Friday Reads – Weekend Friends by Bella Ellwood-Clayton

It’s time for another Friday Reads post and this week my featured book is the debut novel Weekend Friends by Bella Ellwood-Clayton. Grab yourself a cuppa, get comfy and let’s get chatting to Bella.

For girls, middle school is practically The Hunger Games—for their mothers, it can be even worse.

Food photographer, Rebecca, and her tween daughter, Willow, move from Alaska to Boca Raton, leaving behind their terrible secret about the death of Rebecca’s husband. They’re ready to start anew in the warmth of the sunshine state, hoping it will help vanquish Willow’s night terrors.

As her daughter becomes controlled and bullied by the popular group, Rebecca is drawn closer to the charismatic head of school, Mr. Brady. A hot and steamy—though uncertain—relationship begins. Soon, lies, deception, and secrets cause everything to spiral out of control and both mother and daughter find themselves on the wrong side of their gated community with devastating repercussions.

Full of dark twists and turns, Weekend Friends makes you grateful you’re no longer a tween…or the parent of one.

What readers are saying:

Unflinching in its portrayal of modern-day parenting, Weekend Friends is a chilling debut that is as confronting as it is compelling. Unputdownable.

—Nicola Moriarty, international bestselling author of novels including The Fifth Letter, Those Other Women and You Need to Know.

Ellwood-Clayton explores the uneasy path of modern parenting, adolescent angst, and the vast consequences of seemingly small choices, where a parent’s best intentions are fraught with danger—and potentially deadly consequences. Weekend Friends is a deeply emotional tale that will make you laugh, cry, gasp, and ultimately leave you haunted with questions that have no easy answers.

—Annette Lyon, USA Today bestselling author of Just One More

A razor-sharp read about the social pressures mothers and daughters face in their respective cliques and how those worlds can collide when more than one person has a secret. 

—Georgina Cross, bestselling author, Nanny Needed, The Stepdaughter, One Night

Dark, enticing, and an incredibly poignant delve into modern motherhood.

—L.C. North, author of The Ugly Truth.

Here’s a short extract

Chapter 1 

Anchorage, Alaska 

What if the police figure out what happened? Will I go to jail? What will happen to Willow?

Another sob erupts. I cover my mouth to muffle the sound, close Willow’s bedroom door, and hurry back to the living room. Leonard Cohen’s “Anthem” is still playing on repeat.

Stop! I need quiet—to listen in case Willow comes out. With trembling hands, I shove the sleeping pills back in my pocket and turn off the music. Rain on the roof.

Théo is seated in the same spot. Of course he is. Slumped against the corner of the couch, eyes shut. It gives me so much comfort having him nearby; even though he’s dead, he’s still my husband.

What should I do, Théo?

His hands rest on his lap beside his phone. His wedding ring glints in the lamplight. 

Clutching my abdomen, I breathe in and out, the faint scent of port in my nostrils.

Think.

Why would he send such an incriminating text? Had the drugs already affected his thinking? Or was it deliberate? He wanted me to cover it up. Nothing Théo did was accidental. He thought everything through at least twice before speaking.

Okay, Théo, I’m listening.

The rain falls harder, pummeling the snow outside. A strange calm comes over me. 

Théo is guiding me. We are partners united with the focus of protecting our family of three. 

I list the evidence.

The text Théo sent me.

Fingerprints on the blue Ziploc bag.

His search history.

Doctors’ reports.

…His corpse.

Outside, it’s still dark. Another Alaskan morning. Short days. Sun rises after 9:00 a.m. Not much time. I have to call 911 soon. The wall clock reads 7:56 a.m. How? He’s been dead for…hours? Adrenaline courses through my blood. They can’t prove how long I waited before calling. Can they? Must get story straight. Willow…. Should I remove her from the house? The neighbors, an older married couple from Juneau, flash through my mind. Figure that out later.

I glance at Théo’s phone. Do it. I scroll to his last sent message. Tap Delete. Rush to my room, grab my phone, and delete the text. A voice message from his mother, Yolanthe, blinks at the top of my screen. I’ll deal with her later too. I rearrange the sheets so the bed doesn’t look so torn apart.

Next: fingerprints.

Gloves? I find the oversized plastic ones in the kitchen. Ones that most nights I use for the hand-washing, while Théo loads the dishwasher and Willow plays on her iPad. A sob wells in my chest.

My family is gone.

My husband is dead.

He’s never coming back.

“Shhh,” I whisper as though to a child. And then, “Shut up, Rebecca.”

