Playa Del Carmen Deception

Karen S Ramos

Max's dream trip to Mexico lasts less than a day before it falls apart. Robbed of his cash within hours of landing, stranded with a stolen backpack and a dying phone, he's saved by a stranger in a wide-brimmed hat—a shopkeeper named Miguel who offers him a job that feels a little too convenient, a little too well-timed. Someone is watching Max. Someone keeps paying for his meals. And someone doesn't want him asking why.

What starts as a paranoid game of cat and mouse through the streets of Playa del Carmen spirals into something Max never could have imagined—a hidden world beneath the surface of everything he thought was real, guardians called the Aethel, monstrous creatures called Scroungers, and a prophecy that says Max isn't just a stranded tourist. He's the one thing standing between a dark sorcerer and the destruction of a world no one back home would ever believe exists.

With new allies Sophia and Kai at his side, Max has to master powers he never knew he had, fight for a city that isn't his, and figure out how much of what he's experienced is real—before the line between nightmare and truth disappears completely.

Playa Del Carmen Deception is a fast-paced portal adventure that starts as a vacation-gone-wrong thriller and explodes into something far bigger—perfect for readers who love a hero who doesn't know he's a hero yet.