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The Lifeguards



Genre: Contemporary / Mystery / Chick-Lit


Book Type: Physical


Author: Amanda Eyre Ward


Narrator: Kirby Heyborne, Karissa Vacker, Hillary Huber, Marin Ireland


Pages / Length: 368 pages / 8 hours and 41 minutes


Publisher: Ballantine Books (April 5, 2022) / Random House Audio


Book Description:

The bonds between three picture-perfect—but viciously protective—mothers and their close-knit sons are tested during one unforgettable summer in a gripping novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Jetsetters.


Austin’s Zilker Park neighborhood is a wonderland of greenbelt trails, live music, and moms who drink a few too many margaritas. Whitney, Annette, and Liza have grown thick as thieves as they have raised their children together for fifteen years, believing that they can shelter them their children from an increasingly dangerous world. Their friendship is unbreakable—as safe as the neighborhood where they've raised their sweet little boys.


Or so they think. 


One night, the three women have been enjoying happy hour when their boys, lifeguards for the summer, come back on bicycles from a late-night dip in their favorite swimming hole. The boys share a secret—news that will shatter the perfect world their mothers have so painstakingly created.  


Combining three mothers’ points of view in a powerful narrative tale with commentary from entertaining neighborhood listservs, secret text messages, and police reports, The Lifeguards is both a story about the secrets we tell to protect the ones we love and a riveting novel of suspense filled with half-truths and betrayals, fierce love and complicated friendships, and the loss of innocence on one hot summer night.


Thoughts:

I love a good story with the element of mystery to carry you throughout. This reads like The Neighbor's Secret, Big Little Lies, Happy & You Know It, so if you like those types of drama reads, this book is for you.


Everyone has secrets, and no matter how close these women are, they will stop at nothing to protect their son's innocence. I love learning about the story from different points of view as the story itself is moving forward. I also love the flashbacks to set the foundation for what leads up to the unfortunate night.


This had many layers of friendship, love, siblings, drugs, and parenting and was a great read!


Favorite Quotes:

🏊🏻‍♂️ It was a strange thing to be a parent. You spent so much time creating an alternate universe for your children's imaginations, convincing them everything was fine, whispering lies into their ears at bedtime: Nobody could get into this house! I will protect you! If anyone tried to get in to this house, my friends at the station would be here in seconds and arrest the bad person before you even woke up! Salvadore knew better than anyone how truly dangerous every moment was, but also how precious. It was saving him, minute by minute, to cultivate in his children a belief that they were safe, a belief he understood was false. (page 31)


🏊🏻‍♂️ She opened her mouth to ask more, but then closed it. She swallowed, tasting the familiar pain that came with choosing peace over truth. (page 42)


🏊🏻‍♂️ It was clear: if you were wealthy, you were safe. I'd seen how the summer kids seemed braver than me, reckless, and now I knew why. They could dive off anything, because underneath them was an invisible net of parents, doctors, coaches, teachers, money. If they fell, they had Cape Cod Concierge. (page 85)


🏊🏻‍♂️ Life wore you out either way. Loneliness left you empty, and love pierced youw with the worst pain and the best joy. (page 321)


Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

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