Gloves on, I wipe down the Ziploc bag. He was terminally ill, what else is there to say? He’d talked about suicide many times before…

It’s a good plan. Don’t overthink it. Everything will be fine. They have no reason to doubt me.

I walk to Théo, my hands shaking violently as I reach for him. “Darling, let me move you, just a little.” I hesitate. Will rigor mortis have set in? I touch his hand, a tight claw. Pry open his fingers. I slide the bag under his fingertips, wedge it into his palm. “Thank you, darling. That will help, that will—”

The doorbell rings.

A spasm of panic shoots up my spine. Who is it? How could the police already be here? They can’t come in—his dead body, illegal drugs in the house. They could charge me with manslaughter. They could take Willow from me.

It rings again, a death knell. I check the time: 8:03 a.m.

Wow that’s a gripping extract! Welcome to my blog, Bella. Have you always wanted to be a writer?

Yep. Since I was twelve years old and started writing angsty poetry … I never stopped writing. Hopefully, I’ve improved over time. J

Has any author inspired you?

When I was a teenager, I loved Anaïs Nin and Hermann Hesse. My twenties and thirties saw me reading authors like Marian Keyes, Jennifer Weiner, and Jodi Picoult. Now I’m a huge fan of Liane Moriarty and Celeste Ng.

What do you like writing most?

I’m fond of writing a sex scene or a comedic moment—and sometimes combining the two. Oooh, I also love foreshadowing. And dropping clues and red herrings into the story so only later readers are like, “You tricked me!”

Do you have a special place for writing?

My hubby and I bicker over the only office in our house. Usually, I win. Otherwise, you’ll find me with a mug of coffee and my laptop in the corner of my local coffee shop. Totally plays into the writer stereotype.

Are you a pantster or a plotter?

Plotter. My novels all have massive twists and often multiple POVs (points of view). It can be very messy without a plan. 

What are you writing at the moment?

It’s set in Cape Cod… There are sharks. There is a missing woman. And lots of relationship drama. That’s all I can say right now. Shhh!

What inspired you to write this book?

I’m fascinated by the pain parents feel when their children/teenagers suffer. And how children/teen drama can become parent drama. Do we step in and fight their battles or let them navigate alone? With increased bullying through social media, the child/teen landscape is dangerous, especially in terms of mental health. I wanted to explore these murky areas.

What time of the day do you write best?

Morning – preferably when it’s still dark. (No laundry, no phone calls, no kids.) The outer world is silent. My inner world is wild.

What are your hobbies?

Yoga…studying writing craft books…mastering the perfect salad dressing. Oh my god, I sound so boring. Honestly, with mommy-ing, domestic house stuff, writing, running my freelance business as a developmental editor, and working part-time at NAC Literary Agency, there is no time. At the end of the day, you’ll probably find me collapsed on the couch, consuming reality TV through a drip. Don’t judge. Reality TV gives me the *best* plot ideas.

What advice would you give to other writers?

Writing is a curse. It’s addictive, almost guaranteed to lead to misery, and probably make you broke. Only commit to writing if you can’t stop yourself from writing. Compulsion can lead to bliss.

Great to talk to you, Bella. Thanks for visiting my blog today. I hope your book flies!

 A brief Author bio.

Dr. Bella Ellwood-Clayton is an award-winning author. She has a BA from Concordia University in Montréal and a Ph.D. from the University of Melbourne in sexual anthropology—and, yes, that makes for interesting dinner party conversations. Her gripping debut novel, WEEKEND FRIENDS, is out now (Post Hill Press/Simon & Schuster). Bestselling author, Nicola Moriarty, called it “unputdownable!”

Bella’s nonfiction book, Sex Drive: In Pursuit of Female Desire, was published by Allen & Unwin in 2012. Bella has published short stories, poetry, and written for publications such as Huffington Post and Daily Life. She frequently appears on TV and gives talks, including a TEDx talk. Her work has been featured in a National Geographic documentary.

Married to a real-life superhero, she lives in Melbourne and has two spirited—eek—teens and a mini Maltese who truly believes he’s a pit bull. When she’s not on her laptop, you can find her downward dogging, pleading with her offspring to go outside, randomly blurting out, “Oh, that’s a good story idea,” and consuming too many vegetarian dumplings.

Website – www.drbella.com.au
Instagram: @BellaEllwoodClayton

Twitter: @BEllwoodClayton
Weekend Friends (Amazon)

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/62926183-weekend-friends

Newsletter: https://subscribepage.io/PT7d3c

Facebook author Page: https://www.facebook.com/DoctorBella/

---