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“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, author of The Paper Palace

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.

Review

“A polyphonic story . . . Ward, with her keen eye for detail and a terrific sense of exactly when to deliver a punchline, knows her characters well. . . . She allows her characters to be petty and myopic, to make the wrong choices again and again, to fail badly, then dust themselves off and try again. Her people are resilient, with a deep longing to do better—particularly for their children.”—The New York Times Book Review

“Shake up a margarita and light a citronella; you’ll be in this one for awhile.”—Good Housekeeping

“Ward expertly weaves together each woman’s point of view as well as commentary from entertaining neighborhood listservs, secret text messages, and police reports for one of the first true beach reads of the year.”—E! ONLINE

“[A]s a commentary on privileged, suburban America, Ward packs a mean punch, delivering crystalline observations with a hearty side of wit and tongue-in-cheek humor.”—Bookreporter

“This thriller will keep you turning pages and longing for your own dip in Barton Springs.”—Austin Monthly

“At once a love letter to my favorite city and a tense interrogation of the bonds of motherhood, The Lifeguards places three very different women in the pressure cooker of one Austin summer and watches the sparks ignite. I love a carefully crafted mystery where all the tricky pieces fit just so. . . . A masterclass.”—Chandler Baker, New York Times bestselling author of The Husbands

“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

“Insanely addictive, deliciously propulsive, and wholly unpredictable . . . will take your breath away. Big Little Lies meets Mare of Easttown in this masterful, explosive suspense novel set against the backdrop of sun-drenched Austin. A tense and taut thriller brimming with secrets, complex, twisty female friendships, and whiplash plot twists, this is the perfect summer read best devoured with a strong margarita.”—May Cobb, author of The Hunting Wives

“Amanda Eyre Ward brings all the thrills of Big Little Lies to the privileged, sun-dappled private patios of Austin’s ‘rich mom’ set. The result is a juicy and irresistible roller coaster of a read.”—Allyson Lynn, author of Bread

“Arresting . . . Like a cool lake on a hot day, this story hits the spot.”—Publishers Weekly

About the Author

Amanda Eyre Ward is the New York Times bestselling author of seven novels including The Jetsetters, a Reese’s Book Club pick. She lives in Austin, Texas, with her family.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

-1-

Liza

Our boys were lifeguards, we told ourselves, and were surely safe. Weren’t they safe? They knew CPR, had shown us their fanny packs filled with Band-Aids and plastic breathing tubes. Xavier, Bobcat, and Charlie (my son) had taken the course together, weekend mornings at Barton Springs. We’d dropped them off at dawn, the Texas sun just starting to climb above the horizon, making the surface of the spring-fed swimming hole flash red and orange. We’d said we’d walk Lady Bird Lake together, or we’d stand-up paddleboard or grab coffee. Instead, we smiled as we dropped the boys, went home to the adult lives we’d begun to create again, now that our children were fifteen. I was ghostwriting a cookbook; Annette was working at Hola, Amigos Daycare; and Whitney had become an Austin real estate titan.

Now that we no longer had endless summer days with elementary schoolers underfoot, it was harder to connect. But our friendship was unbreakable, as safe as the neighborhood where we’d raised our sweet little kids.

Or so we thought.

By the end of the summer, one of us would be gone.

“Where are they?” I said, glancing at my watch. (I liked wearing a thin gold watch I’d bought at an antiques store. Sometimes, I told people it had been my mother’s, conjuring an “old money” family that didn’t exist. Oh, how I loved the idea of a mother who’d wear such an elegant timepiece on a slim wrist! My actual mother, in contrast, had a tattoo of a snake on her hand.)

It was 11:00 p.m., which was definitely too late.

“Riding their bikes around the neighborhood, they said,” said Annette. Her son, Bobcat, was rail-thin and six-three, a reluctant ninth-grade basketball star. Despite Bobcat insisting he just wanted to build computers in his room, Annette’s husband forced their son to keep playing. During the last game of the season, an opponent elbowed Bobcat—hard—in the soft place underneath his rib cage. It was awful to see Bobcat’s face crumple in pain . . . but he only glanced toward the stands at his father . . . and didn’t make a sound.

