Promises in the Sand

I’ll admit, I rolled my eyes at first. *Another* coastal family saga? But *Promises in the Sand* disarmed me within chapters, mostly because Clara Palms isn’t interested in giving you the catharsis you expect. The plot—adult siblings reuniting at their childhood beach house after their father’s death—sounds familiar, but the execution is razor-sharp. The “secrets” aren’t buried treasure; they’re the kind of mundane betrayals that fester: a missed phone call, a lie about a college acceptance, a will that’s *too* fair. Palms excels at writing dialogue that’s *almost* honest, where characters circle the truth like sharks, and Virginia Rose’s narration sells every evasion. Her voice cracks just slightly when the protagonist, Mira, lies to her brother about remembering their mother’s last words—it’s a tiny choice, but it guts you. That said, the audiobook isn’t without flaws. The pacing drags in the middle, where Palms indulges in *too* many flashbacks to the parents’ early marriage. While these scenes deepen the tragedy, they disrupt the present-day momentum, and Rose’s shift to a breathier tone for young love feels jarring against the novel’s otherwise grounded realism. The sound production is impeccable (no awkward edits or volume spikes), but I wished for more atmospheric touches—distant waves, maybe, or the creak of a porch swing—to heighten the setting’s oppressive nostalgia. Still, the ending lands with the force of a wave you didn’t see coming. It’s not tidy. It’s not redemptive. But it *is* true to the book’s central question: How much of your life are you willing to rewrite to keep a promise you never actually made?