We Run the Tides, by Vendela Vida

5 stars

This story of privileged teens, Eulabee and her best friend Maria growing up in cliffside mansions overlooking both Golden Gate Bridge, quickly draws you in and holds you tight as the character reveals and plot twists start to gallop along mimicking the powerful and dangerous tides of the beach below.

You get irresistibly drawn into the behind-the-scenes unveiling of the lives and secrets of families living on San Francisco’s most privileged street and the evolving angst in friendships between four close teens attending an upscale all-girl’s private school. What rachets up the tension most centers on the early blossoming of Eulabee’s friend Maria into womanhood, along with sexual innuendos and exaggerations that eventually get local detectives involved.

Eulabee holds out telling for the truth, risking social ostracization and alienation from her friends, and ultimately struggling to reconcile the blurring of fantasy into mental illness. In the midst of all the drama, from saving classmates caught in a rip tide, appearing in a TV show segment, Swedish-displaced moms bonding over cooking and unhappy au pairs, to kidnapping plots, are some simply belly laugh out loud moments of comedy that ripple out and uplift in this brilliant gem of a novel.

Thanks to NetGallery for an advanced reader’s copy of this novel. 

Stacy DeBroff

Stacy DeBroff, founder and CEO of Mom Central.com and social and digital consultancy, Influence Central, is a social media strategist, attorney, and best-selling parenting author. A sought-after expert for national media, she trend-spots regularly with national brands and speaks frequently to national and international audiences on a wide range of subjects, including influencer marketing, social media, entrepreneurship, and consumer trends. A passionate cook, gardener, reader, and tennis player, she adores this new chapter of post-college-age parenting.