Catherine Raynes: Our Holiday and The Haters

Our Holiday by Louise Candlish 

Charlotte and Perry have owned their clifftop holiday home in Pine Ridge for years. They’ve worked hard for it – why shouldn’t they enjoy it? Even if the locals can’t afford to live in the village these days…  
Now city friends Amy and Matt have bought a second home nearby and when the two families descend, they plan lazy days at the beach and evenings sipping rosé and watching the sun set from Charlotte’s summerhouse veranda. 
 
But this summer is different. A group of locals – headed by the charismatic Robbie – will stop at nothing to make the second home owners pay for their holiday. By the end of their break, marriages will be torn apart, friendships shattered and crimes exposed. 
 
And one of them will have lost their life. 

 

The Haters by Robyn Harding 

Camryn Lane is living her dream. After years of struggle and rejection, her first novel has finally been published. Her editor is happy; her teenage daughter is proud; and her boyfriend and friends are all excited for her. She’s on top of the world—until she receives a disturbing message from an unknown sender.  
Rattled by the accusations she finds there, Camryn swallows the sick feeling in her stomach and resolves to put the missive out of her mind. But when she checks her ratings on a popular book site, she finds a scathing one-star review. The reviewer is so articulate and convincing that soon, Camryn’s book is flooded with bad reviews. Could the reviewer be the same person who sent the ugly email? And why do they want to ruin her? 
 
As the online harassment creeps into Camryn’s personal life, she vows to find out who’s behind it. Is it really a disgruntled reader? Or could it be someone she knows? The troll’s actions are escalating, and when the abuse turns deadly, it will take everything Camryn has to unmask the enemy so intent on destroying her—and finally learn why she's being targeted. 

 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack team podcast
from News Talks ad B.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
News Talks. He'd be twenty one two twelve on your Saturday.
If you're looking for a good read this weekend, just
in between all of the amazing sport, Katherin Rain's, our
book reviewer, has her recommendations for us. Now, Hey, Catherine,
morning Jack. Okay, let's begin with Our Holiday by Louise Candlish.

Speaker 3 (00:30):
So this closely follows two couples Shoulotte and Perry and
Amy Andlinis, and they trade their London city lives for
a relaxing breaks at their beautiful holiday home and a
place called pine Ridge, Dorset. But things have taken a
really unwanted turn when their holiday homes become interrupted by
acts of violence and vandalism and damage. And there's this weird,
real war in pine Ridge raging against these wealthy second

(00:52):
homeowners and those of pine Ridge who've been left behind
in the hiles and crisis, and they can't afford to
live where they living. And there's this group of people
called not Just for August, meaning not just for the
August holidays, and the leader of this is a guy
called Rob and they're ramping up their campaign against these
London property owners when these two families arrive and the
real locals are having to make deal with these static

(01:14):
caravans in all year round, and you know, they haven't
really sort of done anything particularly bad. They've protests have
been low key and egging cars and a bit of
graffiti on walls, and then somewhere along the line this
has got really serious. And the start of the book
is situated around a house falling into the sea, but
most of the story takes place and the lead up
to this with the dynamics between the characters and becoming

(01:36):
increasingly complex. So you get this secrets and lies and
acts and criminal activities and lots of mistrust and hatreds
and tangled relationships and amongst it, and lots of greed
and envy, and you know, locals versus outsiders debate when
it comes to the property ownership. And because the story
is told over these dual timelines and multiple points of view,
you get to see all of the characters and their

(01:57):
secrets and flows, and the way that characters react so
differently from each other when they're in the same situation,
and that divide between class and chi narration, woman relationships
and just lots of intriguing dynas going on in this book.
And here it's really interesting the way everybody kind of
melts together or doesn't as the case.

Speaker 2 (02:15):
Maybe ye are nice, Okay, very good. That sounds intriguing,
So that's our holiday. It's by Louise Candlish. Robin Harding
has written The Haters.

Speaker 3 (02:25):
So this is about a school counselor called Cameron and
she's just published a new book and this is finally
her dreams have come true and everything is going really
well until she gets this message from an unknown person
and she tries to forget about it, and then she
gets this absolutely scathing one star review on her book,
and then all of a sudden, there's loads of bad

(02:45):
reviews and online trolling starts to creep into her personal
life and it really crosses the line from angry reader
to feeling like someone and is out together it And
there's so many interesting and suspicious characters in this book.
But also on the flip side of this, her personal
life isn't going too well either, and her job and

(03:05):
her team aged daughter Eliza, and her new boyfriend Theo,
and even her longtime friends and then his husband and
his wife, and writers' groups and work colleagues, and she
gets to the point where she just doesn't know who
to trust. And thrown into this mix is this very
unlikable student in her professional life who she tries to
help but she just can't. And so you get this

(03:27):
book that's interspersed with chapters from Cameron's own book, a
book called Burnt. Also you get this clever book within
a book, and her book is actually about young teens
with problems, and in her mind, it's all fiction and
not based on any of her students and their problems.
And you get this very tense story about social media
and engaging with trolls and how horrible people can be

(03:48):
when they hide behind that ammininity of the Internet, and
her life feels like it's systematically broken apart, and it's
less thriller like than Robin Harding's previous books have been
and more this character driven domestic suspense novel and sly
reveals in secrets, and it's very tense, and you keep
turning the pages because they actually just really want to

(04:08):
know what happens next.

Speaker 2 (04:10):
Yeah that sounds yeah, that sounds great. Okay, So that's
the Haters by Robin Harding. Catherine's first book is Our
Holiday by Louise Candlish, and we'll make sure both of
those titles are up on the News Talks He'd Be
websites if you want to read them too.

Speaker 1 (04:22):
For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame, listen live
to News Talks I'd Be from nine am Saturday, or
follow the podcast on iHeartRadio