ARC REVIEW: The Hard Count by Ginger Scott

Title: The Hard Count

Author: Ginger Scott

Release Date: July 15, 2016

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.

My Review

5/5 stars

Ginger Scott have ripped my heart out and put it back in before. She’s fed it with youthful feels and made me swoon twenty times a minute. She’s cracked my emotions in every way possible. But in The Hard Count , she’s unleashed a whole bunch of emotions and insights that are rarely palpable in a romance novel-- honor, equality, and the will to succeed. 

Nico is a wild stallion full of promise and gifts, and I’m not sure if he can be tamed. I’m not sure if he should.

Nico Medina came from the bad side of town. He’s used to the stares, the stereotype that comes with where he lives, how he lives. But he was not used to the attention and the confidence of that one girl who pushed all of his buttons. Nico Medina could be any of us. He was a man with a gift but was shadowed by judgment and one-sided expectations. But inside Nico was a passion so driven that it could initiate change. I loved how his character was fixed; how his imperfections became his drive and how beautiful he was when he basked in his own light. 

"Reagan Marie Prescott, I’m so goddamned in love with you that I don’t even care about being right anymore.”

Reagan Prescott lived behind the shadows of her father and twin brother. Being a member of a family who’s spotlighted a lot, Reagan reveled on the times when she was just an observer, a woman behind the lens of her camera. Reagan was such an important part of this book. She was the driving force and a beautiful light in the characters’ life. There was so much love and in faith in her; something that could drive any man to believe in anything. 

“I’m willing to go the distance,” he repeats. “No matter how far that is.”

As a romance reader, I seek for full-blown romantic feels radiating on every page. But with The Hard Count , the romance was almost secondary but was never taken lightly. There was a palpable feeling between Nico and Reagan, drawing them together even when they were in two different situations. Miss Ginger did a wonderful job in settling the intensity of their feelings that enabled me to take other contexts at heart. I, a self-confessed sports imbecile, found the rush of every game addicting. I cheered, I hoorah!ed, and felt the pang of pain the players felt in between plays and practices. The rush was jumping out of every page and I can’t help but join in! But above all of the commotion, there was a timely message embedded in this book. When we’re stripped off of the stereotypes, we are very alike in more ways any of us will ever care admit. And when we accept differences, we could be so much stronger together. I loved this book so soooo much!