So, a holiday can be a break from normality, a chance to be away from the familiar and to experience new places and meet new people. Free from responsibilities and routine, we can connect with the more playful parts of ourselves. The time-limited and transient nature of a holiday means our usual social norms and inhibitions are cast aside. The desire to share and connect can be intense and effortless. And in the strangeness of a new country, there is the unexpected and the unpredictable, and with this comes the opportunity for spontaneity, adventure and risk – and the chance to dip our toes into a different version of ourselves. I never saw them again, but I still remember the magic of that night Jess isn’t convinced though their kids are thrilled and the combination of the Dorset sea air and the idyllic cottage works their magic and Jess starts to relax into the holiday vibes. She even makes friends with Helen, another woman who is holidaying there with her husband and kids.

On holiday with her family, Jess starts to ingratiate herself with the other people living near her country cottage – villagers and visitors. And while on the surface, it is all sweeping beaches and sinking your toes into th As autumn approaches, Jess - and the reader - will come to realise this is going to end in a way no-one could have imagined... But as the weeks went on, something started to shift. It was during a stay on Ko Phi Phi island in Thailand, when a woman I’d met earlier on the beach approached me and asked if I was free that evening. She’d invited a few other women to meet for dinner. Would I like to join them? We were six women of different ages. At the meal she told us it was her 40th birthday and, as she was travelling alone, she’d decided to celebrate by gathering together a group of women she’d enjoyed meeting during the week. As the waves lapped on the beach, we sat together under a canopy of fairylights eating pad Thai and drinking Tiger beer, and for the next four hours we shared stories about our lives: hopes, dreams, sadness, loss and disappointment. I felt profoundly moved by the honesty of these strangers, and was surprised, too, by the ease with which I felt able to share things about myself. I felt profoundly moved by the honesty of these strangers, and by the ease with which I felt able to share things I liked the development between all the characters they felt real and gave a good insight into where they all were mentally in their lives. Having said that I didn't necessarily like all the characters, but then not all characters need to be likeable and at times it felt like there were too many stories all trying to be told in the one story to do any of them real justice, it could easily have been split into two books.

I adore how Bev Thomas writes! The love affair began with A Good Enough Mother and continues here with The Family Retreat-an emotional look at family, the lies we let ourselves believe and the sacrifices family demands from us. If I did trigger warnings then I wouldn’t know where to start as there are some very difficult subjects covered here but I don’t and every single distressing situation is handled perfectly by an author who completely understands the dynamics of relationships within families. There are certainly aspects of this book that are impressive. The writing is intelligent and there are a number of astute observations of human behaviour. I quite enjoyed the earlier sections of the novel, but by the 40% mark I was tired of the constant carrot dangling and promises of "jam tomorrow" - I wanted more tangible gratification for the time I had invested. I was actually to be kept waiting for some significant time to come, as it is only in the final quarter of the novel that there is a marked gear change. However, even with this eventual upping of pace, I found that I was not really feeling satisfied. Although the long-missing momentum had finally arrived, the narrative also became disjointed. The author was raising some significant and important issues - but there were too many of them and they were being presented in a fashion that was too fractured for the impact to be maximised. Rob and Jess try to escape their current problems by renting a cabin by the sea for them and their two children. Jess has a high demanding job not just as a partner in a GP practice but also volunteering for the safeguarding team.

On the matter of characters, I didn't really like any of them that much, which makes for a difficult read. I imagine I was supposed to like Jess, but for someone as bright as she was supposed to be, she "missed" a lot of signs, and she was very self-centered. Her husband was a bit of an idiot, and her parents and sister just pissed me off. Helen was really interesting (although I did see through her story from the start), and I liked both Joyce and Philip.On the final part of my trip I went on a two-week bus journey from San Francisco to New York, during which I told my fellow passengers about wanting to write fiction on my return to England. Not knowing me at all, they were unanimously encouraging and supportive, and when I returned home with no job, money or flat, it was helpful to remember their unbridled enthusiasm. Being away can sometimes allow us to realise our strengths, aspirations and dreams. It’s here that the voice of the super-ego is silenced. We can experience the joy of playing a game of no judgment or consequences. The critical voice is usually our own, but sometimes it’s those of others who, because of legitimate worries or concerns, might be less eager to champion a risky decision. She meets another woman who is staying at the cabins for the summer, and she has two children roughly the same age as Jess's. Although Jess finds Helen a little stand-offish at first, she soon finds herself embroiled in this woman's life. I can’t say much about the plot for fear of spoiling the read for others, but what Bev Thomas does so completely brilliantly is a kind of sleight of hand that has the reader believing one thing before she hits them with a different reality that is breath taking. As the narrative drew to a close I felt literally rooted to my seat as I read, unable to tear myself away form what was happening.

I loved the characterisation because, through the lynchpin of Jess, we get to know the people in The Family Retreat so completely. Jess felt totally real to me and so many aspects of her personality resonated with me personally, particularly that of trying to be all things to all people, so that the narrative was all the more affecting. However, the one person who astounded me most was Polly who is a universal everywoman so familiar in today’s society. Helen’s response to Polly’s experiences has a seismic impact on the reader and I wish every politician and patriarchal figure could read The Family Retreat so that they understand the lives of so many in our society. Through these characters Bev Thomas gave me far greater clarity and understanding than any factual account has managed. A retreat suggests a place of reflection and learning and my word do these characters learn about themselves and others! The narrative focuses on the female characters, the mothers, and their desire to protect their children. The author is a former clinical psychologist, which came across in the astute observations about human behaviour and in Jess's therapy sessions, in particular. Centred on a short period of time during two families' summer holidays, in idyllic Dorset, this is slow-burning with hidden secrets, where I felt invested in Jess and her holiday neighbour, Helen. There was a dramatic twist in the tale, which brought the potential tragedy closer to home. The ending, whilst tragic, was satisfying and justified, compared with the alternatives, although I did struggle with the open ending of the cause of Jess's father's behaviour. There is also the local farmer Pete and his wife Joyce and their eighteen year old son Loe who has learning difficulties. In the adjoining cottage is Penny and her father Phillip. Jess is a GP in the East End of London and a mother of two young children. From the outset, the reader is aware that her professional behaviour has been questionable of late, and so she is taking a break. Gradually, as the story progresses, it becomes clear what has happened and how her responses – conditioned by her experiences within her own family – have brought about a level of misjudgement that has affected her clinical work. Rob, her husband, organises a few weeks in a rental cottage in Dorset. It’s away from the daily pressures of work but stuffed, as they all are, into a tiny cottage, her role in the family is brought into sharp relief. Rob then has to depart unexpectedly on an urgent work assignment, so Mum and the two young children are left to manage daily life. Rob manages to find a beautiful but tiny cottage Dorset for a month even though Jess is reluctant at first but as soon as she arrives it felt like home. The cottage is set in a small hamlet just outside the local village.So, although I didn't really like the characters, the plot was good once it finally got going. It ended up being an okay read. So forget this being "the perfect chance to unwind and spend time together", as Jess has priorities all wrong and I was unusually annoyed by the fact that she couldn't take a few weeks off. The Dorset setting is used well, but there's just a lot going on so you're never in the holiday mood. Even her parents come to visit, so it feels like this family had moved to a new town rather than taking a break. But Jess' intrusive behaviour is validified, and we wouldn't have had all the drama, otherwise, I suppose. There is also some great social commentary along the way. You can tell that the author has experience in psychology as she uses Jess to get into other people's dilemmas, and I did enjoy the concept of seeing [or not seeing] problems from the outside.