Coming June 2, 2026 from Cosmo Reads
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Six influencers. One luxury yacht. Nowhere to hide.
Charlie Engels is broke and desperate when her bookstagram account lands her the offer of a lifetime: join Empress, a state-of-the-art yacht houseboat off the Florida Keys turned influencer paradise. Lucrative brand deals and a ready-made “sisterhood” of internet stars—it may not be Charlie’s dream job, but she knows she’d be a fool to turn it down.
It’s also the perfect distraction; Charlie’s eager to outrun her past and a staggering betrayal by her former best friend. Now, aboard Empress, Charlie is surrounded by dazzling women with their own baggage: the magnetic but ruthless leader, the spiraling fashion queen, the inseparable twins, the peacemaker with cracks in her confidence, and the memory of the influencer who Charlie is replacing. The same influencer who Charlie keeps seeing on board, even though the others insist she quit.
But when a hurricane traps the group at sea with their billionaire boss, the dream turns claustrophobic. Communications cut. Supplies dwindling. Old betrayals bubbling to the surface. Then the first body drops.
As paranoia mounts and alliances splinter, Charlie realizes the real danger isn’t the storm outside—it’s the deadly games being played below deck. And if she can’t outwit a killer, her past won’t be the only ghost that comes back to drown her.
Razor-sharp, atmospheric, and impossible to put down, THE LAST TIME WE DROWNED is a locked-room psychological thriller where luxury curdles into terror and survival comes at the highest price.
Praise for The Last Time We Drowned
“Mean-girl influencers, the dark underbelly of wealth, and a locked-yacht mystery: what’s not to love? Saratoga Schaefer’s The Last Time We Drowned delivers Agatha Christie for the Instagram age in this deliciously soapy saga.” —Ashley Winstead, USA Today-bestselling author of This Book Will Bury Me
“A deliciously twisted tale about all the things people will do for money, power and influence(rs). It may look light and frothy on the surface, but The Last Time We Drowned is a beach read with bite that is all the things I want it to be: compelling, queer, dark-and-deep. Saratoga Schaefer has delivered a wild ride of a novel—they are absolutely a writer to watch!” — Hayley Scrivenor, internationally best-selling author of Dirt Creek and Girl Falling
“Thrilling and cleverly plotted. Saratoga Schaefer returns with an unputdownable locked room thriller that’s full of mystery, thrills, and just the right amount of horror. Perfect for readers, like me, who like to see vain influencers suffer in entertaining and catastrophic ways.” — Liann Zhang, instant international bestselling author of Julie Chan is Dead
“Shimmering and sinister. The Last Time We Drowned slowly drags you underwater and keeps you there—even til the final page.” — Emy McGuire, author of No One Aboard
“A coterie of glamorous influencers take over a billionaire’s yacht in paradise—what could go wrong? As Saratoga Schaefer writes it, everything. The Last Time We Drowned is a tempest of a thriller, both a binge-worthy mystery and an insightful exposé of social media and personal branding. Read this novel to see the scaffold of sabotage and deception that holds up even the prettiest of pictures.” — Laura Leffler, author of Tell Them You Lied
“Sometimes we need something a little darker to get our hearts pumping, and no one does that better than Saratoga Schaefer. The Last Time We Drowned dials it all the way up in a way that will leave you breathless…an incredible, one-of-a-kind psychological thriller that you won’t be able to put down until the very last page.” — Cosmopolitan
Content Warnings:
drowning, toxic friendships, alcohol misuse, death, violence, PTSD, claustrophobic setting, cheating, mild horror (haunting), diet culture, and parental death (off-page).
Saratoga Schaefer 