BOOK REVIEW: The Hard Count - by Ginger Scott

Synopsis of the book:

Nico Medina’s world is eleven miles away from mine. During the day, it’s a place where doors are open—where homes are lived in, and neighbors love. But when the sun sets, it becomes a place where young boys are afraid, where eyes watch from idling cars that hide in the shadows and wicked smoke flows from pipes.

West End is the kind of place that people survive. It buries them—one at a time, one way or another. And when Nico was a little boy, his mom always told him to run.

I’m Reagan Prescott—coach’s daughter, sister to the prodigal son, daughter in the perfect family.
Life on top.
Lies.
My world is the ugly one. Private school politics and one of the best high school football programs in the country can break even the toughest souls. Our darkness plays out in whispers and rumors, and money and status trump all. I would know—I’ve watched it kill my family slowly, strangling us for years.

In our twisted world, a boy from West End is the only shining light.
Quarterback.
Hero.
Heart.
Good.
I hated him before I needed him.
I fell for him fast.
I loved him when it was almost too late.

When two ugly worlds collide, even the strongest fall. But my world…it hasn’t met the boy from West End.

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Review:

Dear Ginger,

If you're going to continue to write FIVE STAR books that do things to me like make me cry, make me root OUT LOUD for your characters, and make me suffer a FIVE STAR book hangover, begging for more, then I'm going to have to THANK YOU for every heart-tugging word you put on every page!

Thank you, Ginger, for giving Nico and Reagan to the world. For allowing them to know who they are and for making them willing to overcome their own fears, to go against the grain, and to fight for themselves and for each other.

Thank you, Ms. Scott, for tackling the issues of racism and classism with fearless abandon, a tender hand, and at the same time, without being preachy. The careful grace and excellence you've availed in this book is unmatched.

Thank you, fearless Head Ninja, for making it close to impossible to pick ONE favorite of your books. After finishing The Hard Count I have decided that ALL of your books are my favorite, each for a different and specific reason.

Thank you, Ginger, for giving readers this priceless piece of art and for pouring your heart into it with reckless abandon. It's absolutely obvious that you poured your whole soul into this.

Congratulations Ginger! You've penned the quintessential YA novel.

With love,

Your "always here to read, blubbering like a baby, nose-blowing, ARC reading" chick from Philly,

T~

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About the Author:

Ginger Scott is an Amazon-bestselling and Goodreads Choice Award-nominated author of several young and new adult romances, including Waiting on the Sidelines, Going Long, Blindness, How We Deal With Gravity, This Is Falling, You and Everything After, The Girl I Was Before, Wild Reckless, Wicked Restless and In Your Dreams.

A sucker for a good romance, Ginger’s other passion is sports, and she often blends the two in her stories. (She’s also a sucker for a hot quarterback, catcher, pitcher, point guard…the list goes on.) Ginger has been writing and editing for newspapers, magazines and blogs for more than 15 years. She has told the stories of Olympians, politicians, actors, scientists, cowboys, criminals and towns. For more on her and her work, visit her website at http://www.littlemisswrite.com.

When she's not writing, the odds are high that she's somewhere near a baseball diamond, either watching her son field pop flies like Bryce Harper or cheering on her favorite baseball team, the Arizona Diamondbacks. Ginger lives in Arizona and is married to her college sweetheart whom she met at ASU (fork 'em, Devils).

Social Media Links:

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/GingerScottAuthor

Twitter: @TheGingerScott

Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/thegingerscott/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/GingerScottAuthor

Google: https://plus.google.com/u/0/+GingerScottAuthor/posts

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/GingerScott

Website: http://www.littlemisswrite.com

"Wicked Restless" Another New "Classic" by Ginger Scott

Title: Wicked Restless

Author: Ginger Scott

Release Date: Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Where To Buy:

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Wicked-Restless-Harper-Boys-Book-ebook/dp/B015UFJP5U/

Google: https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=8xucCgAAQBAJ

iBooks: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/wicked-restless/id1044896250?mt=11&ign-mpt=uo%3D4

BN: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/wicked-restless-ginger-scott/1122718400

Kobo: https://store.kobobooks.com/en-us/ebook/wicked-restless

Synopsis:

Andrew Harper grew up in a house marked by tragedy. His older brother Owen did his best to shelter him, but you can only be protected from life’s pain for so long. Eventually, you end up just feeling numb…and isolated.

