The book jumps between past and present as well as the narrator. I did not have a hard time following along. The character development built as we learned more about everyone.

It was a slightly slow start for me but once I got to know everyone I was hooked. I really enjoyed the setting in Capri.

The newspaper articles were tough to read not being able to enlarge the print.

The Lingate family are old money rich. Every summer they have been reliving the death of Sarah when they return to the island of Capri. While Sarah’s death was rules an accident everyone has their theories and secrets. As the thirtieth anniversary of her death approaches her daughter Grace receives the necklace she was wearing the night she died. Everyone is haunted by the past but Grace wants to figure out what really happened to her mother.

I will update with my social media post closer to release.

Salt Water started slow but was an overall worthy read. It felt a little like the TV show Succession which I thoroughly enjoyed. I think a lot of people will really enjoy it, basically a mystery where the main characters mom disappeared years ago. Now she is back in Capri and someone else disappears. Most of the folks in the novel are unlikable and I had a hard time rooting for any of them but perhaps that was the flavor the author was going for. I'd like for it to have moved along a little faster but overall it was a pleasant enough read.

This is a great summer beachy type of read that will be enjoyed by so many. There's lots of family dysfunction and melodrama going on in this mystery novel. It's all about rich people behaving badly and dark family secrets.

Saltwater is to be published at the end of March, 2025. Be sure to order your copy in advance.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House publishing Group-Ballantine for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

In Saltwater by Katy Hays, we meet the Lingate family. The family is wealthy, extremely private and circles the wagons whenever there is any type of family problem or gossip. Helen Is the daughter of Sarah and Ricard Lingate. Helen is a young girl when her mother goes missing and is eventually found dead. Family is all she has known. She is kept on a tight rein by her family and has little freedom. As an adult, begins to resent her almost “captivity” by her family. Helen begins to question all she has learned from her family about her mother’s death. Then she meets Lorna. Together they hatch a plot to expose her family and give Helen the freedom she desires. The story takes many twists and turns and keeps you guessing till the very end, which is just great. Enjoyed this book very much.

In 1992, Sarah Lingate was found dead at the bottom of the cliffs of Capri. It was ruled an accident at the time. However, her daughter Helen has other thoughts on the matter.
Thirty years later, the family is gathered together in Capri, and Helen is determined to find out the truth behind her mother's untimely death.

There's sun, sand, and scandal. In short, this is a fun beach read!
Best categorized as a family drama, the Lingate family is the Real Housewives on steroids. There's fights. There's betrayal. And you'll find yourself hating all these characters but completely incapable of looking away from the car wreck.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

pretty fun! the writing style didn't work for me all the time - it felt constantly melodramatic, and I wanted a little more lightness and reprieve from the drama - but that may be more of a personal preference than a real critique. compelling mystery, beautiful setting, kept me reading.

The setting is perfection! Makes me want to book a trip to Capri ASAP. Saltwater is both thriller and family drama. I love a good family drama! While at times the writing style seemed a little difficult to follow, I still really enjoyed this mystery/thriller.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine | Ballantine Books for a digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I really enjoyed this thriller! The POV shifts and timeline jumps kept me invested and on the edge of my seat!

Saltwater - Katy Hays
Pub Date - 3/25/25
Rating - 4/5
Page Count - 336
Summary - 30 years ago, Helen's mother Sarah was found dead below the cliffs of Capri, Italy. Her death was ruled a suicide, even though everyone was a suspect. Helen and her family return to the island every year and on the 30th anniversary trip, they find Sarah's necklace she was wearing the night she died waiting for them. Helen enlists the help of her uncle's assistant Lorna to get herself out of her family's clutches once and for all. Suddenly, Lorna goes missing and Helen is forced to consider everyone in her family as a suspect - her uncle, her aunt, and her father. Could the same person who killed her mother be Lorna's killer as well?

