Firstly I would like to thank netgalley and Boldwood books,and the author John nicholl for an early copy of his book.

I've read quite a few books from this author, mostly I enjoy reading his crime books.my rating for this book is 3.5 rounded to four..At first I thought suzie and George why are they married,they are totally miserable as a couple.they go on holiday for a week there was disaster after disaster, Suzie wants a child all George wants is her money..Suzie finds a friend to confide in,but is this friend genuine...was going give a 3 star rating after I read it I'm still thinking about the characters even though George was a nasty character...looking forward to reading more of his books.

This book will be reviewed on goodreads and Amazon....

I raced through this pacy thriller in two days and it was a wild ride. I had no idea where the author was taking me, but I knew I wanted to follow…..⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Another one by John Nicholl that doesn't disappoint. I felt like I had to continue reading this to find out the twist! Very unlike able characters which added to the drama and I wanted to shake Suzie out of her religious fervour!! 10/10 to George for his persistence in trying to get his hands on her money!!
I loved it!!

What a brilliant read this is, I always look forward to this authors books being published and this one didn't disappoint. I read it in 2 sittings that's how much I enjoyed it. The characters are great although I felt like punching George on the nose. Suzie has such a vulnerability about her and I really liked her. I'm sure you'll enjoy the story as much as I did. Huge 5 stars.

This was a very uncomfortable book for me to read. I struggled with the plot as well as the characters. The serious issues were not handled as delicatessen as they should have.

I loved this book! I didn’t know which way it was heading whilst they were on the plane, I was hooked on the character development.

All three main characters were awful! Manipulative and not afraid of gaslighting each other, all in the name of toxic toxic love!

I loved the justifications for the reasons George and Suzi acted towards each other, both thinking they were in the right. I did guess the ending, but this didn’t spoil the book, I will now be looking into other works by the author

John Nicholl never disappoints. From the beginning The Holiday had me gripped. Great story line and a climatic ending

I enjoyed this story and read it in one sitting. Big fan of this author and this didn’t disappoint me.

The story revolves around two main characters Suzie and George. I found Suzie likeable but didn’t like George.

Maybe due to how much I’ve read I found this to be predictable.. however I’d still recommend it.

Have you ever read a review about a book that’s so bad that you want to read it just to see if it’s really that bad? This is that book! I seriously cannot believe this author has written several books and has repeat readers. I just don’t get it. I feel like it was written by a 12-year-old boy who only sees men and women as stereotypes and wants to be as sexually crude as possible in his writing. Seriously, those sex scenes and descriptions are just ridiculous and unnecessary. The plot is just as thin as in the blurb and I can’t expand on that without any spoilers, except they won’t spoil anything because you will know exactly where this is headed.

And besides the characters being complete stereotypes, they also do not speak or act like twenty-somethings but come across as a significantly older couple. Except maybe for the crudeness of language. Suzie is a religious zealot who won some type of lottery but won’t share it with her husband because of his gambling issues. Unless he stops drinking and is more responsible with his money, and her dad says it’s okay. Yes, she’s overly dependent on her jerk father who’s more of a religious fanatic than she is. Surprise – she picked a husband who’s just like her father, because – daddy issues. Suzie is the most naïve, subservient, moronic female character I’ve come across in a very long time. George, of course, is a cheating, lying, smarmy jerk who no one would want to be with, yet all these women want him because he’s handsome. Because we women are just like that, aren’t we?

Why are they still married? She won’t consider divorce because she’s Catholic. It’s the year 2024, but ok, maybe there are still some people like that. He won’t leave because he wants her money, and he gets nothing with a forced divorce. I’ll add that I live in the US and am not familiar with Welsh law, so maybe the legal statutes are that cut and dry with divorce over there. Not so in the US, but I understand that the author needed there to be a reason the couple was together yet miserable and bitter about it.

So, they’re each too stubborn to compromise and one of them decides to take the immoral and illegal route to get what they want and bad things happen. Then a character is introduced in the last 10% of the book (?) to investigate and then there’s the unsurprising conclusion, and then congratulations you made it! Don’t worry, this book can’t hurt you anymore.

