My favorite books are ones that make you feel the setting in such a way that you almost think you are actually there with the characters in the book. It is the highest compliment to say that Saltwater made me feel like I was there on the island of Capri along with the Lingates in the oppressive summer heat.
Saltwater is a twisty atmospheric story of a super wealthy family that seems to get away with everything. It is told mainly through the eyes of Helen, the 30 something daughter, and Lorna, the personal assistant, sometimes showing us the perspective of Sarah, Helen׳s mother, who died on the island 30 years before. I found the story very gripping and propulsive, though some of the reveals are the end seemed pretty outlandish. If you are looking for an atmospheric, rich people behaving (very) badly story then this may be the book for you.
Thank you to Netgalley and Ballantine Books for an advanced copy of this book.

Perfect length read with dual tinelines and multiple points of view. Lots of twists and turns. Well written - I felt transported to Capri. Very unlikeable characters, but fun to read.

If your boss were paying for a trip to Capri for you, doesn’t it sound like a dream come true? But what if you were tagging along on a yearly family trip…because they like to visit to honor a family member that passed away…or were they killed?

There are so many questions that need to be answered and even just in the first bit, you just get a taste to make you want to continue to completion.

There are multiple POVs with a non-linear timelines; sometimes it can make you slow down to make sure you’re paying proper attention to each storyline.

Descriptions are very clear and easy to picture and feel like you’re there. I’ve never been to Capri, but I feel like I have a good feeling of what it would be like there.

Thank you so much to the author, Katy Hays, Random House Publishing Group Ballantine, and NetGalley for the eARC of Saltwater!

Saltwater is an atmospheric and incredibly slow-burn mystery with family drama.

Though the last few chapters had me on my edge of my seat, and pleasantly surprised by the unpredictable twists, I’m not sure it was worth the long build-up. It was really hard not to skim through most of the book- it was a struggle to stay immersed, especially with the format of the story, which jumped back and forth between timelines and unlikeable characters. There wasn’t a great distinction in the different characters’ voices, either, which made it difficult at times to differentiate between them.

Despite all of that, I’d be interested in giving this author another chance. While this story fell flat, I could definitely see the author’s potential, especially in the last few chapters.

Thank you to Ballantine Books for a NetGalley copy. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Well, daaamn!!! I did not expect all the twists this book had in store for me. Probably the most fun read I’ve encountered this year, so far!

I really think it is best to go into this book as blind as you can and just enjoy the ride!

If you love family dramas with murder and lots of secrets thrown in the mix, PICK THIS ONE UP!

Happy Release Day to author Katy Hays

Saltwater is out today! Are you looking for the perfect Spring Break Read?! Look no further! This one will have you mesmerized & guessing all the way to the very end! This is set on an island in Capri, Italy! The atmosphere, the characters - I mean rich people behaving badly. Say less! The drama I’m here for it all. The twist and turns were many! As one of my most anticipated books of 2025 - it didn’t disappoint!


A huge thank you to Random House Ballantine Books and Netgalley for my gifted e-ARC in exchange for my honest review. I highly recommend this one!

Just when I thought I had it all figured out, I was thrown in for a loop. This book goes back and forth between the past and the present. It might get a little confusing if you aren't paying attention. There are hidden details throughout the book that can give you hints the secrets the characters are keeping.
It was such an interesting story that I spent the whole book second-guessing the true intentions of each character.

Than you to the publisher and net galley for the e-arc

Wow! What a book! I loved this book by Katy Hays, Saltwater does not disappoint. I thought I had figured this book out several times and I was wrong every time. I am not sure anyone could have anticipated the journey this book takes you on. Its never about the money for the Lingate family only about protecting their precious family name. Helen is the only child of Sarah Lingate who died mysteriously on the island of Capri, yet her family returns every year to the summer villa. Helen wants to escape the family and enlists her friend Lorna to help her, who also happens to be her Uncle Marcus´s assistant. This book is told in multiple timelines and points of view which I loved getting to see this mystery unfold thru the eyes of the different characters. Hays descriptions of Capri were excellent I really felt like I was on the island myself. Get ready to devour this book.

This was a mystery with several twists that I did not see coming. The setting on Capri was nice but I did get confused with the multiple characters and the story was told by multiple narrators between 1992 and the present. Thank you Ballantine Books for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley.

Saltwater is the sophmore novel by Katy Hays.

In 1992 Sarah Lingate, wife of the wealthy Richard Lingate drowns off the island of Capri, though ruled an accident, rumors follow the wealthy Lingate familiy for years. In the present day Sarah and Richard’s daughter Helen joins the family and her uncle Marcus’ assistant, Lorna on the island for their annual holday trip. As the family gathers, another disappearance and “accidental” death opens old wounds and long buried secrets are revealed. Told from Lorna and Helen’s POV the novel goes back and forth in time to reveal the ultimate fate of what happened to Sarah Lingate all those years before.