When my son, Charlie, went over his mountain-bike handles on a trail and cut his forehead, I felt his pain viscerally. I could scarcely watch him pedal away, even now that he wore the most expensive safety equipment available: a two-hundred-dollar full-face helmet, padded bike shorts, neck brace, wrist, elbow, and knee pads, and a back protector made of VPD, whatever that was. Despite Charlie’s complaints, I’d bought all the items at Dick’s Sporting Goods on layaway. (The sign above the gear was a siren call: you can buy the feeling of safety!) Sure, the other kids made fun of him with his braces and helmets, but I’d rather my son be embarrassed than dead.

It was possible, as Charlie had suggested gently, that I had anxiety issues. Maybe, as he’d said, I should “use our money to talk to someone.” But you couldn’t see a therapist on layaway, now could you? I’d handle my brain when I’d somehow gotten Charlie to college without any major bodily damage. Splurging on things that made me feel more secure was working for me, so I ignored Charlie’s complaints and insinuations and loved him hard and bought him safety equipment.

Annette went to every game wearing Austin High colors from head to toe. She had platinum blond hair and bronze skin, wide brown eyes. She carefully sculpted her thick eyebrows into perfect arches, accented her high cheekbones and naturally plump lips with drugstore makeup, and wore expensive jewelry at all times. When Louis (who had been too short to play basketball himself) led cheers for Bobcat from the stands and stomped his feet on the bleachers, tried to start “the wave” and was largely ignored, Annette stood by his side. We all loved Louis, his childlike enthusiasm, but Annette knew, as we all did, that Bobcat played only to please his father but really came alive when explaining the best graphics card for his latest home-built PC.

Louis wanted his son to be the athlete he’d dreamed of becoming himself—he couldn’t fathom a person with physical gifts not wanting to use them. I thought it was just a matter of time before Bobcat either became who he was meant to be or stopped trying. Did Annette defend her son behind closed doors? Or was marriage about acquiescence, silencing yourself in the name of marital harmony?

I wouldn’t know. I was a single mom, the struggling one in a sea of serene, wealthy wives. Everyone I knew had the money for psychiatrists, aestheticians, Peloton machines, and massages. I didn’t own my house. I worried about our electricity bill. I was so nervous that my friends would drop me—nobody wanted a single woman at their barbecue.

Sometimes, I drove by neighborhood parties I hadn’t been invited to. Not on purpose! I just happened to be going for a swim at Barton Springs, or grabbing a bottle of Sauv Blanc at the Barton Hills Food Mart. On the way home, I’d swing past a friend’s house to see the street jammed with cars, the yard filled with people I would have thought would have included me.

Would have included us—me and Charlie. If Charlie was with me, we wouldn’t mention the fête. If I was alone, I would swallow my sadness. I told myself, as I lay awake in my queen-sized bed littered with cookbooks and recipe notes, that I was glad I could toss and turn without bothering anyone, could eat a bowl of cereal at three in the morning if I wanted to. Or a sandwich. At three in the morning. Hooray!

But on this night, I wasn’t alone. I was cozy in the circle of my two best friends, Whitney and Annette, celebrating the end of the school year. The boys would start their first full days as summer lifeguards in the morning.

We had been through so much together in the fifteen years since our children’s births. Annette and Whitney both really did seem to love me, which meant everything. I was so scared of losing their warmth.

I watched TV shows and movies about “BFFs,” puzzled over women seeming utterly relaxed with each other. Around my best friends, I was very careful. I needed them too much, I knew. I made gift bags for them “just because.” I was on high alert, the ultimate people pleaser, shape-shifting into whatever Whitney and Annette wanted: a good listener, someone to praise their choices, free at the spur of the moment for a glass or three of wine. I ignored what I needed to be the perfect friend, terrified they would ditch me.

Among them, I was safe inside the “rich mom” circle. If I messed up and was cast out, I’d just be a woman who couldn’t quite afford the neighborhood, and Charlie would feel like I had as a kid: miserable, desperate to escape. He would leave me if the world I made for him wasn’t good enough to want to stay. I knew on some level that this chain of causation was overly dramatic, but on the other hand, the securities of wealth were absolutely real. Our rental home fed to schools with resources and college counselors. We had a Neighborhood Watch.

