The vacationers, by Emma Straub

Set in a villa on Mallorca, this is a typical beach read.  Although the Posts, Jim and Franny, son Bobby and daughter Sylvia, all have problems, as do their friends Charles and Lawrence, a married couple who are anxiously waiting to hear if they will be chosen to adopt a baby, it is a little hard to feel too sorry for any of them given where they are able to go to try to escape their troubles.  The trip was meant to be a 35^th anniversary celebration for the Posts.  However, since the vacation was planned, Jim has been fired from his job as an editor of an upscale magazine after a brief fling with an intern; Franny finds this impossible to forgive – mostly because of the age of the girl involved, barely older than Sylvia.  Sylvia, headed for Brown University in the fall, has gotten drunk at a party and compromising pictures of her have been shared over social media. Twenty-eight year old Bobby comes with Carmen, his longtime girlfriend who no one really approves of – she’s 40 and a personal trainer.  Somehow, with the application of sunny weather; the introduction of a handsome native speaker who is employed to tutor Sylvia in Spanish and an similarly handsome tennis pro for Franny; and the consumption of a lot of really great sounding tapas, it all comes out right in the end.  As a good beach read should, and it is just that.  Just fun.  292 pp.