I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

The invitation arrives out of the blue.

In it, Matilda discovers a father she’s never met. Kingsley Cello is a visionary, a reclusive artist. And when he asks her to spend the summer at his seaside home, Hidden Beach, Matilda expects to find a part of herself she’s never fully understood.

Instead, she finds Meer, her long-lost, openhearted brother; Brock, a former child star battling demons; and brooding, wild Tatum, who just wants her to leave their crumbling sanctuary.

With Kingsley nowhere to be seen, Matilda must delve into the twisted heart of Hidden Beach to uncover the answers she’s desperately craving. But secrets run thicker than blood, and blood runs like seawater.

And everyone here is lying.

Short and Sweet Review

Matilda has never met her father, Kingsley, so when she gets an invitation to spend the summer at his Seaside home, curiosity gets the best of her and she buys a ticket. When she gets to her father’s home he’s nowhere to be found instead she meets Meer her half brother who’s thrilled to meet her but she also meets Brock a former child actor, brooding Tatum, and June who’s Kingsley’s wife, the latter three aren’t happy about Matilda’s visit. Although her presence isn’t welcome and it’s awkward to be there Matilda decides to stay and wait for her father and in the meantime she uncovers some secrets that make her realize her new company is filled with liars.

I’m just going to start off by saying I did not like this book, but for whatever reason I gave it two stars so there may have been something redeeming about it and I just can’t remember what it is at this moment. Anyway, Matilda is our main character and from the synopsis you might have guessed she didn’t grow up with a dad and her mom was around but she isn’t any better. Matilda is 18 and when we meet her she’s living with one of her mom’s ex-boyfriends and as I’m writing this review I realized that he is the only redeeming thing about this book. Matilda gets the invitation to visit Hidden Beach and stay at Kingsley’s home, Kingsley is an artist and as most people know artists are a bit free and expressive. Matilda doesn’t know what to expect when she arrives but she certainly wasn’t expecting to get the cold shoulder and learn that her dad wasn’t around. Matilda learns that the others are pretty reclusive and follow June’s strict rules and as a reader everything feels off about the situation. Matilda decides to stick around because the whole reason why she came was to meet Kingsley but the longer he’s away and she stays the more she begins to realize that the other’s are hiding things. I do enjoy the other books in the series but this feels like it tried way too hard to connect it to the others and it doesn’t really work. I also don’t like that Matilda was brought to Hidden Beach under false pretenses, it just seemed cruel, she could’ve went her whole life without coming to Hidden Beach. I guess on one hand she gained something but on the other hand she also lost something. I had theories about what was going on in this book and one of them was actually correct and I didn’t mind I was interested to see how things would play out after the reveal. The characters that grew up on Hidden Beach were off, I always talk about how people in small towns are weird I’m adding Islands to the list. The boys were just so conditioned to do whatever June said and once Matilda arrived someone who had fresh eyes, then they started to question things. The ending was okay it could’ve been better.

Overall, this is not my favorite book in the series and I’m hoping after this we can leave the Sinclair family and their story alone. I personally didn’t like this book but if you do like the other books in the series you might want to check this one out, and who knows you may love it.