Arden's been sober for two months... and a disaster for much longer than that.
She's unemployed, living off caffeine and denial, pretending she totally meant to take a break from life.
Her best friend Liv is doing her best to keep Arden alive, fed, and out of trouble - three things Arden fails at regularly.
Enter Kian Parker: always smiling, too charming for his own good, infuriatingly patient, and way too flirty despite her very clear attempts to shut that down.
Arden can't stand him - the easy grin, the way he talks like they're already friends, like she hasn't spent the last five minutes trying to get rid of him.
He laughs when she snaps.
He leans closer when she pulls away.
And somehow, he keeps coming back.
Between late-night writing sessions, coffee shop disasters, recovery meetings, and a past that won't stay buried, Arden is trying to rebuild her life without burning it down first.
This isn't a fairytale.
It's a recovery story with jokes.
And it's about learning how to stay - even when running would be easier.
Henley agrees to pretend to date millionaire Bennett Calloway for a fee, falling in love as she wonders - how is he involved in her brother's false conviction?
******
Henley Linden's brother is in jail for a crime he didn't commit, and she'll take any job to raise the money needed to free him. Soon, she's agreed to pretend to date millionaire Bennett Calloway for ten thousand dollars, so his mother will ease up the pressure on him to find a wife. But once Henley is enmeshed in Bennett's world, he falls for her, and she starts to have feelings for him as well. Despite her romance with Bennett, as she grows closer to the Calloways, Henley realizes they are somehow involved in her brother's conviction. Journeying deeper into a world of wealth and conspiracies, Henley is forced to rely on Bennett, though doing so could cost her everything.
[[word count: 200,000-250,000 words]]