You know what they say when you assume...
Amelia allows herself two fibs a day. Only two. And only fibs—nothing bigger. It's not always convenient, but it has worked—earning her a job as Vice-Dean of Admissions at Chastain University, her Southern Ivy alma mater.
But lies—big or small—might still be her downfall.
Raised by her single mom in a working-class Atlanta neighborhood, Amelia—Mimi outside her carefully curated professional life— devoted herself to earning a full scholarship to Chastain University. Since then, she has tried to make good on the opportunities she fought so hard to achieve. Her fib policy started in college, after a small assumption snowballed into a campus-wide humiliation she's never quite lived down.
These days, Amelia plays everything by the book in her structured, efficient, and safe life—filled with few people, endless nonfiction, and a deep belief in meritocracy.
A chance run-in with Ethan, a nomadic truth-teller of a different sort, sparks attraction. But when Chastain U stands accused of a ripped-from-the-headlines admissions scandal, ethics suspend the love-match, and Amelia becomes complicit in ways she never imagined. Fighting for her place in a world that offers more obstacles than opportunities; good intentions go horribly wrong. Amelia strives to make things right while the hijinks of a cabal of well-meaning geriatrics and the old boys' club of higher education help and hinder but if Amelia's already-lonesome ivory tower crumbles, she'll lose everything—her career, Ethan... and the fragile relationship with her mother she's only just begun to repair.
A witty, heartfelt romance for anyone who's ever bent the truth, tried to break the system, or been bowled over by love for someone they absolutely shouldn't.