C.L. Taylor

From the Sunday Times and Richard & Judy Book Club bestselling author, comes a thrilling, suspenseful tale that will leave you breathless. ‘An absolute belter of a novel’ ELIZABETH HAYNES ‘A sensational novel!’ GILLIAN MCALLISTER You come to Soul Shrink to be healed. You don’t expect to die.

Her Last Holiday

C. L. Taylor

You come to the retreat to be healed. You don't expect to die. Two years ago, Fran's sister Jenna disappeared on a wellness retreat in Gozo that went terribly wrong. Tom Wade, the now infamous man behind Soul Shrink Retreats, has just been released from prison after serving his sentence for the deaths of two people. But he has never let on what happened to the third victim: Jenna. Determined to find out the truth, Fran books herself onto his upcoming retreat - the first since his release - and finds herself face to face with the man who might hold the key to her sister's disappearance. The only question is, will she escape the retreat alive? Or does someone out there want Jenna's secrets to stay hidden? The master of suspense is back. Prepare yourself for the latest heart-in-mouth rollercoaster ride from the Sunday Times bestseller.

Kirsty

** spoiler alert **
           It’s such a shame about this one as I’ve read and loved a couple of C.L.Taylor’s other books but I’ve also found a couple a bit meh. I don’t know what it is with the author but the last 2 books of hers have portrayed mental illness really poorly. The way she talks about mental illness in this book is disgusting. I thought maybe it was just the character she was writing about but this happened multiple times, with multiple different characters and at that point it’s difficult to not believe it’s an author thing. I am someone who has suffered with and fought mental illness for a long time now and I was offended by some of the remarks made in this.

Setting the mental illness rep to the side for a second, I thought the plot was pretty basic but the ending just made no sense to me.

EXAMPLES OF THE DISGUSTING MENTAL ILLNESS COMMENTS BELOW: 

Chapter 10 - “This retreat is for depressive and anxious types after all, she can’t look too cheery”

Chapter 14 - “What kind of basket case do you have to be for half your body to go numb when you’re not even ill”

Chapter 31 - “Why else would Damian take her photograph? They’re not friends and she hadn’t seen him taking anyone else’s photo so it’s unlikely to be for a future Facebook post “Here are all the nutjobs I went on a retreat with” 

Chapter 44 - She can keep doing what she’s doing. Pumping out inane tweets about self worth, happiness and joy. She’ll turn them into tote bags, or tea towels or T-shirt’s or whatever the fuck it is the public will pay for. She could license the Soul Shrink name, set up new groups across the country - like slimming world but for the needy and depressed

Ending - The way Kate was speaking about going round to the various groups was so gross and disgusting to me. I know I’ve used that word before in this review but it’s the only word to do it justice. She writes about mentally ill people as weak, lesser beings who are just there to be taken advantage of and used for your gain and that definitely does not sit right with me.

Her Last Holiday

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