Merrin Grey learns that superpowers aren’t the most important things in life in the novel One by LeighAnn Kopans. Merrin learns that trust and love can take her to heights that she’d never imagined as she and her friends try to save her boyfriend, Elias, from an evil superpower genius. The need to belong and the power of trust another are both themes in this teen romance novel with a twist.

Merrin Grey has never trusted anyone before she meets Elias VanDyne during her first day of classes at Norman High School. She failed out of Superior High School, the school for Supers, the year before and believes she is a failure because she is a One. She believes the only thing that will save her is a job at the illustrious Biotech Hub. The only problem is that the Hub does not employ Ones or Normals, only Supers.

Elias and Merrin realize that together they can combine their powers — levitation for Merrin and creating of vortex for Elias — and fly. Elias encourages Merrin not to tell anyone about their ability because he fears that the experimenters at the Hub will want to test them to determine how their abilities work together. Elias is already leery of the Hub because his sisters have become strange and distant since they began the Hub’s program for gifted individuals.

As the novel climaxes, Merrin learns that although she thought she was participating in testing to get an internship at the Hub, she was actually being tricked into participating in more tests. She, Elias and their friends Leni and Daniel were all subjects in testing when they were young. Because Merrin’s mother had begun floating in her sleep after Merrin was born and brought home from the hospital, it was believes Ones might be able to transfer their powers. During these tests, Leni lost her ability to be indestructible, but Merrin’s mother gained this trait. Realizing that the powers at the Hub still believe that Ones are freaks who need to be tested and “fixed” Merrin rescues Elias from the Hub where he is being tested. In the process of the testing, Elias develops indestructibility while Merrin is able to fly on her own. Although they are now Supers, the two have to run from Superior, their hometown, to keep from being the subjects of more tests.