Book Review | The Hard Way – Katie Ashley

The Hard Way
By: Katie Ashley

Series/Standalone: Standalone
Genre: Sports Romance/ New Adult
Publisher: Katie Ashley Productions
Publication Date: August 29th, 2016
My Rating: ✮✮✮✮
My Reading Format: Kindle eBook

Synopsis:

Cade Hall has always been the golden boy of the gridiron. Because of his talent at football, coupled with his father’s wealth, he’s always gotten his way. But when a night of drunken debauchery lands him in hot water with the college athletic board, neither his influential father nor his charming grin can save him. He finds it a total buzz kill when he is sentenced to community service with troubled youth at an inner-city shelter. But his nightmare is only beginning when his greatest high school regret is the very one in charge of the program, and she has him by the balls in more ways than one.

For Avery Prescott, senior year was a nightmare of epic proportions, and Cade Hall played the lead villain. After she fled her small town for college in the bright lights of Atlanta, she thought she had escaped the painful memories of her past. She never could have imagined Cade would waltz through the door of the outreach program she presided over. But Avery has news for Cade–she isn’t the same shy, doormat of a girl she was in high school. Since she holds Cade’s football future in her hands, she’s more than ready to make payback a real bitch.

Will the two stay in the defensive zone or discover that sometimes life’s greatest lessons are learned the hard way?

The Hard Way centers around two people. Cade Hall..hot wealthy football player with an ego the size of texas and Avery Prescot…sweet good girl from the other side of town that lives on a farm.

Cade has found himself in hot water after a streaking incident goes bad.

In order to stay on the football team and keep his scholarship he has to volunteer at a Shelter for troubled youth (it’s basically a big rec center). He’s all for it given that his football hero funds the shelter but little does he know it isn’t going to be all fun and games throwing the football around with the kids. Little does he know he’s about to get a blast from his past.

Cade broke Avery’s heart in high school. Now four years later she finds him standing in front of her. But this time the ball is in her court she has full control of the situation given the fact that she is the manager of the Shelter.

The Hard Way is told from two point of views and also it bounces back and forth from past to present. I found this made the novel more enjoyable. We got a glimpse at Cade and Avery’s relationship in highschool (a private school) and then we got a glimpse at the here and now. the best way to describe this is a Country girl meets City boy story.

In the past glimpses it shows the person Avery is (good country girl, scholarship kid, outcast, smart, and beautiful.) and also the person Cade is (City Boy, Privileged, Cocky, manwhore.) but when Cade and Avery are paired up to do a class project a friendship between the two is formed that eventually leads to a relationship and Avery’s heart getting smashed.

My favorite part of the past was the day Avery taught Cade how to drive the Harvester..which in the end led to Cade skinny dipping in the neighbors pond..which then led to Avery and Cade getting escorted off the property in a cop car. That day is the day their relationship started to evolve into something other than friendship. But teaching him how to drive the harvester was my favorite moment!

In the present we have Avery fighting with herself on whether to lower her walls she put up and let Cade back in and on the other hand we have Cade slowly evolving and become the man that Avery can be proud of instead of the kid from highschool that caused her to guard her heart.

I really enjoyed to concept of rich privileged man that has never worked a day in his life having to volunteer at a shelter for under privileged teens. Especially when he connected with one of the teenagers who was on his way to becoming a football star. Watching how Cade slowly came down from his high horse and realized that there are people out there that are just as talented as him that come from nothing was inspiring.

I also really loved all the 80’s movie references and how Katie Ashley mentioned Runaway Train at the end of the novel!!!! (If you all don’t know who Runaway Train is you need to read Katie Ashley’s rockstar romance series “Runaway Train”) loved it!

However, A tragedy occurs at the end of the novel that quickly changes Cade’s views on the world. I will admit the ending came out of nowhere one minute everything is happy and everyone is in love then next….BAM….TRAGEDY. Cade and ____’s conversation at the end made me cry. My heart broke for Cade. But it was the eye opener that Cade needed. And in the long run ____ made Cade a better person and taught him so many things especially the type of man he wants to be.

The beginning and end aren’t what’s important. It’s what you do in between that matters most.

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