‘Perfect summer reading!’ – Bella OsborneTwo families. One cancelled flight. And a last minute house swap…Things get desperate for strangers Harriet and Sophie when they become stranded with their families in Heathrow’s Terminal 5. Each woman has her own reason for really really really needing the family holiday they’ve anticipated for months. But Iceland’s volcano has other plans for them. … Iceland’s volcano has other plans for them. When their flights are cancelled, the families swap houses and discover that sometimes the best things in life happen close to home.
This ash cloud has a silver lining, even if no one can quite see it yet.
For fans of Sarah Morgan, Veronica Henry and Sue Moorcroft.
’A lighthearted funny read about two very different families who meet at Heathrow airport when their holidays abroad are cancelled due to the ash cloud!’ netgalley reviewer
‘This is a great book because it has allowed me to switch off from everything that’s going on and be lost in the pages.’ netgalley reviewer
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Necessity is the mother of invention, so when a volcano dashes Sophie and Harriet’s families’ vacations, they come up with a house swap for a “Plan B”. The city dwellers take over the farmers’ home and vice versa. Each family is well suited to their usual habitats, but they all make do.
While the story is a little funny, it was not nearly the raucous laugh-fest I anticipated. Sophie and Harriet develop a friendship of sorts, and through their phone calls, text messages and emails, and readers learn the details behind the importance of this family vacation. Staycation is a story of what it takes to make a marriage work and what doesn’t work in a relationship. I loved the development of Sophie and Harriet’s self- and relationship-awareness. It was amazing to see how a cobbled-together, two-week vacation could spark so much growth and change in both women. A charming read that I truly enjoyed.
The audiobook is expertly narrated by: Karen Cass.
Rounded down to 2.5 stars. The writing is good, but I found the emotional progress for each of the two female characters less than believable. Rather than spoil the plot for others suffice to say their changes are far too significant to be believable over a two-week period.
A reasonable promise of an interesting plot, BUT after 25 pages of rambling dialogue, where the plot does not move, I gave up. Twenty pages of filler does not a writer make.
3.5 stars
The Staycation is the first book I have read by the author and from the blurb I was really looking forward to reading it. It started out well as I could really empathize with how the characters were feeling but then when they swap their own houses for their different “holiday” things took a decidedly different turn. I struggled to connect with the characters as they seemed a bit strange to me. Harriett with her OCD and Sophie seemed to be a weak woman who was under the thumb. Then their husbands, they both just seemed to be very secretive! Something about them both rubbed me the wrong way.
This whole storyline seemed strange and I perservered to see what would happen. If you are after a book that is different then this may be right up your alley.
I enjoyed Michele Gorman’s “The Staycation,” the funny, sweet story of two families whose vacation house swap leads to unexpected but lasting changes for all of them. The story is told in parallel by mothers Sophie and Harriet, who are strikingly different in personality and lifestyle but form an unlikely friendship and end up being positive influences for each other. Both Harriet and Sophie were very likeable and well-developed and I found it very easy to wish the best for them both, but I particularly loved the way that Sophie grew in confidence over the course of the story and chose to take back control of her life.
Harriet and Sophie were both incredibly brave to allow strangers to stay in their house with no advance notice! I can’t imagine letting a stranger stay in my own home, even now in the age of Airbnb. (I don’t even like it when my family and friends see my mess, and it’s usually messy around here!) Sophie and Harriet’s decision made for a very entertaining story with quite a few funny moments, however, such as Harriet’s effort to reorganize Sophie’s spice cabinet while giving her a play-by-play over text. There were many other funny scenes in the book, but my favorite was Sophie’s “special” facial. Who knew that such outlandish spa treatments existed?
Overall, “The Staycation” was a fun summer read that kept me turning the pages, and I would recommend it for fans of humorous women’s fiction. I would definitely read more of Michele Gorman’s work in the future.
*ARC provided by the author/publisher via Social Butterfly PR. All opinions expressed are my own.
Favorite Quotes:
Dogs smelled, and they sniffed crotches and licked their bits and breathed their bitty breath into your face. She didn’t actually know what kind of dog it was, but she was sure it did all of those things.
