Set in the small coastal town of Desengaño in Baja California in 1979, Viridiana spends her days watching the fishermen pile dead sharks on the beach. Completely bored of small town life and all that comes with it, she dreams of a life like a Hollywood film. When three rich tourists arrive for the summer, she starts working for them and life becomes a lot less boring. Desengaño means disillusion in English and is the perfect setting for this story.

Untamed Shore is a noir with a little coming of age mixed in. It starts off pretty slow with most of the action happening in the last third, but I enjoyed the slow build and you get drawn into the atmospheric setting very quickly. Viridiana is very naive at times, but extremely smart at the same time and I adored her journey and growth.

There wasn't a lot of mystery surrounding the events and I did guess the twists, but that wasn’t really the point of the novel and I was still on the edge of my seat waiting to see how it all played out. The ending was so satisfying too - especially for Viridiana! The author said this is the only book she’s considered writing a sequel for and I don’t know if she ever actually will, but I’m so ready to find out what happens after the epilogue!

Untamed Shored was originally published in 2020, in a small press with promotion stopped in its tracks by the pandemic. It's being re-released on 16 February, which I'm really glad about or I don't think it would have made it onto my radar otherwise. It's not my favourite by Moreno-Garcia but one I wouldn't hesitate to recommend!

Thank you NetGalley and Quercus Books for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!