We are returning to France for another great summer read by Gillian Harvey . The Village Cafe in the Loire was published by Boldwood on July 12th. High-flyer Becky Thorne cannot believe what she’s being told. She doesn’t need to be signed off for burnout! Life has been a bit chaotic lately, that’s all. As if dealing with her enviable job and permanent meddling from her mother aren’t enough, she’s also inherited a café in the Loire from an estranged great-aunt, complete with sitting tenant who refuses to budge. But nobody stands in Becky’s way! Ignoring her best friend Amber’s advice, she decides to storm over to France and sort the tenant out. Then she can finally get the café sold and jump back on the career ladder. What she doesn’t count on is the tenant being Pascale, who is six feet of tall, dark, handsome and extremely grumpy about her plans for change. Not to mention the village and the secrets it holds about her past. Becky’s path to succes...
The Christmas Holiday by Mikayla Davids #Review
The perfect vacation or the perfect murder...
It's Christmastime and thirty-two-year-old Alicia Silver is
spending her first Christmas holiday with her handsome new husband Jack and his
family in their remote lodge in the Irish mountains.
The Silver family are wealthy and beautiful, they seem to live a charmed existence and Alicia only hopes she can live up to their high expectations for her marriage.
The festivities are in full swing but Alicia quickly discovers that, behind their perfect image, the Silver family are hiding plenty of secrets...
The gorgeous husband
The jealous sister-in-law
The glamorous step-mother
The wealthy father-in-law
Before the vacation is over one of them will be dead.
But who would kill to protect their secret? And who will survive this Christmas holiday?
My Thoughts
This psychological thriller sets up the tension beautifully from the beginning. You know that something horrific has occurred but you don't know who the victim is or who the person under suspicion is either. The setting is remote. Lonely but beautiful, it should be the perfect setting for a Christmas break. Of course, you soon realise that the phrase, hell is other people, fits this family beautifully.
Alicia is a newcomer to the family and you see everyone at first through her eyes although other perspectives are soon part of the narrative. You have the uneasy feeling about different motivations and soon realise that there are some family secrets below the surface, too. I did find this to be something of a page turner, with a surprising twist at the end and a multitude of red herrings.
In short: a great Christmas thriller.
About the Author
I'll let you into a little secret... Mikayla Davids isn't my real name, it's just the pen name I write under. I could be the person sitting opposite you on the train, furiously tapping away at a laptop, or the woman scribbling in a notebook on the table beside you in Starbucks. Everyone has their secrets. And this is mine.
But I will tell you I've lived and breathed fictional worlds all my life. I've been the child who spent hours in the library, the teenager who stayed up turning pages way into the night, the editor who poured every working hour into helping authors achieve their dreams of being published. Now I'm the secret writer.
I write psychological thrillers about family dramas, complicated relationships and ordinary moments that can suddenly turn into nightmares.
You can follow Mikayla here: Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Website
Book links: Goodreads | Buy links
Thanks to Mikayla Davids and Zooloo's Book Tours for a copy of the book and a place on the tour.
Check out these great bloggers!
thank you so much for taking part in the tour today and for sharing your fab review x
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