Saltwater Secrets

by Cindy Callaghan

A story of two sisters, one summer vacation, and one big mystery for them to solve.

Stella and Josie live for their summers at the boardwalk—each one a carbon copy of the last. Josie lives in Australia most of the year; her half-sister, Stella, lives in New Jersey. But every year, they come together for a beach vacation with their dad, and to make more memories. The real excitement for them is their secret special place under the boardwalk, where they hide their sister scrapbook, adding memories from each summer.

But this summer feels different. Josie isn’t the same—she’s turned into one of the popular girls that Stella can’t stand. Despite the rocky start to their vacation, they still go to their secret, special place under the boardwalk, adding memories to their sister scrapbook once again.

That is, until their place is discovered by the owners of the newest store—the Smoothie Factory, which replaced Josie’s favorite sweet spot. Not only have the owners of the Smoothie Factory discovered the cove, they are exploiting the natural habitat, and endangering marine life and everyone at the beach! It’s up to Josie and Stella to figure out how to stop their beloved boardwalk from disappearing for good.

Genres: Middle Grade, Mystery, Childrens, Young Adult, Mystery Thriller, Realistic Fiction, Contemporary

288 pages, Hardcover

First published April 28, 2020

About the author

Cindy Callaghan is an award-winning and producer. She's best knows for Just Add Magic and Just Add Magic 2: Potion Problems which were developed into an Emmy-nominated Amazon Original series distributed worldwide via Nickelodeon. She has also published five mega-popular Lost in books: London, Ireland, Paris, Rome, and Hollywood, and two stand-alones: the award-winning Sydney MacKenzie Knocks ‘Em Dead and Saltwater Secrets. Saltwater Secrets is set up with a major studio.

The Girl Who Ruined Christmas has been an Instagram sensation.

Be on the lookout for My Big Heart-Shaped Fail this fall.

When asked what it is about her books that tweens love, she chuckles and says, “The funny! Without a doubt, it’s the funny situations, characters and dialogue.”

In addition to writing, Cindy’s passions include animal advocacy, running, movie-going, reading, podcasts, wine and girlfriends, all of which take a backseat to her three children, husband and menagerie of rescued-pets.

Cindy holds an MA and MBA, and has over twenty years of business experience. The Delawarian (by way of Los Angeles (USC)) is a Jersey girl at heart. She lives in Wilmington, and escapes to her PA mountain retreat whenever time will allow.

Reviews

[Nursebookie · Rating 5 out of 5]

SALTWATER SECRETS is a wonderful story of a blended family, full of mystery, friendships in a heartwarming and page turner of a story I really enjoyed! This was a really great summer read perfect for tweens and teens.

I highly recommend this for a fun summer read for teens, tween and everyone else!

[Soha · Rating 4 out of 5]

was really cute n fun! 3.75 stars🩵

[Darla · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the perfect summer read for tweens. With a compelling mystery and a current conservation message, it has right now appeal. The alternating timelines within in the two POVs adds suspense and reflects the setup of popular adult thrillers. Stella and Josie are sisters who live on opposite sides of the world. They are very different, yet loyal to each other. I found their mix of friends was also nicely varied and intriguing. Callaghan communicates the need for a change without being preachy. I am looking forward to the sequel!

Thank you to Aladdin and Edelweiss for a DRC in exchange for an honest review.

[Studio B · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you have EVER wondered what the perfect book is that will transport you to a warm sunny beach with cold dark mysteries? Well, this is it. Cindy Callaghan is one of my FAVORITE authors, and surpassed my expectations with this AMAZING read. Wether it's the middle of winter, or you are on the beach yourself, you won't be able to put this book down.
NOT. EVEN. FOR. ONE. SECOND.

[Mom_Loves_Reading · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely LOVE tween books like this! A nice break from the lengthier, heavier themed, adult thrillers, these kind of tween mysteries remind me of how much I loved reading my mom's Nancy Drew & Hardy Boys books way back when. Books that get to the point without all the added big words & overly drawn out dialogue; just pure reading enjoyment.
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"Saltwater Secrets" is told from the POV of both Josie & Stella in flashback form as they are being interviewed by the police after an incident that injured someone & the girls may be in a bit of a pickle. This quick-paced, tween novel is a perfect summer reading pick (for girls & boys, AND adults, too!) with oceanic atmosphere, relatable family drama, a mystery, sisterly bonding, & some humor as well.
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I read to my autistic, twin, teen sons daily as a special bonding & calming time of our day & this is our reading material this week. So far they seem pretty intrigued! I will definitely be checking out Callaghan's other tween reads, including "Just Add Magic" which was also adapted into an Amazon Original series. Look for this fun book now wherever books are sold & be sure to check out Cindy's other books!

