if you’re looking for a mystery summer read, this fits the bill. set on the island of capri, this story is full of family lies, old money, secrets, and dun dun duuun, murder. or was there??

i enjoyed the setting of the book and the summery vibes all throughout, but man these characters are rough. i didn’t find any of them likable, which made it difficult to be invested in the story. i do tend to be drawn toward multiple pov’s and alternating timelines, so that aspect did not disappoint. the ending did have me intrigued, my eyebrows raised and all. while i was expecting more of a thriller, this book has more emphasis on dysfunctional family dynamics.

thank you netgalley and ballentine books for the arc in exchange for this review!

Thank you to NetGalley & the publisher for this eARC!
Ngl, a lot of this book was lost on me. I didn’t understand or appreciate the family’s secrecy and commitment to their “legacy” - it felt like we were missing a solid foundation on WHY they felt and acted the way they did about publicity. I didn’t connect with a *single* character, and I felt like the plot twists were too similar to one another and so back-to-back that the shock factor was taken away. I also don’t know if I read it slow, but it felt VERY long and drawn out.
2 stars for a beautiful setting and nice writing!

This is a slow paced novel about old money, family secrets, and how far we will go to protect an image. Fans of family drama with a current of mystery will enjoy this one.

I really prefer fast paced books so this one was a bit of a struggle for me but once I hit the last 30% of the book, I was hooked. I wish it had all been that interesting and full of action!

There were a lot of characters but the author does a good job of character building. I found the ending to be a little lackluster but I will admit I had no idea it was coming.

Thank you to netgalley for an ARC to enjoy.

I couldn't put this book down! The author made you feel like you were on holiday with the Lingate family. The story weaves together past and present to solve a 30 year old murder. I loved the plot twist all the way to the very end!

A bit difficult to follow initially, but once you get everyone sorted, it’s a crazy thrilling ride to the island of Capri.
Thank you Net Galley for the ARC. This will be a huge hit in 2025.

I am grateful for the opportunity to receive an advance reader copy of “Saltwater” by Katy Hays through NetGalley and Random House. As a summer read, the book was fun and had an interesting premise that initially drew me in.

However, I found some of the dialogue to be too repetitive, which detracted from the overall flow of the story. The narrative felt like it could have been more concise, as certain sections seemed to drag on longer than necessary. Despite these issues, I did appreciate the way the story was tied up at the end, which added a nice touch to the conclusion.

While “Saltwater” didn’t entirely work for me, I can see it being an enjoyable read for others. Unfortunately, it just wasn’t the right fit for me.

This was a slow burn for me, but once the fire got going, I could barely put it down!

Wealthy "old money" Lingates operate as you might expect; personal assistants, staff in their homes, jet-setting to exotic locales for vacations - the whole she-bang. One such trip in 1992 results in the death of Sarah, mother to three year-old daughter Helen and a close knit family, on the island of Capri. While it's ruled an accident, many are suspicious and believe that the family paid off the police and others to keep the details a secret. As a result of this concern, (now adult) Helen's freedom is very limited - she's constantly under the thumb of her father and uncle, with the threat of losing her luxurious way of life with no place else to live or way to make money.

Helen befriends the family assistant, Lorna Morena, and they hatch a daring plan to escape the strict rules of the family. But before they can execute the plan, Lorna is missing on a trip to Capri. This brings the investigation back in full force threatening to expose the truth.

Thanks to NetGalley, Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine | Ballantine Books, and Katy Hays for the eARC.

3.5 ⭐️s rounded up

Books with a similar vibe to White Lotus are my absolute weakness, especially with a cover this gorgeous. Set in the picturesque island of capri the Lingate family is forced to confront the secrets surrounding the suspicious circumstances of Sarah Lingate’s death on the island 30 years back. Just how far will each of them will go to protect their ego, image, and fortune? This was a slow burn with very unlikable characters. However the atmosphere alone was enough to make this the perfect book to close out summer.

Loved the vibes and atmosphere of this book!
Murder, betrayal, family drama, and dark secrets all set against the beautiful backdrop of Capri.
Part 1 moved too slowly at times, and took me a few days to get through. But once Part II began I flew through the rest of the book! One of the last twists actually had me talking to myself out loud. I love that I was surprised by it, and truly didn’t see it coming.
The pursuit of wealth and power can people do terrible things.

Katy Hays, author of The Cloisters, comes back with her Sophomore effort, Saltwater. Set in New York, Los Angeles, and the idyllic island of Capri, this is story of the rich and influential Lingate family - brothers Richard and Marcus and their spouses, Sarah and Naomi. It is told through multiple lenses - Helen (Richard and Sarah's adult daughter), Lorna (Marcus's assistant) - both in present day - and Sarah, whose story is being told from the past. Thrown in before some chapters are also some newspaper clippings from 1992 going forward involving the death of Sarah Lingate, famous playwright and wife to the filthy rich Richard. Her death was never resolved - was it a suicide or was it murder? Helen, getting more and more curious to know what really happened that fateful night in 1992, is determined to find out how and why her mother died. She enlists, Lorna, her uncle's assistant, to help get to the bottom of it. Things go awry and all the more mysterious when Lorna ends up dead as well and everyone seems to have motive to have killed her to keep the family secrets buried. Let me just tell you, my mouth dropped at the first twist and the last twist about took me under. I've never read The Cloisters, but I'm going to now!
Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine | Ballantine Books for allowing me the pleasure of reading this arc in exchange for my review. Rest assured, this will be a hot ticket item when it hits shelves on March 25, 2025!

This made me want to go to Capri so badly! The story is about Helen's Mom and her disappearance. It has a fair amount of past to present switchbacks which felt clunky at times but overall, I sincerely enjoyed it!

