Cry Baby Blog Tour & Review

We're celebrating the release of CRY BABY by Ginger Scott! One-Click today!

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“Cry Baby is brilliantly written. It's hauntingly beautiful and heartbreaking and will leave you thinking about it for days afterward. Bravo, Ms. Scott. This boy-man stole my heart and I don't want it back.”- L.J. Shen, Bestselling Author

Blurb

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 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.

Review

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When it comes to writing raw, gritty stories, Ginger Scott does it so well. I barely have to read the blurb to know that I'll read her latest no matter what. With Cry Baby, she moves me out of my comfort zone - my quiet, suburban neighbourhood - and transplants me in one that frankly scares the hell out of me. A world where violence is commonplace and lives are automatically tainted by it. Where a smart, sweet kid like Tristan grows up connected to a gang and does just enough to stay under the radar to survive. School, as much as he tries to be indifferent about it, is his saving grace by giving him a sense of normalcy. But he doesn't know what to do with an adult's kindness or belief that he is smart enough to have a future beyond the life he knows. Then a ballsy, beautiful girl moves in down the street and things start to change. Riley's not fearful of her rough new neighbourhood or of the people who live there. That outspoken makes her stand out and maybe that's not such a good thing for her if she wants to stay safe and out of trouble in this area. She wants to be his friend, play ball and be included but he'll have none of that for her sake. He can't drag her into his world even by casual association. But Riley is tough as nails and won't give up on him so how can he resist the pull of someone who believes in him wholeheartedly?

This is a bleak story for the most part simply because of the world it's set in. But Riley who's like a freak storm coming in with ideas, challenges the status quo whether it's at school or on the basketball courts, and makes things happen. Her storyline gives the plot a forward momentum. When she and Tristan face off it's like there's a split screen in front of you; that if he just takes her hand and steps to the other side he could be a happier person able to dream for himself. Obviously it's not as easy as that but I needed to cling to that hope for him. And if there's one thing I love about Ginger Scott is that she writes about strong females who face their fair share of adversity in some form or another. Riley is her own playmaker, a master of her own life and doesn't succumb to self pity. I felt like I could she her demolishing every wall Tristan put up and it's fun to have these two polar opposite personalities have such friction between them. The suckerpuch comes when you realize how far reaching the destruction at the hands of the gang can be.

Ginger Scott is a an autobuy and autoread for me. Unafraid of tackling issues, Cry Baby is proof that she knows how to write about kids facing impossible odds, who are ultimately fighters and creators of their own destiny.

~ Bel

Source: advance e-galley provided in exchange for an honest review

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, In Your Dreams, The Hard Count, Hold My Breath, A Boy Like You and A Girl Like Me.

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).

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By Her Touch (Blank Canvas #2) by Adriana Anders

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He Will Always Bear the Scars

Undercover cop Clay Navarro left the Sultans biker gang a changed man. Its ringleaders may be awaiting trial, but he wears the memory of every brutal act he was forced to commit tattooed across his skin. He doesn't have space in his messed-up life for anything gentle--not now, maybe not ever. 

Dr. Georgette Hadley is drawn to the damaged stranger's pain, intimidated but intrigued by the warmth that lies beneath Clay's frightening exterior. But when the Sultans return looking for revenge, she finds herself drawn into the dirty underbelly of a life forged in violence...that not even her touch may be able to heal.










Dear god, she did it again. Adriana Anders had me glued to each page of By Her Touch. It's hard not to hang on to each and every word as she taps into something so deep and draws out each character's deepest desires.

Dr. Georgette Hadley aka George whom we met in the the first book is a dermatologist who offers a unique and sought-after service: she removes tattoos. The clients who normally seek her out for this are people who require a great deal of discretion, for example Uma in book 1 who escaped an abusive relationship that had left scars all over her body. She was a saviour to Uma as someone who helped her physically remove the remnants of a terrifying past so she could start afresh. This is what brings Clay Navarro to town. He was an undercover agent in a biker gang and things went horribly wrong when someone sold him out blowing his cover. He was ambushed by the gang and was mercilessly tattooed on his face and hands. After a stint at the hospital to recover from his injuries and surgery, he heads to Blackwood to seek out George's services. He needs those tattoos removed in order not to look so intimidating when he is called to testify in a few months. The added advantage of not being stared at and feared by any onlooker would be nice, too. 

George and Clay are two loners living in their own heads. When Clay walks into her clinic demanding absolute secrecy, she agrees to do it off the books. She doesn't know his story but can tell he's been through hell and back. The gruesome evidence all over his body is evidence of that. Clay, who needs to keep his distance can't help but feel a strange pull towards her. They're two opposites clinging to their own pain and suffering.  As strong as Clay is physically, he's a shattered soul on the inside with all the pressure of the world weighing him down. He worries more and more about his past catching up to him as he and George get more intimate. And speaking of the past, it's hers that's holding George back. Clay being in her life makes her question who she is living for and why she has purposefully stalled herself.

I read Under Her Skin in one day and I pretty much did the same with By Her Touch. I find Anders' descriptive writing makes her characters so accessible that I can sense their personalities. Getting to know George was something I was looking forward to. In the brief glimpses I had of her in Uma's story, she seemed strong and confident. Here, she is a contrast of sorts, seeming shy and indecisive every time she's around Clay. She couldn't even complete her sentences which kind of made me crazy. I enjoyed that Clay let down his guard and allowed himself to show affection. There's no denying the sizzling attraction between them. There's a scene in her office when she's rubbing cream on his back in preparation for the tattoo removal procedure that taps into their longing and need for assurance. The simple act of George touching his skin sends sparks through them both. The sensation is more than she expected. It's an astonishingly intimate and powerful moment that even I could tell that feeling human contact like this for the first time in a long time was too much for Clay's poor, mixed up senses to handle. The guy almost short-circuited! This is Anders' gift: that this moment that's not even a sex scene is that hypnotic and compelling. It only makes me excited about what lies ahead!

I'm only two books in and I can say with certainty that Adriana Anders has become one of my favourites. She knows how to write damaged souls and breathe new life into them. You want heat, drama and intimately sexy moments?  Here's your book!

~ Bel