Dill has had to wrestle with vipers his whole life - at home, as the only son of a Pentecostal minister who urges him to handle poisonous rattlesnakes, and at school, where he faces down bullies who target him for his father’s extreme faith and very public fall from grace. He and his fellow outcast friends must try to make it through their senior year of high school without letting the small-town culture destroy their creative spirits and sense of self. Graduation will lead to new beginnings for Lydia, whose edgy fashion blog is her ticket out of their rural Tennessee town.

As a sorority pledge, there are commandments that Katie Vickery must live by. One: Thou shalt not show up for the party without a date. Two: The guy shall be an athlete, preferably an upperclassman. Unfortunately, Katie just broke up with her jerkface football player boyfriend. Even worse, her last encounter with him resulted in utter humiliation. She"d rather hide under the bed than attend a party where he"ll be. Yet staying home would mean letting him win.

A summer job. That"s all it was supposed to be. It never crossed my mind that I was about to collide with a man who would obliterate every plan I ever made. My mother has always warned me that love is like a lightning bolt and it strikes without warning. But I had no intention of getting struck by either lightning or love anytime soon. I"d be too busy finishing my journalism degree and landing a job in a city far more sophisticated than Phoenix. There was certainly nothing in the cards about getting involved with an ex-ballplayer turned nightclub boss.

If anyone ever said being an adult was easy, they hadn"t been one long enough. Diana Casillas can admit it: she doesn"t know what the hell she"s doing half the time. How she"s made it through the last two years of her life without killing anyone is nothing short of a miracle. Being a grown-up wasn"t supposed to be so hard.

"Anger-management issues." That"s how they classified Savannah Sutton after she stuck a pencil in her ex-boyfriend"s hand because he mocked her little brother, Evan, for being disabled. That"s why they sent her to Brooks Academy - an alternative high school that"s used as a temporary detention center. The days at Brooks are miserable, but at home, life is far more bleak. Savvy"s struggling to take care of her brother since her mom left years ago, and her alcoholic dad can"t be bothered.

Fifteen years ago, Elijah Langley"s world came to an abrupt halt with the death of his high school boyfriend. He keeps his past - and his sexual orientation - hidden until he attends a fundraiser for The Center for HOPE, an LGBT youth center, where he meets Adam Lancaster, HOPE"s infuriatingly stubborn and sexy founder. A survivor of a turbulent childhood, Adam understands better than most the challenges his youth face. He"s drawn to Elijah"s baby blues and devilish smile but refuses to compromise his values.

Kelley Moore"s tragic home life should make him a survivor. But when he"s uprooted yet again, his plans for a better future seem impossible. Being a player on and off the football field is all he knows, until Lenora Wells. The beautiful town princess makes him feel and want things he never thought he could have. Lenora will do anything to get out of her town, even if it means dating the wrong guy. There"s one problem: she can"t stop thinking about the gorgeous, complicated boy with the unusual eyes.

Everyone has that one line they swear they’ll never cross, the one thing they say they’ll never do. We draw the line. Maybe we even believe it. Sage Hendricks was my line. Logan Witherspoon befriends Sage Hendricks at a time when he no longer trusts or believes in people. He"s drawn to Sage, with her constant smile and sexy voice, and his feelings for her grow so strong that he can’t resist kissing her. Sage finally discloses a big secret: She was born a boy. Enraged, frightened, and feeling betrayed, Logan lashes out at her.

I love him. And I’m pretty sure he loves me back...even though he’s straight. When I first met Carter King, I knew he was something special. I imagined us being together, and we are, but only as friends. Best friends! I’m trying to be cool with that, even though I know he has secrets, and there have definitely been mixed signals. I don’t want a crush to ruin what we already have. Then again, if there’s any chance that we can be together, it’s worth the risk, because Carter could be the love of my life. Or he might be the boy who breaks my heart.

He told me to settle. He asked what was wrong with me. He called me an easy target. That was within minutes when I first met Caden Banks. I labeled him an asshole, but he was more than that. Arrogant. Smug. Alpha. He was also to-die-for gorgeous, and my stepbrother"s fraternity brother. Okay, yes I was a little naive, a tad bit socially awkward, and the smallest amount of stalker-ish, but if Caden Banks thought he could tell me what to do, he had another thing coming.