[Celia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was one of the most unique middle-grade books I've read in a long time. I loved the coming-of-age aspects as well as the sisterly love. The mystery added an exciting aspect to the story. I pictured this as a Pixar film, with all the twists and turns!

Thank you Books Forward for the review copy!

[Leigh · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this ARC from the publisher through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Saltwater Secrets follows half sisters Josie and Stella as they embark on another fabulous Jersey Shore summer together. This time, though, things are different. The girls are heading into high school and Stella isn’t sure that Josie is ready to act the part. The girls happen upon what they believe to be a major problem at the boardwalk, and when local officials won’t listen, they take it upon themselves to keep the people and the jellyfish safe.

I think a lot of kids will like this one. It’s told in alternating perspectives by Josie and Stella as they relay their side of the story to Officer Sanford in an interrogation room. It’s a perfect mystery for middle grade readers.

[Meredith Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting eco mystery written in a really cool way. It's not all laid out at once, you discover more as you move along in the story. The format works well for the story being told. I loved the shore setting too. With that setting and the mystery aspect, I can see this being popular with some of the middle grade readers at my library.

[Lindsay · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wasn't a fan of many chapters ending with a variation of "You won't believe what happened next" or "And then something amazing happened".

[Jenny · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Slow start but it definitely picked up in the second half. There were definitely some lol moments due to the characters witty banter and it had a strong environmental message. Overall a great tween read.

[Candi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Saltwater Secrets is about two half-sisters Josie and Stella. Every year they spend the summer together. They always hangout at the shore where there are some amusements and vendors. They share a little hiding place under the boardwalk and stash little mementos in a box to look back on. One day they notice something is not right. Eventually, there are some changes to the area and it starts them off on a quest to find out what is going on and the people behind it.

I liked the storyline and found this book enjoyable. A perfect book for the family and kids.

Thank you Books Forward for this ARC.

[Momma Leighellen’s Book Nook · Rating 3 out of 5]

Guest Review!

I was asked by the publisher to provide an honest review of this book, so I thought what better way to review a YA book than from an actual teen? So my sons best friend offered to read this one. Here’s what she has to say:

Saltwater Secrets follows the story of two sisters, Jose & Stella, who share the same father but have different mothers. They spend all year apart living with their Moms but get to spend every summer together when they get see their dad. Set during the Sumer of their 8th grad year, this book follows a year of change for the girls. Stella wants to start doing things the older kids do and is concerned about being cool and popular. Jose is still childlike and innocent. She wants things to stay how they always have been.

“Sure Josie, nothing is gonna change. But like all perfect things it did.”

This summer it seems like everything has changed. Through a dual narrative timeline, the book hops back and forth between each girls perspectives. They both feel the tension between them and how they are drifting apart. At the same time, their favorite spots are also changing. Their snow cone place is now a smoothie shop. The smoothie shop is now a popular hangout but Josie is reluctant to try something new.

The smoothies are amazing but also healthy. No-one can figure out the secret recipe. But there are weird things happening at the beach. The pier is starting to shake. Some jellyfish are dying. Along the way they find out the smoothie shop is making the smoothie with an illegally imported berry from Australia and then dumping the runoff into the ocean. It’s runoff of the berry was breaking down the pier and making sea animals sick.

It was a nice, easy read and a sweet story. We’ve all been at that point of trying to be popular or staying who we are and deciding who we want to be as we grow up. This book details the power of friendship as they had trials and tribulations but were able to overcome them.


3 stars - just OK. Entertaining but not earth shattering.

[Rosemary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Originally published in hardcover last year, the paperback release of this fun Summer mystery is perfect for beach reading while ruminating on how water ices can save the world. Half-sisters Josie and Stella spend every summer together: Josie lives in Australia with her mom, while Stella lives in New York with her mom and stepdad. They share their summers – and their dad – together at the Jersey Shore, where they have their rituals. This year, Stella is pushing back against those rituals, because she’s on the verge of high school and wants to act more adult; Josie revels in their childhood memories. What starts out as a story where two sisters are growing up yet afraid of growing apart gets infinitely more interesting when you realize that chapters alternate between the sisters’ story and a debriefing at a police station. Something big has happened, as the story unfolds through each chapter, and it has to do, somehow, with the new smoothie store that took the place of Josie’s beloved water ice shop; a pop star coming to perform a concert at the pier, and the jellyfish population, currently undergoing a marine life crisis. This family story becomes a co-plot to an environmental mystery that brings the sisters back together to solve as they work out their growing pains, and it is guaranteed to keep readers glued to the pages.

