The Family Holiday

By: Shalini Boland

Narrated by: Katie Villa

Length: 7 hrs and 36 mins

Publisher's Summary

Two families. One house swap. A vacation to die for.

The white-washed Italian villa is perfect. I thought it might feel odd, living in a stranger’s house for the summer, but as my husband and children swim in the infinity pool, I start to relax. And then, in the back of a wardrobe, I find something that shatters everything....

Sparkling green eyes, square jaw, lopsided smile. A young man with his arm around a beautiful woman. The picture is old and faded, but I’d recognize him anywhere. The man is my husband.

But we’ve never met the family we’ve swapped homes with, and my husband swears it isn’t him in the photo. He’s lying. We argue on the balcony with the sun setting behind us, and I storm out.

When I finally calm down enough to go back to the villa to confront him, I find his dead body sprawled across the veranda.

Who killed my husband? Was our marriage a lie? And are my children now in terrible danger?

©2022 Shalini Boland (P)2022 Bookouture, an imprint of Storyfire Ltd.

Entertaining

This wasn’t an exceptional listen.
It was, however, throughly entertaining in every way.
The premise is fairly plausible.
The characters are well developed in every way.
From the two different husbands, the two very different wives, and even the new personalities that are introduced once the house swap takes place.
I also very much appreciate her ability to truly set the scene, to describe things in such a way that one can feel the warm Amalfi Coast breeze blowing and see the texture of the dark ocean as a backdrop for much of the Italian segment.
The same is true for the 300 plus year old cottage in the English countryside and the ensuing atmosphere; cold air, warm fires, sunsets that take the breath away, etc.
So many authors don’t bother with this critical aspect anymore.
I own over 650 audio titles and it’s truly shocking how many authors just don’t find it relevant or important to really bring the reader into the experience of the protagonist (s).
It was quite a pleasant surprise.
Also I found it refreshing that I truly could not figure out quite what was going on for most of the book.
This, sadly has become quite a rare occurrence.
The narration is exceptional, perfect in every way.
The different accents, the emotional investment of the narrator is abundantly clear from start to finish.
The only reason I didn’t rate this title a little higher is that it did feel a bit simple, or over simplified in some ways.
Regardless, I would certainly recommend this one, I finished it in an evening.
This was my first Shalini Borland title and it will not be my last.
Kudos to Kate Villa for yet another truly perfect performance, indeed she is in a league of her own.
Such talent…
Thank you for a pretty thrilling and unique read.
♥️

Save your money!

I am 10 chapters in and I have NEVER encountered a book so bad I wrote a review mid way through. From the weak, nervous female lead, the stereotypical distant, vaguely misogynistic husband and the annoying children this is unlistenable.

Great!

Excellent example of living with a narcissist.
Really highlights the way they manipulate and gaslight even after being confronted with verifiable facts.

Such a WEAK lead character

I was drawn in to the story right away, and for the most part it held my attention. But the main female character desperately needed to find her backbone. For most of the story I felt annoyed. There was really only one or two likable characters, and they only had small parts.
The other frustration was the narration. She reads very well, but unless you are paying very close attention, you won't know which character is speaking, because there is so little variation.

The Family Holiday

I enjoyed the story. You never know what people can be hiding even those closest to you. Beth was too catering to her husband's feelings (walking on eggshells hoping not to upset) for me, but I know there are truly women who are like that. It just makes me happier that my marriage doesn't work like that.

enjoyed it

once I got over my hatred for the controlling, demeaning husband, the story kept me interested.

Wow, what a wild ride!!

What a story! This book gripped me from the beginning, and I hated for it to end. I love this author's books, but this has to be one of my favorites. It is well- written and well-performed.

Love this author

Shalini Boland is my new favorite audible author. I have listened to every one of her audible books except the vampire books (I don't care for vampire stories or movies). She never lets me down. Her books are always good, in my opinion, and I love her narrators Katie Villa and Lucy Price-Lewis.

