Her Last Holiday by C.L. Taylor | Book Review

From the Sunday Times and Richard & Judy Book Club bestselling author, comes a thrilling, suspenseful tale that will leave you breathless.
‘An absolute belter of a novel’ ELIZABETH HAYNES ‘A sensational novel!’ GILLIAN MCALLISTER
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?
The master of suspense is back. Prepare yourself for the latest heart-in-mouth rollercoaster ride from the Sunday Times bestseller.

Her Last Holiday was a book I was so excited to read.  I have read a few C.L. Taylor books prior to this and I have always found her writing engaging and addictive but there was something missing from this outing.  I think it stems from the fact that any logical reader must suspend disbelief at an astronomical level.  It was a highly imaginative story that ended up just being to much for me to swallow.  I love stories that are intriguing with a mystery that allows me to join the dots, if you are like me this probably isn’t the book for you.

Her Last Holiday is a story about Fran’s sister, Jenna.  She goes to a SoulShrink retreat in Gozo.  They specialize in mental wellbeing and giving the clients the tools needed to recover from anxiety and depression.  The man behind the retreat, Tom Wade is a charismatic but cocky man that claims he can save their lives.  Bold claims.  Two guests died and one went missing whilst on the retreat.  It is presumed that Fran’s sister, Jenna committed suicide by jumping off a cliff.  These events led Tom to being imprisoned for Manslaughter but he’s due to be released.

Now this is where I’m left scratching my head.  Things just don’t add up.  As in 2+2=5, kind of way.  Fran’s mother is all set on blaming Tom for her daughter’s death.  She’s clearly upset and traumatized BUT why on earth would you send your only surviving daughter into the clutches of the man you believe to be responsible for your youngest daughters’ death?  Not buying it.  She hears he’s been released and running a new retreat so books Fran a place on it so that she can investigate just what happened to her.  One word – WHY?

I felt the book was also way too long in regards to what was happening.  The writing was good, but I felt it dragged on especially in the middle, I would have liked more action to break it up a bit.  Fran learns that several of the guests that attended the retreat Jenna was at are now at this one.  Why would you ever want to go back to another retreat organized by Tom Wade again?  Because two deaths and one suicide are surely ever day mundane things?  This goes back to the suspending disbelief thing again. 

Her Last Holiday had a lot of buildup, but the ending frankly fell super flat.  It was a bit of an anti-climax.  It really wasn’t for me, do not let this put you off her other works and I will most definitely pick up her next one because historically I really enjoy her writing style. 

ABOUT C.L. TAYLOR

C.L. Taylor is the six times Sunday Times bestselling author of seven gripping stand-alone psychological thrillers: THE ACCIDENT, THE LIE, THE MISSING, THE ESCAPE, THE FEAR, SLEEP and STRANGERS.

Her books have sold in excess of a million copies and hit the number one spots on Amazon Kindle, Audible, Kobo, iBooks and Google Play. They have been translated into over 25 languages, selected for the Richard and Judy Book Club, and optioned for television. 

THE ESCAPE won the Dead Good Books ‘Hidden Depths’ award for the Most Unreliable Narrator and SLEEP won a Capital Crime Amazon Publishing Readers’ Award. 

HER LAST HOLIDAY, C.L. Taylor’s eighth crime novel, will be published on 29th April 2021 by Avon Books, an imprint of HarperCollins UK.

She has also written a Young Adult thriller, THE TREATMENT, published by HarperCollins HQ. Her second young adult standalone THE ISLAND will be published on 21st January 2021.

There is a full list of C.L. Taylor’s books on Bookshop. Each sale will earn an independent bookshop 10% of the purchase price.

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Cally Taylor was born in Worcester and spent her early years living in various army camps in the UK and Germany. She studied Psychology at the University of Northumbria and went on forge a career in instructional design and e-Learning before leaving to write full time in 2014.

She started writing short stories in 2005 and was published widely in literary and women’s magazines. She also won several short story competitions. In 2009 and 2011 her romantic comedy novels (as Cally Taylor) were published by Orion and translated into fourteen languages. HEAVEN CAN WAIT was a bestseller in Hungary and China and HOME FOR CHRISTMAS was made into a feature film by JumpStart Productions. Whilst on maternity leave with her son Cally had an idea for a psychological thriller and turned to crime.

C.L. Taylor lives in Bristol with her partner and young son.

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