ARC REVIEW: A Boy Like You by Ginger Scott

Title: A Boy Like You

Author: Ginger Scott

Series: Like You Series #1

Release Date: March 3rd, 2017

They say everyone’s a superhero to someone. I’m not sure who I’m supposed to save, but I know who saved me. 

We were kids. His name was Christopher. And up until the day he pulled me from death’s grip, he was nothing more than a boy I felt sorry for. In a blink of an eye, he became the only person who made me feel safe.

And then he disappeared. 

Now I’m seventeen. I’m not a kid anymore. I haven’t been for years. While death didn’t take me that day, the things that happened left me with scars—the kind that robbed me of everything I once loved and drove me into darkness. But more than anything else, that day—and every day since—has taken away my desire to dream. 

I wasn’t going to have hope. I wouldn’t let myself wish. Those things—they weren’t for girls like me. That’s what I believed…until the new boy. 

He’s nothing like the old boy. He’s taller and older. His hair is longer, and his body is lean—strong and ready for anything. I don’t feel sorry for him. And sometimes, I hate him. He challenges me. From the moment I first saw him standing there on the baseball field, he pushed me—his eyes constantly questioning, doubting…daring. Still, something about him—it feels…familiar. 

He says his name is Wes. But I can’t help but feel like he’s someone else. Someone from my past. Someone who’s come back to save me.

This time, though, he’s too late. Josselyn Winters, the girl he once knew, is gone. I am the threat; I am my worst enemy. And he can’t save me from myself.

That was the last time I ever felt safe, and it was the day I almost died.

Ginger Scott’s books are an altogether separate genre for me. I’m obsessed with how she captures depths. Her words seep right into a readers skin and you just become the character. A Boy Like You is no different; quite possibly more intense. With a group of interesting and poignant characters, it’s hard not to drown in this book. 

I’m my own mess, and something about Wes makes me feel better.

Since that unfaithful day of Josselyn Winters’s life, she always had to wake up with a renewed strength to face the repetitive routine of fuck-ups that is her life. There were an equal amount of strength and cracks in Jos’ character and I loved both sides. She would self-destruct and then rebuild herself. She was real and different and it was an experience to see life in her eyes. 

“I love how you look at me. I love how you see me, Joss. I love that you think I’m invincible.”

It was at an early age when Wes learned how to fight through life unscathed. He was both blessed and cursed but he was strengthened by that contradiction. I LOVED how Wes’ character played with my head. This man (because even with his age, he was already a man) was a seat of fight and determination. He had calculated but equally unexpected actions; and oh, how I crave for what he’s planning next. 

We’re two kids who found each other when each needed someone to believe in them the most.

The brilliance of Ginger Scott’s writing isn’t in the magical way of hyping up a reader’s fantasy. It’s how she rouses depth in the mundane. In A Boy Like You, the romance was more secondary but oh, how I fell and felt. She drove this story with a palpable tone that kept me up my toes and my heartbeat trippling with every chapter. Every word was sure and deliberate, her message clear and on-point. But most of all, what I loved about this book was the characters. Each of them brought a pulse in the story that will surely relate to a lot of readers. 

This is definitely one of my top reads this year (the sequel might make it my TOP read!)