by Lynn Painter
First published 2026
Julia loves her quiet Nebraska hometown until her elderly neighbor dies and leaves his fortune to her family. Suddenly she's living in a Manhattan brownstone and struggling at an elite private school where she doesn't belong. Her grades are failing when Damion arrives as her tutor. He's handsome and mysterious, but Julia can't shake her suspicions about this rich boy with his rebellious streak. What she doesn't know is that Damion is the dead man's great-nephew. He believes his father figure would never leave everything to strangers and plans to expose Julia's family as frauds. To uncover the truth, Damion must win Julia's trust. But his scheme starts falling apart as he spends more time with her. He's falling for the girl he came to destroy, and she's falling for him too. Now both must decide if their growing feelings can survive the lies between them.
Genres: fiction, romance, contemporary, young-adult, contemporary-romance
Vibes: angsty, character-driven, emotional, romantic, suspenseful
Tropes: deception-romance, enemies-to-lovers, fake-dating-adjacent, fish-out-of-water
Setting: Nebraska, Manhattan, Elite Private School
Period: 21st-century, contemporary
416 pages · Hardcover · Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers