Lotti Coates lives in the shadow of a genius: her father George is a brilliant and celebrated Australian painter. When Lotti meets the outcast waif Kyla at a suburban Canberra school, two worlds are set to collide. Slowly Kyla is drawn into the orbit of the Coates family. Or is it the other way around? As Lotti and Kyla navigate their way towards adulthood, dark secrets start to unravel, with devastating consequences … We Were Never Friends is a story of friendship, the pursuit of a creative life and the legacies we leave behind. Praise for We Were Never Friends by Margaret Bearman ‘This intelligent, subtle novel is a complex study of family dynamics, class divides, adolescent pecking orders, and the murky moral landscapes of artistic practice and inspiration.’ —Kerryn Goldsworthy, The Sydney Morning Herald ‘Margaret Bearman’s intimate, unsettling novel of family dysfunction perfectly captures the ambivalent passions of girlhood while offering an incisive critique of the cult of artistic genius. Sharp and subtle at the same time, refusing any easy certainties, We Were Never Friends is a haunting portrait of the human capacity for cruelty and love in equal measure.’ —Kirsten Tranter, bestselling author of The Legacy ‘A compelling and authentic journey into the heart of an Australian family. What is art? What’s true courage? I could not put it down.’ —Melissa Ashley, bestselling author of The Birdman’s Wife

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • REESE’S BOOK CLUB PICK • “This book is every suspense lover’s dream and it kept me up way too late turning pages. . . . A novel with crazy twists and turns that will have you ditching your Friday night plans for more chapters.”—Reese Witherspoon A backpacking trip has deadly consequences in this “eerie psychological thriller . . . with alluring locales, Hitchcockian tension, and possibly the best pair of female leads since Thelma and Louise” (BookPage), from the bestselling author of The Lost Night and The Herd. A Marie Claire Book Club Pick • Named One of the Best Books of the Year by NPR and Marie Claire Emily is having the time of her life—she’s in the mountains of Chile with her best friend, Kristen, on their annual reunion trip, and the women are feeling closer than ever. But on the last night of the trip, Emily enters their hotel suite to find blood and broken glass on the floor. Kristen says the cute backpacker she brought back to their room attacked her, and she had no choice but to kill him in self-defense. Even more shocking: The scene is horrifyingly similar to last year’s trip, when another backpacker wound up dead. Emily can’t believe it’s happened again—can lightning really strike twice? Back home in Wisconsin, Emily struggles to bury her trauma, diving headfirst into a new relationship and throwing herself into work. But when Kristen shows up for a surprise visit, Emily is forced to confront their violent past. The more Kristen tries to keep Emily close, the more Emily questions her motives. As Emily feels the walls closing in on their cover-ups, she must reckon with the truth about her closest friend. Can Emily outrun the secrets she shares with Kristen, or will they destroy her relationship, her freedom—even her life?

God made you for friendship. Friendship is one of the deepest pleasures of life. But in our busy, fast-paced, mobile world, we've lost this rich view of friendship and instead settled for shallow acquaintances based on little more than similar tastes or shared interests. Helping us recapture a vision of true friendship, pastor Drew Hunter explores God's design for friendship and what it really looks like in practice—giving us practical advice to cultivate the kinds of true friendships that lead to true and life-giving joy.

When a friendship pact goes magically awry, eleven-year-old Hattie must figure out how to make amends. After Hattie and her three best friends watch one of their classmates publicly defriended in the school cafeteria, they make a loyalty pact promising never to mistreat each other. But after Hattie unwittingly breaks the pact, her friends begin ignoring her. In fact, they literally don't even know who she is anymore! Can Hattie figure out how to break the spell and make things right again?Acclaimed author Adrienne Vrettos brings poignancy and gentle humor to this magical story of friendship and loyalty.

The story of two boys, one with autism, one without, who make their friendship work.

From the USA TODAY bestselling author of Sweet Thing and Nowhere But Here comes a love story about a Craigslist “missed connection” post that gives two people a second chance at love fifteen years after they were separated in New York City. To the Green-eyed Lovebird: We met fifteen years ago, almost to the day, when I moved my stuff into the NYU dorm room next to yours at Senior House. You called us fast friends. I like to think it was more. We lived on nothing but the excitement of finding ourselves through music (you were obsessed with Jeff Buckley), photography (I couldn’t stop taking pictures of you), hanging out in Washington Square Park, and all the weird things we did to make money. I learned more about myself that year than any other. Yet, somehow, it all fell apart. We lost touch the summer after graduation when I went to South America to work for National Geographic. When I came back, you were gone. A part of me still wonders if I pushed you too hard after the wedding… I didn’t see you again until a month ago. It was a Wednesday. You were rocking back on your heels, balancing on that thick yellow line that runs along the subway platform, waiting for the F train. I didn’t know it was you until it was too late, and then you were gone. Again. You said my name; I saw it on your lips. I tried to will the train to stop, just so I could say hello. After seeing you, all of the youthful feelings and memories came flooding back to me, and now I’ve spent the better part of a month wondering what your life is like. I might be totally out of my mind, but would you like to get a drink with me and catch up on the last decade and a half? M

With energetic illustrations and heartfelt words, this book is filled with snapshots of why you're friends forever.

The story starts with two friends, Arjun and Karan. Arjun is a boy who was born with a silver spoon. He is a bookworm, introvert, a bit of an alcoholic who is quite reserved. He never says I don’t know or I am sorry. It was my fault. However, he is invariably negative. On the contrary, Karan, who was born and brought up in harsh family conditions, is helpful, hardworking and open to everyone. He believes in saying I am sorry. It was all my fault. Please let it go. It was destiny that kindled their friendship from school to the active days of engineering. Their paths separate when they plan for their Master’s. They drift apart until finally, they’re just another contact name on their phonebook. Fortunately, destiny paves the way for them to meet again through Varsha and Megha—two sisters who enter their lives and love begins to blossom. But who loves whom? Who will sacrifice for whom? Will there be a happy ending? Will their Friendship Last Forever? Join their journey and take a walk down the memory lane!

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the bestselling author of Before We Were Yours comes a dramatic historical novel of three young women searching for family amid the destruction of the post–Civil War South, and of a modern-day teacher who learns of their story and its vital connection to her students’ lives. “An absorbing historical . . . enthralling.”—Library Journal Bestselling author Lisa Wingate brings to life startling stories from actual “Lost Friends” advertisements that appeared in Southern newspapers after the Civil War, as newly freed slaves desperately searched for loved ones who had been sold away. Louisiana, 1875: In the tumultuous era of Reconstruction, three young women set off as unwilling companions on a perilous quest: Hannie, a freed slave; Lavinia, the pampered heir to a now destitute plantation; and Juneau Jane, Lavinia’s Creole half sister. Each carries private wounds and powerful secrets as they head for Texas, following roads rife with vigilantes and soldiers still fighting a war lost a decade before. For Lavinia and Juneau Jane, the journey is one of stolen inheritance and financial desperation, but for Hannie, torn from her mother and siblings before slavery’s end, the pilgrimage west reignites an agonizing question: Could her long-lost family still be out there? Beyond the swamps lie the limitless frontiers of Texas and, improbably, hope. Louisiana, 1987: For first-year teacher Benedetta Silva, a subsidized job at a poor rural school seems like the ticket to canceling her hefty student debt—until she lands in a tiny, out-of-step Mississippi River town. Augustine, Louisiana, is suspicious of new ideas and new people, and Benny can scarcely comprehend the lives of her poverty-stricken students. But amid the gnarled live oaks and run-down plantation homes lie the century-old history of three young women, a long-ago journey, and a hidden book that could change everything.