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Varsity Tiebreaker (The Varsity Series Book 2) by Ginger Scott
Cover Designer: Ginger Scott
Goodreads TBR: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53602753-varsity-
Varsity Tiebreaker
Book 2 in The Varsity Series by Ginger Scott
Abby Cortez is a girl with goals, on the verge of turning eighteen and on the brink of stardom. Falling in love isn’t just something she doesn’t have time for, it’s something she doesn’t really believe in. Her rule? Date but never, ever fall.
Tory “Salvatore” D’Angelo loves falling in love…just not for real. The star basketball player at Allensville Public High gives his heart away one girl at a time then takes it back when he’s ready to move on. No serious feelings, no serious pain.
They’re both good plans until Abby’s jaded heart gets all tangled up with Tory’s hopeless one. A friendly rivalry grows into friendship, and long talks start to blur the lines.
Just one problem—Abby’s current boyfriend is Tory’s twin brother, Hayden.
This is book 2 in The Varsity Series by Ginger Scott. You can start this series of stand-alone mature YA sports romances now with Varsity Heartbreaker. Book 3, Varsity Rulebreaker, releases in October.
Excerpt – Varsity Tiebreaker by Ginger Scott
Tory D’Angelo
I’m not sure if she realizes she’s trembling, but she is, so to stop her from digging any deeper in a place so public and so filled with the fumes of microwave pizza and Coke machines, I reach forward and rest my hand on top of hers. We both freeze immediately, and I’m pretty sure my palm is already sweating. Her gaze lifts to meet mine, but I don’t let go of her hand just yet. I don’t make this touch a big deal, even though it sort of is. That’s not why I did it, and I don’t want to cheapen it. With our eyes locked on one another, I let the air fill with the touch of silence just long enough for a ragged, emotional breath to fall from her lips.
“You have every right to feel the way you do,” I say.
“And how’s that?” she fires back. Her hand shifts under mine, but she doesn’t pull it away.
“You feel like your dad sees a business opportunity where he should see his daughter.”
She swallows and keeps her gaze on mine for a beat before finally leaning back, pulling her hand away and glancing off to her side. With a snort sniffle, she runs the sleeve of my brother’s hoodie across her eyes, erasing the tiny break that she let herself have.
I’m suddenly not hungry. I don’t think I have ever not been hungry, but I couldn’t eat the rest of my burrito now if I were forced at gunpoint. It’s not that I feel sick, but more that I feel…envious. I was fooling myself thinking that Abby was a passing crush I could dismiss easily. Two months of riding shotgun with her through all things June and Lucas was just long enough for me to get hooked on having her around. But while it’s my advice she’s listening to right now, it’s my brother’s fucking sweatshirt she’s dabbing her tears with.
“So, see you at the game?” I know my move to leave is abrupt, especially after she just bared part of her soul. If I stay, though, I’m going to say things I don’t mean just out of sheer self-preservation. This is precisely why I don’t do relationships, I just do flirting and hookups. Feelings…well, they fucking feel.
“What, did you change your mind and suddenly decide that nine-eighty bare-minimum wasn’t good enough?” Her nose wrinkles after her insult, but I think I get where it’s coming from. She just hit me with a major share, and now I’m bailing. Better to lash out. Her and I aren’t so different.
“Something like that,” I say, holding up my lunch trash as a wave goodbye.
Abby’s face shifts slightly, her wrinkled mouth and dimmed eyes morphing from the snarky expression that accompanies her tease to the look of a girl who just lost her brand new balloon to the sky.
“That hoodie…” I say as I walk backward, pointing toward the center of her chest. “Looks good on you.” I leave things there with a tight-lipped smile and a nod, a truce of sorts, not that Abby even knew we were in a battle. Hell, we weren’t. I’m the only one in a conflict, and it’s with my own damn self.
I manage to turn my back to her and toss my trash out without pausing to get one more little jab in to fully take things back to our version of normal. I think for now, I’d like to leave things nice. I wasn’t counting on her wanting to leave things that way, too, though.
“I’ll be sure to cheer for you, even if I’m wearing Hayden’s number,” she shouts.
I spin on my feet and give her a thumbs up, but keep moving away from her because if I turn around, I’ll keep trying to win her over. And she’s not mine to be won.
My Thoughts:
This series is just another example of why I love Ginger Scott! She is my go-to author for fabulous YA romance. Her characters are real with real life struggles. She has mastered the balance of navigating that age where they’re not kids anymore, but not quite old enough to be considered adults.
Varsity Tiebreaker delivered on the angsty young adult drama. I was so excited at the end of Varsity Heartbreaker to see that Abby and Tory would get their own story. Although this can be read as a standalone, I recommend you read the first book too. In the first book you get a glimpse of Tory and Abby. To see their characters develop and understand why they act the way they do is fabulous.
Tory and Abby truly see each other, and it took them a minute to navigate their feelings, but it was totally worth it!
I wouldn’t call this book a true love triangle. To me, there is a clear winner the whole time it’s just a matter of them navigating everything happening in their world. Tory was so sweet and attentive, and Abby has such a kind heart and is a great friend. Tory and Hayden are dealing with so much family drama and Abby can relate and empathise with that. But Hayden was never THE ONE.
I loved watching these two navigate all the overwhelming feelings they had. And when they stop fighting against their feelings…gah it’s everything!
This book is so much more than just a romance. In addition to the push and pull between Tory and Abby, the relationships between this group of friends, and the relationship between the D’Angelo brothers is awesome. I can’t wait for more!
Grade: A-
PURCHASE NOW
Varsity Heartbreaker
Amazon US —> https://amzn.to/3aSWik0
Amazon UK —> https://amzn.to/2XwPRi4
Amazon AU —> https://amzn.to/2TL6VzP
Amazon CA —> https://amzn.to/2X54ave
★☆★Read FREE w/Kindle Unlimited★☆★
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Varsity Rulebreaker – https://amzn.to/3bgh7pN
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, and A Boy Like You.
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).
Social Media Links:
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/GingerScottAuthor
Twitter: @TheGingerScottPinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/thegingerscott/
