A stranded tourist. A hidden world. A destiny he never asked for.

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

What begins as a paranoid game of cat and mouse through the streets of Playa del Carmen spirals into something Max never imagined-a hidden world beneath everything he thought was real, guardians called the Aethel, monstrous creatures called Scroungers, and a prophecy naming him as far more than a stranded tourist. He's the one thing standing between a dark sorcerer bent on tearing down the barrier between worlds and the destruction of a world no one back home would ever believe exists.

With new allies Sophia and Kai at his side, Max must 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. Every answer raises more questions, and every ally might be hiding a secret of their own.

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.