In Paperback July 14, 2026
Order: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Books A Million | Bookshop.org | Hudson Booksellers | Powell’s
The Grand Paloma Resort is a lush paradise in the Dominican Republic where guests enjoy incredible luxury, and the staff is always eager to please—that is, until they are pushed to the brink.
Laura is a manager at the Grand Paloma Resort, a Dominican woman who has risen this far through sheer hard work. Her idea to pair “platinum” guests with a resort employee to attend to their every need has been wildly successful. She’s mere weeks away from a promotion that will blaze a path off the resort, to a life of opportunity. If only her younger sister, Elena—who she’s looked after since the death of their mother – could get with the program.
Elena has tried her best to live up to her sister’s expectations. To escape the drudgery of waiting on rich tourists, she’s become increasingly dependent on pills and partying. As a babysitter at the resort, she’s at the mercy of guests who travel to indulge their worst impulses and need someone else to watch their kids while they do so. Now, after an accident, a child in her charge is believed dead, and Elena knows she’ll be held responsible.
At a local beachfront watering hole, Elena runs into the child’s father. He offers her an obscene amount of money to give him private time with two young local girls. Elena pockets the cash to fund her escape and prays she’s gotten the girls out of harm’s way.
Set over the course of seven days, The Grand Paloma Resort offers an unforgettable story of class, family, and community, building to an intense climax in which the true costs of luxury are laid bare, forcing Laura and Elena to reckon with long-held secrets and true acts of love.
Praise & Reviews
“Cleyvis Natera returns to take us on a wild, gripping ride to The Grand Paloma Resort, where carefree tourists bask in the sun, oblivious to the high stakes drama of the Dominican workers toiling to make paradise appear perfect. With compelling characters and a narrative that steals your breath from the first page, Natera offers an unforgettable, unexpected story that will upend readers assumptions about power, pleasure and moral salvation.” –Xochitl Gonzalez, Pulitzer Prize Finalist & New York Times bestselling author of Olga Dies Dreaming and Anita de Monte Laughs Last
“One of the most compelling stories you will read this year. If you like NERUDA ON THE PARK, you’ll love THE GRAND PALOMA RESORT for its engaging plot and sharp-eyed commentary on family and community, class and aspiration. Cleyvis Natera has delivered a propulsive story set in a resort hotel in the Dominican Republic, where the staff are pushed to dangerous limits that put an entire community at risk.” – Charmaine Wilkerson, New York Times bestselling author of Black Cake and Good Dirt
“Part family saga, part mystery, Cleyvis Natera’s stunning sophomore novel draws us into the firestorm that results when reckless youth, ambition, secrets, and exploitation collide. Like its setting in the Dominican Republic, The Grand Paloma Resortis lush and brimming with sociopolitical intricacies. Natera is a masterful storyteller, and this irresistible novel is a master class in human nature at its most vulnerable, most callous, and most righteous.” –Deesha Philyaw, award-winning author of The Secret Lives of Church Ladies
“Cleyvis Natera’s deft second novel, The Grand Paloma Resort, is a skillfully woven tale set in a tropical resort, where violence lurks beneath the pristine Caribbean surface. At its heart are two local sisters navigating a community riven by lies, greed, and the persistent damages of colonialism. It’s a tense page turner that unsparingly interrogates allegiances, and belonging, and who gets to decide how you survive. Highly recommend.” —Cristina García, Award-winning author of Vanishing Maps
“Two local girls disappear near a resort in the Dominican Republic. A wealthy American guest is the last to have been seen near them. Two sisters who work for the resort scramble to make sense of the disappearance. This is the premise for Cleyvis Natera’s sophomore offering, a novel that pulsates from its depiction of the combined humanity and desperation of individuals whose lives depend on the tourist economy. “Capitalism is built on human blood and sweat,” says a character in the novel and Natera brings the dictum to stark life in this page-turner. Grand Paloma offers an unvarnished, unflinching, behind-the-scenes look at the workings of a destination resort where tourists attempt to make their fantasies come to life at whatever cost, while locals pay the ultimate price for making them come true. This is a story of a people fighting for their land, and their history, seeking to restore dignity where it has been squandered, broken, lost or stolen. A novel for fans of The Disaster Tourist, White Lotus and The Farming of Bones alike with a Caribbean view from below, this a fresh, critical twist on the resort genre that will leave readers on the edge of their seats!” —Myriam J. A. Chancy, award-winning author of What Storm, What Thunder and Village Weavers
“In her insightfully told new novel, Cleyvis Natera explores the stark divide between the citizens of the Dominican Republic and those who arrive only to exploit its sparkling beaches and accommodating population. The riveting characters of The Grand Paloma Resort keenly demonstrate the great lengths people will go to escape socioeconomic violence, to move up the corporate ladder—and sometimes even to protect the ones they hold most dear. A deeply felt, utterly unputdownable read.” —Karin Slaughter NYT and #1 International Bestselling author of Pretty Girls
“’Suspenseful’” is an understatement when describing Natera’s Sophomore novel, The Grand Paloma Resort. Fast-paced and richly rendered, this is a narrative that unflinchingly reveals the most intimate desires—altruistic and otherwise— of some of the Dominican Republic’s most vulnerable workers, the tourists who visit the resorts to fulfill their every fantasy, and the multitude of everyday people found somewhere in between. Put simply, this is a novel I won’t soon forget.” –Elizabeth Acevedo, National Book Award Winner and New York Times Bestselling Author of The Poet X
“The Grand Paloma Resort is a literary White Lotus. No one investigates the crucible of race, class, and nationality like Cleyvis Natera. With heart and cheek, we enter the underbelly of placid privilege to find that it’s anything but. The pleasures of the ruling class are illusions derived from the blood, sweat, tears, and fears of the Global South. Through a rich cast of characters, Natera has written a sexy, sinister, and intricate tale that serves as an indictment of the haves at the expense of the havenots.” –Alejandro Valera, National Book Award finalist and author of The Town of Babylon and The People who Report More Stress
Podcasts
Speaking in Tongues/interview—8/11
Read the Damn Book/interview—8/12
Unofficial Book Club podcast/interview—8/12 & 8/14
Liberation Is Lit/interview—8/14
Latina to Latina/interview—8/25
Midlife Book Club/interview—9/1
Brown Girl Collective/interview—9/10
Island Girls Rock/interview—10/9