Before Charlotte

She buried her name to survive. She never buried the truth.

Two years ago, Chloe Higgins watched her little sister die on a moonlit beach, and disappeared before she could be next.

Now she's Tess Williams: quiet, invisible, careful. New town, new hair color, new rules. Rule one: never get close to anyone. Rule two: never, ever tell the truth. She's followed both for two years, and they've kept her alive.

Then Atticus Fitzgerald smiles at her in AP Lit, and every rule she's built her life around starts to crack.

He's warm. He's persistent. He's completely wrong for a girl who can't afford to be known. And his mother is an investigative journalist who has just reopened the cold case of a murdered girl from Nantucket. A girl who had a sister no one can find.

As the walls close in and the past refuses to stay buried, Chloe has to decide what she's willing to risk for a life that finally feels like her own: her carefully built anonymity, the boy who might be falling for the wrong version of her, and maybe her life, to finally find out who killed her sister, and why powerful people have spent two years making sure no one ever asks.

Some secrets don't stay buried. Some girls won't stay hidden.

Perfect for fans of We Were Liars, One of Us Is Lying, and Sadie-this gripping YA thriller weaves first love, small-town secrets, and a shattering family mystery into a story about grief, identity, and the courage it takes to finally stop running.