The Hard Way

By: Katie Ashley

Narrated by: Kelsey Navarro, Tim Paige

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.

Cade finds it a total buzzkill 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.

Contains mature themes.

©2016 Katie Ashley (P)2020 Tantor

This a great story about resilient, overcoming heartbreak and hardship after loss. Making a great outcome out of grief and love.

I highly recommend this audiobook it's a great story of love and grief and how people can grow, change, and are capable of doing great things after hardship. A must listen in my personal opinion.

A surprisingly emotional story

This story surprised me. MMC was so terrible in the biggining I almost DNF, but I was glad I finished it. The story was more emotional than I expected.
Parts of this story felt a little far fetched and the timeline seemed rushed. I wish MMC did more introspection between high school and present day so his journey would feel more realistic. I also don't like how harsh his words were if he claims he said them as a way to soften the blow. Despite this, the MMC's flaws here realistic and I enjoyed his character journey. MFC went through a lot and forgave a lot pretty quickly. It helps that the catalyst for forgiveness was a pretty intense tragedy. Though I found it unrealistic that despite the terrible things she faced and how much anger she held, MFC forgave quickly. Though there is a HEA this is an emotional story and has a lot of tragedy. The frequent use of Shakespeare make it obvious that this is the style of romance the author was after: flawed characters who found love through bad situations and who's story isn't perfect but still special. Also pretty cheeky of the author to have the MCs talk about who at the end of RomComs the story feels unfinished bc audience doesn't see how the people go back to real life and how the other characters will behave and interact; then we don't get to see how MFC treats the MMC despite everything he did in the past.

Loved the narration but there is audio issues where parts of the sentence is cut off/missing, which breaks the immersion. This is the biggest reason for the lower score.

Please be warry of trigger warnings ⚠️

3 ⭐️⭐️⭐️ 🎧

I don't really have a lot to say about this one. I was what I thought it was going to be. Golden Boy p i s s e s off the smart girl in some way and then later needs her help.

I mean, that was the whole story in a nutshell. We did get hit with tragedy. That sucked big time.

In the end, I liked that they ended up together. I just wish he wasn't such a d bag in the beginning.
I loved Kelsey's narration.

Good Book… So Many Inaccuracies in the Setting

I really enjoyed this book, but it was set in my hometown and Cade supposedly went to my college. I always hate when authors put books in a world that exists and then are too lazy to do a little research to actually keep things accurate. So much of what happens at Georgia Tech is simply inaccurate, all the way to his major, which does not exist at Tech, an engineering school. And, it was just egregious to put Tech in the SEC. Just no! Tech is in the ACC! And, MLK preached at Ebenezer Baptist Church, not Ebenezer Church. Nor is the church so strict about dress codes. Also, she failed to consider Atlanta traffic. There is no way that a GSU student would choose to live in an apartment complex that Emory students live in. The schools are in the same city, but so far apart. I could go on and on about how she got Atlanta wrong, but I know it really isn’t that serious. Ok, rant over.

After I was able to move past all the flaws in the setting and the logistics of how the author fails to paint an accurate picture of Atlanta, I really enjoyed the book. I love that Cade grew so much in character. This one has a lot of depth and isn’t just spice and a HEA. I highly recommend it if you are looking for a grittier romance novel. This is not a lighthearted, happy, feel good romance, so listener beware. You will of course get a HEA.

Final thought, I wish that we got a bit more closure about both dads. Maybe because I have great parents, I struggle with parents being portrayed as absolute villains. I had so much hope for Cade’s dad, but his character didn’t grow at all. I also assumed we would get an identity reveal for Avery’s dad, but we were sort of just left to wonder about him.

The story line

This story was good and interesting in the manner it was presented. I like the old and the new.