The waves are to die for. It's a paradise they'd kill to keep.
There's a darkness inside all of us and The Bay has a way of bringing it out. Everyone here has their secrets but we don't go looking for them. Because sometimes it's better not to know.
Kenna arrives in Sydney to surprise her best friend, shocked to hear she's going to marry a guy she's only just met. But Mikki and her fiancé Jack are about to head away on a trip, so Kenna finds herself tagging along for the ride.
Sorrow Bay is beautiful, wild and dangerous. A remote surfing spot with waves to die for, cut off from the rest of the world. Here Kenna meets the mysterious group of people who will do anything to keep their paradise a secret. Sky, Ryan, Clemente and Victor have come to ride the waves and disappear from life. How will they feel about Kenna turning up unannounced?
As Kenna gets drawn into their world, she sees the extremes they are prepared to go to for the next thrill. And everyone seems to be hiding something. What has her best friend got involved in and how can she get her away? But one thing is rapidly becoming clear about The Bay: nobody ever leaves.
I'd like to thank Random Things Tours for inviting me to be a part of this blog tour and Headline Books for my copy of The Bay to review via NetGalley.
Having loved Allie Reynold's debut novel Shiver which featured a reunion of former competitive snowboarders, I was eagerly anticipating her follow up novel to see what was in store for us readers. And The Bay couldn't be more different in that it's set at remote Sorrow Bay in Australia, a beach that a motley crew of surfers would like to keep a secret from the rest of the surfing community.
And after finishing reading I can say that the setting Sorrow Bay certainly lived up to its name as a lot has happened there over the last few years. The surprise arrival of Kenna forces Mikki and Jack to bring her with them to Sorrow Bay much to the annoyance of the rest of the group who are already there. Her arrival creates unrest amongst the group and sets in motion a few shocking events that will mean that life will never be the same for any of them again.
Kenna's mission had initially been to come over to Australia to persuade her best friend Mikki to return home after she heard about her plan to marry Aussie Jack to get a residency visa. And the longer she spends with the group, the more she can see that they have a strange hold on each other. She finds herself living life on the edge as she discovers some information about some former tribe members, did they leave of their own free will or did someone make them disappear? The more she questions things, the more you realise that there's a dangerous cat and mouse game at play and someone doesn't want her to keep digging for answers.
The 'tribe' as they called themselves were a mix of flawed characters and I can honestly say that like Kenna I really didn't know who to believe and trust. They all had toxic qualities that made my skin crawl and appeared to have a hold on each other as a unspoken threat to prevent them from leaving the group and threatening the balance of their nomadic lifestyle. Most of them were here in Australia on working or tourist visas that were either due to expire or may have expired which is why they choose to live this life under the radar. The more you learn about each of them, the more you realise that quite a few of them are hiding dark secrets and aren't who they say they are. With each snippet of information being provided I was trying to piece together the information to figure out what had happened previously and who was responsible for the current day events. And boy how wrong was I!
The Bay is a gripping, suspenseful read that has a real claustrophobic feel to it despite it being set on a beach and the surrounding coastline of Sorrow Bay.
Thanks for the blog tour support x
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