Kiss the Sky (calloway Sisters, #1)

The novel alternates between the perspectives of Rose Calloway and Connor Cobalt, rivals-turned-lovers whose relationship is tested by a manipulative reality show producer, the pressures of family and ambition, and their own emotional barriers.

A prologue traces Connor's formative years. At ten, a drunkard outside a business hotel tells him to be better than the men inside. At twelve, his mother, Katarina Cobalt, informs him that she and his father are already divorced, her matter-of-fact delivery teaching him to be "strong and inhuman all at once." At sixteen, he refuses to submit during a hazing ritual at boarding school, walking out and taking most of the pledges with him. At nineteen, he meets Rose Calloway at the University of Pennsylvania and offers her his blazer to cover a stain on her dress; she challenges him for being inauthentic. Rose chooses Princeton over Penn. Connor acknowledges that his mother never taught him love, only intelligence and practicality, and at nineteen his life is "just practical."

Five years later, Rose, now twenty-three, meets with Scott Van Wright, a Hollywood executive producer, to sign contracts for a reality show called Princesses of Philly. Rose's fashion line, Calloway Couture, has been linked to her younger sister Lily Calloway's sex addiction scandal and is failing. She needs exposure to save her company and help her father Greg Calloway's soda business, Fizzle, recover from falling stocks. The cast includes Rose, two of her sisters (Lily and youngest sister Daisy), Lily's fiancé Loren Hale (Lo), who is recovering from an alcohol addiction, Lo's half brother Ryke Meadows, and Connor, Rose's boyfriend. Scott's production company holds sole ownership over all filmed content.

Rose and Connor live with Lily and Lo in Princeton; isolation worsened the couple's addictions, so they moved in together. Rose and Connor share fierce intellectual chemistry, but their physical relationship has stalled. Rose is a virgin whose deep insecurity convinces her Connor will leave once they sleep together. Connor recognizes she craves submission in the bedroom but is afraid to ask for it.

Scott manipulates Rose into moving the group to a production-designed Philadelphia townhouse, then reveals he is moving in as Rose's fabricated ex-boyfriend to manufacture a love triangle. Connor tells Scott the odds of stealing Rose do not favor him. Rose warns that if Scott tries to damage any relationships, she will end the show.

Scott's provocations escalate throughout the season. During a psychic segment, the fortune teller targets Lily with intrusive questions about her upcoming wedding to Lo, reducing her to tears. Rose loses a bet that requires her to give Connor a lap dance, but Connor subverts Scott's plan by performing the lap dance himself, shielding Rose from the cameras and leaving her grateful rather than humiliated. Later, Scott gives Lily a DVD of a movie Lo has explicitly forbidden because it could trigger Lily's compulsions for pornography. Connor confronts Scott privately, warning him to stop exploiting Lily and Lo's addictions.

Rose and Connor's physical relationship deepens in stages. When Scott enters the communal shower while Rose is bathing, Connor joins her to block Scott's view. In the charged encounter, Rose performs oral sex on Connor for the first time but refuses to let him reciprocate, convinced her virginity is a prize he will claim and abandon. He tells her she is his "finish line," not a pit stop. Rose warns it may take more than words to convince her.

Meanwhile, Connor juggles Wharton graduate school, his role as interim CEO of Cobalt Inc., and the show. Sleep-deprived, he pressures his therapist into prescribing Adderall, violating a freshman-year pledge never to take the drug. At Cobalt Inc., Katarina urges Connor to leave Rose, insisting that ambitious women cannot sustain relationships. When she invites Rose to dinner, the evening ends in disaster: Katarina calls Rose a "silly little girl," and Rose throws wine on her blouse. Connor celebrates the dinner ending early.

The first episode labels each cast member: Rose as "Virgin," Connor as "Smartass," Scott as "Heartthrob." Connor's interview is edited to end with his statement that "love holds no meaning in my life," cutting the follow-up line that Rose is "at the epicenter of my world." Lo confronts Connor and tells him he has lost respect for him.

A paparazzi intruder breaks into Daisy's bedroom; Ryke tackles the man, and Daisy smashes his camera. They keep the incident from Lily and Lo to prevent relapses. Daisy's boyfriend Julian, a twenty-three-year-old model, grows increasingly concerning. During a trip to the French Alps, Julian taunts Ryke with a crude threat about Daisy's eighteenth birthday, and when Daisy passes out drunk, she whispers to Ryke, "Don't let him touch me."

On the last night in the Alps, Connor and Rose have sex for the first time. He ties her wrists to the headboard, places a diamond-studded leather collar around her neck, and takes her roughly, as she has asked. The next morning, Lo asks Connor if he is "sticking around." Connor confirms he is.

Back in Philadelphia, Ryke finds empty liquor bottles hidden in Lo's closet. The confrontation turns vicious: Lo scatters Rose's design sketches, triggering her panic attack, and Connor yells at Lo before carrying Rose away. Lo reveals he stopped taking Antabuse, a medication that causes illness if alcohol is ingested, months ago. Footage from a production camera appears to show Lily giving Lo oral sex in a public bookstore bathroom, but both insist it was manipulated. The group suspects production is planting evidence but agrees to stay silent.

Connor confesses to Rose that he has been taking Adderall for months and announces he is withdrawing from Wharton, saying his dreams have changed. Rose accepts when she sees the relief on his face. When Rose and Connor try to end Daisy's relationship with Julian, Julian corners Daisy against a wall and punches the wall beside her head. Ryke hits Julian, and Connor escorts him out. At a bachelorette party in Las Vegas, a stranger punches Rose in the face; Connor hits the man before bouncers intervene.

Days later, national news reveals that Scott has sold a sex tape of Rose and Connor to a pornography distributor for twenty-five million dollars. The contract prohibited airing bedroom footage on television but not filming or distributing it through other channels. Scott admits that the threatening text from Julian's phone, the doctored bathroom footage, and the planted alcohol were all orchestrated by production. Rose's father ends the show. Connor punches Scott and orders him to leave. Rose breaks down crying in Connor's arms, apologizing for not hiring a lawyer.

At Cobalt Inc., Katarina apologizes for never showing Connor love, then reveals she has terminal breast cancer with two months to live. Connor drives to Rose's office and cries in front of her for the first time. He tells her she is the only person who has ever loved him and confesses: "I am so deeply in love with you, Rose." Rose echoes words he once said to her: "It took you long enough."

Lily and Lo give their Paris wedding to Rose and Connor. Connor proposes at the Château de Fontainebleau, and Rose discovers the gown she sewed for Lily has been altered to fit her; she designed her own wedding dress without knowing it. In an epilogue three months later, Connor presents Cobalt Diamonds, a jewelry line leveraging the notoriety of the sex tapes. He takes solace in the fact that Scott lacks footage from the Alps, meaning their first time remains private. He reflects that love "was the only thing missing from my life. And it's the only thing that matters to me."