BooksBarbecue
Back Safe in My Arms Save as PDF
Chapters (51)
  1. Cover
  2. Praise for Sara Shepard
  3. Also by Sara Shepard
  4. Dedication
  5. PART ONE
  6. —
  7. One
  8. Two
  9. Three
  10. Four
  11. Five
  12. Six
  13. Seven
  14. Eight
  15. Nine
  16. Ten
  17. Eleven
  18. Twelve
  19. Thirteen
  20. PART TWO
  21. Piper
  22. Fourteen
  23. Fifteen
  24. Sixteen
  25. Seventeen
  26. Piper
  27. Eighteen
  28. Piper
  29. Nineteen
  30. Twenty
  31. Twenty-One
  32. Twenty-Two
  33. Twenty-Three
  34. Piper
  35. Twenty-Four
  36. Twenty-Five
  37. Piper
  38. Twenty-Six
  39. Twenty-Seven
  40. Twenty-Eight
  41. Twenty-Nine
  42. Thirty
  43. Thirty-One
  44. Thirty-Two
  45. Thirty-Three
  46. Piper
  47. Thirty-Four
  48. Epilogue
  49. Acknowledgments
  50. About the Author
  51. What’s next onyour reading list?

“Sara Shepard reaches delicious, vicious heights with Reputation. I felt like I was sucked into a video game, slipping into different skins in every chapter. It’s the love child of Dead to Me and Scream, a creepy tale about modern technology and good old-fashioned human flaws. We’re so lucky that Shepard is out there watching the way we live, seeing the best in us, and, oh yes, the cringe-inducing, often laugh-out-loud worst as well.”

—Caroline Kepnes, author of You, Hidden Bodies, and Providence

“[Shepard is] a master at keeping you on your toes—and this novel is no exception. If you’re looking for a new novel that draws you in and just won’t let go, you’ve found it.”

—Marie Claire, “The 27 Best Fiction Books by Women This Year”

“Shepard throws every cliché imaginable at the reader and then artfully massages them into a brilliant narrative told in the voices of the many women involved in the story who, having managed to make victims of one sort or another of themselves, all emerge victorious, each in her own fashion. . . . Everyone is hiding a closetful of secrets, which, when finally revealed, provide some excellent misdirection and a few OMG moments, until one final and shocking truth emerges. Fans of domestic suspense will devour this one.”

—Booklist (starred review)

Also by Sara Shepard

ya

Pretty Little Liars Series

The Lying Game Series

The Perfectionists Series

The Amateurs Series

adult

The Visibles

Everything We Ever Wanted

The Heiresses

The Elizas

Reputation

Dedication

For Mothers

PART ONE

—

You lie on the hard, cold floor. You can’t scream. Your head throbs in pain, and you think you might be bleeding. You can hear kids laughing not so far away, on the playground. You want to call out to them, but there’s something wrong with your voice. You can’t open your eyes. The pain is in your back, your jaw, your chest. Pain that doesn’t make sense. This might be the end. It might be coming soon.

Why had you done it—any of it? Why hadn’t you been happy to leave well enough alone? If only you could go back to the beginning. If only you could start over, change things, change yourself. This is what you think about as you lie there, helpless: your regrets.

But also that maybe, just maybe, you deserve this.

One

When they walked into the loft that first day, they were full of hope. It was fall again. The autumn after a tough year, the economic downturn sweeping through even the toniest of communities, including theirs. But now, things were starting to look up. It was the start of a new school year. New beginnings. Everyone was eager to connect, eager to be part of something bigger.

Even those who had things to hide.