It''s hard finding beauty in the badlands of Washokey, Wyoming, but 14-year-old Grace Carpenter knows it''s not her mother''s pageant obsessions, or the cowboy dances adored by her small-town classmates.

True beauty is wild-girl Mandarin Ramey: 17, shameless and utterly carefree. Grace would give anything to be like Mandarin. When they''re united for a project, they form an unlikely, explosive friendship, packed with nights spent skinny-dipping in the canal, liberating the town''s animal-head trophies, and searching for someplace magic. Grace plays along when Mandarin suggests they run away together. Blame it on the crazy-making wildwinds plaguing their Badlands town. Because all too soon, Grace discovers Mandarin''s unique beauty hides a girl who''s troubled, broken, and even dangerous. And no matter how hard Grace fights to keep the magic, no friendship can withstand betrayal.

From the Hardcover edition.