This book is really not for me.

Here's why:

1. The constant mention or Catholic priests and religion in general. Not that I do not agree or that I don't consider myself religious, but it was constant. Pages after pages after pages of monologue. It felt so repetitive. Keep in mind, I would feel the same way regarding any other topic mentioned so frequently in a book.

2. The characters are horrible. Utterly unbearable. George is a horrible man who is horrible to his wife. Again, monologues upon monologues about how he wants her money and how she is a "horrible cow". Again, it seems so repetitive. Suzie is annoying saying "er" every 3 words she speaks. I , er, don't know. I , er, am ok. She is also so naive and relies on her "daddy" to make her decisions for her.

3. The book is so slow. Maybe at 60% you start getting somewhere, but it is most certainly not thrilling or twisty.

All in all, like I said this was not for me. I love a book that has the premise of the main characters on vacation but this just was not it.

ANOTHER DELICIOUSLY DARK TREAT!

I am an avid fan of John Nicholl and was thrilled to be given the opportunity to read this before its release.

It starts slowly, with the reader being lulled into a safe feeling of security. A couple, George and Suzie are off on a much needed holiday to beautiful Tenerife. They are trying to rekindle their relationship after some marital issues. Suzie is still reeling after two miscarriages. George is feeling aggrieved after his wife’s win on the premium bonds and her refusal to share the money. Usual marital issues?

The descriptions of the island are gorgeous. It should be the perfect break they both need. But the beauty of the landscape contrasts starkly to the ugly cracks appearing between the couple. George isn’t great husband material. He has a roving eye, has had dalliances with other women, has a gambling problem and when he drinks, he becomes crude and cruel. Suzie for her part is quite controlling and you have some sympathy for George. She is a devote Catholic and takes every opportunity to reference her religious beliefs. She holds the purse strings and seems to treat George more like a child than her husband.

Both George and Suzie are flawed in their own ways and it leaves the reader with a conundrum. Who is the villain and who is the victim? As the story unfolds it becomes increasingly difficult to decide. Just as you start to have sympathy for one of them, they show a different side to themself and you side with the other person. As in life, no one is perfect, we all have faults, secrets.

As is human nature, the reader feels compelled to root for one of the couple, champion them but Mr Nicholl doesn’t like making things easy for his readers! He makes you question your own beliefs and values. What would forgive? Is a person justified in their actions if they have suffered at the hands of another? What would you do in George’s position or if you were Suzie?

John Nicholl toys with his readers like a cat playing with a mouse! I enjoyed The Holiday immensely. It is gripping, oh so clever and a real head scratcher. If you like your thrillers to chalenge you, make you question yourself and keep you guessing until the final pages then this is for you. And if you haven’t read John’s other novels I cannot recommend them enough. His stories are wonderfully dark, intelligent and so plausible you feeling like they could definitely happen - even to you!

From the beginning of The Holiday, there is a sense of tension and uneasiness that runs the whole way through. It centres on a husband and wife, Suzie and George and it was clear that their marriage is not particularly happy. I liked the way the author explored this, especially the aspects of gaslighting and coercive control.

I found all three of the main characters, Suzie, George and Amelia, quite unlikeable and I was never quite sure whether or not I was able to trust them. However, their personalities are well developed as we learn about their pasts and family life. I was interested to know how their situation would play out.

I often thought I knew where The Holiday was going, but John Nicholl gives us a number of twists and red herrings that made me want to keep reading to see what would happen. I did guess a few of the twists but there are still plenty of surprises.

I found this very hard to like mainly because the 2 main characters are thoroughly unlikeable. She is a nagging wife who won't share her lottery win and has a daddy issue. He is an unfaithful gambler with no sympathy for his wife's miscarriages who suffered childhood sexual abuse from a catholic priest. These really are far too many ingredients!

