Princess Stella di Battista, the first princess to have ever been born before a prince on the island kingdom of Celestina, knows that everyone thinks of her as a burden. When eleven princesses are born in her wake, she is elevated to the loathsome status of cursed.
Restless and longing to escape the censure of the court, Stella secretly joins her male friends in their academic studies as they start learning from the Great Garavente, a man who is part Da Vinci and part Galileo. But just as she unlocks her passion for studying the stars, she simultaneously unlocks a door to a magical, musical realm, the same realm her now deceased mother used to escape to in order to flee the confines of palace life. Within this place of dancing, flirtation and enchantment, Stella is not only relieved of her 'cursed' title, but she begins to fall in love with a dreamworld prince who encourages her as she makes astronomy discoveries that are taboo for females in the real world.
Between indulging in her studies by day and escaping to a magical dance world by night, Stella is unprepared for the return of her aunt Maddelina, a rival with magical powers of her own who has come back to Celestina to make herself de facto queen. With her birthright in peril, Stella realizes she has to do something drastic to prove her worth. She decides to combine both her love of science and her newfound abilities with magic to launch the Contest of Stars, a competition that will pit her against every male mind near and far to determine who truly deserves to rule a kingdom.
Cameron Cole has a plan.
After yet another relationship ends because of certain shortcomings-literally-Cameron decides it's time to swear off dating and focus her energy into her junior year at the University of Charlotte. There's an internship up for grabs and there's no way she's letting that slip through her fingers. But then she's goes and makes one impulsive mistake that changes everything.
Wesley Reed has it all.
As the golden boy of the Charlotte Colts football team, he's got the talent, the looks, and a future so bright it's practically blinding. Girls throw themselves at him, professors let things slide, and the world bends to his will.
But when a required freshmen paper threatens his eligibility, the two are brought together in a sick twist of academic fate. Cameron can't get him out of her head and Wesley isn't making it any easier with his cocky smirk and insistent charm. Their arrangement teeters on the edge of disaster as unresolved tension and late-night study sessions give way to a steamy, no-strings-attached deal.
But in the game of love and lust, someone always has to loose-and the stakes have never been higher.