This was a twisty psychological novel. There were quite a few suprises and not any really likeable characters, but that did not dissuade me from enjoying the book. This is a good pre-summer read and the descriptions of Capri make me eager to visit someday.

Thanks to Netgalley, Random House Publishing- Ballantine and the author for the chance to read and review this ARC.

This book sucked me in right away. Family drama, secrets, and just enough twists to keep things interesting—it had me turning the pages. Now, I won’t lie, the characters? Pretty unlikeable (not exactly people you’d want to grab coffee with), but that actually made it even more fun to read. The real star, though, was Capri. The author’s writing made it feel so vivid, I could practically feel the sunshine and hear the waves. I picked it up and didn't put it down. If you love a good, messy family drama with a few surprises, this one’s worth picking up!

I uploaded my review to Goodreads and Amazon on release day.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Katy Hays for providing me with a complimentary digital ARC for Saltwater coming out March 25, 2025. The honest opinions expressed in this review are my own.

I really loved the first book I read by this author, so I was excited to check out this book. I really loved the setting in Italy. It’s a beautiful country. I definitely love psychological thrillers. I think the first half of the book was amazing. I loved it. I think there ended up being a little too many twists for me. I get having one big one or two. I can see how it’s compared to White Lotus. However, I wasn’t a fan of the ending. A lot of the characters weren’t very likable. I would check out more books by this author!

Thank you so much to Random House for the gifted book and PR box!

Title: Saltwater
Author: Katy Hays
Pub Date: March 25, 2025

This was the perfect book to read while craving warmer weather! It's been COLD here lately, so this was a very welcomed "trip" to the much warmer (and much deadlier) island of Capri!

The timeline alternated between 1992 and modern day with newspaper articles/media releases mixed in for a fun variety! The story was told from several perspectives and I didn't trust ANY of them! They all had secrets and hidden motives for everything it seemed.

While the pacing was slower at some times than others, it still held my interest. When the final twist were revealed, I was WAY more surprised than I anticipated being! I think the ending really made the book for me!

As far as believability goes, some things were definitely a STRETCH, but I'm happy to suspend reality when I need to, especially when reading fiction!

Overall, this was a fun one that I can see many adding to their spring break reading list!

Set on Capri, Hays’ sophomore effort is about the Lingate family, the heirs of a ruthless oil magnate that the author has said she modeled on the California oil tycoon Edward Doheny. In 1992, Sarah Lingate, a Pulitzer-prize nominated playwright, who had just completed a roman a clef of the powerful family that she married into, died on the island, her mangled body found beneath the cliffs. The authorities deemed her death an accident, but the family has remained under a veil of suspicion. They make an annual July pilgrimage to Capri seemingly as a homage to the late Sarah, but really as an attempt to control their public image.

On their latest trip to Capri, thirty years after Sarah’s death, the now-spiritualist widower, Richard, and his daughter, Helen, who was only three at the time of her mother’s death, and Helen’s boyfriend, Freddy, are accompanied by Richard’s brother, the materialist, Marcus, his wife, Naomi, and Marcus’s assistant, Lorna. Lorna had been a high-end escort (although she wouldn’t define herself as such), and she befriended Helen when she was working behind the counter of a bakery. It was Helen who recommended Lorna to her uncle who was seeking an assistant.

Helen “wasn’t allowed a world outside the family,” and the trust that her mother had left her had been dissipated by Richard. Helen tells Lorna that she wants to get out of the family’s grasp, but lacks the financial means. Within days of their arrival on Capri, a package arrives containing a distinctive necklace that Sarah had worn the night that she died and a typed letter demanding ten million in euros or threatening that information would be provided to the police. Lorna is tasked with taking the money to Naples, but then she disappears, leaving behind her clothes, medication, jewelry, her passport and a computer with a hard drive that has been wiped clean. With the investigation into Sarah’s death reopened, the family fractures under the intense scrutiny.

Replete with blackmail, extortion, breach of fiduciary duty, and love triangles, Hays has crafted an intricate and highly bingeable suspense novel exploring themes of privilege, family legacy, freedom, and parental abandonment. In it, she ramps up the intrigue and unknowns, interweaving stories of the present characters with those who came before them. Thank you Ballantine Books and Net Galley for an advance copy of this masterful and propulsive novel.

