Be Mine - Lizzy Barber

When Beth joins wellness group ‘Elixir,Â’ she thinks it is the answer to everything. So why, ten years later, is she still running from them? And what do they want from her, now?Beth is a new mother struggling to find her place in the world. She is exhausted, mentally and physically, but her anxieties are not simply the fears of a first-time mum. A terror burns in her, fuelled by a secret past she is lucky to have escaped. When a letter arrives, bearing only the infinity symbol, Beth knows immediately it is from them. And that her past is finally catching up with her…Ten years earlier, on the heels of a messy breakup, Beth meets the effervescent Marissa who introduces her to “Elixir” – a health and wellness organisation that she promises will change Beth''s life forever. She  quickly becomes intoxicated and convinced it is the solution to all her problems. No task is too great, even as the gruelling exercise classes become more frequent, even as the therapy sessions become more costly, even as their ‘requestsÂ’ become ‘demands,Â’ Beth convinces herself this is what she wants. Then, when she falls for the brandÂ’s enigmatic leader, Tate, she canÂ’t imagine life without Elixir. But as BethÂ’s star begins to rise, MarissaÂ’s starts to fall. And though Marissa tries to warn her of the darkness lurking beneath the brandÂ’s gleaming exterior, Beth finds she cannot let go.  Be Mine is a story about identity: finding our place in the world today, and where we turn to belong in a godless modern society.