more towards the end and it was then that I was racing through to find out what had gone on. A relatively easy story to follow and I'd recommend for a laid back reading experience.