I did not see the ending at all because it was quite dark. I am a fan of dark mysteries so it did not bother me at all and actually made me like it more.

I would pick this for a vacation or travel read because it really needs those vibes to truly like it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for providing me with a copy of Saltwater in exchange for an honest review. To be honest, I really did not like this book. It had everything I thought I would want in a mytery/drama - a glittery Italian setting, a rich family with secrets, a murder. But wow, this book feels half written. The characters are not at all developed. I didn't feel invested in a single person in this cast. The tragic events had zero emotional impact. People's motives for doing what they did not make sense and were not understandable. The ending peaked my interest but ultimately felt really random to me and completely unrealistic. So much was happening in this book and it all happened too fast and with almost no storytelling. I think the concept is great and it has the potential to be an excellent story but it really, really needs a critical editor before it can become a bestseller. Also, oh my god, the typos. The amount of grammatical mistakes and missing words was really distracting. Definitely the "earliest-feeling" galley I've picked up.

Will plan to read this again when this hits the shelves and see the improvements the author has made.

This started out very slow- and didn't get much more engaging after that. I found myself reading on to see if the end would get better, but that fell flat as well.

Saltwater is a triple-timeline, multi-POV suspense novel set on the Italian island of Capri. The timelines weave the present day, the past events of 1992, and few days before the present day building up to the mystery.

The protagonist, Helen, is kept in a gilded cage by her rich, but very controlling family. She yearns to learn about her mother - how she died over 30 years ago but also who she was as a person besides "the death in all the newspapers". Yet her family suspiciously avoids the subject in any form.

Helen and her friend Lorna, who also works as the family's assistant, concoct a plan to take revenge on her family and potentially become free of their suffocating control. But the plan goes awry when Lorna goes missing in the middle of executing their plan.

The plot slowly puzzles across various snippets what happened to Lorna, and what happened to Sarah, Helen's mother, those 30 years ago. All that steeped in an atmosphere of opulence, hot Italian summer, and toxic family dynamics. There is a certain suffocating quality to the narrative that immerses the reader in the experience - on the surface, everyone's rich and having fun on a summer holiday, but underneath something is off, something is uncanny, something doesn't add up, people lie, cheat, betray, manipulate each other and some aren't shying from even murder.

At half-point a big reveal lands and just when you think it spoils the ending, the plot twists start mounting up and nothing is as it seems. The versions of events are twisted through people's imperfect perception, lies, hatred, rage and wishful thinking. Just when you suspect whodunit, a rug pull happens and everything turns around. Everyone's a suspect. Rich people will do everything to hide their secrets, and everyone else is hungry for their riches and their secrets to spill out.

And the ending, it was double whammy bonkers. It was satisfying with a wide grin. The blurb's promise "not everyone will leave the island alive" got truly fulfilled in the most unexpected ways. Just when I thought the plot "forgot" about some detail, it got explained past 90% mark, so everything wrapped up neatly. And I loved how the most innocent looking people turned around to be the most ruthless of them all. Bravo!

This was one hell of a ride. If it had a log line, it would probably be something like "The White Lotus meets Knives Out".

Thank you NetGalley and Ballantine Books / Random House Publishing Group for the ARC!

This book was difficult to follow as it kept jumping backwards and forward in time. The story line was complicated but I finally got in the groove of the back and forth nature of the story. It held my interest and had a twisty ending. I did enjoy it.

A thriller/mystery filled with old money and family secrets, set in Capri? Yes, please! This read more like a drama or suspense type book than an actual thriller, but it kept my interest the entire time. It would make for a great vacation read. I didn't really like most of the characters, but I'm not sure that you are meant to. The twists were outstanding. A great read.

I really enjoyed Salt Water by Katy Hays. I loved how the book went back and forth in time and how the story was told from multiple points of view. Lots of secrets going on behind the scenes so you definitely have to pay attention. The setting of Capri was beautiful and made me want to go there. Not sure if I would characterize this as a beach read as there are lots of plots and twists that make the reader need to concentrate but if you love murder mysteries and family dramas, this one is for you. Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC copy of Saltwater which will be published March 25, 2025. When I read the summary for this book, I immediately was drawn in and the book did not disappoint. The longer I read, the more I became sucked into the storyline. Hays does a wonderful job with description when it comes to the island of Capri. Her descriptions create a desire within the reader to travel there. Not only this, but the family drama unfolds in a tragic, unexpected way. The twists that come are shocking. At the beginning of the book, I thought it moved slowly and struggled with too much ambiguity. Rather than furthering the suspense of this thriller, it made the story difficult to follow. However, the longer the novel went on, connections were made that sped up the plot. If you're looking for familial drama, this book is a great read!

Dual timelines and a juicy plot twist were what kept me interested in this book. I loved that there were multiple plot twists in the story and who doesn't love a good murder family mystery? It was a good summer read.

Thank you, NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine | Ballantine Books for this ARC for review. I was introduced to this author when her first book, The Cloisters, was picked for a Read With Jenna book pick. I really liked that book, but I couldn't put this one down. This thriller is about the fabulous, wealthy Lingate family. In 1992, Sarah Lingate is found dead at the bottom of the cliffs when the family is vacationing in Capri. No one is held responsible for Sarah's death; it is just ruled an accident, and her 3-year-old daughter, Helen is left behind. Now the family is returning to Capri for the 30th anniversary of Sarah's death. Helen is determined to get away from her family and enlists the help of the family assistant, Lorna, but when Lorna disappears, it reopens the case of Sarahs's death and old secrets come to light. What really happened to Sarah all those years ago and who in the Lingate family is responsible? This was a fast and fun thriller with some great twists I did not see coming.