LunaLexicon
When a chess prodigy meets the king of campus, every move becomes a gamble.
Zara Chen thought her exchange semester at elite Willowbrook University would be simple: keep her head down, dominate the chess circuit, and avoid the kind of drama that destroyed her life back home. But she didn't count on Adrian Blackwood-6'3" of arrogant charm, old money, and quarterback confidence who rules the campus like his personal kingdom.
Their first meeting is a disaster. He calls chess "boring." She calls him predictable. It should have ended there.
It doesn't.
What starts as mutual disdain evolves into a dangerous game of attraction neither can resist. Adrian has never met a girl who doesn't fall at his feet, and Zara has never met an opponent she couldn't outmaneuver. But as they move from enemies to friends to something far more complicated, the stakes keep rising.
Between glittering charity balls and underground parties, academic rivalries and family expectations, Zara and Adrian discover that the heart has its own rules-ones that can't be solved with logic or conquered with charm. When jealous exes, ambitious rivals, and dark family secrets threaten to tear them apart, they'll learn that in love, like chess, the most powerful piece on the board is always the queen.
But in a game where everyone's playing to win, how do you know who you can trust? And when the past comes calling with vengeance in mind, will their love survive the ultimate checkmate?
A dark academia romance about power, passion, and the dangerous game of falling for your intellectual equal.