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Salt Sisters
Not yet published
Expected 14 Jul 26Against the stunning backdrop of Cape Cod, two sisters reunite and confront their painful past in a powerful novel about family expectations and life’s unforeseen turns.
Twin sisters Jocelyn and Maddy Marx grew up in a tight-knit family on Cape Cod, but they couldn’t be more different. Jocelyn, laid-back and dreamy, still lives in their hometown as a Realtor. Maddy, intense and ambitious, left for New York after college and never looked back. Until the summer they turn thirty-one.
After a dramatic fall from grace in her career, a pregnant Maddy returns to the Cape with her husband and announces she’s back for good. For Jocelyn, it’s less a reconciliation than a reminder of a life that was ripped away from her and the deep grief she’s carried ever since. Back in each other’s orbit, the sisters reopen old wounds and are forced to confront what it will take to heal.
Salt Sisters is a moving exploration of sisterhood and motherhood, and the courage it takes to face the past, forgive, and finally let go.
Twin sisters Jocelyn and Maddy Marx grew up in a tight-knit family on Cape Cod, but they couldn’t be more different. Jocelyn, laid-back and dreamy, still lives in their hometown as a Realtor. Maddy, intense and ambitious, left for New York after college and never looked back. Until the summer they turn thirty-one.
After a dramatic fall from grace in her career, a pregnant Maddy returns to the Cape with her husband and announces she’s back for good. For Jocelyn, it’s less a reconciliation than a reminder of a life that was ripped away from her and the deep grief she’s carried ever since. Back in each other’s orbit, the sisters reopen old wounds and are forced to confront what it will take to heal.
Salt Sisters is a moving exploration of sisterhood and motherhood, and the courage it takes to face the past, forgive, and finally let go.
255 pages, Paperback
Expected publication July 14, 2026
1 person is currently reading
109 people want to read
About the author
Lindsey J. Palmer
5 books104 followersLindsey J. Palmer is a writer, editor, and educator. She is the author of the novels Salt Sisters (coming July 2026!), Reservations for Six, Otherwise Engaged, If We Lived Here, and Pretty in Ink. She worked in the magazine industry for many years, most recently as Features Editor at Self, and previously at Redbook and Glamour. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, she earned a Master of Arts in English Education from Teachers College, Columbia University, and taught English at a Manhattan public high school. She is currently the deputy editor of BrainPOP, an animated educational site for kids. Lindsey and her family live on Cape Cod. Visit her at lindseyjpalmer.com, https://www.instagram.com/lindseyjpal... and www.facebook.com/lindseyjpalmerauthor.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
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March 8, 20264⭐
Lindsey J. Palmer unravels the twisted psychology behind the bonds of motherhood, sisterhood, and siblinghood, revealing (1) how we are all shaped by loss and (2) how these bonds influence future relationships.
It was good to take a break from an exhausting week and read this therapeutic novel about the cost of healing and the courage it takes to face the past. I enjoyed the reminder that not all wounds bleed.
Twins Jocelyn and Maddy Marx have navigated bumpy roads in life and learn to set expectations aside and face their challenges so that healing can truly begin. I was hooked with the opening and had to keep reading to find out what precipitated the risky move!
This is great book club fiction!
I was gifted this copy and was under no obligation to provide a review.
Lindsey J. Palmer unravels the twisted psychology behind the bonds of motherhood, sisterhood, and siblinghood, revealing (1) how we are all shaped by loss and (2) how these bonds influence future relationships.
It was good to take a break from an exhausting week and read this therapeutic novel about the cost of healing and the courage it takes to face the past. I enjoyed the reminder that not all wounds bleed.
Twins Jocelyn and Maddy Marx have navigated bumpy roads in life and learn to set expectations aside and face their challenges so that healing can truly begin. I was hooked with the opening and had to keep reading to find out what precipitated the risky move!
This is great book club fiction!
I was gifted this copy and was under no obligation to provide a review.
March 20, 2026
This book has my heart and it is one of the best books I have read this year.
I got it as an ARC, but I was not sure if I will like it. Oh, I was so lucky to request this particular book, as I’m not sure I would have stumbled upon it otherwise.
This is a story about sisterhood, grief and family. As someone that never experienced what these two sisters did I was very moved by their story and related so much. Especially with Maddy.
The story is raw, emotional and unapologetic. It portraits these women in the most authentic way possible. I had some parts where I liked one more than the other, but this is the dual pov’s charm.
I loved the descriptions of Cape Cod and the ocean it brought me serenity and I wanted to be there.
As someone that gets easily distracted while reading I was not able to put Salt Sisters down until I finished it.
