Michael Linden, known as "Linden" to his friends, desperately craves a break from his prep school life, where he's the only one struggling financially. Keeping his poverty a secret from his wealthy peers, he jumps at the chance to spend the summer at his best friend's fancy beach house.

Linden is quickly disillusioned by the extravagant lifestyle of the rich. Their wastefulness, entitlement, and disregard for the staff exposes a dark underbelly beneath the surface. As the summer unfolds, a shocking discovery shatters their world – a former friend, now a family enemy, is found dead in the pool. To Linden's horror, the tragedy is met with disturbing apathy.

Enter Holiday, Linden's childhood friend and a breath of fresh air amidst the chaos. Unlike the others, Holiday believes foul play is at hand. Together, they embark on a dangerous quest for the truth, navigating a minefield of secrets and lies. As suspicion grows, friendships crumble, and the line between truth and fiction blurs.

This summer page-turner will leave you guessing until the very last wave.

Note: I received a copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I loved the Agatha Christie vibes and I also loved the privileged kids acting poorly trope. This was a fun read, but it wasn’t my favorite.

I ADORE Katie Cotugno, specifically her YA books. But this was her first attempt at a mystery and I'm not sure it went quite as well as it could have?

I’m not sure how I feel about this one still. I liked it while I was reading it but I found it very forgettable. I did really like the characters and the story line.

It was decent, the mystery was boring and predictable. The characters were all annoying. The writing was decent too.

I enjoyed this story with all the characters within. The main character was Linden.

Linden is going to visit a roommate from his prep school during the summer. His roommate family has a vacation estate on the beachfront. Linden has tried to fit in with the rich kids from school but it's hard to do most of the time. Most of the time he is lying. While at the vacation estate he hears and see a lot of things happened that surprise him.

This was a fun story to read. It had action, adventure, drama and suspense throughout. There were a few giggles within. The story had a  mystery within that was fun to solve.

I received a complimentary copy via Netgalley. This is my honest unbiased opinions.

The mystery itself was really boring and I was pretty annoyed with it. You could foresee the ending and how in the hell was Holiday this all-knowing being? Linden did pretty much nothing whilst she easily handled a murder investigation.

🏊‍♀️😵Book Review:
Title: Liar's Beach
Author: Katie Cotugno
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️/3 stars

I read this one a while ago and have just now had the time to post a review, but I can't hardly remember it. 🤣 I'll try my best!

Linden has been invited to spend the rest of the summer in Martha's Vineyard at his friend, Jasper's, family vacation home. Things take a turn almost immediately. A body is found floating unconscious in the swimming pool after a wild night of partying.

Linden is starting to feel like something is very off about this whole situation. He reaches out to Holiday Proctor, a childhood friend who lives on the island. Holiday is convinced that there is potentially a murderer on the loose. There is so much drama between the elite families that live here and so many suspects. Clearly, it wasn't very memorable to me, so I can't say I highly recommend it.

Published: May 2nd, 2023

Thank you, @netgalley and @randomhousekids, for this ARC in exchange for my honest review!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an advanced copy of Liar's Beach by Katie Cotugno.

What a departure from Cotugno's previous works - but I'm here for it! Knowing that there is a sequel coming in 2024 was only one reason why I kept reading...this book is addictive (rich people behaving badly, a mystery, found family, romance, escapist setting). Can't wait for the next installment!

.5 stars – I didn’t realize that this was YA going in. So it was fine and an easy read, but I don’t think I’ll pick up her YA again – adult, yes! I loved Birds of California

A fun YA rich kid, beach themed thriller and mystery that will keep you on your toes until the very last page. Who can you trust, when everyone is a liar?

This is perfect for fans of Diana Urban. Liar's Beach is a fun summer thriller read. I've been a huge fan of thrillers recently. It also has a nice romance plot.

Thank you to Random House Children's, Delacorte Press and NetGalley for allowing me to read this book. This was very meh to me. I didn’t love it, didn’t hate it, it just never really sparked for me. I felt like it was a bit predictable and it become repetitive at times. The one liners in the book felt a bit cringe. But I did enjoy certain characters more than I thought and the complexity of them. 3 ⭐️

I liked this but wish it was told from the female main character. I’m not familiar with the original so I wasn’t sure if it was a nod to that. I liked it a lot but just thought it would have flown better with that perspective

I didn’t like the characters. I didn’t connect with the “mystery” at all. I don’t think there was a lot of detecting going on - the female detective basically says she gets all her info that she bases her deductions on from Google. There’s a lot of threads left hanging or plot points included that don’t really go anywhere or serve any actual purpose. Overall, underwhelming and boring.

Liar's Beach is a super fun, summery murder mystery! I really liked the fact that it was a modern retelling, set in Martha's Vineyard. This story was super easy to get into and kept me entertained from the first page till the very end! Definitely a great book to pick up this summer!

Liar's Beach follows Linden who is a scholarship kid at a boarding school playing a sport, but after an injury that hasn't quite yet healed it seems that scholarship could be on the line. While at this boarding school, Linden has grown close to his roommate Jasper and he has been invited to spend the last part of the summer at his beach house with his rich family and friends. What could go wrong? Well, it wouldn't be a mystery book is things didn't go wrong fairly quickly and leaving everyone a possible suspect. This leave Linden curious to figure out why this person was in the pool and what it all had to do with his friend's family. With some help from an old childhood friend Holiday, Linden is going to try and solve the mystery as it seems that the police don't have any idea who did it, or maybe they just don't want to know. It's hard to tell in these types of communities when you are an outsider.

Overall I did find this story enjoyable and the last part had me hooked and needing to know who did it because every person I kept thinking had a part in it always ended up being innocent of that crime somehow. Linden and Holiday ended up being a pretty good team when they were working together, but of course, Linden would get headstrong about something and think Holiday was accusing someone he cared about and it would all fall apart just for Holliday to come back in with a new theory that may or may not be right on who the killer was. Now the ending of this one was good, and I actually liked how it all ended up wrapping up but did leave room for a possible continuation with Linden as a main character.
Having said that what was that cliffhanger ending? Please tell me we're getting more with some of these characters because I need to know what she just had to tell Linden!!

Liar's Beach is another Agatha Christie retelling with teenagers, in modern times. I have not read the original Agatha Christie version, but I still guessed the ending of this one. Parts were engaging. Parts slogged. I don't feel the main characters were as developed as they could be (compared to The Agathas Series).

When I say I LOVE a young adult mystery, I mean it. I find it difficult to not pick up any one of them that I read about or hear about and this one did NOT disappoint. The characters were fun and aspirational, even as a nearly 30 year old woman - I'd love to have a summer home in New England and go to boarding school and just be generally wealthy! I thought this one was intriguing and kept me on the edge of my seat but also recognized early on that it was entirely predictable (but that didn't make me enjoy it any less!).

When I'm in a slump, this is exactly the kind of book I want to read! I had gone months without reading before I picked this one up and it really got my momentum going as I kicked off my summer reading! It was overall average but is exactly what I needed to get a jump start!