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The Holiday Adventure Club #5
Fourth of July in Fiji
Fiji is fiery in July...and so is Lucy's love life! Things have cranked up a notch for Lucy and Nick, and her other hot and handsome next-door work neighbor doesn't like it one bit.
After months of travel and of juggling her mother's care and the two men who are interested in her, Lucy is ready for a slower pace on Fiji. She's rented bungalows for everyone coming along on this Holiday Adventure Club trip, and she's already having visions of tropical flowers, cold drinks, and island sunsets. Little does she know, but things are about to get harder, not easier, when both Nick and Dev show up on Fiji to spend time with her!
And the guests this time around aren't about to make things any less there's a reality show filming on the island and their cameras are always around, plus a wealthy heiress determined to spend her money so that her ungrateful kids are forced to change their ways. Needless to say, Lucy is up to her eyeballs in drama!
Click the BUY NOW button and start traveling the world with Lucy and The Holiday Adventure Club today—romance and adventure await you!
After months of travel and of juggling her mother's care and the two men who are interested in her, Lucy is ready for a slower pace on Fiji. She's rented bungalows for everyone coming along on this Holiday Adventure Club trip, and she's already having visions of tropical flowers, cold drinks, and island sunsets. Little does she know, but things are about to get harder, not easier, when both Nick and Dev show up on Fiji to spend time with her!
And the guests this time around aren't about to make things any less there's a reality show filming on the island and their cameras are always around, plus a wealthy heiress determined to spend her money so that her ungrateful kids are forced to change their ways. Needless to say, Lucy is up to her eyeballs in drama!
Click the BUY NOW button and start traveling the world with Lucy and The Holiday Adventure Club today—romance and adventure await you!
- GenresHoliday
172 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 26, 2022
34 people are currently reading
60 people want to read
About the author
Stephanie Taylor
43 books117 followersStephanie Taylor writes a romantic comedy series about a fictional island called "Christmas Key," as well as several other standalone romance, YA, and middle grade titles.
You can check out her website at: www.redbirdsandrabbits.com
You can check out her website at: www.redbirdsandrabbits.com
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
August 6, 2022
There was only one thing I liked about this book, and that was the storyline about Mindy and Kona (and the only reason it rated even 1 star). I really enjoyed seeing their relationship develop and Mindy starting to remember herself as the extremely successful and competent businesswoman that she was and to take control of her life again. While their story as open-ended at the end of the book, it was hopeful.
The book opened in St. Louis with Lucy in mediation with Jason because he and his wife feel that because his aunt paid off Lucy's medical school debt, she should simply sign over her majority share of their joint property to them. Maybe the fact that their lawyers were divorced themselves and hated each other was supposed to be a comic element, but it wasn't. And maybe that they were replaced by young lawyers who seemed to have just passed the bar and had no experience with mediation was supposed to show how Lucy was on her own in the whole situation (particularly after Giselle and Max, Jason's new wife and son, make an appearance in a calculated move to shake her up and make her so upset that she'd agree to anything to get away) but at least that didn't work. By the end of the book, Lucy's agreeing to give Jason the percentage of ownership over 50% and then walking away after making her final offer of letting them buy her out by paying 45% of the value of the property was supposed to show how she had grown and was finally moving on past the bitterness of her failed marriage (one of the things she said she needed to do). Did I think it achieved what Taylor wanted it to prove? At that point, I was sick enough of it that I was glad she did so the book could be over.
I really hated the storyline about Sterling, the assistant director for the reality show who decided that she wanted to film "other people's, *real* people's, stories" instead of the reality show's story, and so was secretly filming people (specifically Mindy and Kono and Lucy, Nick, and Dev), but that was ok because they'd all had to sign waivers, in case they were accidentally shot in the background of the reality show, and there was nothing they could do about it. There was also a sub-plot about how she loved the director, even though he was a lot older because he was "a man, not a boy" (also because he let her do whatever she wanted to do, without any negative consequences--which seemed to be just fine with the rest of the crew, all of whom seemed to be thrilled with they "came out"--including Todd, who seemed to have a crush on her and who she had been using all along), but it only came up in passing if Taylor needed something to happen. It was really quite an offensive invasion of privacy (Mindy also happened to be friends of Sterling's parents and was someone Sterling knew) and appalling indictment of Sterling's personality and motives that she was perfectly happy to take the chance of destroying people's lives so that she could get ahead.
