{Blog Tour} A Boy Like You by Ginger Scott

Friday 10 March 2017

A Boy Like You by Ginger Scott
Released: 3rd March 2017
Genre: YA Romance
Source: For review
Pages: 300
My Rating: 4 of 5 stars
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.
Thank you to Wordsmith Publicity for a copy of this book to review


Ginger Scott definitely knows how to hit a home run when it comes to writing an emotional love story with heart. In A Boy Like You, Joss the protagonist may have her flaws and scars from a fateful day in her childhood, but there is a chance that her walls will come down if she is willing to once again be the best person she can be. Wes, with his athletic boyish charm, and most importantly, a kind heart, may just be the person Joss needs - but is he the same boy who saved her life all those years ago?

At its core, this is a romance, one with the warm and fuzzy moments that are equal parts awkwardly cute and adorable. But of course, as with any book by this author - there is more to it than that. Scott deftly explores the strain of a father-daughter relationship after a family breakdown, how someone can turn around the questionable choices they've made in the past, the changes facing friendships and the bond between siblings which is unlike any other. Similar to Hold My Breath and The Hard Count, there is also a sporty aspect to A Boy Like You, in this case baseball. This added another dimension to the story, and as the coach's daughter, Joss had even higher expectations placed upon herself. Her character arc was one with more than a few bumps and mistakes along the way, but it did go to show that with the right support of someone who believes in you, the future can look brighter.

In all, this is a sweet book, but is not without some heart-wrenching moments thrown into the works. I'll be keeping an eye out for the sequel A Girl Like Me, coming soon!



Excerpt from A Boy Like You

I let my eyes drift back to the field, where Wes is throwing balls to nobody, letting them hit the backstop. I push from the wall and throw my bag over my back, my cleats untied and loose around my feet as I trudge through the outfield toward him.

“I can catch for you…if you want,” I say. He turns quickly at the sound of my voice, startled.
“Oh…uh, thanks, but it’s okay, I was almost done, ” he says, jiggling his arm against his side as if it’s sore and tired. He hasn’t thrown many pitches at all today, though. I know, because I’ve been watching.

“You know, eventually you’re going to have to give in to the fact that I can handle you,” I say, my eyes leveling him with a challenge. He laughs lightly to himself, his lip held between his teeth as he tugs down on the bill of his hat, shadowing his face, until he finally nods at me.
“A’right,” he relents, shrugging to home plate.

I step over to the backstop and throw the dozen or so balls he pitched on his own back to him, and he drops them in his bag near his feet one at a time. I brush the dirt from home plate with my glove, then crouch down. I hold the pose for a few seconds while Wes stares at me, and eventually he shakes his head with a quiet laugh.

“What?” I yell, dropping my arms to my knees. I hate catching; it’s miserable. I only did it because it was him—he needed help. No…I wanted to help. And now he’s laughing at me?

He jogs toward me in long, slow strides, and I stand, leaning with my glove against my hip. He’s wearing dark blue shorts over black compression pants, and unlike the other boys on my dad’s team, he actually looks good in them—like a real ballplayer. I look away and take a step or two back when he gets closer, but he reaches for my arm, catching my elbow with his fingers. My eyes go right to his hold and then to his face where he’s waiting for me with the same expression I have.
“Sorry,” he says, letting go of me quickly. I feel the loss of his touch.

Kneeling down, he urges me to do the same next to him, shirking his glove from his hand and holding his palms on the insides of his thighs. “You are sitting like this. It’s unsteady, and you’re going to get tired…fast,” he says, his eyes gliding over to my legs. He licks his lips, and sucks in a slow but heavy breath, before putting one knee down and bringing his hand to my leg, glancing at me quickly for permission before resting his fingertips on my kneecap. His touch is cautious and purposeful. It’s also powerful, and I feel it. 

“If you just turn…like this, and then shift your weight,” he says, tugging my knee out gently before clearing his throat slightly as his eyes run up my thigh. He stands abruptly, and I let down one knee to rest my legs. “Anyhow, I just figured maybe you never caught before, and I could show you something. You probably already knew that though, so—”

“Thanks,” I interrupt him before he steps away. I’m not warm and fuzzy. I make him nervous. And I regret that. “Really,” I add, as he tilts his head sideways over his shoulder, glancing back at me. “My dad use to show me stuff like that, but…it’s been a while.”

His lip pulls up with sympathy, and he looks down before glancing back at me with a sideways tilt of the head, raising the ball in his hand. “Let’s try a few,” he says, walking back to the mound.
I kneel just as he taught me, and my legs shake a little at first, so I adjust my knees more, giving myself a base. “I’m good,” I say, pounding the center of my glove and holding it out for his target.
Wes nods, then winds up for a pitch. He throws a changeup, and I know he did it because he doesn’t want me to get hurt catching anything faster. The fighter in me wants to spit and tell him to give me the real stuff, but the girl I am—the one that likes the way he looks at me—is okay with the fact that he wants to protect me.

“That looked good,” I say, throwing the ball back to him. His lips twist into a crooked grin, and he tugs his hat low again before winding up for another pitch. I praised him, and he liked it.
I liked that. 


Ginger Scott is an Amazon-bestselling author of six young and new adult romances, including Waiting on the Sidelines, Going Long, Blindness, How We Deal With Gravity, This Is Falling and You and Everything After. 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).

No comments :

Post a Comment

Feel free to leave a comment below - I love reading them!