OMG! Where do I even start with this? I have loved Chrissie Manby’s book ever since I read Deep Heat ages ago. Her last book ‘What I did on my holidays’ was amazing, and was published in 2012, so I had a looooong wait till this one was published and it was so worth the wait! This book is such a great read, you instantly get absorbed into the story, and with Chrissie’s descriptive writing you can perfectly imagine Hotel Volcan and Playa Bravas.
The Benson Family are your typical working class family and they are wonderful. All individual and easy to relate to. I think Chelsea was my favourite Benson, she seemed really misunderstood. Everyone seemed to think that she thought she was better than everyone else, but inside she had struggles of her own. I really loved her story with Jack and how they became close, 2 unlikely allies! Jack himself was hilarious, absolutely adored him!
I felt really sorry for Ronnie, she has a lot on her plate with money troubles and other family issues, and you can really see it all get on top of her. I was wishing she gave her sister some slack though, She resented Chelsea, though it was understandable why she reacted like that, it must have been hard seeing our sister live (in Ronnie’s view) a more successful life free of worry and responsibility.
The whole book was absolutely brilliant, the main storyline was really happy, but had some touching moments too, the scene between Jack and Chelsea on their last night sharing a room bought a tear to my eye! On the other hand one of the side stories, Bill and Gloria was hilarious, their final scene meeting the whole family was so funny, one of the most memorable moments in the book, and definitely the funniest.
I’ve seen a few book bloggers comment that this was Chrissie’s best yet. I had my doubts, surely nothing could topple ‘What I did on my holidays’ from the top? However, I was happily proven completely wrong, this really is the best yet and I cannot wait till the Christmas installment (2 books in 1 year, a real treat!). This book is simply fabulous!
Published by: Hodder & Stoughton
Gratefully received from the Publisher for review.
View Book on Goodreads
Order Book: Amazon UK | Amazon US | Book Depository