Your crown is crooked, drama queen…
There were enough scented candles to light a Roman Catholic Mass, but not one had been lit anywhere in the house. Someone was either romantically optimistic or had a friend who thought their house could use the extra fragrance.
How wonderful to be a bird, she thought. Except for catching live rodents and tearing them up into little pieces for dinner and living on top of the whole family in a cramped nest. Still, the flying would be nice.
‘I loved having babies, the way they’re so warm and snuggly. I craved the feeling, the smell.’ ‘That’s just the hormones your body makes so you don’t eat your baby,’ Harriet said.
My Review:
Michele Gorman is a wickedly clever, highly observant, and insightful lexicographer. I adore her wry humor and perceptive storytelling, she weaves quite an amusing tale with red herrings and unexpected tricks thrown in for added kicks. I cringed, gnashed my teeth, and giggle-snorted my way through this engaging story featuring vastly different women.
Harriet and Sophie were polar opposites in most ways, although they were both going through a similar period of adjustment and significant marital concerns while away from home during a much-needed vacation. Harriet was controlling, rigid, uptight, impatient, selfish, thoughtlessly insensitive and blunt, painfully and obnoxiously OCD and mostly like also a high functioning Aspergers. Sophie was easy-going, loosely organized, and eager to please. I enjoyed the dichotomy although Harriet was difficult for me to appreciate as well as being uncomfortably familiar as she was a judgmental cold fish with limited social skills and not someone I would choose to spend time with as I had already suffered this unfortunate fate during my first eighteen years of life. Yet Ms. Gorman tricked me into caring for and about her, which is a testament to her mad skills.
This book was an amazing surprise for me! I absolutely loved this book! Sophie or a Harriet were both amazing characters! I loved watching the evolution of their characters. The families are beautiful and the story was perfect! FIVE STARS!!
A cancelled flight turns into a house swap for a vacation salvation. Two families similar in many ways and vastly different in others discover truths to their lives they’ve been over looking for years. The revelations are life changing.
The two women are consistently in touch sharing needed information about their houses. It’s through many of their conversations that information is revealed and we learn things aren’t as copasetic as we thought. The communications bring revelations, hurt, but also strength and a new forged friendship.
An interesting story. It didn’t turnout the way I had expected, and the turn of events kept me intrigued and captivated throughout the story. The beginning was a bit slow, but after the 30% mark it sped up quickly and I couldn’t put the book down. This is definitely a story that makes you reflect on your own life, ways, and behaviors. Reminds you to stop and take a breath, to appreciate what you have and enjoy the moments. A unique story, well worth the read!
If you are looking for a fun entertaining read The Staycation should be just what the doctor ordered. It’s a simple idea which revolves around two families who meet and start talking at Heathrow airport, both en route to Rome, but flights are being delayed and the airport looks like it’s about to close due to an ash cloud descending on the UK. What do you do when your holiday plans fall apart ….well you could swop homes with the family you have just meet and make the best of the situation by having a holiday in a strangers home….. A London home for a country retreat….
This book is well written with some entertaining witty banter in the form of text messages. Enjoyable lighthearted read.
A vacation was all that Sophie and Harriet wanted, but Mother Nature had other plans. Swapping lives seemed like the fun thing to do, which leads to a fun read that had me me laughing.
This was a look into that saying thing are not always greener on the other side. Learning to appreciate what you have and making life exciting. A good quick read!
I really liked this story, it was light and refreshing.
I have mixed feelings about this book. While it is well written, easy to read, I really was not feeling it with the main characters. Harriet was too Type A, Dan was an arsehole, and Sophie was too timid. However, I think that maybe this was the key to why I kept reading. I wanted to see how these characters evolved, when the situation forced them to rethink their vacation and make alternative last minute plans. Did they reevaluate their relationships, learn from mistakes and move forward, loosen up, or realize their worth? To some extent, by the end of the book, there was some realization that things needed to change.
As I said at the beginning, this is well written descriptive book, that kept me engaged – I wanted to know how it ended. However, my lack of connection with the characters and the fact that I felt there was no real conclusion to the issues that developed in the story left me unsatisfied. While this book wasn’t for me, this story is a pleasant read for anyone looking for something nice and easy on a calm summer evening. Advanced copy provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.3.75s