I should start by saying The Jetsetters was a DNF for me and that I was drawn in by the cover of this book.

Great, now that I got that out of the way, I must say I found this book intriguing. It’s a slow start which for me matched the slow pace of suburban life in the midst of summer heat.

The story follows the friendship of three moms Whitney, Annette, and Liza who are bonded by their sons who are the same age. This year their boys are all becoming lifeguards and their mom’s summers are relatively free of kid duties.

The book really delves into what it means to protect those you love and the lengths to which someone will go to keep their own safe.

My struggle with this book was how superficial some of the characters were and how little they really thought of one another. Would I recommend this book to a friend? Maybe. I would happily tell them by 75% I wanted to know what happened. I didn’t find it thrilling or captivating. I did find the intricacies alluring and wanted to figure out how things went so wrong.

Three boys and their moms, all friends and all with secrets. When a young woman is found dead, the Barton Hills neighborhood is full of gossip and worry. With each of the moms protecting their own sons and hiding her own secrets, the case doesn’t have a simple outcome. How did this young girl end up dead along the lake, and what secrets will come out over the course of the investigation?

Overall, I found that I liked this novel much better than The Jetsetters, a previous novel. I prefer a mystery with secrets, and this hit the mark. The story did get a little crazy toward the end, but it was still good! Being told from multiple perspectives made the mystery deepen, while learning more about the secrets each person was hiding. A good read, perfect for summer!

The beginning dragged on and on and then the ending felt very rushed. There were a lot of loose ends and unanswered questions, which felt disappointing. It also focused so much on the relationships of the three moms and less on their sons. I also felt like the scent/smell of the teenage boys kept getting described over and over? It was an odd detail that kept popping up.

Kindly received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

three families - best friends Whitney, Annette and LIza. all from different backgrounds and living rich. Their sons ; are lifeguards and also best friends. These women would do anything to protect their boys, that's right, anything!
The boys come home needing to call 911 and there is a dead girl. Now it's time to protect their sons at all costs
Many secrets and lies to protect the ones we love.

I felt a few different things while reading this book. In the beginning, I was very drawn into the story, but too many characters were introduced too quickly and there were too many POVs. I felt that I never got to really know many of the characters and they all started to blend in together. However, I did like the overall storyline (although it was very similar to "A Quiet Place" in some ways), but if you're into neighborhood thrillers, you should check this out.

I struggled with this book a little bit. Initially, I was interested in one of the author reviews stating this book is similar to Big Little Lies, which I enjoyed by this one fell kind short for me. Whitney, Annette, and Liza have been friends since they were pregnant with their children and brought them all up together, so when their children are looked at as prime suspects for murder, their mothers will do anything to protect them. The book follows the aftermath of this event, where the reader learns more about that night and the mothers trying to protect their children. There were interesting twists and turns along the way, but I found myself struggling to connect to any of the characters, and to me, the plot felt slightly disjointed. There were flashbacks that it took me a bit to figure out. Some flashbacks left me feeling more confused, and the ending felt abrupt and tied up too quickly. The characters were complex, but I struggled to like any of them. Overall it was an exciting read, but I'm not sure it was the right fit for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Ballentine Books for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Honestly, I gave up on this on part way through. Contrary to its light and fluffy cover, this novel dives into the lives of the rich and privileged by giving a multiple POV narrative. It just didn’t hold my interest.

I was initially excited to receive this book from NetGalley, but the more that I read, the more disappointed I became. I almost seriously considered not finishing this book and just skipping ahead to the end to see what the big twist was. The novel is set up in alternating chapters between the mothers, text messages, message boards, and even from the detective assigned to the case. I have read this format many times in other books but it just came across as disjointed. felt I could never truly connect to the characters and ultimately didn’t care about their fates. For example, this book is titled “The Lifeguards” but it’s more about the moms than their own sons. I was expecting a POV from the boys themselves, but that only happens a couple times in the book. You never get to know any side characters except through exposition, and again, this makes it hard to connect/care about them.
The author also hits you over the head ad nauseam with the fact that these characters live in an affluent neighborhood, with constant name dropping of high end brands and restaurants, to the point that I started skimming paragraphs until I got back to the story. There is even a laughable interview where a newscaster describes the interior of Whitney’s house like she’s a realtor, more so than the murder she’s reporting on. Who does that? There is also a weird running theme with Whitney and billionaires and their doomsday bunkers that left me shaking my head.
The conclusion felt rushed and left too many unresolved questions. For example, what happened to Whitney and Roma, and Whitney’s and Annett’s husbands? How did the boys deal with the big reveal? Etc. There is also a showdown in an underground cave/bunker that was obviously meant to be suspenseful but came across as laughable instead.

The Queen of multiple POVs!! I normally don’t like multiple viewpoints but this one was awesome. Sucks you in and doesn’t let go! Also the cover is super cute. Going to order a copy for my shelves when it’s released as well!

I really wanted to like this book, but I struggled to finish it. The multiple POVs became confusing at times and made it hard to keep track of things.

Austin’s Zilker Park community- Whitney, Annette, and Liza have been friends since they were pregnant with their now fifteen year old boys. The teens affectionately called the three musketeers are working as lifeguards at the neighborhood pool for the summer. One night the boys return home from a late night dip claiming they found a dead woman on the greenbelt. A story of three mothers who will do whatever it takes to protect the ones they love.

