Brighter Than the Stars

I was raised to believe the danger lived outside our walls. And Ford James looked like the most dangerous thing of all.

I’ve spent my entire life inside Bright Covenant — a religious community with rules for everything, a place where questions aren’t allowed. When my family is sent to heal Westside, a small Florida beach town, I arrive certain of two things: the world outside is exactly as dangerous as I was warned, and Ford James — who vandalized our home before we’d even unpacked — is proof.

He’s the reason I had to leave home during my final year of school. He’s the reason half the senior class wants me gone. But he also makes me question everything I know, and want things I’ve never wanted before—things I’m meant to save for my husband.

Come June, I board a plane to Bolivia, and will return engaged to a member of Bright Covenant.

Which means I have one year to decide if Ford James is really the villain. Or worth burning my world down for.
TW: Assault