Tristan Lopez is loyal to his brothers. He doesn’t really have a choice, born into a gang that has a chokehold on every kid that roams its streets. He gave his life to them willingly, knowing if he did then one day this kingdom, led by boys drunk with power and ruled by fear, would all be his.He was loyal through it all. Loyal when prison took his dad away. Loyal when his face was touched by the … the cold metal of the rival gang’s gun. Loyal even though his mom begged him to run the moment she returned home from rehab.He thought about becoming someone else. It was hard not to crave the life of a regular 17-year-old. It’s the only reason he stayed in school-to pretend. But he always fell back in line.Loyal.Riley Rojas didn’t belong in Tristan’s real world. She should have only been part of the fantasy, one of the many faces he got to pretend with amidst rows of metal chairs and desks and whiteboards with assignments. But there she was, moving boxes from the back of an old pick-up into a house Tristan had shot up on a dare with his friends only a few months before.Tall enough to look him in the eyes and strong enough to fill his shadow, Riley took up space on his streets, her loud mouth fearless in the face of the gang leaders who terrified everyone else. She pushed Tristan around on the hard court, and she balled better than his friends-better than him sometimes. She challenged him. She needed him. He liked it. And when her pale blue eyes stared into his, he quit wanting to pretend.He couldn’t ask her to leave because she’d only dig her heels in deeper. He couldn’t ask because he didn’t want her to go. She was blurring his lines. She was testing his loyalty.He was falling in love.And it was going to tear him apart.
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A Ginger Scott release! Amazing. Moving. Romantic. Lyrical. Thought provoking. Original. I love this author’s writing and stories!
Ginger Scott brings us an intense story that will stay with you for days. Her heart and soul are poured into this story. Life, location, loyalty, love, choices, second chances. They are all woven together, and at times fiction felt like reality. This is not something that can be read quickly or at one sitting. You are going to find yourself absorbing the situation and circumstances.
“Welcome to the world of disappointment and broken promises.”
Tristan Lopez was born without many choices. His dad was sent to prison when he was young and eventually died there. He lives in an area that is poor and gang infested. He was young, loyal, and moldable when he gave in to this life. The only life he has known.
“I sold myself to this life when I was a kid, blinded by these criminals I idolized and the stories they told me about my dad.”
But somewhere in the back of his mind Tristian feels like there is a different reality out there. He often calls it fantasyland. And when he needs to, he lets himself go there, to get away, to pretend that this life isn’t suffocating him…..
“The reality of our world is something you just have to see to understand, and by then it’s too late.”
Riley Rojas comes into Tristian’s world and turns it upside down. Initially she doesn’t understand the type of neighborhood her and her dad moved to. She is strong willed and stubborn. She has had to relocated and “fit in” several times so she accepts this as another challenge to do so. But the rules here are much different. Riley is not one to take orders or direction, especially in regards to where she can and cannot play basketball. She is determined to fit in. There is a fantastic scene where Riley does something a little crazy to “fit in.”
Riley breaks through Tristian’s defenses but it comes at a price for both of them. I found myself anxious and agitated as I read their story. Anxious because nothing in their life is certain. Agitated because of situations that are out of their control. I was on the edge of my seat.
“I’m afraid of her. More than that, though, I’m afraid for her.”
The story is so well written. My heart was full of many emotions. I love that Ginger Scott gave us an ending that was real. Real consequences and real life. Things did not magically become better. There were no white knights riding in to save the day. And yet the epilogue, although a bit open ended, left me satisfied. I have a great imagination, so I know where I wanted Tristian and Riley’s journey to go. I urge you to also read the acknowledgements at the end as well. It really puts the story into even more perspective.
“I try not to let myself think about it because when I do, I realize how meaningless it all is.”
#GingerScott #YA #angst #badboys #Strong Heroines #SassyHeroine #YoungLove #YoungLove #DoTheRightThing
4.5 stars
Ginger Scott…you are without doubt, hands down, one of my absolute favourite authors whose words just literally call to my soul!!!
How you are able to create these stories, that reach inside and tear off a piece of my heart, is beyond me!!!
Look – here’s the thing…my heart will forever belong to Andrew Harper but Tristan had this broken element to him that just touched me!
This book is full to the brim of so much honesty and grit that I was completely blown away!
If you have never read a book by this amazing awesome lady then this is a great way to delve into the emotional world of the mind of Ginger Scott!
I love how this story so perfectly balances the scales, shifting the focus between Riley & Tristan, highlighting the different paths their lives were on.
What an amazing book that is a must read for 2018!!