This was a quick, short read and I'm sorry to say didn't stand out to me in any way. I read a lot of mysteries and I love Agatha Christie, and this one was just okay in my opinion. I didn't feel connected to the main character in the way I would've liked and didn't come to care about the outcome of the mystery. I'm not sure if there will be a follow up book, but I probably won't be picking it up. Thank you so much for the opportunity!!

May 22, 2023
This is a good, quick summer YA read. It feels a bit similar to WE WERE LIARS so I found that appealing. The story centers around a young prep school student (Linden) who also happens to be a star athlete and a scholarship student. His roommate at school, Jasper, is the scion of a very prominent family who summers on The Cape. Linden spends a few weeks of his summer with Jasper's family. In the middle of all of the flirting and partying someone ends up unconscious in the family swimming pool and all the secrets of Jasper, Linden, and their friends and family are revealed.

I liked this book, primarily because it's a fast-paced, twisty read, The setting is perfect for the season (summer), and the author does a great job of gradually revealing different layers of each character's back story/secrets. I loved Linden's friend Holiday and felt that the addition of her character balanced out the book nicely. I am giving LIAR'S BEACH a 4/5 because I felt the ending was abrupt and flat. 9th grade and up. Many thanks to @netgalley and @penguinrandomhouse for the ARC.

A really good YA thriller!

This was a quick read and I couldn’t put it down. I think if you go into this one with the reminder that it’s a YA book, it hits the mark. Is it a bit outlandish? Yes. But overall I still enjoyed it.

I tried so many times to get into this book. But I just could not get into it. Maybe it was the narrator? I kept falling asleep. And every time I had to rewind it and figure out where I was I kept wondering when the mystery started. An hour in some change in and it was still introducing characters. Could also be because Agatha Christie was a racist and I didn't exactly care that I was DNFing a book that was based on ANOTHER of her titles.

Rich kids behaving badly in Martha’s Vineyard and throw I some Agatha related feelings and twists to it? I was all in for this fun summer read.

Liar's Beach is a YA Mystery, told from Linden's perspective. The synopsis states that this is a retelling of an Agatha Christie story. I've never read the original so I can't comment on the similarities. The "detective" character is a girl named Holiday, an old friend of Linden's. The beginning of the book was pretty slow and I wasn't really into the rich kids at the beach house vibe. The second half of the book seemed to focus more on the mystery and that's when I got interested in it. I liked Holiday and who Linden was when he was around her, for the most part. The book just seemed kind of shallow even though there are parts of the storyline with the theme that even rich kids have problems. I didn't feel like that was developed enough though. I think this could be a good book for a high schooler who enjoys mysteries.
3.5 stars

Gossip Girl meets We Were Liars meets something else entirely. This was fast paced, riveting, and hard to put down. I enjoyed the main character, though I found him frustrating at times. The twist at the end was not so shocking, but this was still a wild ride.

I am no stranger to a DNF or terrible, unlikeable characters, but I held out hope that maybe the mystery would pay off in the end. It didn't.

I am always skeptical when reading a Christie retelling, as they usually do not go well. However, recently I have stumbled across some great ones. Liar's Beach is a modern retelling of the Mysterious Affair at Styles. It has been some time since I read it, but I know this did not do it justice.

I gravitate toward unlikeable characters. Morally gray is my favorite color, but these people are just terrible for the sake of being terrible. They aren't even interesting. The dialogue was cringe. The mystery was absolutely unremarkable. I think my CW era is over.

This had such an interesting premise, but unfortunately it fell a little flat for me. I really liked the setting - the whole sleepy beach town that felt removed from the real world, and I like that the POV all be in from the outsider's perspective. I do think the mystery was a little weak, and while I didn't really see the twist coming, I think that some of the conclusions made to get to that point were a little far fetched, even in the scope of a mystery novel. However, I probably would have still rated this higher if all the characters weren't completely insufferable. I honestly didn't really care for any of them, and maybe that was part of the point, but even Linden (the MC) was really annoying. It's funny because I sort of got Catcher in the Rye vibes at times with Linden trying to fit in, but I love Catcher in the Rye and Holden, and I struggled so much with Linden, and I am not totally sure why I even really compared them. I also hate how there is this whole side mystery (not really a mystery but clearly kept from the reader) with Greer and the accident they were in, but not only do we not find out about it, it's only used as a plot device to set up for a possible sequel, which is very annoying. Overall, this was fine, but not my favorite.

Katie Cotugno's book have gone downhill for me for sometime now. She needs to stick to the fluffy rom-com. All the characters were assholes and the mystery wasn't interesting at all.

Liar's Beach was a fun story! It had a good mix of character development and mystery and will make the perfect summery beach read for a day at the beach or lake!

This was a fun twist on Agatha Christie's The Mysterious Affair at Styles. Loved that Poirot was recast as teenage sleuth Holiday, but the rest of the characters were unlikable and insufferable. That was likely on purpose, but still anytime anyone other than Holiday was in the scene, I found myself skimming the text for the next mention of H.