3 1/2 stars!! Set in Capri, I was very excited to read this book. It fell short for me. It is a novel about the rich and how they can get away with lies. Even if those lies involve death. There was definitely a cast of characters and quite a few POV's and it did jump back & forth in time lines. It did get confusing. I felt that it could have been written smother so you could follow it better. It starts with the death of Sarah Lingate. Each year her family returns to where she was found dead and to honor her. Her daughter Helen, now in her 30's was just a toddler when her mother died and she is raised by her Dad, Richard. He has a brother Marcus, who is married to Naomi. Secrets keep this family together. Helen really wants to know what happened to her mother. She brings Lorna Morena with her and she happens to be an assistant in the family business. Together they have a plan to try to scare the family into telling the truth about her mother's death. Until Lorna is missing! There is a a great mystery here but you have to read a lot of words to get to the good stuff. The twists that I did not see coming were well worth sticking with it until the end.
Thanks to #netgalley, #ballantinebooks & @heykatyhays for an ARC of this book. All opinions are my own.

This book had me from the beginning! I enjoyed every bit of it and the cover is stunning. Thank you to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine Books for the ARC.

It’s a story of the all-American, affluent – messed up – family.

The word “rich” was used often. It was to describe a family that had so much money, they had to cover up their secrets to a large extent. They wanted to take whatever was reasonable to make a good path for themselves with no worries of those who were poor.

The story took place in 1992 on the beautiful island of Capri just 15 miles from Naples. I had to take a look on Google to find this place surrounded by beautiful blue water, huge rock forms and cliffs. If a person fell or was pushed, it would mean death, most of the time.

The characters followed what one would expect from the wealthy class – people in their own realm when everyone else is there to serve them. The author did a good job of making it believable like they owned the world because of their inheritance of old-money.

It was slow in revealing how some of the clues would eventually lead up to a death investigation. While none of the characters would be on my friend’s list, I could see how it worked for this story. The last part moved more quickly when everything came together, some of what was predicted from concealed hints. This would be a good beach read for those who crave dysfunctional family dramas.

My thanks to Ballantine Books and NetGalley for allowing me to read an advanced copy of this book with an expected release date of March 25, 2025.

I found this book to be surprising in so many ways. Initially, I thought that the plot was slow and annoying. The characters are all unlikable but I guess my final rating indicates that I don’t have to like the characters to really enjoy the story and especially the twists. The Lingates are wealthy snobs who vacation every year on the Italian island of Capri. The story is told in basically two timelines, present day and going back 30 years to the mysterious death of Sarah Lingate, wife of Richard and mother of Helen who was only three years old at the time of Sarah’s death. Other obnoxious family members are Richard’s brother, Marcus and his wife, Naomi. In the current timeline, the family is joined on Capri by Marcus’s assistant, Lorna and Helen’s boyfriend, Freddy who are also unlikable. Everyone in this story is deceitful, conniving and hiding secrets, some of which are revealed slowly and some that “slam” the reader surprisingly in the end. The book is an easy enough and fairly entertaining read even though I didn’t think I would end up liking it. There are lots of little clues to the twists along the way and I think Helen sums things up best towards the end when she notes that people see what they want to see. This is probably even more true for obnoxious snobs who only care about their wealth and “use” all the people around them. Overall, this is an entertaining mystery/thriller with really good twists that aren’t over the top. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the Advanced Reader Copy in exchange for my honest review. Opinions are my own.

It’s been thirty years since Sarah Lingate went missing and was found dead at the base of the cliffs on the island of Capri. Deemed an accident, the Lingate’s have had a cloud hanging over them ever since. Holding their heads high and proclaiming their innocence, they have continued to travel to Capri each year. Sarah’s young daughter has now grown and the family embarks on their yearly trip, taking along a trusted female assistant (but can she really be trusted?). When the assistant goes missing in the same way as Sarah, all eyes are on the Lingate’s and Sarah’s case is reopened. Everyone has an agenda, all is not what it seems and as the secrets unfold, the family unravels. Is anyone safe? The final twists are good ones, but too little too late for me. The story takes too long to develop and the characters are extremely unlikable! Hays does bring the island of Capri to life, but the book was just OK. Thank you to Thorndike Press and NetGalley for an ARC of this book.

Katy Hays’s Saltwater is a slow-burning, atmospheric thriller that rewards patient readers with a suspenseful and deeply satisfying payoff. Told through multiple POVs, the novel gradually unspools the long-buried secrets of the Lingate family, whose annual return to Capri is haunted by the decades-old death of Helen’s mother.

Like in The Cloisters, Hays creates a lush and immersive setting—in this case, the shimmering beauty of Capri serves as the perfect contrast to the toxic, guarded dynamics within the Lingate clan. I could practically feel the salt air and walk the lavish grounds, even as the unease crept in. The characters are fully fleshed out and morally ambiguous, which I love. Each one is flawed, unpredictable, and quietly fascinating.

The plot may feel slow to those looking for a high-octane thriller, but I enjoyed the steady unraveling of details and the way the author trusted the reader to absorb the tension organically. Some twists I saw coming, others caught me off guard—but none felt cheap or unearned.

This is a well-written, moody novel that expertly balances character-driven storytelling with psychological suspense.

Thank you to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for providing me with an advance copy of this book. My review is voluntary and reflects my honest opinion.