If you enjoyed the second season of White Lotus you will enjoy this. Rich people behaving badly, and family drama set on a beautiful Italian island. The boom flips back and forth between two timelines, and I was equally interested in both! Great summer read!

Saltwater is a novel about wealthy people acting badly. Usually that's fine, but while I enjoyed the plot twist at the end there was not a single likable character. I like having at least one character who has some redeeming qualities but there were none. The story moves along quickly and I enjoyed the ending but still it was rich people acting badly and getting by with it.
Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for my review copy of this book.

The storyline is told through multiple POVs and timelines, it moves a little low in the beginning but picks up in the end. The pace really picked up at the end and had many satisfying twists and turns.

Who doesn’t enjoy a good novel where you’re dealing with the past colliding with the present? Helen Lingate was born with a silver spoon in her mouth or so it would appear outwardly. Her life, up to this point, has been all but a mystery and while visiting the villa, the cliffs of Capri, where her mother, Sarah Lingate, was found dead below in 1992, was about to become solved or so she thought.

Sarah’s necklace was mysteriously left at the villa. It has been thirty years and the necklace, out of nowhere, shows up. The Italian authorities always believed that Richard Lingate, Helen’s father, murdered his wife. There were always whispers within the Lingate clan that Richard killed her mother, but why? Sarah was a brilliant playwright. Helen ends up receiving a copy of her mother’s last script. Perhaps there might be clues that could help her find out if her father really did kill her mother.

Only problem was, as usual, the Lingates were silent. No one wanted to talk. That is until her father’s assistant, Lorna, ends up pretty much in the same predicament her mother found herself in thirty years prior. Helen knew without a doubt there wasn’t any way Lorna’s death was an accident or mere coincidence. No, there was a murderer in the Lingates midst and Helen needed to find out who it was before the same fate would become her.

Hmm, so as exciting as that may have sounded to you, I found the story to be extremely boring, slow and just unengaging. And the biggest reason for this is because of the amount of detail the author threw in the story line. I get that to build a story you must give some context as to what is going on, but when every single detail is spelled out and you leave nothing to the reader to discover on his/her own, it becomes very frustrating and grating on one’s nerve—especially this reader’s nerves.

To be fair, the story is very well written, and perhaps therein lies another problem. The story was just too detail-oriented and long. I feel there would have been so much more substance to the characters if a lot of the detail was left out. Having said that, when I got to about seventy percent of the story, it really began to heat up and hold my interest. The fragmented pieces of the puzzle began to come into focus, and I pieced together what was happening and once I did, I enjoyed. It’s just unfortunate that it had to take so much time for me to get there—literally the very end. The Lingates were a very interesting family dynamic, and the ending was sort of what I was expecting.

A novel about rich people behaving badly? Count me in! I was definitely interested in the premise of this novel, so I was eager to read it. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a good but not a great read for me. Although the setting was a great one, the characters seemed pretty flat and none of them were appealing in the least. The storyline is told through multiple POVs and timelines, a writing style that I usually really enjoy, but in this case it fostered too much of a slow burn and oftentimes wordiness and repetitiveness. I did, however, really enjoy the last portion of the book, in which the pace was really picked up with satisfying twists and turns.

I wanted to love this so badly, but it just wasn't for me. The multiple narrators was okay, but the timeline jumping just got to be a bit much.

4.25 stars rounded down. So twisty and same vibes as The Cloisters. Enjoyed it! Salt Water had all the luxury and tedium I would expect from this type of family, plus the mystery, too. The end felt satisfying and sad at the same time, plus maybe a bit unbelievable, too.

Advanced reader copy provided by Random House Publishing and NetGalley but all opinions are my own.

This one took me a while to get into. I almost DNFed but I'm glad I didn't. At just after a quarter of the way through, I ended up getting so into it. The tangled webs of this story are expertly woven together and the ending was propulsive and unforgettable.

I have received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

"I am dead now. And it's never felt so good to be alive."


Saltwater took me on a fucking wild ride. One I had no idea I signed up for. Well, okay, that's a lie because I did request the ARC... but details! I had no idea what kind of murder-mystery-family-betrayal-shitstorm I was walking into. My mind is still blown over all the reveals towards the end of this book.

It's so blown; I don't know if I will ever recover. Will my brain remain mush-like for the entire week? For the rest of my life? Who knows!

In this, you will meet people who are like family and basically hate everything. Well, okay, most of the people on this trip to Capri are actually family. There is one person who is an assistant and another who is the boyfriend. Anyways, it's hard to keep track of who you can or can't trust on this trip. The moral of the story is to basically trust no one and never talk to these people ever again.

There's so much betrayal in this family that I kept switching up who the actual suspect was. So many people had their reasons to do something bad. Then something else would come up and completely distract me. Again, like I mentioned earlier... my brain is hurting so much right now. The reveals towards the end were freaking brilliant, and now I realize what clues I missed.