Loneliness was the one constant in Andrew’s life. Until one girl, met by chance in a high school hallway, changed everything. Emma Burke was a mystery and all that was beautiful in this world, the only air Andrew ever wanted to breathe. She took the lonely away, and filled it with hope and color, and Andrew would do anything to keep her safe, happy and whole.

But sometimes, what feels good and right is what ends up hurting us the most. And when Andrew and Emma are faced with an impossible decision, Andrew is tested to see just how far he’s willing to go for the girl who owns his heart.

Cuts are deep.

Scars are left behind.

And revenge beckons.

When Andrew finally gets his chance, in college, five years after his first love broke him completely, he finds out old feelings don’t really disappear just because you say you hate someone. The more he tries to avenge all that he believes he lost, the more he uncovers the real story of what happened years before.

Love is wicked. But a restless heart is never satisfied beating on its own. Can Andrew and Emma make it right before it's too late, or will the ties that bind them now destroy their only chance at a future?

Review:

There comes a time after reading an author you've loved since the very first time you laid eyes on her first book, that you don't need to decide WHY it deserves 5 out of 5 stars.  You need to decide just how many of the five-star fabulous facets about the specific book you're reading by that author you simply MUST put into your review. There are exactly THREE authors for me where these times apply. Ginger Scott is one of those three authors and THIS is one of those times. 

When I finished "Wicked Restless," I was speechless. I didn't know if I should read it again and make a list of things to talk about. I didn't know just how many different emotions I just put myself through. I had no idea how many of those emotions I could I tell you about without ruining the magic of the story.

When we finished "Wild Reckless," the story of Owen Harper, satiated and massively in love, we didn't know Andrew was getting his own story. However, you could feel it in your GUT that his story NEEDED to be told. 

Andrew and Emma meet as teenagers. Andrew is an academic genius attending college while still in high school but, needs to attend the mandatory gym class everybody hates and he has to go to his high school to take the class. Ugh. Square dancing. I remember having to do square dancing in gym. I really did think to myself, "why the heck is she making Andrew square dance?" DUH! So Andrew could finagle himself across from Emma and be her square dancing partner! Yes, of course I smacked myself for that. But that should be a testament to Ginger Scott's writing. Sometimes some of the most common things, which should be obvious, aren't. If there is something Ginger Scott is NOT, it's predictable.

Their romance as teenagers comes to a massive and tragic halt and these two don't come together again until they're both in college. Andrew is attending college on a hockey scholarship and Emma is now Pre-Med. It is NOT a pretty reunion. In fact, it's the exact opposite of pretty. It's ugly and downright nasty. 

These two drove me INSANE! I thought that by the time I was finished, I would have completely white hair, and I'd be gumming my food while endlessly rocking in a chair and mumbling "Anbloo-N-Embah, Anbloo-N-Embah." My emotions pulled in every direction and a few new ones. Up, down, this way, that way, here go sideways, throw your leg up behind your head! My gut and my HEART were like two pinballs in a pinball machine but with 100 different bumpers to smack the balls around.

There's a part in this book where Andrew is "away" at "school" because of a decision made on that tragic night where Andrew and Emma parted. And he's writing letters. Tons and tons of letters to Emma. And because of the letters and where I was in the story, and having a tiny speck of an idea where the book was going, I thought of the words "When I stepped out into the bright sunlight...," the song "Stay Gold" by Stevie Wonder began in my head, and I started an ugly cry. 

via GIPHY

My heart was simply broken for Andrew at that point. I believe that even at his age at this point in the book, that he did what he did for love. Not infatuation, not major like, but epic love.

Did I love Andrew and Emma together? Yeah, I did. I got to a frustrated point. You know, the point when you're actually talking BACK to your book? "Why don't you just TELL him?" "And you, you dope, tell HER what she obviously doesn't know!" But that's part of Ginger Scott's magic. She weaves and spins and twists and finally, you have this beautiful, glorious story of two people who need to be together in order for both of them to be able to breathe.

I typically don't refer to other reviews but in this case, I'm making an exception. The drama in this book, in a review (or two) I read, was described as being "far-fetched." WHAT? Ginger Scott infuses real life situations into every single novel she writes. The style of writing? Well, let's go back to the reference from "The Outsiders" up above. 

Back when S.E. Hinton wrote that book, she infused real life gang drama into a tale about love, hate, heartbreak, and young people coming into their own despite all of the obstacles and hurdles. Ginger Scott is a fresh, newer fiction author that infuses real life drama into tales about love, hate, heartbreak and young people coming into their own despite all of the obstacles and hurdles.

