Thwarting Ruin

Summary

This isn't your average steamy romance novel, told from the skewed perspective of one of the lovestruck teens involved. Our heroine Isabel Xaver is going into her 2nd year of undergraduate studies at McMaster University, and isn't interested in the over-hyped and worn out high-school dramatics. Her partner Tristan Collins has been by her side through it all; even the devastation of losing two of her closest friends.

Isabel knew of Carter Matthews and Maci Ulrich's latest endeavors from small town talk and grapevine rumors. Isabel, Maci and Carter were once a tightly-knit trio and knew everything about one another. But once Tristan came into the picture, their friendship began to crumble.

Carter was in love with Isabel for months, and pledged his feelings to her, which drove him and Isabel apart; once he realized that Tristan was more than a friend, and he would only ever be a friend. Defeated and alone, Carter then moves on to Maci; and the two become inseparable. Once with Maci, Carter seemed to cool off, and the trio became a quartet.

However, Carter was still jealous and angry with both Isabel and Tristan. He decided he couldn't let her betrayal go, and took it out on both of them; fabricating rumors to tear the friend group apart. Eventually these tall tales fell on Maci's ears and in the hormone fueled world that is a teenager's mind; unforgivable things were said, and bridges were irreparably burned.

For over 12 months there was no contact between the two couples. And yet, by some strange fluke, Maci contacts Isabel again, seemingly just to "catch up".

Isabel is apprehensive and unsure if she can exonerate her ex-friends. But, due to unforseen circumstances, Isabel has to let go of their past transgressions against her. And despite their vast differences, Isabel is hellbent on trying to help Maci and Carter figure their lives out.

Tristan is heavily against helping this younger couple; worrying that they're going to take advantage of both himself and Isabel's kindness. Isabel Xaver is a stubborn young woman and cannot stop herself from trying to put out the insane dumpster fire that Carter and Maci created.

Isabel does her best to heed her boyfriend's warnings, and the warnings of mutual friends and even her parents. But nothing could have prepared them for what's to come. Neither Isabel or her long-time boyfriend Tristan Collins could anticipate what laid beneath Maci and Carter's "happy" relationship and how difficult it will become to navigate their sticky web of deception.