Simmering tensions in a family of Australian expats newly living in L.A. explode when their daughter commits a crime she can’t remember on a big night out, and they all become complicit in the cover up…

THE ONES WE LOVE
by Anna Snoekstra
Dutton, Spring 2025
(via Levine Greenberg Rostan)

Since the morning after the party – the one Liv can’t remember, the one that left her covered in bruises – there’s been a padlock on the door of her bedroom. Her parents said they found mold and it needs to be decontaminated, but they’re acting kind of strange. And her friend Leilani isn’t answering her texts, so maybe Liv did get a little out of control that night. Sharing a room with her brother Cas for a while isn’t the end of the world, as long as he doesn’t tell their parents that she’s started sleepwalking. They’re already worried enough.

Janus brought his family from Australia to LA to chase his dream of turning his bestselling novel into a screenplay. Yeah, money is tight, but he’s sure THIS rewrite is the one. He knows he let his wife down with that Liv situation, and he can’t let her down again.

Kay wasn’t sure she wanted to be a mother when she got pregnant with Liv, but she gave up everything for her daughter and then her son, Casper, as well. She’ll do whatever she has to do to take care of her kids. Her marriage, though, is a different story. And the neighbors – well, they’ll just have to be more careful.

All Cas wanted was to go home for the summer – to Australia, his real home. But his parents are making him stay in LA, AND he has to share a room with his sister. Mold? He doesn’t believe it. Since Cas’s plans were ruined, he might as well find out the truth about the padlock. And whatever it is that no one is telling him.

Anna Snoekstra’s earlier novels have been translated into fifteen languages and she is a bestseller in her homeland of Australia. She is also the creator and writer of The Ridge, a television series in development with Lucky Chap Entertainment and CreateNSW. Her first novel, Only Daughter, has been optioned by Universal Studios and Working Title, and is now being adapted by Anna into a feature film with Fictious (In Vitro). In addition, Anna writes about culture and creative process for The Guardian, Crimereads, Lindsay, HERE Magazine, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Saturday Paper, and teaches fiction writing at RMIT University in Melbourne.