Stealing Sunshine

It was always the plan to come back home to Cherry Peak. But after being gone for four years, it's apparently not as easy as I expected for things to go back to the way they used to be.

Instead, they get beyond complicated the moment I realize my brother's house has paper thin walls and a general lack of privacy. Desperate for someplace else to stay, I move in with one of my brother's friends. The only problem with that? Bryce can't stand me.

Everyone in town calls her the Ice Queen, and over the first few days of living with her, I begin to understand why. She's blunt, broody, and even cruel at times. But when I learn she could use some help in the dating department, I offer mine without a second thought.

It's supposed to be a harmless favour, but somewhere along the line, Bryce stops being the woman who barely tolerates me, and starts becoming the one person who understands me best. The walls of ice she's built up around herself start to crack, and the more I get to know what lies behind it, the more I realize how wrong I've been about her this entire time.

She might be frosty to everyone else, but to me . . . I think she's the warmest person I've ever known.