THE LIFEGUARDS

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. While each of them has their own set of values and backgrounds, they share the belief that they can shelter their children from an increasingly dangerous world. The women’s three teenaged sons are about to begin a carefree summer as lifeguards. Whitney, Annette, and Liza’s 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 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.

EARLY PRAISE

“Once again, Amanda Eyre Ward has written a book that is at once riveting and relevant, as it unpeels the various meanings of motherhood, family, and loyalty. I tore through it.”
—Miranda Cowley Heller,
#1 New York Times bestselling author of The Paper Palace

“The Lifeguards combines dark intrigue with complex family dynamics and witty social observation. It’s a highly-charged, compelling page-turner that kept me guessing till the end. Sun, secrets, tequila and twists—what’s not to like?!”
—Sophie Kinsella, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Party Crasher

“A juicy and irresistible roller coaster of a read that brings all the thrills of Big Little Lies to the privileged, sun-dappled private patios of Austin’s ‘rich-mom’ set.”
—Allison Lynn, author of The Exiles