The Holiday is fairly difficult for me to review. There was so much I disliked about it, but I did rattle through it in a couple of days and I did actually enjoy it! The main characters Suzie and George are ridiculously annoying and overly stereotyped. The story became more unbelievable and farfetched as it went on, yet I found myself desperate to find out what happened at the end. There were a few sentences in one chapter which seemed odd - the wording felt very unnatural, but that might just be me.
It has been a few years since I last read a John Nicholl novel and it will probably be a few more until I read another. 3.5 stars

I found The Holiday an extremely difficult book to read. The main characters are not likable at all. The story unfolds as they are traveling from Wales to. Tenerife in the Canary Islands. Their squabbling begins on the flight and never lets up. It seems she has all the money and is unwilling to share due to trust issues with her husband and his refusal to attend church services. He has gambling and drinking problems and is extremely unfaithful. She relies heavily on her “daddy”, has had two miscarriages and abuses her anxiety medication.
I thank NetGalley and Boldwood Books for the opportunity to read and review this book prior to publication.

This richly descriptive tale about a couple in a toxic relationship heading to Tenerife to get their marriage back on track was entertaining. The tension between the couple due to Geroge’s philandering and Suzie’s windfall was well explored, the twists well plotted, and the mystery of the ‘helper’ was a great addition to the mystery.

The skillfully developed and wonderfully despicable characters had me rolling my eyes (in a good way), as did the unnecessary swearing, derogatory comments, and open-door intimacy (in a not-so-good way).

Can our pasts be erased or rewritten? Is there a way out or a way forward? Is it worth it? You’ll have to read about George and Suzie’s holiday to find out!

I was gifted this copy by Boldwood Books and NetGalley and was under no obligation to provide a review.

Suzie and George fly to Tenerife to help their marriage. George is a terribly vain, selfish, entitled character who is after his wife's money. He has many affairs, and wants to be rid of Suzie to pursue his own interests in style.
Suzie is under her father's thumb and consults him on everything in her life. She is also a devout Catholic, and does not understand her husband's aversion to religion.
She really wants a child, but has suffered two devastating miscarriages.

She befriends a very beautiful woman who was on holiday at the same time, not realizing what an impact that would make on her marriage.

I really did not like Suzie, who threw her husband's many flaws in his face constantly, and I detested George, who is a selfish, insensitive, apathetic man.

I didn't hate this book, but I didn't love it either. It focused on the toxic relationship the married couple had, the threats, the dislike/hate, blackmail. I didn't enjoy that at all.

Thank you NetGalley and Boldwood Books for the opportunity to read this book.

Loved this read. Well written characters......mainly unlikeable. Something a bit different and i really wasn't sure how it was going to end. My thanks to netgalley and the publisher for my copy.

With many thanks to Boldwood Books and Netgalley for this free arc and I am leaving this unbiased review voluntarily

First off kudos to John Nicholl for creating a story with such wonderfully awful characters - no mean feat I would imagine. Good flow to the story with chapters from both Suzie and George that really let you get inside their head. The story starts to ramp up after the holiday and becomes a quite addictive read as you try and work out what’s what. Slightly predictable ending but nethertheless a highly interesting read. Another winner from this author

Hoping to revive their troubled marriage, Suzie and George have booked an expensive vacation in a 5 star hotel on Tenerife. Note that everything is in Suzie’s name. She controls the money and for a good reason. George has a gambling problem, owes thousands, and is far from faithful to Suzie. He is also obsessed with himself and his needs. So why are they still married? Suzie is a devout Catholic, raised by a domineering father and a mother who follows his every command. The future of Suzie and George’s marriage isn’t looking too good. No it isn’t, especially after a beautiful young woman befriends Suzie and encourages her to be more independent.

The Holiday has an intriguing plot that moves swiftly and a captivating vacation location. The problem is that it has no sympathetic characters. George is a nasty, insulting narcissist, Suzie is smug about her religion and totally controlled by her father. Her father orders her mother around and says God tells him that he’s right. Amelia proves to be the worst friend either one of them could ever have. These unhappy, bitter people don’t make you care what happens to them. 3 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley, Boldwood Books and John Nicholas for this ARC.