Am I annoyed with myself for never questioning? Yes, of course, because that's my thing. I love to question every little thing. But then again, I just wanted to know what each person was hiding. What was the overall big secret? Because, again, things just weren't adding up when they were so casually being mentioned here and there.

This book was just something else. It was interesting and mesmerizing at the same time. Especially the second part of this book. My goodness, there was so much to digest. I feel like I need to travel to Italy soon.

Thank you to NetGalley, Katy Hayes, and Random House Publishing Group Ballantine for the eARC. This is a hauntingly beautiful and deeply heartbreaking story—a poignant exploration of love, loss, and the resilience of the human spirit. Set against a vivid and atmospheric backdrop, the characters are richly drawn and emotionally resonant, pulling you into their world with every page. It’s a story that lingers long after the final chapter.

I loved Katy Hay's take on The White Lotus (kidding!!), but in all seriousness, this book reminded me exactly of the infamous TV series. Characters will questionable moral character and plenty of morally grey moments. Hays did an excellent job of keeping me hooked through the book and I was surprised at the end.

ARC provided in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed the premise and setting of this book. A rich family with hidden secrets goes to their vacation house together. It’s a little hard to follow along at first as there are so many characters involved but as you read more it gets less confusing. I liked how I never knew where it was headed and kept twisting the story right when I thought I had it figured out. I would remember to anyone who enjoys family drama, psychological thrillers, and mysteries!

I believe many readers will find this one quite captivating. The story revolves around Helen, whose mother disappeared years ago, and now, back in Capri, another person vanishes. To make things even more unsettling, Helen faces bizarre and controlling behavior from her family, adding a layer of tension to the plot.

That being said, I personally struggled with the writing style. The narrative shifts between past and present, which typically doesn't bother me, but in this case, the transitions felt a bit jarring and hard to follow. The structure seemed somewhat chaotic, which made the story a little more difficult to engage with it

For some reason this book just dragged for me. Despite being tagged as a mystery/thriller it felt very low stakes. While a change in POV or timeline typically doesn't bother me, I often had no idea who was who and where we were in the plot. I found the characters very forgettable.

Saltwater was a great story. It was a little slow at first but really picked up and got very twisty and interesting. Couldn’t put it down by the end

Set in beautiful Capri, Saltwater tells the story of the extremely wealthy Lingate family, who rerun to this island paradise every year. On Capri, young mother, Sarah Lingate , was found dead be.ow the cliffs in 1992,, leaving behind her three year old daughter, Helen . Although Sarah’s death was judged an accident, the family , particularly Helen, remains skeptical, wondering is there was a murderer amongst them.

The story focuses on the year they return only to find Sarah’s missing necklace in their villa. She was wearing it the day she died but it was not there when her body was discovered. The mystery deepens with many twists and turns, some believable and others more of a reach. While the plot had great possibilities, I found myself overloaded with too many characters none with whom I could connect. The book simply did not hold my interest consistently.

Two stars for a story with potential that just wasn’t my cup of tea. Thanks to NetGalley and Random House-Ballantine Books for an advance readers copy in exchange for my honest review. Publication date was March 25, 2025. Perhaps you will like it better than I did.

Thirty years ago, a playwright falls to her death off a cliff in Capri.
The story is told in multiple timelines.
So many family secrets!
Saltwater is a slow burn mystery with plenty of family drama.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this book for my honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.

Sarah Lingate is found dead in 1992 at the bottom of the cliffs on the island of Capri. Helen, her daughter was three years old at the time of her death, and she has some lingering suspicions things are not as they seem surrounding her mother's death. One the 13th anniversary of her mother's death, someone sends the Lingate family the necklace Sarah was wearing the night she died. Will Helen get the answers she wants surrounding her mother's death, or will she regret digging for so long to find out exactly what happened the night Sarah died?

This book is full of mystery, deception and twists. The story did get a little slow in the middle, but the ending made up for that! I thought I had this one all figured out, and I absolutely did not in the last couple of chapters. This was a good thriller, lots of suspense. I would definitely recommend picking this one up!

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing - Ballentine for this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

The ending! OMG the ending! The entire book was okay but the ending was something special. Definitely keep reading until the end.

TLDR description:
A summer thriller where rich people behave badly, and family members don't have each other's best interests at heart.
Here be relationships, drinks, and bodies on the rocks.

TLDR review:
At the halfway point I thought it was going to be a three star read for me, but then more and more kept happening, it all kept going further off the rails, and it truly shocked me. Highly recommend for a perfect summer thriller!

✨My rating: 4.25

Themes:
- Social class
- Family dynamics
- Secrets and lies
- Living life on your own terms

Emoji Vibes:
⛱️🛥️😵🍷💰⛰️

For fans of:
- Rachel Hawkins
- Sally Hepworth
- May Cobb