Her Last Holiday - C.L. Taylor

Reading Challenge Category: Free ARC from NetGalley

Official Blurb:

You come to Soul Shrink to be healed. You don’t expect to die.
Two years ago, Fran’s sister Jenna disappeared on a wellness retreat in Gozo that went terribly wrong.
Tom Wade, the now infamous man behind Soul Shrink Retreats, has just been released from prison after serving his sentence for the deaths of two people. But he has never let on what happened to the third victim: Jenna.
Determined to find out the truth, Fran books herself onto his upcoming retreat – the first since his release – and finds herself face to face with the man who might hold the key to her sister’s disappearance. The only question is, will she escape the retreat alive? Or does someone out there want Jenna’s secrets to stay hidden?

My Thoughts:

A couple of weeks ago, I was in a reading slump, and I told Cally Taylor that I would read this book as I know all of her books keep me hooked. However, I decided it wouldn’t be fair on this book to read it in the frame of mind I was in. So, I waited until I’d got my reading mojo back before diving in. I’m so glad I did, even though I know I would have loved it a few weeks ago. I also know I loved it more by waiting.
This was a truly enthralling read and didn’t let me down in terms of grippingness. I couldn’t put it down and think I’ve read this quicker than any other I’ve read this year. I needed to know what happened to Jenna.
So many variations of what could have happened ran through my mind while reading, but I just couldn’t piece it all together. So I kept turning those pages super fast so I could find out. There was, unfortunately, a typo (that I hope has been sorted before going to print) that gave one of the twists away. However, I try not to let errors like this annoy me when reading ARCs of books as I know they will get sorted in final proofs. It was just such a shame that it gave something away and wasn’t just a simple typo. I wish I could let the author know where the error was, but I was in too much of a hurry to keep reading that I didn’t make a note of it.
The story is filled with drama, suspense and lots of surprises. I was a little disappointed by the character’ personalities. I did find them all to be a little bland. I found it quite amusing when Fran describes her sister Jenna as being bland when I’d been thinking the same thing about her. Fran is quite feisty and doesn’t take any nonsense from anyone, but she doesn’t really have much about her that makes her special.
There are quite a lot of timelines to keep on top of, and I know many readers struggle with this. There are the ‘Then’ sections following Jenna in the past and the ‘Now’ from Fran and Kate’s points of view. However, there are other time jumps during both sections when the characters are reminiscing, so you really have to concentrate to keep up. This is made especially difficult with Fran, Kate and Tom in the present at wellness retreat and Jenna, Kate and Tom in the past are at a wellness retreat. There are lots of similarities between both retreats, and I did find myself having to remind myself what time period I was in. However, I was reading so fast I just sort of went with the flow and let the story wash over me.
So, overall, another fantastic read from C.L. Taylor. She didn’t let me down!

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