I got it as an ARC, but I was not sure if I will like it. Oh, I was so lucky to request this particular book, as I’m not sure I would have stumbled upon it otherwise.
This is a story about sisterhood, grief and family. As someone that never experienced what these two sisters did I was very moved by their story and related so much. Especially with Maddy.
The story is raw, emotional and unapologetic. It portraits these women in the most authentic way possible. I had some parts where I liked one more than the other, but this is the dual pov’s charm.
I loved the descriptions of Cape Cod and the ocean it brought me serenity and I wanted to be there.
As someone that gets easily distracted while reading I was not able to put Salt Sisters down until I finished it.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
Review to come.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Salt Sisters is an intriguing novel about not only relationship drama and petty arguments but also about what women have to go through following a pregnancy. It follows twins Maddy (strong, go-getter and independent) and Jocelyn (bright, content and bubbly) who grew up to develop animosity and an unhealthy level of sibling competition. Because both girls always felt like they were growing up in each other’s shadows, they ended up blaming their grievances on each other, leading to a buildup of unresolved tension. This only intensifies when Maddy (who had been living in New York for a decade) announces her and her husband will be moving back to their hometown, Cape Cod, to raise their new baby, Rose.
Throughout the novel, the twins will navigate their new life paths as they work around their crumbling relationship and their only personal setbacks. Maddy is a new mom and struggles with post-partum depression, accelerated by her ‘all or nothing’ mentality and her feeling lonely and isolated; all the while, Jocelyn struggles with having lost her baby Junie in a tragic accident a decade prior to the story’s events.
My main struggle with this book was how everyone is so incredibly dismissive of Maddy. Maddy is clearly suffering from post-partum disorder for most of the book. She had just quit her job (which she was really good at), upended her life and moved back home to where she had no friends, no stable relationship with her sister, where her husband was working for most of the day, and she was left all alone with a baby that never seemed to give her a minute's rest. You might think that maybe she is just hiding it really well, and her close ones don’t notice this, but they do! Her family suggests she get a therapist, and that is it. No one ever really helps her through this besides her neighbour and her secret babysitter; there is never really any mention of Maddy’s parents being worried for her. When Maddy eventually tries to open up to Jocelyn about how miserable she’s been since giving birth, Jocelyn is quick to snap at Maddy and call her ungrateful. I understand that sometimes characters are not written to be liked, but I could not root for anyone in this story except for Maddy (and maybe the babysitter, too; she was okay). I also felt like the dialogue was weirdly formatted, almost like it was never written to be read aloud. It doesn’t flow in the same manner that an actual conversation does, especially the dialogue between Jocelyn and her love interest. There is also an excessive use of conversations that are trying to pass a life lesson; every few chapters will give another piece of advice in a way that almost seemed like it was trying to be too deep.
The story is mostly set in Cape Cod, and although I’ve never been, I did enjoy the beach environment in which it took place. I also liked the way the prose flowed and how it wasn’t filled with unnecessary filler.
Overall, it is an easy and cosy read that touches on a lot of important topics and has an interesting plot line, as long as you’re okay with finding some of the characters annoying.
Throughout the novel, the twins will navigate their new life paths as they work around their crumbling relationship and their only personal setbacks. Maddy is a new mom and struggles with post-partum depression, accelerated by her ‘all or nothing’ mentality and her feeling lonely and isolated; all the while, Jocelyn struggles with having lost her baby Junie in a tragic accident a decade prior to the story’s events.
My main struggle with this book was how everyone is so incredibly dismissive of Maddy. Maddy is clearly suffering from post-partum disorder for most of the book. She had just quit her job (which she was really good at), upended her life and moved back home to where she had no friends, no stable relationship with her sister, where her husband was working for most of the day, and she was left all alone with a baby that never seemed to give her a minute's rest. You might think that maybe she is just hiding it really well, and her close ones don’t notice this, but they do! Her family suggests she get a therapist, and that is it. No one ever really helps her through this besides her neighbour and her secret babysitter; there is never really any mention of Maddy’s parents being worried for her. When Maddy eventually tries to open up to Jocelyn about how miserable she’s been since giving birth, Jocelyn is quick to snap at Maddy and call her ungrateful. I understand that sometimes characters are not written to be liked, but I could not root for anyone in this story except for Maddy (and maybe the babysitter, too; she was okay). I also felt like the dialogue was weirdly formatted, almost like it was never written to be read aloud. It doesn’t flow in the same manner that an actual conversation does, especially the dialogue between Jocelyn and her love interest. There is also an excessive use of conversations that are trying to pass a life lesson; every few chapters will give another piece of advice in a way that almost seemed like it was trying to be too deep.