If you read "The Outsiders" when you were in school, then you can easily see, as I do, Ginger Scott's stories of both Harper brothers, being on the grades 7-12 English reading list. There may be all of these new genre names NOW but it's still the type of fiction where you walk away with an entire research paper length analyzation in your head. Ginger Scott is writing the new "classic" fiction. One doesn't need to wait until the book is decades old to make it a part of you.

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Ginger Scott is an Amazon-bestselling author of eight young and new adult

romances, including Waiting on the Sidelines, Going Long, Blindness, How

We Deal With Gravity, This Is Falling, You and Everything After, Wild

Reckless and The Girl I Was Before.

A sucker for a good romance, Ginger’s other passion is sports, and she

often blends the two in her stories. (She’s also a sucker for a hot

quarterback, catcher, pitcher, point guard…the list goes on.) Ginger has

been writing and editing for newspapers, magazines and blogs for more than

15 years. She has told the stories of Olympians, politicians, actors,

scientists, cowboys, criminals and towns. For more on her and her work,

visit her website at http://www.littlemisswrite.com.

When she's not writing, the odds are high that she's somewhere near a

baseball diamond, either watching her son field pop flies like Bryce

Harper or cheering on her favorite baseball team, the Arizona

Diamondbacks. Ginger lives in Arizona and is married to her college

sweetheart whom she met at ASU (fork 'em, Devils).

Book Review: The Trial of Dr. Kate by Michael Glasscock III

This is the second book of a four part series set in Round Rock, TN.  While set in the same town with some of the characters from the first book, Little Joe, it is now some years later.  Dr. Kate Marlow is going on trial for murdering her best friend, Lillian.  She insists that she didn't do it but has no recollection of the day her friend died because she blacked out.

Seeing the news of the trial on the AP teletype, expat of Round Rock, Shenandoah Coleman, now working as a reporter for a Memphis newspaper, decides to return home to Round Rock to cover the trial and after seeing her old friend Kate, decides to help Dr. Kate by interviewing everybody who knew her to find character witnesses for her.

Along the way, Shenandoah meets up with her old friends and her old foes, she meets new people along the way and makes new friends as well.  Including, Bobby, a handsome mechanic who happens to work for Lillian's husband, Army, and they develop a romantic relationship with each other. The fact that Bobby and Army are moonshine runners isn't exactly favorable to Shenandoah but she seems to understand that the activity goes along with all of the other unfavorable activities of the time.

The book covers just about every topic associated with the deep South in the early 50's including racism, sexism, classism, corrupt politics, etc.  There is a trial and we get a good picture of just how differently the court systems worked back then.  Michael Glasscock made it all very real.

A verdict is rendered.  What really happened that day comes to light.  There's even an epilogue that details what happened to each of the characters years later.

What I liked about the book was how Shenandoah held her head up high in the faces of those who once looked at her as poor white trash and still see her as that even though she's been a WASP pilot in WW2, college educated and doing well for herself.  I also liked how she kept her promise to Dr. Kate and visited her everyday to see how she was doing and to keep her up to date on how her interviews were progressing.

We also get to see the good things too.  Like Southern hospitality and how the town protects each other (this is a bad thing too when it turns into people covering for each other).  The book is written really well, it's not hard to follow and you can get caught up in it quickly.

What I didn't like was how the trial ended and the reaction to the verdict just seemed to fall flat.  I'd expect, in this particular case, that ANY verdict would spark outrage and outcry.  But it was just nothing.  Even finding out what really happened was just flat.  Then out of what seems like nowhere, we are given this shocker of an ending with Bobby, whom Shenandoah has fallen in love with and wants to be with forever.  Frankly, I *hated* how Bobby's ending was written.  It seemed incredibly unnecessary and I still don't understand why Glasscock decided to go in the direction he did what him.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review of the book.  Honesty, I dropped it to 4 stars because of that ending.  In fact, I can't think of another book ending that I disliked more.  Overall, it's a good book and a good read.  I plan to read the next two books in the series.