Sixteen-year-old Elena Mendoza is the product of a virgin birth. This can be scientifically explained (it"s called parthenogenesis), but what can"t be explained is how Elena is able to heal Freddie, the girl she"s had a crush on for years, from a gunshot wound in a Starbucks parking lot. Or why the boy who shot Freddie, David Combs, disappeared from the same parking lot minutes later after getting sucked up into the clouds. What also can"t be explained are the talking girl on the front of a tampon box, or the reasons that David Combs shot Freddie in the first place.

Walter Lucas doesn"t believe in storybook love. Everyone is better off having as much fun as possible with as many people as possible - except his shy, sad little sack of a roommate is seriously screwing up his world view. As Walter sets out to lure Kelly out of his shell, staying just friends is harder than he anticipated. He discovers love is a crash course in determination. To make the grade, he"ll have to finally show up for class - and overcome his own private fear that love was never meant to last.

Culter Fuller came back into my life on the day my mother died, as if losing my mother wasn"t bad enough. We hated each other since childhood. Well, I hated him, and I thought it was mutual. He had a very different story. When I moved to my dad"s house to finish my last semester of high school, we went from bitter enemies to...something else. He was suddenly everywhere, occupying my space, determined to pull me into his life, filling me with thoughts I knew were wrong. I knew that soon we would cross a line that should never be crossed.

It was a hot summer day when I met him on the construction site next to my parents" house. Under the sweat and dirt, Manning Sutter was as handsome as the sun was bright. He was older, darker, experienced. I wore a smiley-face t-shirt and had never even been kissed. I was too young, he said. I would wait. But I"d learn that no matter what you achieve in life, it means nothing if you suffer the heartbreak that comes with falling for someone you can never have. Because even though I saw Manning first, that didn"t matter. My older sister saw him next.

Being young is all about the experiences: the first time you skip school, the first time you fall in love...the first time someone holds a gun to your head. After being held hostage during a robbery at the local convenience store, 17-year-old Edie finds her attitude about life shattered. Unwilling to put up with the snobbery and bullying at her private school, she enrolls at the local public high school, crossing paths with John. The boy who risked his life to save hers.

A summer job. That"s all it was supposed to be. It never crossed my mind that I was about to collide with a man who would obliterate every plan I ever made. My mother has always warned me that love is like a lightning bolt and it strikes without warning. But I had no intention of getting struck by either lightning or love anytime soon. I"d be too busy finishing my journalism degree and landing a job in a city far more sophisticated than Phoenix. There was certainly nothing in the cards about getting involved with an ex-ballplayer turned nightclub boss.

A steamy summer encounter with bad boy Jude means trouble for Lucy. Her sights are set on becoming a ballerina, and she won"t let anything get in her way...except Jude. He"s got a rap sheet, dangerous mood swings, and a name that"s been sighed, shouted, and cursed by who knows how many girls. Jude"s a cancer, the kind of guy who"s fated to ruin the lives of girls like Lucy - and he tells her so. But as rumors run rampant and reputations are destroyed, Lucy"s not listening to Jude"s warning.

Walter Lucas doesn"t believe in storybook love. Everyone is better off having as much fun as possible with as many people as possible - except his shy, sad little sack of a roommate is seriously screwing up his world view. As Walter sets out to lure Kelly out of his shell, staying just friends is harder than he anticipated. He discovers love is a crash course in determination. To make the grade, he"ll have to finally show up for class - and overcome his own private fear that love was never meant to last.

Falling in love wasn"t the plan. But how could I resist his promises of hope? Of forgiveness? Of a future I had stopped dreaming of? We were shattered. We were scarred. We were something strange and beautiful. We were two lost souls holding on to the only thing that could keep us together. Each other.

Most high school sports teams have rivalries with other Schools. At Hamilton High, it’s a civil war: the football team versus the soccer team. And for her part, Lissa is sick of it. Her quarterback boyfriend, Randy, is always ditching her to go pick a fight or haze a freshman. And on three separate occasions Randy’s car has been egged while he and Lissa were inside, making out. She is done competing with a bunch of sweaty boys for her own boyfriend’s attention. Lissa decides to end the rivalry once and for all: She and the other players’ girlfriends go on a hookup strike.