Thoughts - Thank you Netgalley, Random House Publishing Ballantine Books, and Katy Hays for this advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest review. I really enjoyed this book! The setting was calming and I felt like I was right there on the island with the main characters. This book is a slow burn until about 75% of the way through when the plot picks up and you can't stop reading. For me, that last 25% was what made the rating climb up from a 3 to a 4 since I did not see that twist coming. Great story!

I had a vision of a thriller that included a yacht girl ever since I learned the term. This nailed it and one of my favorite tropes: Rich people behaving badly. This thriller has so many twists and turns that make it a fun ride. It’s also devastating and dark how the amount of family trauma is lurking behind every single step. Most importantly of all this book points out an important question. Wasn’t it always because they were bored?
Thank you NetGalley for this arc in exchange for my honest review. This is out in March 2025 and I highly recommend pre ordering!

Saltwater is told in two timelines. Sarah is found dead while she is vacationing with her family. She tells the story of her marriage to Richard Lingate, the birth of their daughter, Helen, and everything that went horribly wrong.
Helen, now all grown up has no life that is not controlled by her family. Her story details, her fervant wish to escape, though she is not willing to go penniless. Helen was a hard character for me to like. She seemed so detached, but that was probably deliberate, considering her upbringing.
To me, this was a slow burn until around 70% when many secrets began to be revealed. I related more to Sarah’s story, though knowing how it would end made sure I could never root for her to escape. When I thought it was over, there were a couple of, I did not see that coming moments that genuinely surprised me. I do not want to say anymore about the end because I would be swimming right into spoiler territory.
Not a beach or treadmillread for me, but it worked on the couch with a blazing fire during the cold month of January.

This was too long and could have been very edited down - I skimmed quite a few parts
The twists at the end were actually good, which saved this rating
If you like slow burn, suspense thrillers, then you will probably love this!

Helen Lingate has been returning to the island of Capri with her wealthy family for her entire life. Now in her early 30s, she has no memory of her mother, who died after falling from a cliff during one of the summer holidays there when she was 3. Controlled and isolated by her father and uncle in an effort to keep outsiders away, Helen has decided to break away. She enlists Lorna, her uncle's assistant, to help her finally find out what happened to her mother. Helen's mother Sarah was a renowned playwright before she married into the wealthy Lingate family. Sarah was also isolated and beginning to think of separating herself from the family to return to her literary life when she died. Rumors have always circulated that Helen's father Richard had something to do with Sarah's death, but no charges were ever filed. Now Helen and Lorna think they have a way to find out the truth while at the same time breaking free of the family's control.

There were plenty of twist and turns that were unexpected, especially at the end of the book. Before that, it was a bit slow with Helen being bored and rich and hearing about family, family, family. No one was likeable and they all had dark sides which money was able to hide.

Helen's mother died when she was only three years old, In 1992. Sarah, her mother, fell to her death from a cliff on the island of Capri, where the family was vacationing. Where the family STILL vacations. Every year. In the same villa.

On the 30th anniversary of Sarah's death, the necklace she was wearing at the time shows up at the villa. Helen delights in wearing the golden snake necklace, though it obviously disturbs her father, aunt, and uncle. Helen feels trapped by her family--while she has a driver and many seeming perks and privileges, she believes it is all a means to control her every move. Enter Lorna Moreno, her uncle's assistant. The two become friendly and Lorna and Helen cook up a blackmail scheme to free them both financially. while they are on the island.

Lorna disappears with the money. A body is found, and the police reopen the old investigation into Sarah's death because they believe the case is so similar to that of Sarah Lingate's. As Helen and the police dig deeper, old secrets begin to creep out. Secrets that make Helen even more confused and less trusting of her family. It all blows up at a party on a private island when Helen confronts her father and uncle about her mother's death. Another scandal for the Lingates ensues and Helen learns some unexpected truths about herself and her family.

Readers who enjoyed "Where the Crawdads Sing" and "The Girl on the Train" will have a tough time putting this one down once the start it.

