The Staycation: A hilarious tale of heartwarming friendship, fraught families and happy ever afters

3.5 stars The Staycation is the first book I have read by the author and from the blurb I was really looking forward to reading it. It started out well as I could really empathize with how the characters were feeling but then when they swap their own houses for their different “holiday” things took a decidedly different turn. I struggled to connect with the characters as they seemed a bit strange to me. Harriett with her OCD and Sophie seemed to be a weak woman who was under the thumb. Then their husbands, they both just seemed to be very secretive! Something about them both rubbed me the wrong way. This whole storyline seemed strange and I perservered to see what would happen. If you are after a book that is different then this may be right up your alley.

Michele Gorman is a wickedly clever, highly observant, and insightful lexicographer. I adore her wry humor and perceptive storytelling, she weaves quite an amusing tale with red herrings and unexpected tricks thrown in for added kicks. I cringed, gnashed my teeth, and giggle-snorted my way through this engaging story featuring vastly different women. Harriet and Sophie were polar opposites in most ways, although they were both going through a similar period of adjustment and significant marital concerns while away from home during a much-needed vacation. Harriet was controlling, rigid, uptight, impatient, selfish, thoughtlessly insensitive and blunt, painfully and obnoxiously OCD and mostly like also a high functioning Aspergers. Sophie was easy-going, loosely organized, and eager to please. I enjoyed the dichotomy although Harriet was difficult for me to appreciate as well as being uncomfortably familiar as she was a judgmental cold fish with limited social skills and not someone I would choose to spend time with as I had already suffered this unfortunate fate during my first eighteen years of life. Yet Ms. Gorman tricked me into caring for and about her, which is a testament to her mad skills.