Reviewed by Emma Crowley
Her dream holiday is his everyday life. His dream holiday is her normal life. What happens when they collide?
Ally and her dad, Geoff, run the family business, a creative retreat, from their home Hollyhock Cottage in picturesque Kittiwake Cove. They give their guests their dream break, but Ally hankers after glamourous city living, fancy restaurants and art galleries.
Ally’s survival strategy is to escape out of season, take a break abroad and pretend to be the person she always imagined she would be. She meets Logan while she’s away and he turns out to be exactly the kind of distraction she’s looking for.
With her spirits restored, Ally returns home, picks up the reins again and sets her sights on another successful season, but when Logan unexpectedly arrives on the scene, she soon realises she’s in for a summer that’s going to be far from straightforward…
Many thanks to Simon and Schuster UK via NetGalley for my copy of The Holiday Escape to review and to Sharon for having my review on the blog.
The Holiday Escape is the second standalone novel that Heidi Swain has written. I must confess that it has been a very long time since I have read a book by this author and the reason is quite a silly one. I’m not one for dipping into series or connected books without starting at the beginning and as I haven’t had the chance to keep up with the author’s interconnected books I didn’t want to jump in midway. But boy am I glad I held out for anther standalone book because this was a fabulous read. Pure escapism and a great story at its very heart and I enjoyed every minute of it. Life has been a bit busy as of late and when I got the chance to sit down and read this I most certainly read it in huge chunks as I was enjoying Ally’s story so very much. There is a strong theme of conflict between duty and desire running through the story and it’s something that we can all identify with in one way or another. Perhaps not to the extent that Ally has to battle with but still there is lots for the reader to take from the story on a personal level.
The setting is everything in a book and can make or break it as well as needing good, solid and relatable characters and here both were brilliant. The setting of Kittiwake Cove and specially Hollyhock Cottage was perfect and idyllic and played such a vital role in the overall plot. We are first introduced to Ally as she is making her annual escape from Hollyhock Cottage and the business she runs there with her father Geoff since the sudden and unexpected death of her mother several years previously. During the off season, Ally likes to get away and live the life that she had always wanted to prior to losing her mother. She gets a chance to refresh and reset and creates an entirely different persona for herself whilst she is away. Right down to a change of name and the type of clothes she wears.
Barcelona is her destination of choice as this is where she had wanted to move to after finishing her MA in Spanish and history. On the flight over she is minding her own business but the nun next to her keeps her chatting and next to said nun is the very handsome Logan. Ally lies and says her name is Flora (who is actually her best friend ) and before she knows it she agrees to sightsee with Logan but soon a holiday romance that is very passionate ensues. She promises to meet him again after a job interview in the city but she never does and leaves Barcelona without meeting him again and in some way a little bit of her heart is left there too.
Ally is a very complicated character who wrestles with a lot of emotions and indecision throughout the book. Frustratingly so I may add. On one hand I wanted her to follow her dream and make a break from the business and enjoy the history and cultural that Barcelona would offer her. On the other hand she was so very loyal to her father and I 100% understood that but because she was so caught up in the promise that she made to her mother that she would care and protect Geoff if anything ever happened. Well, in my mind she became too entangled in that promise. I felt she had taken it to heart way too much and could have struck a balance that would have suited everyone perfectly. She could have been more open with her father because I’m sure he would have wanted Ally to be happy in her life and not feel obliged to slot into one that wasn’t making her contented. Don’t get me wrong it’s not all doom and loom on Ally’s part. She has made a real go of the business that was established at Hollyhock Cottage and is still bursting with ideas for it. But perhaps now is the time to break free? She wonders how she can achieve this without upsetting her father?
A major spanner is thrown into the works when a newly converted apartment is let out for the summer. Yes it means money for the business and they can continue to offer retreat weekends and workshops where Geoff provides the food from his garden and vegetable plot but the guest that arrives is not someone Ally had ever expected to see again. Best friend Flora is not living permanently at the cottage and helping out as her own family situation is not the best. She is a breath of fresh air throughout the book and I loved her storyline involving someone from their past who makes a surprise return. So in a sense both Ally and Flora have to deal with the not so recent and the recent past coming right to their doors. Who will cope with it best?
Flora meets the new guest before Ally does and when she finally comes face to face with him I could literally feel the apprehension and shock that ensues. The new long-term guest is Logan who has come to do some work on his uncles estate following his death and at the same time he needed an escape. Ally for certain had gotten herself in a right mess seen as she had broken the promise to contact Logan. Yes, it’s a bit typical of the genre that they should happen to meet again but to be honest I didn’t care as by this point I was really getting into the story. I was keen to see how Ally would back herself out of the corner she had boxed herself into with Logan and also with her Dad regarding whether she was brave enough to speak to him as to how she truly felt deep inside and whether she would make up her mind. But Logan had certainly thrown a spanner in the works as she had felt a deep connection with him during their brief time together in Barcelona.
The story moved along at nice pace with not many lulls nor was there a heap of information thrown at us at the last minute. Instead, it was all perfectly paced and plotted and I found myself rooting for all the characters to get the ending they deserved but to be honest I couldn’t see how that would occur given the various situations that they found themselves in. Bringing Tara in as a new character from the past meant Ally and Flora were tested even more. Can a leopard change its spots? Given the history they had with Tara and what she did I felt Ally was just that little bit too forgiving and she seemed too good to be true. How can someone who caused hurt and pain to Flora just be allowed waltz back in after many years and provide an explanation and expect everything to be all right I wondered? During the time that Logan stays at the cottage he grows closer to Ally and he seemed like the perfect gentleman where they went off on day trips seeing historical sites in the county. I could see they were perfect for each other as Logan appeared real, genuine, trusting and loving but given how hell bent Ally was on escaping Kittiwake Cove I didn’t think anything could possibly occur between in the long term even though I desperately wanted it to.
For Ally, there is too much baggage attached to Hollyhock Cottage and not enough potential now that things are well established and really starting to thrive but still she wants everything sorted in every department so that someone else can take over the reins when she leaves. I wanted to reach into the pages of the book and grab her and say well the first thing to do would be truthful with your Dad. He deserved honesty if nothing else and perhaps she didn’t realise he was as astute as he was. I wondered would Ally have a change of heart given Logan was now on the scene and that Geoff didn’t need as much protecting as she thought he did? Yes, in the aftermath of their huge loss they needed one another and in turn needed to establish the business to keep themselves moving forward but Ally was becoming trapped in a promise that she had fulfilled. As the days pass the summer becomes far from straight forward and I loved how in the last quarter secrets and twists and turns started to occur that really brought the entire plot full circle. Heidi Swain had it all planned out so well and kept the reader guessing until just the right time.
I loved The Holiday Escape and cliched as this may sound given the title it would be the perfect book to bring on your summer holiday escape this year. This was a great read with a charming setting, relatable and likeable characters with lots of fun, drama, romance and of course some angst thrown in also which all made for a delightful and entertaining read. Make sure to out this on your summer reading list as soon as possible.
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