Zoe’s life has gone off the rails.
When she left Seattle to go to college in New York, she was determined to start fresh, to figure out what being a lesbian meant to her, experiment with clothes and presentation away from home for the first time.
Instead, she lost touch with her freshman orientation friend group, skipped classes, and failed completely at being the studious premed student her parents wanted her to be.
Ellis has a lot of expectations for her senior year, but moving from Manhattan to Bramble Falls, Connecticut is not one of them. Yet in the wake of her parents' separation, that's exactly where she and her mother are headed.
Bramble Falls might be charming, but it's also full of distractions. Like local barista Cooper Barnett, Ellis's one-time best friend—and first kiss—who has not only majorly glowed up but wants nothing to do with Ellis.
When seventeen-year old Nina Riley gets saved by a super cute Knight-in-Faded-Khakis just as she lands in an embarrassingly 'ahem' sticky situation during the most disastrous hike known to man, she wasn't exactly looking for that meet cute. She really just needed some peace and quiet from her complicated family. Unfortunately, he disappears before she can properly thank him or get his number. All she has is his name (Ian Nguyen) and a navy jacket with a dog keychain, a gym card, and laundromat receipt. But a meet cute is a meet cute.
Alex Blackwood is a little bit headstrong, with a dash of chaos and a whole lot of flirt. She knows how to get the girl. Keeping her on the other hand…not so much. Molly Parker has everything in her life totally in control, except for her complete awkwardness with just about anyone besides her mom. She knows she’s in love with the impossibly cool Cora Myers. She just…hasn’t actually talked to her yet.
She’s read every romance…except her own…
Irene Park loves romance novels—so much so she’s made a career of them as an online book reviewer with a massive following. But Irene’s real life dating story? Non-existent. So when she starts her freshman year of college, she sets her sights on finding true love using the one thing she really understands…romance book tropes.
If only it were that easy.
Every teenager in America knows eighteen-year-old Felix Song, the lead singer of the most popular boy band since One Direction. Unfortunately, Natalie Nielsen is no exception. Though she thinks of him more as an annoying rich kid from her hometown than a heartthrob.
There’s no one teenage filmmaker Wren hates more than notorious playboy Beckett Lane. Girls love him because of his famous dad, and Beckett revels in the unearned attention. It seems like everyone is under his spell but Wren—including Wren’s sweet, naive sister Kennedy, who has a huge crush on him.
Izumi Tanaka has never really felt like she fit in—it isn’t easy being Japanese American in her small, mostly white, northern California town. Raised by a single mother, it’s always been Izumi—or Izzy, because “It’s easier this way”—and her mom against the world. But then Izzy discovers a clue to her previously unknown father’s identity… and he’s none other than the Crown Prince of Japan. Which means outspoken, irreverent Izzy is literally a princess.
Seventeen-year-old junior class vice president Grace Bak has her entire future all mapped out with plans to become a doctor like her parents. But the weight of Grace’s own daunting expectations lead to debilitating panic attacks that have made her a virtual outcast at school even to her longtime friend and crush. To make matters worse, her grandmother and only real support system has just died. Halmoni was the glue that kept Grace’s little family together, especially after she and her dad lost her mother to cancer when Grace was too little to have many memories of her.
Ezra Hayes has always felt like a background character compared to BFFs Lucas and Finley. He would do anything to be seen as a romantic lead, even if it means keeping a secret summer boyfriend, Presley. But when he discovers that Presley is a lying cheater, and his best friends are having boy problems of their own, they want revenge.