"One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain." - Bob Marley Life for Lacey Carson hasn't been a straight road into paradise. Struggling with the death of her mother, her abusive step-father, and love for music and freedom, she's torn about who she really is, and who she's become. Growing up with a natural talent for drumming, rhythms, and beats; Lacey and her faithful drum sticks can't ever be divided. So when a national competition for a battle of the bands is announced; the reward for the winning band being a grand prize of a million dollars, a ticket to the number one recording studio in England, and being signed into one of the hottest record labels in the world, Lacey knew that it was fate. All she needed was a band to play with... But indifferent, apathetic, and cold to the rest of the world, will she be able to find a group who she could trust and befriend? Fall in love with a not-so-mysterious stranger who may or may not have feelings for her too? Discover her own true self tangled in between a web of lies? Or is it all simply just a decoy?

Riley Monroe and Everett Rosenfeld have been best friends since they were four and have been in love since they were fourteen. Riley has promised Everett that no matter what, she will be his forever. So after Everett's mother dies in a car accident, why does Everett shut Riley down? Because Everett believes that Riley is the reason why his mother is dead.

The heavy droplets of rain were slowly slipping down the hood of his leather jacket and a few effortlessly kissed his dark chocolate hair. »H…Hi.« I sputtered. »What do you have there?« He walked closer to me and gazzed into my eyes with his dark ones, that perfectly matched his hair, then lowered his sight towards the kitten, hidden under my jacket. »One lil' kitty found another.« He smirked, amused by his own joke.