Lucy was an utter disappointment. I thought the potential love triangle between Lucy, Nick, and Dev was an interesting twist in the first book of the series--she liked both of them for very different reasons, but they were all just friends with the potential for more. In the second book, when Nick goes with her to St. Bart's, they start a relationship that makes Lucy happy. But Lucy already has a secret that she hides from Nick for a while--she went to a concert with Dev just before going on the trip. She confesses it and while he's upset about her keeping it as a secret, Nick forgives her. Over the course of the next 2 books, the relationship between Nick and Dev becomes strained, but Lucy's in a relationship with Nick and Dev has become standoffish; Nick and Lucy exchange the reasons why they were so badly affected by past events and they become closer. But then Dev invites Lucy to go watch a meteor shower with him and when she discovers he's making a play for her, she leave (although she starts thinking about him as more than a friend)--another secret from Nick. Then comes this book. And Dev shows up in Bali to make a play for Lucy--after all, she's just dating Nick; it's not like they're married. She agrees to spend time with him and they're enjoying each other's company and suddenly Nick shows up, having found out that Dev has gone to Bali. Much drama ensues. Nick sleeps on the couch. Lucy suddenly is torn between the two men and at the end of the book, tells them both that "it's not you, it's me", and tells Nick that she needs to find herself and deal with all the issues she's not been dealing with (but which he's supported her through), but once she does, she hopes he'll still be there for her. And this is why I hate love triangles. Dev is a snake; Lucy refuses to make a commitment, because "reasons"; Nick is all in, and gets screwed over.
This series started out so well--it was charming and fun and clever, and the characters were interesting. Each book is a little less fun than the one before; issues that bring the characters together are more serious and not resolved (or resolved poorly); Lucy is becoming a pretty awful person--an irresponsible business owner (I don't understand why people keep coming on these trips, because she certainly isn't available to handle any problems that come up), neglecting her mother while taking advantage of her aunt (and Nick), who knows what happened to her cat--in the first couple of books, she made reference to having a neighbour come care for her, but after that, it never even rates a mention), she leads Dev along by not making clear to him that she's in a monogamous relationship, and she absolutely betrays Nick by lying to him through omission, taking advantage of his feelings for her, and not ever really committing to their relationship.
I'll probably read the next book in the series when it comes out because I'm pretty invested in it, but I'm pretty sure that if Taylor doesn't get back with the program, I won't finish the series.
The book opened in St. Louis with Lucy in mediation with Jason because he and his wife feel that because his aunt paid off Lucy's medical school debt, she should simply sign over her majority share of their joint property to them. Maybe the fact that their lawyers were divorced themselves and hated each other was supposed to be a comic element, but it wasn't. And maybe that they were replaced by young lawyers who seemed to have just passed the bar and had no experience with mediation was supposed to show how Lucy was on her own in the whole situation (particularly after Giselle and Max, Jason's new wife and son, make an appearance in a calculated move to shake her up and make her so upset that she'd agree to anything to get away) but at least that didn't work. By the end of the book, Lucy's agreeing to give Jason the percentage of ownership over 50% and then walking away after making her final offer of letting them buy her out by paying 45% of the value of the property was supposed to show how she had grown and was finally moving on past the bitterness of her failed marriage (one of the things she said she needed to do). Did I think it achieved what Taylor wanted it to prove? At that point, I was sick enough of it that I was glad she did so the book could be over.
I really hated the storyline about Sterling, the assistant director for the reality show who decided that she wanted to film "other people's, *real* people's, stories" instead of the reality show's story, and so was secretly filming people (specifically Mindy and Kono and Lucy, Nick, and Dev), but that was ok because they'd all had to sign waivers, in case they were accidentally shot in the background of the reality show, and there was nothing they could do about it. There was also a sub-plot about how she loved the director, even though he was a lot older because he was "a man, not a boy" (also because he let her do whatever she wanted to do, without any negative consequences--which seemed to be just fine with the rest of the crew, all of whom seemed to be thrilled with they "came out"--including Todd, who seemed to have a crush on her and who she had been using all along), but it only came up in passing if Taylor needed something to happen. It was really quite an offensive invasion of privacy (Mindy also happened to be friends of Sterling's parents and was someone Sterling knew) and appalling indictment of Sterling's personality and motives that she was perfectly happy to take the chance of destroying people's lives so that she could get ahead.