So boring

If you can suffer through the first 5 hours, the remaining is ok. Good narration, but nothing ever happens in the story.

Wonderful escape!

Greatly enjoyed this! It descriptions of the Amalfi coast as well as English countryside were welcome escape! The story was Well Crafted with an interesting cast of characters. I will certainly read this author again, I also thought the narration was superb!

Good story, beautifully read

The story is gripping and well told. The reading is outstanding: fluent, no mispronunciations, and no overacting, silly accents or unconvincing rendering of male voices by female narrator.

good twists

listened to too many lucy price lewis youngest child always sounds precocious this book was a little predictable

*Be Careful What You Wish For*

Two families decide what they need is a house swap. Within each family one family member is hiding an explosive secret. One family live in the U.K. while the other family live in Italy.

The story is told predominantly by two points of view Beth and Amber.

Beth the put upon wife and mother of two children who gave up her career as a chef in order to look after her boys, she is so used to placating her husband that she loses herself as well as her self confidence. I found myself shouting at her.

Her Husband Niall is a successful writer and has controlling issues and his moods tend to affect the household and the fact after so many years of not wanting to take the family on holiday he says they will be doing a house swap. Beth is uncomfortable about it at first but when she sees the location and beautiful house with a pool she is sold on the idea.

In Italy Amber mainly wears the trousers in her relationship with her husband Renzo. She is also cold and calculating with a ulterior motive. Her husband adores her and they have two children.

As each family get on their flights and arrive in their respective countries, things start to get dark and sinister. Beth soon discovers a huge secret that will affect her marriage, whilst Amber is busy scheming until things take a devastating and drastic turn, when the secrets start unraveling one person pays a heavy irreversible price, whilst the other blows up their life.

Great narration - easy listening

I think this narrator is fabulous to listen to. The story has promise and was interesting but I wasn’t particularly excited by the conclusion. It was all a bit bizarre that someone would go to such lengths and I felt the horrid Niall wasn’t really exposed - though I liked the Italian characters!

Really enjoyed this!👏🏽katie is 1 of the very BEST outstanding narrators on here👏🏽♥️

I loved this book, more so because Katie Villa was reading this! I’m not sure if i would have gotten into it if it hadn’t been read so beautifully, because i did at the start kind of get a bit bored but like i said because Katie was reading it she made this book even better!👏🏽💯but once i was past the few chapters I wasn’t as keen on, then WOW i was hooked!!🤗 i only wish it didn’t tell you about the husband dying as that would have been a great surprise🤗 definitely recommend and thoroughly enjoyed this💯💯💯 i love a book about holiday’s so this automatically caught my attention straight away!! Sad it’s finished and now to try and find another book to grip me… I’m SO fussy!😩🤦🏽‍♀️ i ONLY review a book if i enjoy it so that tells you it’s a BRILLIANT book!!💯💯🤗thank you Shalini Boland for an AMAZING book, and thank you Katie Villa for your OUTSTANDING reading as ALWAYS!!💯👏🏽love when i see you are the narrator of a book!💃🏻🙌🏽😂♥️ thank you audible for another AMAZING book!!! Onto the next one🤗💃🏻♥️♥️♥️xxxx

Very listenable

Enjoyed it, good rwist at end. No house swop for me thank you. I’ll stay at home!

Brilliant

Yet another great book by Shalini Boland and fantastic narration by Katie Villa.
A great story from beginning to end with a few twists and turns along the way.
Thoroughly recommend

Very enjoyable

Really enjoyed this and the narration was spot on. But the twist at the end was fantastic!

Great Author. First time read with this new author

I Loved this book. Most memorable moment, the end few paragraphs of the book.....

Was pretty good - kinda disappointing ending

I was very gripped by this book, however I found the ending a bit underwhelming. I feel there was a lot leading up to it and then I feel the twist wasn’t as in depth as I thought.