Book Review of "A Darkness Ascending" by Christobel Kent

This book from Christobel Kent is a part of a series of books that feature Sandro Cellini, a former cop turned private detective.  My first thoughts while delving into the book was that I probably should have read the preceding books first.  I had a hard time grasping who all of the characters were but I'm not sure if this was because the book simply moved too slow to get to the action or if reading the earlier books in the series would have sped that up for me.  There are a bunch of characters all introduced in the early chapters one on top of the other and I had a hard time connecting them to each other.

We do get a prologue that introduces Silvano Niccolo and his partner, Flavia.  It's a fairly simply prologue. Flavia is obviously putting down their newborn infant to bed.  And embedded in the chapter upon chapter of character introductions that follow, Silvano Niccolo is at a political rally or meeting of some sort and he collapses on the stage.

Then Flavia disappears and we find out she's committed suicide.  Or did she?  It's a weird plot of sorts and it is in some ways, a thriller.  Cellini is pulled into the case by Giuli, who as far as I can gather, is some type of foster daughter to Cellini.

This was a tougher mystery for me to read when I typically have no trouble getting drawn in quickly to mysteries in general.  I would not call the entire book flat but there really wasn't what I would call a "climax" here either.  It all kind of goes at one pace, and stays at one level.

I also didn't feel like I was in Italy either.  This could have taken place in the underground halls and alleyways of anywhere.  Except for the names of the characters and places which are in Italian, I didn't get any feel for any of the Italian political culture.

Overall, I would still recommend the book.  But, I would tell potential readers to start with the first book in the series as I think I would have had a better experience if I had done the same.  I gave it 4 stars because I thought it was "very good" with 3 stars being "good" and 5 stars being "excellent."  And I only subtracted a star because of the slow moving feeling.  I couldn't subtract stars for other things because it felt not fair since I hadn't read the other books that came before this one.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley in return for an honest review of this book.

Review of "Season For Scandal" by Theresa Romain

***SPOILER ALERT***


This is my first try with a Historical Romance novel.  I wasn't sure I'd like it or that maybe it wouldn't be my cup of tea.  I was pleasantly surprised.  Jane TIndall isn't rich, she's not exceptionally beautiful but she's attractive by the standards of the late 1800's in London.  She happens to be the cousin of a Baron but se kind of the "black sheep."  Edmund Ware, Baron Kirkpatrick is Jane's Baron cousin's closest friend and he's known Jane most of her life.  To him, he's just his friend's cousin.  So when Edmund blows Jane's "cover" one evening in a card game with some men of questionable morals, they have to come up with a way to get Jane out and, pay her large debt.  Quickly, they come up with a way: Kirkpatrick will marry Jane, get her dowry and pay off the debt.  Edmund promises to pay off his "fiancee's" debt, and marries Jane out of convenience.  But Edmund has some conveniences of his own he needs to fulfill.  Edmund needs to create an heir to hold on to his title and the future of those he serves.  Edmund also has some secrets of his own and Jane lets something slip on the night of their wedding that Edmund was never expecting to hear.

To see the transformation of Jane to that of a nobody who wants to be somebody, we see how she self-educates herself in becoming a proper Baroness.  From botching up a proper greeting at a ball to learning how to dress appropriately, Jane learns.  She also knows that her slip of the tongue on her wedding night has changed her physical relationship with Edmund, taking it from hot to cold on the first night.  And Jane wants more.

I enjoyed reading how their relationship transformed.  A marriage of convenience doesn't start out on the foundation of friendship and love.  And while Jane and Edmund are friends of sorts, Edmund gets to see a different side of Jane throughout the book.  I like how Theresa Romain didn't just make this a one time second look for Edmund and all of the sudden he realizes he loves Jane.  She makes Jane and Edmund work for it.

Along the way there *is* plenty of SCANDAL.  Preventing a scandal is what sets up the marriage of convenience, leaving Edmund starts a whole other scandal and figuring out how to not make Edmund's secret go public is a scandal gone undercover.

In the end, Jane helps Edmund with his huge problem, Edmund realizes his kindness to everyone makes Jane feel no different than anyone else and Edmund also realizes why he's been holding back true love for so long.

I thought Theresa Romain did an excellent job with writing the dialogue to match the times.  I also enjoyed how she showed what was considered proper and not proper for the times.  I was surprised that there were certain protocols even within the noble classes with how different titles were addressed or not addressed.

This is a great book.  Part of a series.  It left me not only satisfied but interested in checking out the rest of the books in the series.  Definitely an A+ read for me.

