Obtain an Ace, and you would be ruling an entire kingdom. 4 families, 5 cards. In ascending order, there are 4 lands that make up this country. The Spades, the Clubs, the Diamonds and lastly, the Hearts. All fighting for a chance to spread their empire.
Ruth Daceran, the head and representative of the Family of Hearts, is aiming to obtain an Ace card from each kingdom. At age 23, she is smart, quick-witted, and confident. She's got it in the bag. Until a rather peculiar boy interrupts her plans.
Zane Castillo, the head and representative of the Family of Diamonds wants to make his family proud. He's 25 and has been setting his eyes on the Heart family's cards. To make things worse, he's the complete opposite of Ruth. Quiet, selfless and most importantly, kind.
Theoretically, they should avoid each other. But instead, they feel this strange tension and possibly mutual attraction. This relationship should be impossible. Their families are enemies. Yet, they could find a way to make it work.
When a third party appears, everything they've built is threatened. Will Ruth lose sight of her goals? Or will she choose family and lose something ultimately sweeter?...
In the walled city of Veylin, memories are currency. The wealthy hoard them, the poor trade them just to survive, and the government controls them all. A single stolen recollection can cost you your life.
Cara Ray has spent years in the shadows, dealing in black-market memories, extracting and selling stolen moments to those desperate enough to pay. She despises the elite who never have to know what it's like to forget their own past just to scrape by. And no one infuriates her more than Caleb Morrow-the cold, calculating son of Veylin's Memory Commissioner, a man who's never had to lift a finger to survive.
Caleb has never known hunger or the harsh realities of the streets. He's spent his life in the luxury of the city's upper echelons, shielded from the brutal truths of the world below. But when he learns that his mother's memories were erased by the government-and that she's still alive, somewhere in Veylin, living under control-his world is upended. To find her, Caleb needs help. The one person who could assist him is Cara. But she's no ally. She's everything he's been taught to despise.
When Caleb tracks Cara down, forcing her into an uneasy alliance neither of them wants, their rivalry turns into something far more complicated. Both are caught in a game of survival-one trying to recover what was stolen, the other fighting to keep her own secrets buried. And as the stakes get higher, Cara begins to see Caleb as more than just a privileged enemy. But trust is a luxury neither can afford, and with each step toward the truth, their fragile truce begins to crack.
In Veylin, memories are worth more than gold, and the line between enemy and ally is thin-especially when hearts are on the line.