3 stars

DNF at 70%

This book is too long, has too many timelines, and too many characters to keep track of. Last night, I realized I don’t really care what the outcome is so I’m throwing in the towel..

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the digital ARC.

DNF at ~30% for now. I'm still not interested in the story and the characters, although the setting descriptions are beautiful and immersive. I may pick this up again, but as of now it's really not working for me.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing - Ballantine for the eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!

This book was pretty good! I read it fairly quickly. I really enjoy a good thriller. This was a good one!

A wealthy family’s involvement in someone’s death during their annual vacation is again under suspicion as the family does their utmost to maintain their public profile in Saltwater by Katy Hays.
The Lingate family is old money and accustomed to upholding a particular lifestyle, including their annual summer vacation to Capri; however, in 1992, Sarah is found dead and there are lingering suspicions that the family was involved in her death given how she and her husband had fought earlier in the day, but her death was eventually ruled an accident and the family returns to Capri every year to maintain the perception of their innocence. With the arrival of the thirtieth anniversary of Sarah’s death, Sarah’s daughter Helen has prepared and set off a series of events, with the assistance of her friend and her uncle’s assistant Lorna, and the timely arrival of a damning, iconic necklace of Sarah’s, that might just prove to be the key to the unraveling of the family’s long-kept secrets.
Depicting a family’s dysfunction and the secrets kept between and from one another in relationships, a narrative rife with a sense of control, or a lack thereof, and being trapped is revealed, primarily through the perspectives of two women, as the Lingate family secrets begin to make their way to the surface from the murky depths they’ve been submerged beneath. While mostly told from Helen and Lorna’s perspectives, there were a few sections of the story that were from Sarah and an insertion from Renata, Naomi, and Marcus, which provided additional context to round out the narrative; however, though providing additional information, these add-ons slowed the pacing of the story even further and the gradually building tension without adding much and it wound up rapidly diffusing the built-up tension in the process. The descriptions of the picturesque setting were well-written, easily evoking an enviable Italian summer vacation that many might dream of taking, which served as a good contrast for the unlikeable characters who take the majesty of the location and opportunities presented to them for granted as their rightful due.
Overall, I’d give it a 3.5 out of 5 stars.
*I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

THIS BOOK! This book is definitely a top read of the year.

The suspense kept me reading late into the night, the twist had me shocked, and there were parts towards the end that literally made me gasp.

This was a great "who done it" that keeps you guessing till the end. I could easily see this as a movie one day.

Thank you, NetGalley, Randomhouse Publishing Group, and Katy Hays for the ARC edition of the book. I can't wait to make all my friends read it once it is published.

I'm not a huge murder/suspense reader unless I need a nice little cleanse from my romance. And let me tell you, this was a great cleanse! I absolutely enjoyed feeling like I was in Capri.. very atmospheric. There are secrets, betrayals, murder, and LOTS of money. Naturally you have a very wealthy (old money) family that is haunted by secrets in their past. I enjoyed the multiple POVs and timelines and felt that helped set up the many twists.

I really enjoyed this book and trying to figure out who had killed Sarah! The life and carelessness of the rich was Hollywood perfect!

The perfect mystery to take to the beach! I could not figure it out and was on the edge of my seat the entire time! The cover is beautiful, but the inside is even better!

Thank you, NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!

Saltwater tells the story of the wealthy Lingate family. Sarah died under mysterious circumstances 30 years on Capri. Her daughter Helen was 3 at the time and has been brought up without any true freedom. She wants to change that and has found an ally in her uncle’s assistant Lorna. The family returns to Capri, as they do every summer, and there things escalate quickly.
The book is a true page turner; I couldn’t wait to find out what happened next, and more importantly, what had happened in the past. Unfortunately, for me, it all fell apart at the end. The resolution was just too far-fetched (and does everyone look the same??). Also, rich people are truly horrible and I struggle to find compassion for any of the characters. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed the first 80% of the book.

Such a fun read! Highly recommend.

Many thanks to Netgalley, the author, and the publisher for my ARC. All opinions are my own.

I enjoyed the characters and the setting/ambiance of this novel. It was entertaining and kept me hooked.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me an ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

I think a lot of people will love this book when it comes out. Perfect for a beach pool read.
It just wasn’t for me at this time.

Gorgeous setting, loads of secrets, such a fun read! It was slightly too much, though, there are only so many mistaken identities you can take seriously! And that made it harder to care about the characters and really be invested in their stories.

"Saltwater" by Katy Hays is an intriguing read with some high points, but it also left me feeling a bit conflicted. The setting in Capri is undeniably rich and atmospheric, providing a beautiful yet eerie backdrop for the story. The mystery surrounding Sarah's death keeps you turning the pages, especially with the twists and turns that emerge towards the end.

However, the pacing felt uneven. The first half of the book was slow, making it difficult to fully connect with the characters. While the second half picked up with plenty of suspense, I still found myself wishing the narrative had been tighter. Some characters felt underdeveloped, and the frequent time jumps and multiple perspectives occasionally made the plot hard to follow.

Overall, "Saltwater" is a solid read if you enjoy slow-burn thrillers and family dramas, but it didn’t entirely blow me away. I'd give it three stars for its captivating setting and moments of tension, though it could have been more cohesive.

