This cruel king won’t stop until he breaks me. Dutch Cross, lead singer of The Kings, is a monster. Don’t let his amber eyes, chiseled jaw line, and crooning voice fool you. He prowls the hallways of Redwood Prep like he owns every inch. Brutal. Untouchable. Beast. And when his golden eyes meet mine, I know I’m his next prey. The monster wants me out of Redwood. But the fancy private school is my last chance at a better life for my sister. No one has ever dared to go against Dutch and his equally gorgeous brothers. I’m honored to be the first.

My name is Sia Reynolds. I’m a girl with an unsettling past, and the outlook of my future seems even bleaker. I need a job to get my life back on track so when my best friend (and only friend) Lettie suggests I work for her more than abrasive father I have little choice but to take her up on the offer. I had no idea that meant committing to a life of secrecy bathed in blood…

My name is Harper Apple, and people say I’m rotten to the core. When my shot comes in the form of a scholarship to Willow Heights Prep, you can bet your ass I take it. If getting out of this hellhole town means spending my last two years of high school at an elite academy full of rich, entitled pricks, then bring it on.

I was supposed to be attending a friend's birthday party, not used as bait to lure out the elusive Holden Hayes. Holden was the last thing I needed. My life was already spiraling, a slow-moving head-on collision that you couldn't swerve to avoid. In hindsight, so was his. Neither of us was looking for a relationship, but that is precisely what we found. An instant, all-consuming, soul-deep connection that few people ever find.

When I lost my mom, I thought the worst was over. Moving to Sun Valley to live with a father I barely know is punishment all over again. I need to survive the year, then leave this town behind. Roman Valdez has other plans. Star receiver. King of the school. The Devil in cleats. From day one, it's his mission to ruin me. Except something about his actions doesn't add up. One moment, he's tearing me apart. The next, he's stepping in, protecting me like I belong to him.

I think I always knew I was going to die young. Like I had this… silent, invisible clock ticking down to my final moments plastered above my head. Maybe that’s why I was so reckless, crazy. Why I sought after adventure. Why nothing scared me… Except, there was always this… feeling I couldn’t shake that something was in the darkest parts of every corner, under every bed, closet, or room, like a ghost watching me. Waiting to take me. My own, personal reaper. But it was always only during a lightning storm that I could see the outline of my reaper. No scythe.

Violet Chase has always been off-limits. The girl I wanted... but could never have. In my teens, her father warned me to keep my hands to myself. Boys like me don't get girls like her. His family saved me, and I owed them. Her brothers, my best friends, made it clear where I stood: below them. We had one stolen moment of passion, then I ran. That was fourteen years ago, and I've regretted it ever since. Now, she's back in London, but life for both of us is very different. Her past decade has been filled with lies that she thought were true.

Bianca Chopra. Gorgeous. Forbidden. My past obsession. When she propositions me for a sham marriage, I say no with a warning to stay away. Like a dirty vixen, she raises the stake, reawakening the forbidden feelings, and I find myself throwing caution to the wind. She thinks she'll walk away unscathed but doesn't realize she made a deal with a monster with a secret that will wreck her entire world.

I do what I have to so I can to survive. There's no instruction manual that comes with being a foster kid, only a will to live and succeed. And after all I've done to survive, it's all gone in the blink of an eye when I get framed and sentenced to five years in prison. My only ticket out is through the pen pal program. At first, the girl writing me is only a means to an end...my freedom. Except somewhere along the line, she becomes my sweet little bird. Without her, I’ll be condemned to more time in prison. With her, I get the chance to fly.

I’m a golden boy. A genius law student, the heir to the Carson empire, and the dutiful son. Or, at least, that's what it looks like from the outside. Deep inside, I have the urge to set the world on fire. I keep these impulses in check, rarely indulging in mayhem. Until one night of debauchery backfires, and I'm caught by a villain. I bury the entire ordeal with the rest of my skeletons. That is, until that night walks into my classroom in the form of my new professor. Kayden Lockwood.

Greer always dreamed she'd have a life filled with love, laughter, and her own Prince Charming. But life showed her, time and again, that fairytale endings only exist in the movies. Or do they? When Greer flies to Vegas for her brother's wedding, she's reunited with Ryder Gray, the one man she ever dared to believe in. But after he ghosted her eight years earlier, she learned the hard way that Ryder is no different from the rest of them. Or is he?

I don’t remember a time when I didn’t love Rhett Walker, which is complicated since he’s ten years older and my brother’s best friend. After a falling out, we didn’t speak for years—until today, when he found me sleeping in my car, threw me over his shoulder, and dragged me “to safety.”

The Legacy boys are Windsor Preparatory Academy’s most privileged. No one crosses the devil spawn of this town’s upper echelon, but I managed. I call one of them out my first day, and no one hears it louder than their blond prince.

Noah Hastings is everything I’m not. Our worlds never should have collided, but when my long-lost father reappears, my life is flipped upside down. It turns out he’s ridiculously wealthy, and without warning, he plucks me from my simple life and throws me into a world of excess.

Only regret the things you haven't done. A cheap motel or the guest bedroom of Newport's infamous heartbreaker? Any sane person would run the other way after hearing a "move in with me" proposition days after meeting Theo Hayes. Not me. Having escaped a dark past and started over with only three suitcases, I'm not guided by pride but survival instinct. Taking the plunge, I soon find Theo's magnetic pull impossible to resist. I should keep my secrets, maintain my distance, and build a new life, but... with Theo, I don't want to have any regrets.