🏝️🏝️🏝️🏝️1/2
Our Perfect Holiday
Daniel Hurst
Bookouture
Published June 19, 2026
302 Pages
Goodreads/Amazon.com/Bookshop.org
The word “perfect” in the title of the book is ominous; it signals that something will go terribly and horribly wrong. The author delivers.
Fast paced psychological thrillers are a guilty pleasure for me; they and cozy mysteries are what I enjoy after a stream of heavy, serious literature. I also find I read more of them in the summer when I seem to have more interruptions in my reading and less attention span. This is precisely what I needed after reading The Calamity Club, Liberty Street and some other hefty tomes. My brain needed a vacation. I enjoy these types of books, much as many love horror movies. Even though improbable things happen and characters do stupid things. They can still be fun.
I have heard of Daniel Hurst but this is the first novel of his I have read. It will not be the last. While his books are not what I would choose when I am in the mood for something more significant, he is good in the genre, which is what matters. There is decent character development, which is often lacking in psychological thrillers. The characters for the most part are not flat but rounded and somewhat complex. There are many twists and turns, which are desirable in such books. By the end, I suspected most of the characters at one point or another. I will say though that the very end was a little confusing and I had to go back and reread the last chapter and epilogue and confirm my thinking with another reader.
The dual timelines in the book added to the complexity and I did have to stop and think about what was happening and to whom. Considering the plot, it was a necessity. Twenty years ago, Cassie was on vacation with her family and someone died, face down in a pool. She is now back at this resort with her family where peculiar things are happening and she is haunted by the events 20 years before. This cries out for a dual timeline because there is really no other more effective way to tie events of the two periods together. However, it does mean that the reader does have to keep things straight between the two timelines, especially when they involve the same characters and similar events.
Nonetheless, I found this novel to be an entertaining and enjoyable read and recommend it to those who enjoy the genre. Thanks to Bookouture and NetGalley for providing me with access to this book prior to publication. All the opinions contained in this review are freely given and are my own. I give this book four and a half stars, rounded down to four for Goodreads.
Leave a Reply