Good! I really enjoyed the richness and sinister glamour of the setting. I thought the plot was a solid slow burn thriller, although nothing too original. I do think the last quarter of the book was a bit of a drag, it could have been a bit better paced. Overall though I enjoyed, good spooky early fall read.

I enjoyed the setting and mostly unlikeable characters in this book.

You could feel the tension between characters and I genuinely wanted to know what had occurred in the present and past timelines.

The ending helped to wrap things up nicely. My only critique is one of the character’s perspectives did not entirely add to the story and so I wondered about the character’s outcome but was unclear why her story wasn’t built out a bit more.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me an ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

I was going to give this 4 stars because there were some things I wasn’t a huge fan of, but that ending!! Wow!! I had to bump it to a 5. I would still say it’s more of a 4.5!

I think this is just a great book to dive into without knowing anything other than it’s a juicy novel of horrible rich people doing terrible things. I ate it up! It was so entertaining to read. It is full of unreliable narrators, which I love, especially when it is done well, and it was in this book.

This should be a movie or a tv series to be honest! It had all the right elements to become a great and thrilling show. The setting of Capri was beautiful!

I liked both Helen and Lorna. Lorna more so, but still both good characters. I couldn’t help but look at Helen as Lorna looked at her. A better person than the rest of them but still will always be them. I couldn’t help but root for Lorna more. Lorna wasn’t perfect either, but it was more understandable where she was coming from.

Sarah is so Mother. From the first time we were in her POV I just thought she was so cool. It was so sad to watch a man dim her light when she was so creative and bright. I also really liked Renata from what we saw of her. Characters doomed by the narrative always break my heart, especially when it’s women. I felt for Sarah the most, even though she wasn’t the best person either.

Naomi is an underrated character for me, which I think she is meant to be. She kind of swooped in without me knowing and grew on me, but not because she was a good person, but because she was so interesting. It made me sad for her that she didn’t stand up for herself more and just let life happen to her. You will do crazy things for love I guess. By the end I disliked her so much though. It was so back and forth which makes her a fun character to read.

I don’t really care for Marcus or Richard. You’re not supposed to, but I more so didn’t care because they are men and I don’t give men the benefit of the doubt most of the time haha. They served their roll in the book, but not much else to comment on. Same with Freddy, he was such a background character but also kind of important? Not that I needed more of him, because at its core it’s a group of women’s story, but I feel like he was brushed off most of the time unless he needed to make an appearance. The same could be said for Ciro, though he was one of the better characters in the book; not as problematic.

There were so many good lines in this book that I had to underline and jot down.

Lots of twists and turns. It kept me on the edge of my seat! Maybe some of it was easy to guess or obvious, but I was surprised by a lot of it because I was just along for the ride. I don’t read a lot of thrillers so that could go into why I didn’t guess what was going on, but there were so many shocking things that happened.

Small out of context spoilers here so read at your own caution:
One of the things I didn’t really like was at first I thought it dragged a bit at the middle to the end. A lot of secrets were revealed a little more than halfway through but there were still another 70 some pages left. There were still questions to be answered, but it felt like things should have been wrapping up and it didn’t; it kept going. But then within the last 20-30 pages, time after time more and more shocking secrets were revealed, and it was great. So the parts that it was dragging was 4 stars, but like I said earlier, I had to give it 5 stars by the end.

I’d love to do a reread of this at some point so I can catch all of the foreshadowing bits, knowing what I know now at the end of the novel! I’d really like to read the finished copy of this book because there were a lot of mistakes that needed to be cleaned up, but that is why it is an ARC!

Admittedly I started SALTWATER by Katy Hays with a bit of apprehension. I realized that I have read so many thrillers lately that seem to be a inspired by the success of The White Lotus - murder mystery among the very rich while vacationing in either France or Italy. However, I have to say, SALTWATER won me over in the end. It has a super fun twist that I didn't see coming at all. Yes, it is about annoying rich people and has confusing POV and time jumps, but it's clear that Hays is an adept writer with great stories in her back pocket. I may have to read THE CLOISTERS now!

I received a free copy of, Saltwater, by Katy Hays, from the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Helen lost her mother when she years old, in the 1990's. Her mother Sarah Lingate, body was found in Capri, in Italy. Though her death was ruled accidental, there were some people who didnt believe it, this book had a lot family drama, but was a good read.

"Isn't that what a family is? A cult you can never leave, a set of behaviors that are burned into you?

A slow burn psychological thriller that took awhile to develop but the second half picked up and I ended up liking the book. You really have to stick with the book because the first half is slow and much of the set up of the story. The ending is wild and worth the wait if you stick it out! The story is about the rich Lingate family who are vacationing in Capri thirty years after the death of Sarah Lingate who was found dead in the sea off the cliffs and ruled a suicide. However, there has always be lingering suspicion someone in the family murdered her. The story is told from many different POV including Helen, Sarah's daughter who is feeling stifled and trapped by her controlling family. The novel is rich people behaving badly and full of lots of twist and turns that I didn't see coming.

Thank you Netgalley and Ballantine Books for an ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.