Thank you to Netgalley, Random House Children’s, Delacorte Press, and Katie Cotugno for allowing me to read an Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) of this book for an honest review.

Liar’s Beach was made available to the public this past Tuesday, May 2, 2023.

A modern day Sherlock Holmes and Watson duo in a setting and plot reminiscent of Agatha Christie.

For the Kendrick family, life is always grand. They vacation at their beach house, lovingly known as August House, every summer. They own three luxury cars. The kids attend elite and top notch schools. The parents are no longer in love with one another but they set a good example by cohabitating respectfully (sometimes with the help of alcohol and prescription medication).

Jasper Kendrick invites his boarding school roommate, Michael Linden, to the beach house to spend time with his friends and family. Linden learns quickly that Jasper hasn’t opened up and been forthcoming with information about his family. One night, the kids throw a party at August House and a former friend, and current enemy ends up injured.

Linden is reconnected with his childhood best friend at the beach that summer and they immediately begin putting their sleuthing skills to the test to help solve the crime. Will they be able to do so without causing harm to themselves, to others, and to the relationships they’ve established over the Pat few years?

What I liked:
💕 Holiday, a strong and independent female lead.
💕 The inner struggle that Michael has with wanting to fit and wanting to feel comfortable in his own authentic skin.
💕 The ethical dilemmas that each character is faced with.
💕 The setting(s). The beach and the pool made for great settings throughout the story.
💕 The storyline held my attention and kept me guessing.

I would recommend this book to anyone that:
✅ loves a YA Thriller.
✅ enjoys a story about rich (and entitled) boarding school teens.
✅ is looking for a quick summer poolside or Oceanside read.
✅ enjoys teen sleuths attempting to solve a crime.

#LiarsBeach #NetGalley

This was a fun mystery that I liked, but I did not love. I would have loved a little more mystery and more connection with the characters, I honestly didn't like any of them.
A group of rich kids spending the last weeks of summer at Martha's Vineyard when one of their enemies is found face down in the backyard pool. The main question.. Who is responsible for this?

Liar's Beach is a cross between We Were Liar's, A Good Girl's Guide to Murder, and They Wish They Were Us, without any of the charm of those books. While I will admit, I didn't see the twist coming, it wasn't satisfying. Instead, it felt more like a cop out.

The writing style isn't anything to admonish and the pacing is fine at best. I definitely did not love this book, but it was an easy and generally "okay" read. If you can find this book second-hand or on sale, I'd say pick it up, but I wouldn't pay full-price for it.

This was a well done YA homage to Agatha Christie and as a fan of Cotugno's Birds of California last year I was impressed by her YA mystery writing as well. I can't help but love books with privilege and wealth themes, sassy smart teen girls, and a solid well executed mystery. I loved the details in the writing, the way Cotugno can set a stage/scene and give depth to her characters; this is important in YA and in mysteries, even when the plot might be the star.

I really enjoyed this one! I think it captured the spirit of an Agatha Christie novel but did an excellent job modernizing her tone. I think it will be popular with the Karen McManus fans of my library for sure.

Consider me a Holiday Proctor fan! I absolutely loved this mystery. The characters were engaging and I found myself immediately drawn into the story. I loved the oddity that was Holiday. I also loved the smaller details like Linden putting away a glass for Birdie. I can’t wait for more Holiday mysteries!

I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. Thank you NetGalley.

Liar's Beach was an interesting read for me. It's a 'murder mystery'. We meet Holiday Proctor - whom we will call the ... sleuth. The book is based around a private prep school in New England. The story is narrated by her friend Linden whom also attends the school. Holiday is the only one who knows the "real" Linden.

Linden is invited to hang out at his friend Jasper's summer home - the August House. An unfortunate tragedy occurs during the summer. Linden can't help but feel like something is off, and when he tells Holiday, she starts looking into things. There's some great twists in this book. The character development was good, the world-building as well. Overall, a decent read!

Take a privileged group of kids, put them on Martha's Vineyard, add an impending hurricane, an accidental tragedy, and a smart, savvy, amateur sleuth named Holiday Proctor, and you have the makings of an Agatha Christie retelling of The Mysterious Affair at Styles.

Michael Lindon is a kid from the East side of Boston who's on a lacrosse scholarship to a rich boarding school. He tries hard to fit in and hide his 'wrong side of the tracks' background. When he's invited to spend the last week of vacation at his friend Jasper's summer home, he's looking forward to it. Then he runs into Holiday Proctor. She's the one person from his past who could blow his "preppy" cover.

When someone is found unconscious in Jasper's family pool it looks like an accident, except everyone in Jasper's family (including his brother, Wells, and sister, Eliza, a girl Linden has had a crush on for a while) are acting odd. Linden can't seem to shake the feeling that something else is going on, and telling Holiday sends the investigation into high gear.

I really like Katie Cotugno's characters. They don't always make the best decisions, and don't always have their act together but that is what makes them highly relatable. While the mystery wasn't as compelling as I thought it could be, the story itself was entertaining enough to keep me turning the page.