Jasmine Phillips's best friend, Gabby Hoffman, was a pathological liar, to say the least.
After Gabby's apparent suicide, the whole town is left wondering why, including Jasmine... and Gabby's other good friend Alexander Garcia, who might just be Jasmine's partner-in-investigation, despite their newly found "differences".
You see, Jasmine and Alexander aren't the best of friends anymore, but Gabby's "suicide" does not seem like the real story of her death, and Jasmine and Alexander, both knowing their best friend like the back of their hands, are willing to work together to figure out why Gabby's death doesn't add up. They come to a conclusion that suicide just wasn't something that Gabby would even think about.
So why did Gabby kill herself?
Why did she even think about it? That's the one thing in the world that Jasmine believes her best friend didn't want her to know, and she'll stop at nothing to find out the truth.
When Jasmine builds up the courage to read through Gabby's beloved journal, she finds out that Gabby wasn't the girl she thought she was.
Gabby was known as a troublemaker. She lived for parties, drugs, hookups, and breaking every rule in the books, but her journal lists every little secret of her care-free lifestyle, and the truth is, it's not-so-care-free after all. Turns out Gabby had her own struggles that she seemed to never tell Jasmine, so Jasmine questions who she was the closest with.
Will Jasmine ever find out why Gabby died? Will she know the truth about her bestest friend in the whole wide world?
The answer is yes. And she might even spill some of her own truths to an old friend along the way.
Ella is falling apart trying to live a "perfect" high school life. Then she meets Ren, who can see past her scars. Suddenly perfection isn't her only option.
*****
Ella Volkov is a gifted music student, but she's depressed and starting to crack under the pressure of high school. Her overbearing father won't even let her choose what instrument she plays. Then she finds herself alone at a party with Ren, her best friend's crush. She'd always thought he was rude, but after that night he's all Ella can think about. Now she's trapped. If Ella dates Ren, it will ruin her friendship with Jenny. But if she stays true to Jenny, she's losing the one person who can see past her scars. It's up to Ella to decide if she will forge her own path, or stay in the "perfect" box designed for her...
Content and/or Trigger Warning: depression, anxiety, self-harm, violence, sexual assault.
[[word count: 50,000-100,000 words]]