Lucy was an utter disappointment. I thought the potential love triangle between Lucy, Nick, and Dev was an interesting twist in the first book of the series--she liked both of them for very different reasons, but they were all just friends with the potential for more. In the second book, when Nick goes with her to St. Bart's, they start a relationship that makes Lucy happy. But Lucy already has a secret that she hides from Nick for a while--she went to a concert with Dev just before going on the trip. She confesses it and while he's upset about her keeping it as a secret, Nick forgives her. Over the course of the next 2 books, the relationship between Nick and Dev becomes strained, but Lucy's in a relationship with Nick and Dev has become standoffish; Nick and Lucy exchange the reasons why they were so badly affected by past events and they become closer. But then Dev invites Lucy to go watch a meteor shower with him and when she discovers he's making a play for her, she leave (although she starts thinking about him as more than a friend)--another secret from Nick. Then comes this book. And Dev shows up in Bali to make a play for Lucy--after all, she's just dating Nick; it's not like they're married. She agrees to spend time with him and they're enjoying each other's company and suddenly Nick shows up, having found out that Dev has gone to Bali. Much drama ensues. Nick sleeps on the couch. Lucy suddenly is torn between the two men and at the end of the book, tells them both that "it's not you, it's me", and tells Nick that she needs to find herself and deal with all the issues she's not been dealing with (but which he's supported her through), but once she does, she hopes he'll still be there for her. And this is why I hate love triangles. Dev is a snake; Lucy refuses to make a commitment, because "reasons"; Nick is all in, and gets screwed over.
This series started out so well--it was charming and fun and clever, and the characters were interesting. Each book is a little less fun than the one before; issues that bring the characters together are more serious and not resolved (or resolved poorly); Lucy is becoming a pretty awful person--an irresponsible business owner (I don't understand why people keep coming on these trips, because she certainly isn't available to handle any problems that come up), neglecting her mother while taking advantage of her aunt (and Nick), who knows what happened to her cat--in the first couple of books, she made reference to having a neighbour come care for her, but after that, it never even rates a mention), she leads Dev along by not making clear to him that she's in a monogamous relationship, and she absolutely betrays Nick by lying to him through omission, taking advantage of his feelings for her, and not ever really committing to their relationship.
I'll probably read the next book in the series when it comes out because I'm pretty invested in it, but I'm pretty sure that if Taylor doesn't get back with the program, I won't finish the series.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 15, 2024
stress for less
Lucy is way over her head in trouble. She has the problems with Jason, then with the guys, and she needs to figure out her mother. This is enough stress for anyone to deal with. I loved how one of the guests Mindy is living her life in Fiji without a care in the world.
We need to find out what will happen with the footage Spencer took of Lucy and how that will play out later.
Lucy is way over her head in trouble. She has the problems with Jason, then with the guys, and she needs to figure out her mother. This is enough stress for anyone to deal with. I loved how one of the guests Mindy is living her life in Fiji without a care in the world.
We need to find out what will happen with the footage Spencer took of Lucy and how that will play out later.
March 22, 2023
I didn’t enjoy this one as much as it didn’t focus on the travelling party at all. There were 3 stories running - Lucy’s (the travel organiser), Mindy a millionaire heiress who was trying to find herself away from her grown up children and Spencer a young woman working on a tv assignment at the resort (didn’t enjoy this part of the story to be honest).
Now onto Lisbon…….
Now onto Lisbon…….
September 25, 2024
Lucy has escaped to Fiji with her tour group looking forward to a few cocktails on the beach and just relaxing away from her mother, Nick and Dev but both men follow her over wanting to spend time with her so she does a juggling act while keeping her group on their toes and helping them have a wonderful holiday in an idyllic setting. Mindy is thinking of staying....
June 26, 2023
i was sooooo rooting for nick :( this book broke my heart but i'm so glad she's finally moving on from her divorce. Can't wait for the next one
July 22, 2024
It's not my favorite one of the series.
July 10, 2025
I enjoyed this installment in the Holiday Adventure Club series, but I probably would have liked it more if I was in the 35-55 age range lol
August 23, 2022
This one e didn't include different stories about the people joining the adventure with one exception. Story line was a little lackluster...hope the next one is better!
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August 31, 2022Always a fun read...great for a summer day.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews