Ada and her friends are playing games at the neighborhood club and watching the kids play in the water off the Turkish shoreline. This has been their daily routine for as long as any of them can remember, but Ada knows it won’t last much longer – they are all growing up and starting lives of their own. Additionally, Ada’s parents are separating and school is taking more of her focus. Ada finds the thought of this last summer vacation at her grandmother’s home both sad and exhilarating – it’s an opportunity to conquer the things they were always too afraid for before. This new confidence leads her to befriend a man from her mother’s past. Will Ada manage to give her mother a fresh chance at love, or will she get them all into trouble?
Holiday Country is the debut novel from Inci Atrek. This beautiful novel explores a coming-of-age story in the context of family drama and teen friendship. In what feels like a familiar tale set against the beautiful Turkish shoreline, Atrek builds beautiful characters with an interesting young adult point of view. This is a book about exploring what motivates our decisions, the danger of secrets, and why we shouldn’t meddle in other people’s love lives.
I give Holiday Country 4 out of 5 stars. I love the mother-daughter dynamic built by Atrek in this novel, but found it hard to connect with the mother and grandmother because of how little they are included. Given the setting and this family dynamic, this book almost feels like the plot of the Mama Mia! movie until it’s not – there’s not question of paternity in this storyline. I also appreciate the way Atrek builds in the gossip of small-town life almost as if it’s another character! Without giving away too much, I did feel like some of the actions the main character takes later in the book were too out of character for her and left the storyline feeling a little bit disjointed. With that said, I did really enjoy this book as a weekend read – it’s got some mystery, but mostly light hearted coming of age and young adult rebellion.
I would direct this to both young adults just starting college and trying to find themselves, but also to the parents looking at an empty nest and experiencing the “lasts” of typical summer events with their kids. I think this would also make a great mother-daughter read and plan to hand this off to my eldest next! Given topics of sex and drinking, I do think this would be best directed to audiences over 16.
I won a copy of Holiday Country in a Goodreads giveaway in January but hadn’t had the chance to read it until now. With our weekly theme of “the beach” and our upcoming July theme of “summer” it felt like just the perfect time to dig into this one! What are you reading this weekend?
This post contains affiliate links.
What I’m Reading
- Current print book: The Pool House, Tasmina Perry
- Current audio book: Size 12 is Not Fat, Meg Cabot
- Book I’m most looking forward to: Ragtime, E.L. Doctorow
Discover more from Read With Lindsey
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