There’s a fun cast of supporting characters, great pacing and dialogue, and an eloquent statement about the environment and how we affect it, for better or for worse. Put this on your shelves with other summer books like Kayla Miller’s graphic novel, Camp, Mae Respicio’s Any Day With You, Melissa Savage’s Lemons, and – naturally! – Rita Williams-Garcia’s One Crazy Summer.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stella from New York and Josie from Australia are half sisters who only see each other for eight weeks during the summer at the New Jersey shore, when they spend time with their father. Josie is looking forward to another wonderful summer with nothing different than the previous summer, but they are both entering high school in the fall, so Stella is ready for more grown-up entertainment. They both get involved with an environmental mystery connected with a new smoothie shop and a visiting celebrity, that lands them both at the police station, explaining the sequence of events.

This one didn’t go the way I thought it would; I thought it was going to be one of those books about how people grow apart in middle school when some are ready for boys and dating and that sort of thing, whereas the other is not yet there. There was a bit of that, but this was more about the mystery and some of the good and bad choices that Stella and Josie made in solving it. I liked the format in that it moved back-and-forth in time, with them at the police station separately, telling their stories, and then going back to the dates on which the things actually happened. It’s not a huge mystery, so what is more important is their actions and the results. It strains belief a little, moving into a Gordon Korman type plot, but that’s probably what will appeal the most about it to kids. Thanks to Libro.fm for a free educator copy of the audiobook.

[Penny lurkykitty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Saltwater Secrets is a fun summer mystery for tween and early YA readers. Josie and Stella are half sisters who live with their mothers in Australia and NYC, respectively, who only see each other in the summer when they join their father on the Jersey shore. Saltwater Secrets takes place the summer before the sisters start high school. They have shared traditions and Shore friends. They are used to getting water ice, going to the fun house and storing special treasures in a box in a secret hiding place. This summer, the water ice place is gone, replaced by a trendy smoothie store, their treasure box has vanished, dead jellyfish start washing up in large numbers and the boardwalk seems unstable. The sisters investigate these occurrences along with their friend Dario and uncover a sinister scheme.
The characters are well developed and I liked the bond between the sisters and the portrayal of how they are transitioning into teenagers. Dario, their friend, was my favorite character. The story moves quickly and is told from both sister's alternating point of view, which added to the suspense. The environmental mystery was well constructed and added depth and interest to the story. Saltwater Secrets is an enjoyable middle grade mystery with a fun beach town setting. #BooksForwardFriends

[Valerie McEnroe · Rating 4 out of 5]

First of all, love the cover. That alone is an easy sell for upper elementary girls looking for summer adventure on the New Jersey shore.

Half-sisters Stella and Josie reunite every summer to hang with their dad. This summer is the lead up to 9th grade and New Yorker Stella is hoping Australian Josie will be into fashion and coolness like she is. But Josie is more interested in figuring out why the pier seems unstable and the medusa jellyfish are dying. It's a mystery with an exciting literary tactic. Chapters tell the whole story by alternating between the present narration and a future police interrogation recalling an "incident." This tactic makes the book far more addicting.

Some of the things I like...The setting on a oceanfront boardwalk. Girls having the freedom to hangout there all day and just have fun. A menagerie of other characters, especially the three lifeguards-in-training, two of which are boyfriend potentials for Stella and Josie. It's a fun first boyfriend kind of book for girls who are starting to notice boys. All totally innocent.

[Erin Buhr · Rating 4 out of 5]

SALTWATER SECRETS is a fun summer read for tweens. Stella and Josie are half sisters who only see each other in the summers so those months together are sacred. Like with all things tween though, they need to adjust and figure out how to have a relationship as they change into teenagers. This is a summer of transition and as they try to handle their evolving relationship, the new relationships in their parents’ lives, and a group of cute lifeguards, they are also confronted with a mystery only they seem prepared to solve. I liked the way the story was told in cuts between the plot and an interview at the police station. It took a little while to get into the book but once that started it added more suspense and propelled me through the pages. Callaghan expertly transports you into the mind of a tween and to the salty seaside Jersey town. A book that screams ‘take me to the beach’ and will keep you wrapped up in the plot for a few hours.

[Sara Hill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Saltwater Secrets by Cindy Callaghan was a super sweet story about two half sisters, with all the summer vibes.

Josie and Stella spend the summer with their dad on the New Jersey shore. They have grown up doing the same summer rituals every year. This summer changes. They get to town to find one of their favourite places gone along with their buried treasure. A mystery is afoot, and these two clever girls are about to figure it out.

The first 25% of this book I struggled to get into. The following 25% started to get me interested. The last half of the book I flew through, and I could not put it down. This is a really wholesome middle grade novel, which I often find lacking these days. I think children, tweens, and parents will enjoy this alike. I cannot wait to read Callaghan’s other books in the future.

I received an electronic advanced reader copy from Simon and Schuster Children’s Publishing and Aladdin through NetGalley. All opinions are 100% my own.

[Cheryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stella and Josie make good main characters. Teens going through puberty will relate to the dynamics of Stella and Josie. They are very relatable to teens. Why I could not relate so much is because of the dialect of the characters was juvenile. As the police even reacted the same as an adult trying to get the facts about the case, not who liked who or what someone was wearing.

Where the mystery was involved. It did seem to take a really long time to get to the case. It did not really come together until the last third of the story.

This is is a cute book. While, I did like it, I would have to say that the target audience of a younger reader is the right choice. Which, young teens could read this as there is no language or sex portrayed in this book. So, this is a clean read.

[Therearenobadbooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

From the author of the amazing Just Add Magic series comes a summer mystery tale of two sisters. These half-sisters (one from New York, the other from Australia) always get together for summer, and they love the same old activities and games until they don't because they're about to enter high school, and one of them wants to move on from childish things. Still, they will work together to save the location, the jellyfish, and memories of their childhood.
What I like best about this one is that the narrator does two different accents, and it is also a framing narrative. We listen to them telling the police what sent "her" to the hospital. Friendship, hilarious magician girl, interesting page-turning mystery, family relationships, love interest.

[Megan · Rating 2 out of 5]

My daughter and I listened to this together while we ran errands, cooked dinner, etc. We wanted to love this unscary mystery story set at the Jersey Shore - it had so many elements that should have worked for us. Unfortunately, neither L nor I enjoyed this story. The mystery was slow to develop and the two protagonists were both fairly unlikeable, with one acting far too young for her age and the other far too old. However, our biggest problem overall was the terrible narration. The audiobook narrator's accent work was truly atrocious. My daughter and I both said we couldn't definitively decide if we disliked the story and characters as much as we thought, or if it was primarily due to the terrible narration.

[Jennifer Velez · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't hate this book. I think it was a fun beachy read. Doesn't help that I'm reading it in the middle of February. I liked the mystery aspect of it. Those stories are always engaging to me. The biggest issue that I had was that Josie and Stella had similar voices when it was their section. And the flipping back and forth I think was confusing because of that. I think this would have been better if everything besides the interviews at the station were written in 3rd person instead of 1st.

A lot of the plot points felt very convenient to me. That being said, this is a middle-grade book, so I can accept that.

[Ana(stasia) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have not read many books by Cindy Callaghan yet, but I plant to all because of this book. I read Just Add Magic and was not a huge fan of it, but it was still good. Anyway, I liked the girls-Stella and Josie, half sisters- and i liked the rotating chapters. I did enjoy the Josie chapters more, just because I liked her more as a character, but I liked Stella fine too. I was interested in the chapters set in the future-the ones with the police interviews. I loved piecing together what they were talking about in the interview. Although this book was not quite what I was expecting, I still enjoyed it and recommend it.

[Cassie Reynolds · Rating 4 out of 5]

*Thank you NetGalley and publisher for an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review*

This was definitely a fun read to start the summer. It's told an alternating perspectives of Josie and Stella, half-sisters who only get together during the summertime. The girls come upon a major problem at the boardwalk, and when local officials won’t listen, they take it upon themselves to keep the people and the jellyfish safe. You can definitely see both girl's very different personalities come out through their sides of the story, however they are so loyal to each other.

I think this would be a fantastic eco-mystery for an upper middle grade reader and tweens! The end definitely sounded like there could be a sequel in the works. I'm looking forward to it!

[Ashley Ewert · Rating 3 out of 5]

This story is told in an interesting way with the back and forth between characters and being interviewed by a detective. Not very strong character development for any one character as there were so many to keep track of all at once.

Although the main mystery of the story was resolved, the reader is still left with a cliffhanger at the end.

[Alli Santmyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I would HIGHLY recommend this coming-of-age, tween book! I've read several books by Cindy Callaghan and I'd recommend EVERY. SINGLE. ONE! She's a great author for the tween-middle grade readers or even young adults that want a quick and easy read.

[RedFoxBookworm · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a little too fast paced, and it was really confusing with the switching back and forth between the story and the police station, but I really liked the environmental theme and how it was about saving the oceans from pollution.

[Sophia Dorinzi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really quite enjoyed this book.
With the attention of environment struggles, mystery and a bit of romance all tied into this story made for a range of different genres with a large variety that helps you never get bored.

[Yana · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this a few years ago, but no because this was actually a good book?!! I was expecting it to be interesting, but I liked! I don’t remember a lot of what it was about, so I might reread it soon… and I need to see if the second book came out yet! Because this one ended on a cliffhanger!

[Ciara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Normally, books with mystery elements aren't my thing, but this one was. I loved the story and the characters, and I love the core message as well. Worth a read if you like summer middle-grade stories featuring sisters, or if you know a middle-schooler who wants something that has mystery vibes.