(Website, , , )on July 15th 2016
Genres: Coming of Age, Contemporary, Dating & Relationships, Dating & Sex, Family, Family Life, Film, Football, Love & Romance, Young Adult, Young Adult Fiction
Format: eARC
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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.
I’m starting to think that I have a weird fascination with sport romances. Ginger Scott brought a wonderful, descriptive story. I felt like I was at the games, that I could smell the grass and sweaty players, that I was in the locker room with Reagan Prescott as she recorded it all for her documentary—the pep talk, the Tradition’s chant—from the safety of her camera. Football? In this town, it wasn’t just a sport. It wasn’t just a way of life—football was a religion. The rough, honest writing was reminiscent of Friday Night Lights, from the coach’s daughter’s perspective.
Reagan had always been the coach’s daughter. Living in a town that cares so much about football, that meant that when things went sour for her dad, the whole family suffered. Her twin, Noah, had to earn his spot on the team, too, prove to everyone that he didn’t have his position because his dad happened to be the coach. Reagan and her brother did not share many similarities. Noah’s part in the story was integral to the game, but not to Reagan. She took pride in her smarts and her love of film.
I loved her character. When she could no longer hide behind her brother and father, and the documentary that needed both of them to keep focus, her real self came out. Her spunk was contagious, and her love for her family—even when everything went insane—was commendable. She had a passion for something that separated her from the life that everyone thought she lived.
Nicolas Medina had always been the thorn in her side. I fell in love with Nico after the first chapter. His brilliance and quick wit struck a cord with Reagan, but things changed when she realized that he could throw a ball. The best things about Nico weren’t his throwing arm or his sixth sense when it came to the game, but the scholarship kid that knew the worth of everything. He valued the moments, the time that he spent with his family, and Reagan. When things started to heat up between them, I could barely contain my excitement. If you’re looking for a book that will make you swoon, a book that you’ll barely want to put down, if it’s got Nico in it, grab it.
Their romance had some difficulties. The boy from West End and the coach’s daughter didn’t quite fit. I rooted for them, even before their story had begun. Even when others cared about their differences, Nico and Reagan never let which side of the bridge they grew up on get in the way of things. Thing just were a certain way, and they loved each other anyway.
This is the first book I’ve read by Ginger Scott and could not stop talking about how good—I mean great—I found it. I want to read more of her romances and have already added them to my TBR shelf. I devoured the tone of the romance, the depth of the characters, and the style of her writing. The Hard Count is a romance worth reading, and Nico is a man worth falling for.
Get your copy:
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Giveaway:
1 signed copy of In Your Dreams, $10 Amazon gift card
Open International
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About Ginger Scott
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).
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Victoria
Thanks for the giveaway 🙂