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Blurb

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.

Review

4.5 stars

This book totally took me by surprise. I’ve read books by Ginger Scott before, and I know she writes captivating, intense and emotional stories, but this one is something just a little bit different – a dramatic, mature YA sports novel that is heartfelt and inspiring. Beautifully written and with a gorgeous romance tied in, it’s something special, and I really loved it.

Nico Medina is a boy from the wrong side of the track. Of mixed ethnicity and raised in a dangerous neighbourhood by his loving and attentive mother, his intelligence earned him a scholarship to a snobbish, private high school where he has gone relatively unnoticed, except by the equally intelligent Reagan Prescott.

Reagan is a relatable, intelligent girl. She is big-hearted and sensitive yet strong, and I love her! Her father is the coach of the high school football team, her mother runs the social club, and her twin brother is the team’s star quarterback. Their family live and breathe high school football and by outward appearances her home life is perfect, but nobody knows the constant pressure they live under, desperate to succeed and to keep up appearances. She is from the ‘respectable’ part of town, but we soon come to see that respectability is only a perception.

Reagan and Nico share classes at school, and they spar at every opportunity – challenging each other in the classroom, butting heads and arguing over everything they can possibly argue about. Reagan hates him and his smart arrogance… and then she sees him playing football.

Like her family, Reagan is fully involved in the football life, but she is also passionate about film-making, and she is combining her love of film with her love of football, creating a documentary about the school’s football team, getting behind-the-scenes and telling the story as she sees it. When her brother is injured while playing, she knows that Nico is the one who should step up to not only join the team, but to take the lead position – knowing that it will provide a great twist for her film, but more to help her father, and even more so to help Nico.

I’m a part of Nico’s story. And he’s a part of mine. I believe in him. More than I’ve believed in anything.

And so, Nico enters a whole new world – a world of tradition and brotherhood, but sadly a world that doesn’t want to accept him. Despite his obvious talent and passion for the game, school politics and stuck-up team and board members conspire against him, and not only him, but against Reagan’s father for daring to take a chance on the “at risk” outsider. With the whole team threatening to crumble, and lives about to be changed, can one boy make a difference, or will narrowmindedness destroy everything?

“I dare you. I defy you to be great. Do not just be tradition – break tradition. As only you can.”

The story is told entirely from Reagan’s perspective, but she is such a wonderful narrator, observing all that is going on in her world with a watchful eye so we get to see the repercussions of everything that is happening as it impacts each of the characters. All of them are living the same story, but each experiencing it and reacting to it in their own unique ways, and I thought it was really cleverly done. I was invested in each of their individual journeys, and loved watching the development of the characters, and their relationships, throughout the story.

But the star of the show for me was Nico. God, how I love him! His strength and determination through all that he goes through is amazing. He is only 18 but he has so much strength of character, he blew me away countless times throughout the book. And of course as a romantic hero he is incredible as he and Reagan fall for each other. It’s a slow building romance, but it’s honest and innocent, and beautifully descriptive, and I felt every moment of it.

“Don’t ever stop looking at me … Look at me like you expect more. Look at me like it isn’t going to be easy … Make me earn it,” he says, pausing again to take my top lip between both of his. “I’ll earn it. I’ll never stop trying to earn it…to earn you.”

I love Ginger Scott’s writing, and she’s done an amazing job with this one. I am an Australian and I’ve never watched an NFL game in my life, so I admit that some of this book went over my head in terms of terminology and the intricacies of the game (like – WTF is the Hard Count anyway? I had to google), but I did find myself getting excited at the appropriate parts, and the way this book is written you can’t help but be sucked into the atmosphere and intensity of it all. One scene in particular was so beautifully detailed and so incredibly emotive, I was reading with tears streaming down my face. It’s a moment I can picture so clearly in my head and I know is one that will stay with me for a long time.

Ginger Scott has written a wonderful story about loyalty, bravery, honour, betrayal, love and family. It held me captivated from start to finish, and I loved it.

4.5 stars.

An Advanced Review copy was generously provided in exchange for an honest review.

Giveaway

1 signed copy of In Your Dreams, $10 Amazon gift card

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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.

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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Review Tour & ARC Review & Giveaway: The Hard Count by Ginger Scott