The Holiday in Languedoc France by T M Logan

Submitted: 15th July 2019

The Holiday in Beziers and Autignac with T.M Logan

When you think of going on holiday to the South of France, you might fancy staying in a villa with a group of friends. A rural villa set on a mountainside, sounds like the ideal place to wander and explore. You arrive and see the flowers and vines creeping up the side of the villa. There’s a sense of calm and peace. Even before your friends arrive and the couples holiday begins, you imagine long evenings drinking wine with those stunning views in the background. You imagine the walks around the villa’s grounds, where hills and dips are going to make this a great place to explore…

Ah the chance to disconnect from the world….

Or a chance to see a whole new one revealed. One you never expected in your wildest dreams and nightmares…

BookTrail Travel to the locations in The Holiday

#Bookreview

@thebooktrailer

Well that was quite the ride! Four friends, their children and one reader go to what they think to be a nice quiet holiday at a villa in France. Nothing is as it seems! This reader was expecting one twist and got quite a few more than that!

The opening as they reach the villa is all sunshine and light. The descriptions of the area and the landscape is stunning and you’re immediately thrown into the heart of the French countryside. You get that holiday buzz just like those in the novel….but then, like those twisty, winding roads, it goes in directions you don’t expect.

Beziers

The setting is stunning – Beziers, Autignac, fields and vineyards as long as the eye can see. Languedoc is going to be getting more visitors after this. Maybe not groups of friends in villas though 😉 (The villa is fictional, I did check, but there are many real ones just like it.

You know when friends get together at a nice location and there’s a birthday to celebrate that something is going to go wrong, but it was hard to guess what exactly. It all starts with a text message Kate finds on her husband’s phone. And oh my word,what a journey we go on after that. Kate thinks everything and knows nothing and when she does find something out, nothing is as it seems. This was a puzzle indeed but I loved it! What a thrill to wander through the rooms of that villa, creeping behind the vines, hiding in door ways and listening to people talking underneath balconies…. Then there was all that bushy headland and mountains to get lost in, to invite someone for a walk so you could ‘talk’. An example of where the location ramps up the tension and acts as a major character itself.

BookTrail Travel to the locations in The Holiday

Remember that text? It’s from someone on the holiday…and that’s not a spoiler as it’s mentioned at the start. But that ramps things up even more! Remote location, people you think you know….

It makes me never want to go on a group holiday though! Haha maybe don’t read this if you are going on one anytime soon. You might be looking at them in a new light! And never let them take their children. They get lost and hide and seek becomes very eerie when the light fades.

It starts nice and slow and then I found I couldn’t stop reading and I was getting faster and faster to find out what was going on.My mind was going as fast as Kate’s although in a much nicer way.

I could hear the bushes rustle when reading this and wanted to look over my shoulder from time to time. A very exciting read!