My name is Harper Apple, and people say I’m rotten to the core. When my shot comes in the form of a scholarship to Willow Heights Prep, you can bet your ass I take it. If getting out of this hellhole town means spending my last two years of high school at an elite academy full of rich, entitled pricks, then bring it on.

In one moment, my freedom is snatched away when my father tells me I have to marry a man I’ve never met. I expect an 80-year-old retired boss who craves my virgin flesh in payment for his service. Bright side—in a few years, he’ll be gone, and I’ll be free again. I’m not prepared for the dangerously gorgeous soldier my father presents. Like anything that looks too good to be true, so is my new husband. He’s cold, cruel, and worst of all, young. Suddenly, marriage is a life sentence. That is, if I don’t show him from day one that no one controls Eliza Pomponio.

It’ll be easy, my father said. When we move to a small town in the south, we’ll own it, my brothers said. After all, my family is rich as sin and used to getting whatever they want. How hard could it be? Except, when we arrive in Faulkner, someone already owns this town. The Darling family. They are every bit as wealthy as we are, and they’re not happy with our new money moving in.

For as long as I can remember, my mom and I have lived on the edge of ruin, so when she finally gets a decent job offer, she moves us cross-country to take it.

I shouldn't be here. Let me rephrase that... I never wanted to be here. I didn't ask for any of this. Not the society I was born into. Definitely not the academy I'm supposed to attend. And sure as hell not the group I'm forced to play nice with. Unfortunately, one too many school suspensions has catapulted me into the world I swore I'd never live in. Boulder Cove Academy: Where The Lawless reign and those beneath them are ash between their fingertips.