(I received an ARC from NetGalley for an honest review)

Review of "Poor Little Dead Girls" by Lizzie Friend

***SPOILER ALERT***

Sadie Marlowe is an ace lacrosse player who is recruited to play at one of the country's finest boarding school's: Keating Hall. She's the "scholarship" from Oregon. Her schoolmates are from wealthy families who come from big business, politics and her two roommates are actual British royalty. The "brother" school to Keating Hall is DeGraffenreid Academy. Sadie's newest friend, Jessica, who she met a summer lacrosse camp, describes the brother school's guys as "terrible-they're like mini corrupt politicians in training."

Just as she's getting settled in, Sadie is "kidnapped," complete with black covering thrown over her head and being drugged. She wakes to find herself tied to a chair in the center of a mysterious group of robed strangers who chant in Latin and a male who threatens Sadie to never speak of the experience of she dies. There she finds out she's being initiated into a secret society. Think Skull and Bones meets Freemasons meets The Illumninati.

Supposedly, their goal is to perform good works for the less fortunate and it appears they do sponsor some different organizations that do just that. However, what Sadie finds out is that their real goal is to create a completely new generation of wealthy, connected people who all have the "right genes" who can oversee the government, the country, the economy and even the world.

Sadie learns that her mother attended Keating Hall and that she was indeed part of a wealthy family. Also a huge question is what really happened to Anna, the student who mysteriously disappeared and was found dead the year before Sadie got there.

This story is about Sadie, her acceptance into a secret society of teenagers with wealthy parents who are also members of the society and how she deals with the strange experience of being accepted by her wealthier classmates who wouldn't look at her twice but for the society membership.

POOR LITTLE DEAD GIRLS is full of mystery and intrigue. Sadie even finds their secret laboratory where she finds her own eggs harvested and frozen for creating embryos. I have to admit, that seemed to be more creepy than learning about the mysterious death of Anna.

Sadie meets Jeremy early in the story and they become a couple. He also happens to be the other newest member of the secret society.

What this all finally boils down to is that the secret society members are responsible for the death of Sadie's mother and Anna's death who turns out to be related to Sadie and her mother. With the help of her friends, Sadie finds a way to make sure the secret society is brought to the public eye.

Overall, I give this book 5 stars because it's not the typical YA type of story I would read it kept me completely on my toes. I couldn't put it down. Sadie goes from shy and reserved to determined to find out the answers to all of the secrets. Lizzie Friend goes out on a different limb here to paint a darker story without the use of science fiction or sparkly vampires or medieval fantasy. There are places in the story where you might expect something to be more climactic but the story has an intense flow that takes you up to a really high peak and then lets you hang there for a while. Lizzie Friend doesn't give you the regular peaking escalation followed by the resolution. She takes up to the peak and lets you sit and squirm for a while. I kind of liked that difference.

I enjoyed Sadie's friend Jessica. She's not a member of the secret society but she stuck by Sadie throughout the whole book and was understanding when she finds out not only what Sadie has gotten herself into, she's a kick ass friend knowing the danger involved just by knowing the society exists. She along with Jeremy come up with a plan to get these these people exposed.

I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The ARC I received was a PDF to read instead of an ePub book. It was a little bit more difficult to read because of the format. However, I can't take away stars for that. ARC's are sometimes given out in PDF form and you make adjustments. However, when this book publishes, you won't have any of these issues. So, I recommend you place it on your "to-read" list. The expected publish date is December 18th.

Book Review of "Red" by Allison Cherry

Felicity St. John has everything a girl in high school could hope to have. She's popular, she has two fabulous best friends, she's got a hot boyfriend and she's got artistic talent. What she also has is a huge secret: Felicity's hair comes straight out of a bottle.

As a resident of Scarletville, redheads are the "it" kids and are not in the minority. In fact, the blondes and brunettes are the outcasts and redheads hold all of the power. Scarletville is so "red," it even has it's own Miss Scarlet Pageant. Felicity is practically a shoe in to win the pageant this year. It's the 75th anniversary of the pageant and her mother was Miss Scarlet 25 years earlier for the 50th anniversary of the pageant.

And then Felicity suddenly gets the anonymous note, "I know your secret."

While the premise may seem like the author is trying to draw a parallel to some other group, I think the author, described a "natural redhead," simply wanted to write a story where the "ginger" isn't the outcast.

I enjoyed reading this book and it was a page turner that I couldn't put down. It's not a typical mystery but there is mystery and intrigue that makes the reader need to know what happens next.
I liked Felicity a lot and how she dealt with all of the usual teenage issues in addition to dealing with being blackmailed and dealing with feeling like a "fake."

