Brighter than the Stars

Duet narration by Samantha Brentmoor and Stephen Dexter.

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.