Summer Love, Autumn Goodbye

She is a good girl.

He is a bad boy.

Marissa and Chad are completely wrong for each other, but neither of them can fight their attraction.

Summer is Marissa’s favorite time of the year, when she gets to travel two-hundred miles from home to camp with her grandparents or stay with her aunt. During one of those summers with her aunt, she met Chad.

Not only does Chad meet the definition of a bad boy, but her cousin’s best friend is definitely too old for her. Level-headed Marissa doesn’t care, and she doesn’t see him for his shady past, but for the person he is capable of becoming. It doesn’t take long for her to become completely infatuated with the troubled youth.

Forced to keep their relationship a secret because of the age difference, Chad’s criminal record, and the mere fact that he is a teenage father, Marissa and Chad still find ways to be together. They are determined to make their relationship work when Marissa returns home at the end of the summer.

It’s only a matter of time before Chad’s past comes back to haunt him. Can their young relationship survive the skeletons in his closet?

With Marissa back at home, Chad makes the effort (and the three-hour drive) to see Marissa as much as possible, but eventually those visits taper off.

When tragedy strikes, Chad finds himself spiraling back into a world of drug use after losing another family member. A devastating injury ruins his chance at the state championship in wrestling and annihilates his chance at a college scholarship.

Marissa struggles to keep Chad’s spirits up after he is hit with one catastrophe after another, but her life isn’t easy either. After being forced to change schools and move to a new town, her mother informs her that she will no longer be able to spend her summers traveling. No more summers with Chad.

Does their relationship even stand a chance or will they have to say goodbye?