When Felicity finally gets around to disclosing the blackmail to her mother, she's absolutely shocked when her mother tells her she has to go along with the blackmail that results in lying to and hurting her two best friends.

I loved Ivy, one of Felicity's best friends. She's got gumption. Not only does she think the whole pageant thing is stupid and only enters because her friends entered her, she's defiant. Like refusing to wear high heels that hurt her feet and opting for flats, which are apparently a "no-no" for proper pageant competing.

Allison Cherry gives us a glimpse into teenage peer pressure and the pressures parents put on their teens in order to live vicariously through them. For instance, Felicity's mother, Ginger, a former Miss Scarlet herself, is probably worse at putting on the pressure than any of Felicity's friends. From what I could calculate, Ginger is probably closer to my own age and if she were my friend doing this to her daughter, I might smack her silly.

Hayley, Felicity's other best friend, is indeed, BFF material. However, I found her to be whiny, spoiled and a brat. I didn't like her but I did like how she was written as an opposite to Ivy.
And while I can't disclose how this ends up, I was mostly happy with the ending. I would have liked an epilogue that jumped ahead to some time in Felicity's first year of college where she'll find the world doesn't revolve around redheads. 

I received an ARC of this book in trade for an honest review from NetGalley. The most honest thing I can say about the book as a whole is that it's worth getting once it's published. It's a good story with a lot of learning moments for teenagers. Expected publish date: October 8th.

Book Review of "Waiting On The Sidelines" by Ginger Scott

Nolan Lennox is, when this book begins, a Tomboy. She's athletic and doesn't mind wearing her brother's second hand clothing. She resides in a mobile home and while she's not ashamed of her family or even her home, she's not broadcasting that she lives in a trailer. Then Reed Johnson arrives at her school. From the first awkward interaction, Nolan realizes she likes the new boy. He's also legendary on arrival before he has a chance to show his skills as a football player because his father and brother were football stars during their time at Coolidge High School.

Reed gets himself hooked up with another girl in school, Tatum, who is openly snobbish and cruel. Especially to Nolan. Nolan struggles to take the high ground from one cruel act to another. I couldn't help but root for Nolan because she's not a pushover, she's got class. Her closest friends are there to support her as well. It didn't take long to figure out that Nolan and Reed were meant for each other. They do become friends and Nolan even begins to date Reed's friend and teammate. But the butterflies Nolan feels just by being in Reed's presence don't come when she's with someone else.

Nolan and Reed eventually begin to spend time together. They travel on the same bus to athletic events and work together as lifeguards over the summer. When Reed decides to take Nolan on a special "date," she arrives at Nolan's house to find Reed and his ex in a shocking pose.

Nolan and Reed spend quite a bit of time not together and Nolan avoids him in every way she can including changing her work schedule so she doesn't have to lifeguard at the same time as Reed. Through Reed's cruel, drunken rant at the Friday night desert party, Nolan finds out news that crushes her, breaks her heart.

Through all of this, every single misunderstanding that can happen, does happen. The fact that Nolan refuses to speak to Reed and Reed begins to drink and lose control leads to more lack of communication.

Eventually, the truth about the news from Reed's drunken rant comes out. Nolan and Reed still have a long way to go. A driving accident threatens Reed's champion throwing arm and his potential for college recruitment. Reed grows distant and nosedives.

These two go through every emotion imaginable before they're finally able to settle up with each other. These two love each other madly. And Ginger Scott set it up magnificently. She established the friendship as the foundation early on.

This story ends and there is a second book coming out that will hopefully take us through Reed and Nolan's college years, but this book can absolutely stand alone. I received this book from NetGalley for an honest review but if I found out about this book through some other source, I'd have scooped it up. And while I'm more than willing to receive the second book through NetGalley in trade for an honest review, I'd happily pay for it. This book should be required reading for YA readers, especially those in high school. 

Parents with teenagers could learn a thing or two from Nolan and Reed as well. Ginger Scott keeps it real and honest. She's not giving you a typical YA novel, she's giving you real life, real situations, real teenage experience and real love. She lines this book up absolutely perfect in letting every reader know just how much work real love requires. I wish I could give it more than 5 stars here. I give it 10 stars and it's going on my "Must Read Again" shelf! A++

Revised 02/14/2014