Wish You Were Here by Catherine Alliott

Wish You Were Here
By Catherine Alliott
Published by Michael Joseph, Penguin UK (26 February 2015)
ISBN: 978-0718179403

Publisher's description
When Flora, James and their two teenage daughters are offered the holiday of a lifetime in a chateau in the south of France in return for one simple deed, they jump at the chance. They exchange the confines of Clapham, the weight of the mortgage and anxieties over their future for a blissful break.

But Flora didn't anticipate a mysterious guest and a whole heap of family baggage coming too.

With James developing a schoolboy crush on a famous singer and Flora distracted by ghosts from her pasts, their dream holiday suddenly takes some very unexpected turns.


My verdict
Admittedly, I struggled with Wish You Were Here at first. There are a lot of characters and I felt that the book could have been shortened with extra editing. But once I went back to try again, I did find the book to be more enjoyable second time around.

The plot does speed up as it goes along. The descriptions of France are well written and the gentle humour is entertaining. However, I did feel that the teenage characters seemed more mature than the adults at times. Family secrets are revealed towards the end and, as expected, everything ties up nicely, making the book ideal for a summer holiday easy read.

I received an Advance Reader Copy from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.