“The boys are fine, Lizey,” said Whitney, using her affectionate nickname for me. She was five-two with thick black hair that always fell in a shining curtain as if she’d just left a salon chair.

Whitney knew I was a worrier; she passed me the bottle of Chardonnay. We were sipping out of Whitney and Jules’s stemless glasses. The glasses were expensive and fashionable, but I liked a stem, myself. Not that I’d ever say so. “You’re fine, Lizey,” said Whitney. My best friend knew me well: her words made my stomach ease.

I’d met Whitney sixteen years before, when I’d been pregnant with Charlie. I’d arrived in Austin with a few hundred dollars in my wallet, and Whitney had been on floor duty when I’d walked into Zilker Park Realty. She had a friend (Whitney always had a friend) whose elderly mother had just moved into a nursing home and was considering renting out her Barton Hills bungalow. As soon as I walked into the twelve-hundred-square-foot house (the kitchen cabinets and refrigerator a perfect 1970s avocado green), I knew that 1308 Oak Glen was where my new life would begin.

The bungalow was probably worth three quarters of a million now, a “teardown.” Whitney and Jules had bought it a while back, becoming my landlords. It was a bit odd how it went down, to be honest: One day Whitney just mentioned that I should write the rent check to her from now on. They hadn’t raised my rent—not yet—and I was hardly in a position to negotiate, but I’d been a bit confused, even upset, at first. Why hadn’t they told me they were buying my home? I never could have bought it myself, but it would have been nice to have been asked, to have been given a chance to bid.

Although I told everyone I was a food writer, I had myriad side hustles to keep us afloat. I was careful, lest any Barton Hills neighbors see me working a menial job. I walked dogs in Round Rock and took on “Tasks” for TaskRabbit. A folder on my desk labeled “Recipe Ideas” was actually a checklist of odd jobs to follow up on each day. Every minute Charlie wasn’t home, I was trying to make some money.

Review:

4.1 out of 5

82.50% of customers are satisfied

4.0 out of 5 stars Not bad.....

B. · April 29, 2025

5.0 out of 5 stars Standout!

K.C. · July 24, 2022

I enjoyed the characters in this book. Also how the unfolded in a way that wasn't expected.Great summer read!

3.0 out of 5 stars Quick read with rushed ending

P.B. · July 5, 2022

I read this book in one sitting, I wanted to enjoy it but I feel like the characters never fully developed, especially Annette, she was just a Latina character written by a white lady with all the stereotypes and none of the depth. The book alluded to all of these deep secrets that with the exception of Whitney, were underwhelming, then after all of this time building up, the denouement was rushed and flat. You don’t really find out what happened in the big climax, it’s just a flash forward to a happy ending with no details of how they got there.

4.0 out of 5 stars Fun summer read but the ending needs CPR

S. · August 24, 2022

I tore through this book in two days. The writing was excellent, the premise was juicy and there were a lot of plot developments to keep you turning the pages.Ultimately though, the ending was kind of a let down. It’s like the author decided to change from writing a novel to writing woman’s fiction at the last minute.A pivotal confrontation at the end gets cut short and we never really find out what happens. I would have liked to know more about Lucy and the twists and turns that her down her path.I really enjoyed the bunker symbolism and plot device, very cool and creepy.Spoiler alert: if you haven’t read this book, read no further.Some plots, like the heroin junkie dad and Liza and the Detectives romance just didn’t pay off. Would have loved to instead hear things from the husbands perspectives, as they were all super weird and interesting.It seems like the author was saying Lion’s sociopath tendencies were a red herring, and it was actually Whitney who was the sociopath and passed the tendencies down to Roma. That is a super interesting twist but it’s never really explored. Why else would Whitney incriminate Roma for drugs instead of just have her commmitted? Did Whitney actually kill the guy in New Zealand? Or the Lion did? Why does it seem like Xavier is just totally fine in the last scene when his mom was murdered and his sister in prison for murder

5.0 out of 5 stars Couldn't put it down.

