BRIAR - I was infatuated with Asher Kelley the moment he came tumbling through my brother’s window five years ago. Even bruised and bloodied, he was the most beautiful boy I'd ever seen. We couldn't ever be together. I was too young, and he was too untouchable. He was too troubled, and I was too naive. ASHER - I was drawn to Briar Vale from the first time she looked up at me with stars in her blue eyes. We could never be together. I was too old and she was too off limits.... 

Remington Stringer has never been like most girls. She's outspoken and brazen and wants nothing more than to escape the Nevadan hell hole she calls home. On the brink of 18, with a deceased mother and a well-meaning, yet absent father, she's been forced to fend for herself. The only person she's ever been able to depend on is her borderline obsessive stepbrother. But even that anchor is quickly becoming a loose cannon. So when she gets the opportunity to attend the best private school in the state during her senior year of high school, she jumps at the chance.

Evangeline Thorne is privileged, beautiful, and popular, if not a little jaded. But then a chance encounter with a green-eyed stuntman sets off a chain of events that turns her perfect little world upside down. Short on options and desperate for adventure, she joins a traveling carnival for the summer. Thrust into a world full of drama, deception, and secrecy, she tries to find herself and protect her heart in the process. 

West Golden - so easy to hate, yet so hard to resist. Don’t let that pretty face of his fool you. He isn’t the boy next door, or the kind you trust with your heart. He’s the devil in designer jeans, with all the charm of a bona fide psycho. Trust me. He swears I did something to cross him before I even stepped foot inside Cypress Prep, but it’s a lie. No one knows better than me that I’m all out of chances. His money, status, and the loyalty of his equally entitled brothers makes him seem untouchable. Only, I know better than that.

It all started with an anonymous letter. He wasn’t supposed to find it - no one was. And he definitely wasn’t supposed to answer it. We end up talking through letters and sticky notes in a book. All baring our darkest, deepest secrets. It’s all fun and games until I find out who my pen pal is...Xavier Emery. King of my basketball-obsessed town, my childhood bully, and the guy I am in grave danger of falling in love with. But the rules were clear: We can never know who we’re talking to, and the confessions can never, ever get out. 

Keep my head down and make it through my final year of school without attracting any attention. That was my plan. The thing about plans? They change. One day, I was an invisible loner, the next, my name was on everyone’s lips. Why? I caught the attention of the wrong person. I tricked Carter Blackthorne, the king of Alstone High. He found out. And now? Now, he’s making me pay. 

Your first kiss is supposed to be sweet. Ours was baptized in fire. I was the new girl trying to find her place. Landon was the brooding neighbor I tutored over the summer. I didn’t know he was a legend at Black Mountain Academy. I didn’t know they worshipped him like a religion. But, I fell for him before I knew those things. To me, he was just the tortured soul who drew me in like a magnet. And then, he did something so unspeakable, so unforgivable, it shattered me. I ran away then because I was weak, but I’ve shed my tears.

When Wren Jacobi sets eyes on Wolf Hall Academy’s newest inductee, all he sees is an easy mark. A reserved little girl with a target painted on her back. He knows nothing of my troubled past, though. Nothing of my mother’s suspicious death or the horrific treatment I’ve had to endure at the hands of my psychotic father. And he has no idea of the lengths that I, unassuming little Elodie Stillwater, will go to in order to break the savage beast who dreams of breaking me first. 

She loved me. I hate her. As a kid, she crushed my dreams to dust. She tore both of our families apart with one confession, ending any chance of happiness for either of us and setting off a ripple effect of chaos. Now she’s back as the new girl in school, and she doesn’t suspect the war that’s coming. She doesn’t realize the anger I’ve been harboring. I’ve been waiting for the perfect time to ruin her life, and it’s finally here. 

Mascen Wade, star pitcher of the Aldridge University baseball team, is a lot of things. Rich. Hotter than sin. The campus’ reigning bad boy. We knew each other once upon a time, but even if I’m named after a princess, it doesn’t mean my life is a fairy tale. My plan is to keep my head down, get my degree, and leave this town. But the moment Mascen Wade recognizes me, all my carefully laid plans come crumbling down. He’s decided he wants to make my life a living hell, but I’m not so easy to push around. 

If this arrogant Irish mobster my brother sold my niece to thinks I’m going to play nice over this arranged-marriage BS, he should think again. I don’t care if this match with the Mob will make my brother capo of the Five Families. I don’t care how much money, territory, or power it will gain us. I especially don’t care that the Irishman is the sexiest man I’ve ever seen. I won’t allow my innocent niece to suffer the same way I did. Even if I have to kill him.

Starting over after my father’s sudden death was bad enough, but the four boys who rule Alstone College, my new university, are determined to make my life even more difficult. One in particular. Caiden Cavendish. My nightmare. My shadow. My stepbrother. My dad’s death was an accident. Lie. My life isn’t in danger. Lie. The Four won’t bring mayhem to my life. Lie. I don’t want Caiden Cavendish. Lie. Lies. Lies. Lies.

He was the talented bad boy everyone wanted. I was the irrelevant geek everyone hated. He was the sun...drawing all of us in. I was a black hole...taking up space. He was destined to be a star. I was destined to remain an insignificant no one. Until he made me believe I was special...and then he destroyed me. I never thought I'd see Phoenix Walker again after he broke my heart, but fate had other plans. One tour. Eight weeks. Forty shows. Countless opportunities to make him pay. The world thought he was a god...but I know the truth.

English Prep stands tall with its ivy-covered exterior and old, wrought-iron doors. The stone gargoyles sit at the school's entrance, knowing just as much as anyone: I don't belong. Once upon a time, I did. I belonged in the "it" crowd with all the other well-endowed kids, but now, I am no longer welcome.

I don’t want you. You mean nothing to me. I never loved you. I turned my words into swords. And I cut her down. Shoved the blade in and watched her fall. I said I’d never hurt her and I did. Years later I’m faced with all the little lies, the untruths, the false realities, the damage I inflicted when all I wanted was to indulge in my obsession. Lavender Waters is the princess in the tower. Even her name is the thing fairy tales are made of. I used to be the one who saved her. Over and over again.