The Slum Heirs

Nearly a decade ago, a string of freak tornadoes destroyed Queens, and now it is home to the slums of New York City. Filled with drug dealers, gangs, and escaped convicts, it's not the sort of place a proper lady typically finds herself in. But Mikaela Clearwater is far from a typical lady. Between making perfect grades, going to every Clearwater Consolidated party, and putting up with her father's arranged relationship for her, Mikaela has always felt trapped in her life. She never gets to make her own decisions, and at seventeen, she feels she's ready to start. Her opportunity arises when her "boyfriend," Marc, tries to push their fake relationship too far. Mikaela flees from him, and she winds up in the Slums. After being rescued from a near-mugging by a boy named Nick, Mikaela finds herself being drawn into a gang of thieves led by a boy called Dai with striking green eyes, hair black as the night sky and a smile that aggravates her to no end. Soon, she is living two lives: the fake perfect Manhattan life she's grown up in, and the reckless, completely inappropriate life that comes with being a member of the Bulwarks. It's not until Mikaela learns the history of how the Bulwarks, a group ranging in age from six to twenty-two, came to live in the Slums that she realizes her ties to them run deeper than a simple rescue. Her father put them there. The money she's grown accustomed to was stolen from their families. And Dai and his Bulwarks will stop at nothing to get their revenge.