5

I didn't know what to expect exactly, but I knew I was craving a good romance and I love the author's writing style, so I dived in. And Ginger Scott delivered.

This story has so much depth. It's not the usual romance with loveable but slightly superficial characters. Nope, here we've got complex characters that feel real and so human, trying to navigate the world in all its glorious beauty and its dark parts. I loved it, just like I loved Riley and Tristan. Their love story was a real treat. I always feel so much more when a story isn't only about romance, but is multi-faceted. Well, I got exactly what I wanted here.

Of course, feeling so much from a story is only possible if the author is good. That's where the beautiful writing comes into play, along with a good plot. Ginger Scott definitely has a way with words, and despite the topics involved the story has a poetic feeling to it. But it has witty lines too, and that's my favourite combination.

I'm slightly bumped we didn't get more from the epilogue, because I wanted to stay a little bit longer with Riley and Tristan, but well. Sometimes not having everything written in stone is not necessarily a bad thing.

For sweeping me into the characters' world and into their head, for making me feel everything along with them, and for getting me engrossed in the story and its heart... Thank you Ginger Scott.

4.5 Stars. Tristan and Riley’s story was gritty, real, at times heartbreaking, but infused with so much hope. The writing was flawless. It sucked me in and I found myself wholeheartedly swimming in the emotions Tristan and Riley were going through. Start to finish this book had me hooked! I wish we got a little more in the end. It left me feeling incomplete but hopeful... maybe someday we’ll get more Tristan & Riley. One can hope 🤞🏽 Definitely read this book y’all!

Oh my heart! This book was just everything! It captured my heart from page one and did not let go. I loved the characters, the storyline, the emotions I had from reading this fantastic book. I could not put it down and ended up reading into the early morning hours.

I'm so emotinal right now!! I don't know what to say.
This book was just beautiful. ❤❤

Cry Baby is exactly why I find myself craving YA reads. I return to the genre time and again, as a reboot of sorts, but Cry Baby took my love of YA to a new level. Not only is Ginger Scotts' writing simply stunning, the story line smart, but there is a profoundness to these characters that grabs the reader and doesn't let go. I know nothing about gang life, but Ginger Scott made me feel like I was living in the neighborhood, peering into the life of a young man resolved to a desolate future and a girl on the cusp of breaking out and creating that better life.

The story is told from both Tristan's and Riley's perspectives giving us a unique view of living in poverty but with different foundations and expectations. I love both characters, but being in Tristan's head was an altogether unsettling experience. The boy owned me. I couldn't have rooted for a character more, as he rationalizes with his decisions and the push and pull of emotions he feels for Riley. He weighs everything, every emotion, because he has to. He can't let the crew in on how he feels, and he tamps down any desire for a future away from where his life started.

Riley, a brave young women if ever there was one. She's new to the hood and desperately wants to fit in, if only to be able to play basketball. She's a good enough player that the sport could be her ticket out. When she's snubbed by the rec players, driven by Tristan and his crew, she shows this group just how bold she is and proudly breaks down Tristan's walls. The story is perfectly paced and the circumstances of his involvement in a gang and Riley's protective single father means these two face only uphill battles.

"I don’t belong here. Tristan does. And that has everything to do with the point he just tried to make. I get it; I’m not stupid. I know what he is. I just don’t believe it’s all he is. And I don’t think he does either."

And so neither did I. Tristan is not what you'd initially think of a BBF material, but there is just such a depth to him, as he struggles to believe he deserves ore

"Riley has opened this window to what I could be. She’s built a bridge between my reality and my fantasyland, and I can’t stop crossing it."

I just found myself so emotionally involved in their plight. The danger and dread is palpable, and my heart swelled with pride and drowned with grief. Scott doesn't shy away from heartbreak and I found myself blubbering in tears more than once. I just wanted to see these two lift each other up - to forge a new life in a new place, and remained hopeful when it felt like all was lost. Thank you Ginger for giving us a beautiful love story with two beautiful characters. It's not too soon for a re-read. I'm just 5++ Stars #MustRead

*I was gifted a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review*

Tristan and Riley both caputured my heart within a few chapters. I felt so heartbroken for Tristan "Cry Baby" Lopez and the world he was born into. He truly had no choice but to follow in his father's footsteps and live a life of crime and ruthlessness, despite the fact that he had a good heart. This book articulated so well the struggles of poverty stricken communities and the capativity that comes with it. You don't get out. You don't make something of yourself. It's a vicious cycle that keeps repeating. So many young characters in the book lost parents to the life and had no way out.

I adored how Tristan continuously pushed Riley to follow her dreams and not let her circumstances define her future. She was a talented basketball player and just needed opportunity. He did all that he could to make that happen for her. He tried so hard to shield her from the gang life that ran their town. He put her first so many times, even knowing the consequences that would come down on him.

Cry Baby had so much emotion and pain written within it's pages. When you got small glimpses of happiness or joy, it felt so much more rewarding because they were few and far between. Scott clearly put a lot of thought and empathy into writing this story.

This read had me in a choke hold until the very end, when it basically blew up in my face. WTF was that ending!?!?! We didn't get a HEA and I can't even call what took place a HFN either! How could the author pull us into this horrific situation and leave it hanging that way? I knocked a star or two off just because of how pissed off I was at the end.

Ginger Scott is one of those authors for me. That when she releases a book, I HAVE to read it! If I’m lucky enough to get an ARC, then I also buy the book. I love her books, they’re written as though she poured every emotion out of her heart and into her words. They touch me so deeply that when I see the cover months & years later, I am moved by the memory of reading that story.

Cry Baby was so raw, so honest, so emotional and complicated. Nobody could have written this story better. Gang culture is a common and real problem in society today, and they prey on the very young. Sometimes good people become swept up in terrible things, and sometimes choice doesn’t exist. There aren’t easy answers, but in it all, there is love. Somewhere. Often deep and hidden. And there is good. And that’s what this story is about. Tristan was one of these good people, swept up in gang life and the terrible things that came with it. Then Riley came along, and she showed Tristan what his life could be. But getting out of gang life isn’t that easy.

"Riley has opened this window to what I could be. She’s built a bridge between my reality and my fantasyland, and I can’t stop crossing it."

This YA Romance is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!! I give it 5/5 Stars!!

This story was just incredible. Prior to reading, I didn't have the highest of expectations but it only took the first two chapters for me to realise that this was going to be unlike anything else I've read.

And by the last two chapters, I also knew this was going to be one of the easiest five stars I've ever had to give.

I almost wish there were an extra hundred pages for me to indulge in, but every word in this 288 page story is what was necessary. There is no sugar coated narrative, no irrelevant dialogue, no opportunity for the reader to skim over a paragraph - just a 288 page story of two people who have a voice only they can hear.