Just before the most important violin competition of her career, seventeen-year-old prodigy Carmen faces critical decisions about her anti-anxiety drug addiction, her controlling mother, and a potential romance with her most talented rival.

Liz Lighty has always done her best to avoid the spotlight in her small, wealthy, and prom-obsessed midwestern high school, after all, her family is black and rather poor, especially since her mother died; instead she has concentrated on her grades and her musical ability in the hopes that it will win her a scholarship to elite Pennington College and their famous orchestra where she plans to study medicine--but when that scholarship falls through...

Hannah Ward, nineteen, revels in the competition, intense rehearsals, and dazzling performances that come with being a member of Manhattan Ballet Company's corps de ballet, but after meeting handsome musician Jacob she begins to realize there could be more to her life.

"Wannabe reporter Laya, aspiring actress Aster, and fledgling musician Tommy joined the Unrivaled nightclub competition for the same reason—they knew winning it would change their lives. They just never imagined that somewhere along the way they'd become entangled in the disappearance of mega starlet Madison Brooks. Now each of them is smack in the center of a media frenzy that threatens to take all of them down. Banding together to clear their...