Cry Baby by Ginger Scott

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Title: Cry Baby
Author: Ginger Scott
Published by: Indie
Release Date: June 22nd 2018
Format: eARC, Kindle Book
Pages: 322
Genres: Contemporary, Young Adult, Sports Romance
Source: the author
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2018 #LetsReadIndie Challenge, Lenoreo's 2018 New Release Challenge, Lenoreo's COYER Big Summer Birthday Bash 2018
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon ✩ B&N ✩ Google ✩ Kobo ✩ iBooks
My rating:

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.

My Review:

I received a free copy through the author in exchange for an honest and unbiased review/opinion.

4.5 stars — I’m having a hell of a time writing this review, and it’s not because I didn’t love it…probably the cause is the opposite.  I truly LOVED it and yet I’m having a hard time getting my thoughts in order.  This book was gritty.  Emotional.  REAL.

I felt all the things for both Tristan and Riley, but mostly Tristan.  His childhood and the situation he found himself in as a 17 year old young man as a result of his childhood really made an impact on me.  It’s an untenable position to be put in — to grow up knowing that once you’re in a gang, you don’t get out alive.  I truly understood how Tristan got into that position…and it made me HATE Dub with a passion.  Dub may have been lazy in so many ways, but he was a very smart man knowing how to hook kids early.  I appreciated the conflict in Tristan, and the conflict I felt, as a reader, in liking him despite some of his choices.  I felt for him, genuinely…but it was hard to watch the way he shut down in order to survive.  He really took us on a rollercoaster of emotions.

In so many ways I felt like Riley’s character was a representation of all that Tristan was missing in a “normal” life, a reflection for Tristan to look at.  And yet, her life wasn’t untouched by the violence either.  But she had a completely different perspective, and grew up with different influences.  I loved how bold and sassy she was, and how she pushed and pushed at situations where I would have curled into a ball and cried.  I totally laughed and wanted to high five Riley over the hair.  It was a perfect example of who she was.  Which is not to say that she didn’t have her own doubts, but they were in other areas.

I loved Riley’s relationship with her Dad, and how it served to showcase the stark difference in Tristan’s odd relationship with his Mom.  I understood how Tristan’s relationship with his Mom came to be, but it made me sad and I kind of wanted more there.  I appreciated that all of the interactions between Riley and her Dad felt real, and were often flawed as well…but you always felt the love and care.

As for the relationship between Riley and Tristan?  I loved the way it developed.  It could have felt fast, but it really felt like it went through the paces and was realistic for two 17-year-olds in that situation.  I felt that initial crush, and how it moved into genuine like and intrigue.  And I loved that the move into love was simultaneously fast and slow…because I think there are different ways to love.

I didn’t cry as much as I was expecting to, but I think that’s because I was anticipating some of the scenes.  They didn’t always happen as I expected, but they didn’t come out of left field either.

I especially loved that the ending wasn’t convenient and wrapped up in a bow.  There were consequences, and challenges.  It wasn’t magically fixed because Tristan finally wanted to take the good path.

As always, there were some great secondary characters and relationships.  Jaden was sweet and I enjoyed the bits his character added.  I loved that Riley made a friend in Lauren and that they connected despite their differences.  I wanted a bit more from Paul.  Not sure what, but I didn’t feel as connected to him as I think I wanted to.

The only other strange note for me was the side plot with the counselor at the school.  I ADORED the conversations she had with Tristan about his future, but I don’t think I quite understood why the advanced class change was made, or what the point of that was except to create an opportunity for Riley and Tristan to have more interactions.  I felt like that needed more basis in reality, otherwise it just felt convenient for the story.  That’s the basis for the half star loss for me.

All in all, it was everything I was anticipating and more.  Ms. Scott seriously knows how to tackle hard issues and I always eagerly anticipate her young adult offerings in particular.