RIP TIDE

“At once an insightful look at tangled family dynamics and a wrenching story of youthful delusion, Rip Tide illustrates that for many women, the past is a ticking time bomb. The deeper we bury it, the bigger the boom. Spread out a blanket, crack open Rip Tide and prepare to be dazzled.” — Jillian Medoff, author of When We Were Bright and Beautiful

From the author of The Wild One, a heartfelt and suspenseful novel about two sisters returning to their childhood beachfront home who are forced to confront their traumatic past when a body washes ashore.

It’s been fifteen years since Kimmy Devine promised herself she’d never move back to Rocky Cape, the idyllic South Jersey beach town where she grew up. She doesn’t want to relive the crushing heartbreak and scandal that ravaged her world as a teen. Her younger sister Erin shares those feelings, the wounds she caused so many years ago forever binding her and Kimmy.

Yet here they are, back in their hometown: Kimmy, floundering after quitting her high-powered finance job in London to help her dad run the family’s hardware stores; Erin, reeling from fertility issues and an ongoing divorce, begging to be taken seriously by her parents. The more time they spend in Rocky Cape, the stronger the pull of nostalgia, and both Erin and Kimmy slip on the past like a pair of last year’s sandals, forgetting about the blisters when worn too long.

As the sisters celebrate their homecoming at their parents’ yacht club, a handful of familiar faces arrive to dampen the revelry. The next morning, a body is found floating nearby and long-buried secrets from their adolescence begin to emerge. Someone from the sisters’ past, it seems, is out for revenge.

Told in fast-paced, dual timelines, Rip Tide is a steamy, tension-filled tale of suspense about family, friendships broken and repaired, young love lost and rekindled, forgiveness and second chances, taking control of your life, and the dangerous decisions we make when blinded by desire.

“Rip Tide is many things: a deep-dive into the perils of trying to escape your past; a poignant depiction of sisterhood and the ways it evolves; and the tantalizing idea of coming home again." — Marie Claire

“A delectable page-turner brimming with secrets, Rip Tide had me hooked from its opening lines. Part mystery, part toxic love story, part homecoming, McKeegan's sophomore novel is a powerful love letter to sisterhood that is nostalgic, steamy, and utterly addictive—exactly what I want in a summer read.” — Carola Lovering, author of Tell Me Lies

“Full of the youthful angst and longing that stretches into adulthood, Rip Tide is a gripping, smart and emotionally resonant novel. I raced through it with my heart in my throat until the redemptive and completely satisfying last page.” — Annabel Monaghan, author of Same Time Next Summer

“Suspenseful and resonant, Rip Tide conjures the fierce longings of adolescence, and the complex bonds of sisterhood, with scalpel sharpness. A clear-eyed portrait of the wounds teenaged girls inflict and sustain, and the women they become afterward—with a final twist that, like growing up, will complicate everything you thought you knew.” — Katie Gutierrez, bestselling author of More Than You'll Ever Know

“Set in a close-knit beach town where the past lingers like a rip tide, Colleen McKeegan's sophomore novel is a dark and twisty tale of secrets, revenge and betrayal. She writes beautifully about female desire and the ways girls are used and discarded—and how they pull themselves up again.”  — Daisy Alpert Florin, author of My Last Innocent Year

“In Colleen McKeegan's sweeping, atmospheric novel, two sisters are dragged back towards the ghosts they left in their beachside hometown. Both a searing reminder of the currents of teenagerhood and a page-turning testament to the potency of female relationships, this novel will pull you in and hold you long beyond the final page.”  — Jenny Hollander, author of Everyone Who Can Forgive Me Is Dead