I really enjoyed reading an advanced copy of this psychological thriller involving a family who’s vacation of the island of Capri every years hasn’t always been as it seems. Years ago Helen’s mother mysterious died after a party but due to the family’s wealthy connections nothing ever came of it. Now 30 plus years later the whole family returns only for the trip to be marred by rumors of the past. Will secrets that the family thought were long ago buried come back to haunt everyone? I really enjoyed this dual POV and multiple timeline book. The twists in this book just kept coming right up until the very end and I have to say I was shocked by all of them!

Full Disclosure: I received an Advanced Reader's Copy of Saltwater by Katy Hays from Ballantine Books via NetGalley. It will be published around March 25, 2025.

Saltwater by Katy Hays takes place on the island of Capri. What a beautiful location for such dastardly deeds! The story is told from multiple perspectives during different time periods to help us solve the mysterious deaths of two women linked to a wealthy family that vacations on the island. Were they murdered? Did they jump from the cliffs? Was it all just horrible coincidental accidents? It seems everyone has a secret, lots of people have motive, but everyone claims innocence. Maybe they are...While you are puzzling out the mystery, you can also ponder whether money can buy happiness. The book makes a pretty good case for and against. The book keeps you guessing right until the end!

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Ballantine for the eARC of Saltwater by Katy Hays in exchange for an honest review of the book!

This book was a roller coaster for me. I felt like the beginning started off so so so slow and it made it a little harder to capture my attention. At the 50% mark where part 2 begins, I felt like it started to speed up more and get more interesting. There’s so many characters in the book itself and so many diff POV that I felt like it got confusing at times. I did love the ending of it and I feel like the author really did pull it all together and answered any questions I may have had.

A murder mystery spanning 30 years on the beautiful island of Capri. The wealthy Lingate family vacations for one week every year in Capri. Sarah Lingate disappears in 1992 on the Lingate Capri vacation and 30 years later Lorna, the Lingate family assistant, also disappears with 10 million euros. Sarah is a famous play-write back in the US. 30 years after her death, Sarah’s daughter Helen discovers Sarah’s last play Saltwater and the necklace her mother was wearing the night she disappeared. Saltwater is based on Sarah’s life and the Lingate fortune. Helen and Lorna are determined to get to the bottom of the family secrets and what they uncover is so much more.
Katy Hays did a great job turning the island of Capri into its own character. Lots of family drama with twits and turns along the way. I really enjoyed Saltwater!

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Saltwater
By Katy Hays

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 (4 out of 5)

Publishing date: 3/25/25

Goodreads blurb:

In 1992 Sarah Lingate is found dead below the cliffs of Capri, leaving behind her three-year-old daughter, Helen. Despite suspicions that the old-money Lingates are involved, Sarah’s death is ruled an accident, and every year the family returns to prove it’s true. But on the thirtieth anniversary of Sarah’s death, the Lingates arrive at the villa to find a surprise waiting for them—the necklace Sarah was wearing the night she died.

Review:
wow that was a ride!

First of all- the Italian setting was great!

My feelings about the books changed as the story progressed. At the start I was kind of confused. There were a lot of names being thrown around and I felt like I missed a page explaining who the people were.

It was also kind of slow to start. I noticed my mind started to wander a bit in the beginning but once the pace picked up, so did the action!

As I was finishing the book, my rating changed. I was dead set on giving it a 3 star review. But the conclusion changed my mind. I thought the ending was fantastic! It answered all my questions and even made me say "whaaaaaat?! Your kidding me!" Out loud 😂 it was an adventure and I do recommend it!

Hey @netgalley and @atrandombooks - thanks for the chance to read this one early!

The setting seemed beautiful, but I was not as hooked as I had hoped. It is a good thriller/suspense - especially if your genre leans more to romance. If you are a consistent suspense reader, you might find it a tad predictable. I land in the middle and would recommend for a book club read as it has alot of twists for discussion.