M.B. · November 3, 2022

Very good book, good characters.

3.0 out of 5 stars Quick Delivery but Book Cover flap is missing

i. · May 25, 2023

Quick delivery but this book did not come with the cover flap. It was not in the description that the cover flap was missing. That is something that should be noted

4.0 out of 5 stars 4.5/5 Stars

W. · June 30, 2022

Liza. Annette. Whitney: Each woman seemingly different. Different backgrounds. Different stories, but all three held captive by something. Liza jailed by image (both past and present). Annette confined by citizenship. And Whitney held captive by wealth and a sociopathic daughter. Each woman raising their boys together. The boys are all 15 now and serving as lifeguards in their subdivision when there is an untimely death by a college aged girl. The boys happen upon the girl’s body unleashing a hurricane of questions and very few answers. Navigating through the summer and crossing back to the day of the young lady’s death – the town, the moms, the boys, and the police officers try to untangle the web and the more they discover – the more they wish they hadn’t. I devoured this book. I thought it was a relaxed summer read so I was pleasantly surprised to be taken on a bumpy ride over the waves and rocks of Austin’s “Zilker Park”.

5.0 out of 5 stars A mother's love has no limits...

L. · April 10, 2022

The Lifeguards is an intense and shocking story about the different struggles within families, for the children and their parents. It’s a story about the loss of innocence and rites of passages intertwined with an incredibly fast-paced murder mystery with a jaw-dropping ending!Liza, Annette and Whitney are three mothers who have been best friends for years. They would do anything for their own children and each other’s families. They live in an upscale Texas neighborhood. Although the women consider each other best friends, Liza and Annette would do anything for Whitney’s approval and attention.Liza is a single mother of a fifteen-year-old son named Charlie. When she fled her home life after finding herself pregnant, she ended up here. Whitney was her first friend and has since helped Liza in so many ways. But Liza has secrets and tries to fit in with the other women. Although she pretends to have it all, she struggles to make ends meet. Charlie is her life. She is overprotective of him and although she knows this, she can’t stop it from happening. Charlie only wants an answer to a simple question. Who is my father?Annette is married to Louis and has a son nicknamed Bobcat. Louis feels superior to his wife and sometimes expects the same from his son. He is the man of the house and makes no bones about that fact. Annette worries how Bobcat will turn out with Louis as his father. She misses her family but enjoys the lifestyle Louis is able to give her, something she did not have growing up. In the meantime, Bobcat is trying to find his way in life navigating his parents, friends and puberty.Whitney is a famous and established real estate agent whose family hurts for nothing. She and her husband Jules have different styles of parenting. She parents…Jules doesn’t. They have twins. Xavier is very conscientious and considerate, and he tries to please everybody. Roma is a bad seed. She tortures her brother and has since they were young. She is spoiled and her behavior is overlooked by her parents. Although recently, her actions seem to be getting worse. Xavier is scared of Roma and fears she will kill him.The three boys have been best friends since childhood and this summer they have become Lifeguards. One night the boys come home late, and they tell their mothers that they found a woman’s body on the greenbelt she is dead. They swear they don’t know what happened to her, but their actions say otherwise. No matter how hard the mothers try, the boys refuse to give the full truth, so they think. What are they hiding?As the investigation begins it at first seems to be ruled a drug overdose, but one of the boys’ shin guards is found at the site of the body as well as a picture of the three friends. The women begin to panic, but the boys still insist they know nothing.Then one of them is arrested.The chapters switch back and forth from the day of the incident to the present day. We begin to see what happened before the body was found and after the body was discovered and what the police learn during the investigation.As the boys lies begin to unravel, their parents, especially their mothers go into protection mode. The mother’s will not believe their child could do such a thing. All they want to do is safeguard their families. But the children are not the only ones who are keeping secrets and by the end of the investigation everyone will be stunned at its conclusion.A mother’s love has no limits…

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The Lifeguards: A Novel

Name: The Lifeguards: A Novel
Brand: Ballantine Books
SKU: U0593159462
Price: 104.03 AED
Availability: InStock
Rating: 3.9 (8 reviews)

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Type: Paperback

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