Gwen Atlas is still grappling with the trauma of a past assault that occurred over a decade ago. After her mother's sudden passing, Gwen moves in with her father in a new town, where she struggles to connect with others. However, she finds an unexpected sense of belonging with a group of friends, Andrew and Leah. As she grows closer to them, their influence isn't ideal, but she finds that they understand and accept her. Brandon, her neighbor, is the complete opposite but finds friendship in him as well. Just as Gwen starts to feel a sense of peace, from her past reappears, threatening to upend her life and force her to relive the trauma she's tried so hard to overcome. Determined to protect herself and take control of her life, Gwen must confront her fears and stand up against the darkness that has haunted her for so long.

For Blake Ashby, college was supposed to be her saving grace. A place to start over from her tainted past in Upstate New York and begin her lifelong dream of studying Psychology. For all her life Blake has only ever had herself to depend on and as of recent months, her new online pen pal Ace, whom she met in a Northeastern University chat room over the summer. He's the only guy who's ever seemed to understand Blake on a deeper level, yet she's too apprehensive to even tell him her real name. But when she arrives in Boston ready for what should be the first day of her new life, she's met with Jaxon Reid, the tall, equal parts charming and obnoxious boy who's claiming to be her new roommate. When a mistake in an online roommate match leaves Blake and Jax at a standstill, they agree that tolerating each other is the only other option. As always, Blake's life continues to get more and more complicated. But as Blake begins to feel more than a subtle hatred for her snarky roommate, she starts to learn what a thin line there really is between love and hate. Blake starts to feel torn as she comes to realize that she's not so sure where her heart is at anymore; is it with the sweet boy in her messenger app, or the mysterious one down the hall? But what if the choice is even simpler than it is complicated? What if Jax and Ace have been the same person all along?