The story is mostly set in Cape Cod, and although I’ve never been, I did enjoy the beach environment in which it took place. I also liked the way the prose flowed and how it wasn’t filled with unnecessary filler.
Overall, it is an easy and cosy read that touches on a lot of important topics and has an interesting plot line, as long as you’re okay with finding some of the characters annoying.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Salt Sisters unfolds on the windswept shores of Cape Cod, where Jocelyn and Maddy Marx—twin sisters who once felt inseparable—find themselves circling each other again after years of distance. The novel captures that complicated sibling gravity beautifully: the way love and resentment can coexist, the way shared history can bind and bruise in equal measure.
Jocelyn, dreamy and rooted, has stayed close to home, building a life shaped by the rhythms of the Cape. Maddy, sharp‑edged and ambitious, fled to New York and never looked back—until a spectacular career collapse and an unexpected pregnancy send her home at thirty‑one, husband in tow. Her return isn’t the balm she hopes for; instead, it stirs up everything Jocelyn has tried to bury, including a grief that still sits like a stone in her chest.
The novel shines in the way it handles these emotional fault lines. Their reunion is tender, raw, and often painful, full of unspoken apologies and old wounds that ache in the light. The Cape Cod setting adds a gorgeous sense of atmosphere—salt air, shifting tides, and the quiet pull of a place that remembers everything, even when you’d rather forget.
As the sisters navigate their fractured bond, the story becomes a thoughtful exploration of motherhood, identity, and the expectations families place on us—spoken and unspoken. The writing is warm and intimate, with a softness that allows the harder truths to land gently. By the time the final pages arrive, the novel has traced a path toward forgiveness that feels earned, honest, and deeply human.
A moving, beautifully observed story about the ties that shape us, the hurts that linger, and the healing that becomes possible when we finally stop running. It’s the kind of book that leaves a quiet ache—and a quiet hope—long after you close it.
With thanks to Lindsey J Palmer, the publisher and netgalley for the ARC
Jocelyn, dreamy and rooted, has stayed close to home, building a life shaped by the rhythms of the Cape. Maddy, sharp‑edged and ambitious, fled to New York and never looked back—until a spectacular career collapse and an unexpected pregnancy send her home at thirty‑one, husband in tow. Her return isn’t the balm she hopes for; instead, it stirs up everything Jocelyn has tried to bury, including a grief that still sits like a stone in her chest.
The novel shines in the way it handles these emotional fault lines. Their reunion is tender, raw, and often painful, full of unspoken apologies and old wounds that ache in the light. The Cape Cod setting adds a gorgeous sense of atmosphere—salt air, shifting tides, and the quiet pull of a place that remembers everything, even when you’d rather forget.
As the sisters navigate their fractured bond, the story becomes a thoughtful exploration of motherhood, identity, and the expectations families place on us—spoken and unspoken. The writing is warm and intimate, with a softness that allows the harder truths to land gently. By the time the final pages arrive, the novel has traced a path toward forgiveness that feels earned, honest, and deeply human.
A moving, beautifully observed story about the ties that shape us, the hurts that linger, and the healing that becomes possible when we finally stop running. It’s the kind of book that leaves a quiet ache—and a quiet hope—long after you close it.
With thanks to Lindsey J Palmer, the publisher and netgalley for the ARC
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Jocelyn and Maddy may be twins, but their lives couldn’t be more different. Jocelyn has stayed in their small hometown, valuing its slower pace and close-knit community, while Maddy has built a fast-moving life in New York City. When Maddy and her husband return home expecting their first child, the sisters find themselves back in each other’s daily orbit in ways neither quite anticipated.
As Maddy struggles with new motherhood and the loss of her career, she begins making choices that create tension—not only with Jocelyn, but within the entire family. Jocelyn, still living with their parents and working as a realtor, tries to navigate the growing strain while holding on to the bond they’ve shared since childhood.
I typically enjoy stories centered around family dynamics, but this one didn’t resonate with me as much as I’d hoped. The novel leans heavily into conflict—arguments, misunderstandings, and emotional upheaval—which at times overshadowed the moments of connection between the sisters. There is also a significant amount of profanity and interpersonal drama, which may appeal to some readers but felt overwhelming to me.
That said, the author captures the complexities of sibling relationships and the pressures of adulthood with authenticity, and readers who enjoy intense, emotionally charged family stories may find much to appreciate here.
I received a complimentary copy of this book. All comments and opinions are my own.
As Maddy struggles with new motherhood and the loss of her career, she begins making choices that create tension—not only with Jocelyn, but within the entire family. Jocelyn, still living with their parents and working as a realtor, tries to navigate the growing strain while holding on to the bond they’ve shared since childhood.
