Tangled up in You

Ren Gylden is a 22-year-old woman who has spent nearly her entire life on a remote, off-the-grid homestead in Idaho with her parents, Steve and Gloria. She has never attended school or spent a single night away from home. When Corona College in Spokane offers her a full scholarship based on her extraordinary self-taught test scores, Ren convinces her parents to let her go by arguing she needs agricultural knowledge to sustain the land through worsening drought. Steve and Gloria impose strict conditions: She must return home every weekend, avoid technology outside of classwork, never reveal the homestead's location, and steer clear of boys and alcohol. If they sense any change in her, they will pull her out permanently.

At Corona, Ren meets her campus tour guide, a charismatic senior everyone calls Fitz. When she removes her bulky coat to reveal her striking face and long golden hair, his demeanor shifts from indifferent to flirtatious. Ren is immune to his charm, overwhelming him instead with encyclopedic knowledge, five languages, and an ability to identify every tree on campus. Fitz finds her simultaneously irresistible and threatening: Her perfect placement scores endanger his standing at the top of the class. His polished identity as a wealthy playboy is a fabrication. He works multiple jobs and maintains a perfect GPA to fulfill a deal with Judge Amira Iman: If he finishes first in every class, she will expunge his juvenile criminal record and recommend him for law school.

Ren throws herself into college life, earning the nickname "Corona's Golden Girl." In Dr. Michel Audran's immunology seminar, a commercial DNA testing assignment changes everything. Despite knowing her parents would forbid it, Ren submits an anonymous sample. The results reveal a 99.9999% paternal match, but Steve, who distrusts all technology, would never have submitted his DNA. The match leads to Christopher Koning, a chemical engineer in Atlanta who bears a striking resemblance to Ren.

Unable to sleep, Ren picks the lock to Audran's lab to verify her results. She confirms the data is correct and discovers Koning's profile. Before she can leave, she spots Fitz in Audran's office, changing the D he received on their first exam, a grade that jeopardizes his deal with Judge Iman. She takes a Polaroid of the evidence and blackmails him: She will keep silent if he takes her with him on his planned drive to Nashville, from where she intends to bus to Atlanta to find Koning.

They depart on a tense road trip. Ren has only 60 dollars, no phone, and no plan for getting home. From a hotel in Missoula, Montana, she calls her parents through a general store, lying that she needs to stay on campus for midterm exams. When Fitz demands the truth, Ren reveals everything about the DNA test and Koning.

Over the following days, their dynamic transforms. At the Screaming Eagle Saloon, a rough biker bar in Montana, Fitz expects Ren to be intimidated enough to abandon the trip. Instead, when their wallets go missing, she climbs onto the bar, silences the room with a piercing whistle, and charms the crowd with terrible jokes while passing her backpack around. The bag returns with their wallets and nearly $1,000. As Ren tumbles into Fitz's arms, he realizes he has never so badly wanted to deserve someone.

They visit Mount Rushmore. On the long drive to Kansas City, Fitz lets Ren drive for the first time; she panics on the freeway at 35 miles per hour, confessing amid the chaos that she has never been kissed. In a hotel hot tub in St. Louis, Fitz offers to be her first kiss, guiding her through it with patience. Afterward, he comes to her room and confesses he avoided sharing the king bed the previous night because he wanted to kiss her so badly.

In Nashville, they attend a festival where Fitz reveals his real first name: Edward. He tells Ren he was not born into wealth but was adopted at 15 by real estate developer Robert Fitzsimmons and is at Corona on a scholarship. He admits he has done bad things but struggles to discuss his past. Ren promises patience. On her birthday, Edward gives her a box of 100 sparklers. The gift connects to Ren's earliest memory: standing in a field, holding a sparkler, a big hand around hers. She always assumed the hand was Steve's but now suspects it was Koning's.

Edward drives Ren to Atlanta. Walking toward Koning's blue house with the yellow door, Ren is stopped by Gloria's voice on the sidewalk. Gloria reveals she saw Ren on television at the Nashville festival and flew to Atlanta. She claims Koning was her abusive first husband, then produces Edward's juvenile criminal record, showing a mug shot and charges including motor vehicle theft and possession of a stolen firearm. Devastated, Ren agrees to leave and flies home to Idaho with her parents.

Edward discovers Ren is gone and drives to Koning's house. Christopher Koning sees photos of Ren and begins to cry, recognizing her as his daughter Grace, who was taken from his side at a Fourth of July celebration 20 years ago. Chris realizes the kidnapper was his former neighbor Deborah DeStefano, the woman Ren knows as Gloria. Edward recounts details about the homestead, and Chris contacts the FBI.

Back on the homestead, Ren regrets leaving without letting Edward explain his past. She sneaks into town, uses a store computer to check her email, and discovers that Gloria called the school claiming Ren witnessed Edward cheating. Ren immediately replies, denying the accusation. That night, she searches her parents' closet and finds identity documents under the names Adam Zielinski and Deborah DeStefano. Gloria catches her and threatens to accuse Edward of abduction if Ren ever seeks out Koning. When Ren overhears Steve ask what they should do with her and Gloria answers that they will take her, Ren understands she was kidnapped as a child.

Fireworks explode over the homestead, a signal Edward arranged knowing Ren's deep personal connection to them. Steve scrambles for guns while Gloria forces Ren to stay inside. Ren pries open her bedroom window, kicks free of Gloria's grip, and sprints toward the police lights screaming Edward's name. He and Chris race toward her as gunfire erupts from the cabin. Edward catches Ren, and Chris tackles them into the brush. Steve is killed in the shootout, and Gloria is arrested.

In the aftermath, Edward tells Ren his complete history: relinquished to foster care at three, placed with his foster mother, Mary, at seven, living on the streets after Mary's building was demolished, 11 months in juvenile detention, and adoption by the Fitzsimmons family primarily for Robert's public image. He confesses to Audran about doctoring his grade and accepts a zero. Ren meets Chris daily for therapy and meals, growing to see herself in his curiosity and warmth.

Edward tells Ren he is in love with her. Ren wants to reciprocate but is working through what love means after 20 years of deception. She asks Edward to cut her long blond hair, the feature most associated with her captors' control and most recognizable to the media. She dyes it brown and decides to go by Ren Koning. Edward's desire for revenge against his adoptive father has faded; he now wants to use law to help kids like himself. Ren tells him she wants to finish college, see the world, and simply be free. The novel closes with a flash-forward: after college, law school, travel, and the purchase of land with farm animals, they live happily ever after.