Gin Fielding is counting the days until she escapes the small-town life of Roper, Missouri, for college at NYU. She prefers to blend in, though she’s far from invisible. But when she protects a younger student from a bully, the spotlight turns on her. Chase Matthews enjoys the small-town celebrity being the star quarterback brings. When Gin defends his little sister against a bully, he decides to change her senior year in ways she never imagined. When Gin declines Chase’s invitation to be part of the elite Sweet 16, the repercussions turn both their lives upside down.

Seventeen-year-old Bianca Piper is cynical and loyal, and she doesn’t think she’s the prettiest of her friends by a long shot. She’s also way too smart to fall for the charms of man-slut and slimy school hottie Wesley Rush. In fact, Bianca hates him. And when he nicknames her “the Duff,” she throws her Coke in his face. But things aren’t so great at home right now, and Bianca is desperate for a distraction. She ends up kissing Wesley. Worse, she likes it.

Sixteen-year-old Finley Price has perfected two things: how to direct a world-class production and how to fly way, way under the radar. The only person who ever seems to notice Finley is her best friend and godparents" son, Oliver Bertram. Since Finley moved in with her godparents after the death of her father, she and Oliver have grown close. If Finley could just take Oliver"s constant encouragement to heart and step out of the shadows, she"d finally chase her dream of joining the prestigious Mansfield Theater.

Dallas Cole loathes football. That"s what happens when you spend your whole childhood coming in second to a sport. College is her time to step out of the bleachers and put the playing field (and the players) in her past. But life doesn"t always go as planned. As if going to the same college as her football-star ex wasn"t bad enough, her father, a phenom in Texas"s world of high school coaching, has decided to make the jump to college ball…as the new head coach at Rusk University. Dallas finds herself in the shadows of her father and football all over again.

Remington Stringer has never been like most girls. She"s outspoken and brazen and wants nothing more than to escape the Nevadan hell hole she calls home. On the brink of 18, with a deceased mother and a well-meaning, yet absent father, she"s been forced to fend for herself. The only person she"s ever been able to depend on is her borderline obsessive stepbrother. But even that anchor is quickly becoming a loose cannon. So when she gets the opportunity to attend the best private school in the state during her senior year of high school, she jumps at the chance.

For four years, Grace Sullivan wrote to a Marine she never met, and fell in love. But when his deployment ended, so did the letters. Ever since that day, Grace has been coasting, academically and emotionally. The one thing she"s decided? No way is Noah Jackson - or any man - ever going to break her heart again.

With his father"s Ponzi scheme assets frozen, Tom Worthington believes finishing college is impossible unless he can pay his own way. After months of sleeping in his car and gypsy cabbing for cash, he"s ready to do just that. But his new older-student housing comes with an unapologetically gay roommate. Tom doesn"t ask why Reese Anders has been separated from the rest of the student population. He"s just happy to be sleeping in a bed.

When Beck’s emotionally fragile dad starts dating the recently single (and supposedly lesbian) mom of former bully, Jaxon Parker, Beck is not having it. Jax isn’t happy about the situation either, holding out hope that his moms will reunite and restore the only stable home he’s ever known. Putting aside past differences, the boys plot to derail the budding romance between their parents at their conservative hometown’s first-ever Rainbow Prom. Hearts will be broken, new romance will bloom, but nothing will go down the way Beck and Jax have planned.

I crawled into Ryan Jensen’s bed that first night by accident. I barely knew him. I thought it was his sister’s bed - her room. It took seconds to realize my error, and I should"ve left... I didn’t. I didn’t jump out. I didn’t get embarrassed. I relaxed. And that night, in that moment, it was the only thing I craved. I asked to stay. He let me, and I slept. The truth? I never wanted to leave his bed. If I could"ve stayed forever, I would have. He became my sanctuary. Because - four hours earlier - my twin sister killed herself.

Grant Manwhore. Adrenaline junkie. Lead singer of ContraBand. What you see is what you get. I make no apologies for my actions, and by now no one expects any from me. I live my life the way I want, and as long as it pushes the demons back, then I"m solid. I"ve never needed a chick for more than a good lay. Why would I need just one when I can have a different one every night? Until she walks into my world.