I typically enjoy stories centered around family dynamics, but this one didn’t resonate with me as much as I’d hoped. The novel leans heavily into conflict—arguments, misunderstandings, and emotional upheaval—which at times overshadowed the moments of connection between the sisters. There is also a significant amount of profanity and interpersonal drama, which may appeal to some readers but felt overwhelming to me.
That said, the author captures the complexities of sibling relationships and the pressures of adulthood with authenticity, and readers who enjoy intense, emotionally charged family stories may find much to appreciate here.
I received a complimentary copy of this book. All comments and opinions are my own.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
The emotional state of grief is complex – often blending profound sadness, guilt, anger, denial, loneliness, regret, and even envy. These are all on display in the relationship between twin sisters who have a rocky relationship at best.
Jocelyn and Maddy (Madeline), now 31 years old, have been estranged since their college days. Despite their twin status, they are polar opposites in personalities and lifestyle. Jocelyn remained in her hometown on Cape Cod becoming a single mother and a realtor. In contrast, Maddy followed her dream of living in New York City with a high-powered career. Both suffered significant losses as they reunite and work to heal their respective wounds and their relationship.
I found it easy to engage with Jocelyn, while Maddy was more challenging because of her pricky persona and her resentment toward any evidence of her sister’s happiness. The storyline is driven by the past and present conflict between siblings as well as the challenges of motherhood. The overall tone is intense and realistically explores the emotional landscape of grief.
My thanks to the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for the privilege of reviewing this book. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
This review will be posted on Amazon upon publication.
Jocelyn and Maddy (Madeline), now 31 years old, have been estranged since their college days. Despite their twin status, they are polar opposites in personalities and lifestyle. Jocelyn remained in her hometown on Cape Cod becoming a single mother and a realtor. In contrast, Maddy followed her dream of living in New York City with a high-powered career. Both suffered significant losses as they reunite and work to heal their respective wounds and their relationship.
I found it easy to engage with Jocelyn, while Maddy was more challenging because of her pricky persona and her resentment toward any evidence of her sister’s happiness. The storyline is driven by the past and present conflict between siblings as well as the challenges of motherhood. The overall tone is intense and realistically explores the emotional landscape of grief.
My thanks to the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for the privilege of reviewing this book. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
This review will be posted on Amazon upon publication.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Salt Sisters is the literary equivalent of a brisk coastal walk followed by a warm cup of coffee. Lindsey J. Palmer masterfully balances a fast-paced, engaging plot with a sense of comfort that feels as soft as my favorite knit blanket from childhood.
The story dives into the complex, messy layers of sisterhood and family secrets, moving with a rhythmic energy that keeps the pages turning. Yet, despite the tension and the "dynamic" shifts in the characters' lives, Palmer maintains an underlying warmth. It’s a thoughtful exploration of homecoming and healing that manages to be both emotionally stirring and deeply soothing.
Salt Sisters is the literary equivalent of a brisk coastal walk followed by a warm cup of coffee. Lindsey J. Palmer masterfully balances a fast-paced, engaging plot with a sense of comfort that feels as soft as my favorite knit blanket from childhood.
The story dives into the complex, messy layers of sisterhood and family secrets, moving with a rhythmic energy that keeps the pages turning. Yet, despite the tension and the "dynamic" shifts in the characters' lives, Palmer maintains an underlying warmth. It’s a thoughtful exploration of homecoming and healing that manages to be both emotionally stirring and deeply soothing.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Advance copy provided by the publisher-thank you!
The tale of two twin sisters, Jocelyn drew me from the start and Maddy made me want to scream. The story pulled and twisted along-always drawing me into its development, mimicking the winding path to the shore. Really enjoyed the story telling and the parallels of the two sisters.
As a Cape Codder, thank you to the author for getting the details right. I giggled at some of the fictional parallel places and appreciated the accuracy of the real ones she included.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
I did not know what to expect when I got this early release, but I absolutely LOVED it! The cape / Boston setting was so fun and I loved both Maddy and Jocelyn’s development throughout the book. I liked the pace of revealing big moments from the characters pasts and I liked the authentic family dynamics. I highly recommend this quick and easy read!
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
I was immediately drawn into the story of Jocelyn and Maddy—twin sisters whose journeys through motherhood drive them apart and, ultimately, bring them back together with grace and understanding. Authentic, heartfelt, and deeply relatable, Salt Sisters is book club fiction at its best.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
A story of twin sisters with a history of seeing and approaching life challenges very differently. Being a twin, I was anxious to read this. Motherhood, family and past events in their lives make this is a fascinating read. Being set on Cape Cod just adds to the storyline. Highly recommended.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews