An Almost Perfect Holiday by Lucy Diamond - Full of Family Confessions, Secrets and Relationships

Despite being called An Almost Perfect Holiday, Lucy Diamond has written a really perfect book which is full of confessions, secrets and relationships between mothers, fathers and children. Exactly the sort that might come under scrutiny when families go away together.

Lorna and her husband, Roy, let out their three beautiful holiday cottages set around a sparkling blue swimming pool in Cornwall. But this year, drama unfolds as the three women who come to stay in them find that this holiday will mean that they will reassess their lives, put the past behind them and venture out into a new future that they hadn't reckoned on, and even Lorna and Roy find their lives have changed immeasurably too.

Em, a middle-aged mother to Izzie, aged sixteen, and Jack, aged fifteen, arrives with her boyfriend, George, who has had to bring his demanding seven-year-old daughter, Seren, because his ex-wife, Charlotte, has had to go to Berlin on business. This completely upsets Em's dream holiday where she had looked forward to spending more time with George, but Seren keeps getting in the way saying how much better her mummy is than Em and causing trouble for Izzie.

Izzie has her own problems, trying to impress her friends on social media because, for them, this is the Summer of Saying Yes.  However, Jack is pleased to meet fourteen-year-old Amelia, who arrives with her mum, Maggie, but when Izzie chaperones them on a trip to Falmouth, trouble ensues.

Maggie, a teacher, has vowed never to trust another man since her husband, Will, left her to bring up their daughter alone. But things go wrong for her when Amelia gets in contact with Will and is invited to spend a few days in Exeter with his new family. So gone are Maggie's dreams of bonding again with her teenage daughter over countryside walks, and instead, she has time to consider her own life.

The last woman to arrive is Olivia. The others think that her husband has bought her this holiday for some rest and relaxation, but little do they know what her secret really is.

This is a wonderfully engrossing book with believable characters. It is very hard to put down because you really care how Em's blended family's problems are resolved; whether Maggie and Amelia can build new bridges; and what Olivia is hiding.

If you can't go on holiday this year, then An Almost Perfect Holiday will make you glad that you stayed at home to read it!