Stanford University, California...

Carrie is a wide-eyed freshman when she arrives at the university she has heard about all her life. She believes she knows what to expect. And her big brother Stephen is there to lean on if she needs help. But she is unprepared for the monumental changes—and monumental emotions—she will experience. She is also unprepared for Jake.

Gorgeous, seductive, and deadly, Jake is a man of dark secrets and hidden dreams. He is all wrong for the innocent and optimistic Carrie, but she becomes part of his secrets and his dreams. But will he ever permit her into the deepest places of his badly wounded heart?

Megan is Carrie's roommate. Golden and beautiful, the gifted actress can dazzle and pretend even as her heart is breaking and her world is falling apart. The decision she makes will result in a crisis that will reunite them all—and open unhealed wounds and smoldering passions.

Once entwined, the lives and the loves of the roommates will be forever entwined. And those lives and loves will be as turbulent and courageous and shimmering as the extraordinary world in which they live.