The Lifeguards is an interesting contemporary mystery in which the events of a young woman's death unfolds as told through the mom's perspectives, neighborhood commentary, police reports, secret texts, etc. Although this novel does involve a mystery, I would say it focuses more on the relationships of the characters rather than the actual death of a young woman. Each of the mother's involved have an unusual backstory which shapes who they are present day. They each have assumptions about their children, who they all seem to painstakingly attempt to mold, who are later revealed to be quite different with secrets of their own. The plot takes on some interesting twists and turns and the novella was a quick and easy read. That being said I didn't really care for any of the characters and it felt like the story was trying to tackle a lot of "issues" (drug addiction, mental illness, inappropriate relationships, LGBT, US citizenship, etc.) to tell the story. That being said this is a new to me author and I have heard great things about her first novel which I will definitely add to my reading list.

Unimaginable wealth and two generations of friendship are not enough to keep Whitney, Annette, and Liza's families from unraveling after a body is found in their exclusive neighborhood and their sons are indicated as the prime suspects.

Amanda Ward's 'The Lifeguards' sucks you in immediately, and the ride doesn't ever stop or slow throughout the duration of the story. The main characters would be right at home on a 'Real Housewives of Austin' series, so fans of true crime and reality TV might find this a fun read. I have not spent any time in Austin to verify, but the writing speaks as if the author is very knowledgeable about the city, and you can feel yourself alive in the setting.

Unfortunately there were some misfires which make the last third or so of 'The Lifeguards' not as enjoyable as the beginning parts. One of the most glaring is that pedophilia and rape are key events linking a character to the death, however this is literally never mentioned as such, and nobody around that character seems worried about it. It also felt like the characters were boxed into classes, with all the dads being selfish, all of the moms backed into corners and fixing everyone else's problems, and all of the sons 'good kids'. Finally, there are some distracting plot holes and unfinished threads. The nanny situation is never followed up on, and we are never told what becomes of some key characters.

Note: I received a free eBook copy of 'The Lifeguards' from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Lifeguards by Amanda Eyre Ward (Fiction, April 2022) (c/o Netgalley) Three teenage boys are best friends and so are their moms. They are spending a summer as lifeguards. But when they end up finding a dead body, it’s every family for themselves. I found the ending of this book to be very unsatisfying. It felt disjointed and I felt like things went unanswered.

I was very excited for Amanda Ward's new book, I loved "Jetsetters" and was excited to see what she had next. She did not disappoint! This book starts off about three moms- Whitney, Annette, and Liza, who have raised their children together in what seems to be the perfect neighborhood and town. Underneath it all, there are a lot of secrets (secret baby daddy, feelings outside of a marriage, and more). When a girl is found dead, everything starts to unravel and what happens next is pretty shocking. I have to say, this is where it got a little off for me- it just seemed very far fetched and it went from 0-100 in a few pages then ends. I still really enjoyed and recommend, just wish the ending was a little different.

I received an advanced reader’s copy in exchange for an honest review

I loved this one. Very fast paced, had me turning pages as I tore through it – I had to see how it would end. The characters were well rounded and the narrative felt believable. Gave me chills. Solid five

This book was …interesting. It was a mystery, but I’m not sure I would call it a thriller. There’s a murder to be solved, but the focus is more on the characters, the families, etc. The characters are well fleshed out, but unlikeable and difficult to connect with. The story was a bit difficult to follow in some places. Overall it was a decent read.

I didn't love this book. It was about three women and their sons. There is a dead woman in a nearby park and they each fear their son had something to do with it.

Thank you Netgalley and Ballantine for the eARC.

I actually really liked this one. It took me a minute to get there because as much as I wanted to like the characters it was hard for to. They focus a lot on their wealth and social status which made them feel a little bratty which is fine. I love a good setting like that.

Overall, an exciting fast paced read. Perfect for a beach trip or to read poolside. Definitely would recommend.

The Lifeguards is a story of a community shaken by an unexpected calamity and the bonds of family and friendship that are stretched to their breaking points because of it. We see three mothers (best friends) and their three sons (also best friends), who are now left to grapple with what it means when money and status can’t protect you from tragedy.

I am not going to lie to you: I picked The Lifeguards because of the cover. I was sucked in by those bright, summery colors and the perfect simplicity of the illustrations. I went in totally blind on the synopsis, assuming that any book with such a fun, cute, romantic cover would surely include a fun, cute, romantic story to match.

So if you want to to talk about flipped-upside-down expectations, I am here for that conversation. Because The Lifeguards is a murder mystery. It is slow burning, and light on the suspense, focusing far more on the relational dynamics between the surviving characters than on the murder itself, but it is a murder mystery nevertheless, and I did not see that coming.

I found the story a little hard to follow, because the timeline jumps around. There are flashbacks that aren’t clearly identified as flashbacks and it was confusing to figure out when and where different events were taking place in the overall timeline. The ending felt rushed, and a few loose ends weren’t really tied up, and that was unsatisfying for me as a reader. I was desperate to hear how things were resolved for Roma, Whitney, and even Louis/Annette, but none of that ever happened.

But I loved how well developed each of the characters were, and I loved how much attention was given to their individual personalities, desires, fears, and what motivated each of them to behave the way they did. This book reminded me of The Guilt Trip , which is another lightly suspenseful mystery, but also focuses heavily on character development.

Readers who enjoy neighborhood/community dramas with different generational perspectives will appreciate this one, especially fans of Little Fires Everywhere , A Good Neighborhood , and Beartown . A 3.5-star read for me!

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A huge thank you to Amanda Eyre Ward, Ballantine, and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Thank you to Netgalley and Ballantine Books for the opportunity to read and review this arc.

This is a fast, entertaining book - but I didn't fall in love with it. First, the characters, while complex, are not all that likable. I just didn't feel connected to any of them. Second, there was a lot of emphasis on the families' wealth and status, but I felt that contributed to the lack of connection with their world. Finally, there was a lot going on throughout the story and the ending was quite abrupt and loose ends tied up too quickly and easily.

Overall it was a good read, but not my favorite. It left a little to be desired.