lilainahinz
Charlotte "Shaw" Kingsley is a nineteen-year-old force of nature with red hair, combat boots, and a chip on her shoulder. After growing up in a Florida trailer park with an abusive father, a brother who abandoned her, and a mother who left when she was twelve, Charlotte learned early that the only person she could rely on was herself.
When a drunk-driving crash lands her in a prestigious Pacific Northwest college instead of prison, Charlotte arrives in a world of trust-fund kids and soccer boys with her walls sky-high and her trust nonexistent.
Enter James Sebastian Vale-golden boy, soccer captain, and the exact kind of privileged, well-meaning do-gooder Charlotte wants to hate on sight. He's her brother's best friend. The brother she swore to hate for all of eternity.
But James isn't the shallow rich boy Charlotte assumes. He's grieving a father who died of cancer, building secret paradises in abandoned lighthouses with his chosen family of "lighthouse boys," and quietly falling for the broken girl who fights him at every turn.
As Charlotte navigates her new world-her brother Tommy, her chaotic roommate Ken, her wild new friend Maeva, and the complicated web of secrets connecting them all-she finds herself drawn to James despite every instinct screaming at her to run. He's gentle when she's sharp, patient when she's cruel, and sees through her armor to the girl underneath who still believes she doesn't deserve to be loved.
But will love be enough to save her?