A modern day retelling of Beauty and the Beast with a twist: there is no magic. But without an enchantress or magic spell to break, what else is there? Just a damaged boy and a curious girl who doesn’t know how to leave well enough alone. This is the story of how they come together.

Seventeen-year-old Emma Belrose didn’t know what to think of new boy, Heath Thompson, but what she did think wasn’t exactly flattering. He was rude, crass, and downright mean. Which was why it was so fantastically stupid that she couldn’t stop thinking about him. When stuck together to complete a months-long project for school, Emma finds herself slowly slipping past Heath’s emotional walls – more like steel barriers, really – and getting to know the boy beneath the prickly facade. Even as she begins to fall for him, however, a handful of looming obstacles continue to disrupt any bliss they may find. Not the least of these obstacles are Heath’s dark past and Gunther Kingston, the popular jock who is obsessed with Emma.

With the odds seemingly stacked against them, can they reach out and grasp their happily ever after?