May 23, 2013

After Math

Title: After Math
Author: Denise Grover Swank
Publisher: Createaspace
Publish Date:  12 March 2013
Pages: 250
ISBN:  9781482658644
Source:  AToMR tours
Genre:  New Adult, romance
Series:  Off the Subject
Other books in series:  Redesigned (10 June 2013), Business As Usual (late summer/early fall 2013)
Other books by author:  Rose Gardner Mysteries series, On the Otherside series, The Chosen series, Twin River Falls
Rating: really liked

Scarlett Goodwin’s world is divided into Before and After.

Before she agreed to tutor Tucker price, college junior Scarlett was introvert, struggling with her social anxiety and determined to not end up living in a trailer park like her mother and her younger sister. A mathematics major, she goes to her classes, to her job in the tutoring lab, and then hides in the apartment she shares with her friend, Caroline.

After junior Tucker Price, Southern University’s star soccer player enters the equation, her carefully plotted life is thrown off its axis. Tucker’s failing his required College Algebra class. With his eligibility is at risk, the university chancellor dangles an expensive piece of computer software for the math department if Scarlett agrees to privately tutor him.Tucker’s bad boy, womanizer reputation makes Scarlett wary of any contact, let alone spending several hours a week in close proximity.

But from her first encounter, she realizes Tucker isn’t the person everyone else sees. He carries a mountain of secrets which she suspects hold the reason to his self-destructive behavior. But the deeper she delves into the cause of his pain, the deeper she gets sucked into his chaos. Will Scarlett find the happiness she’s looking for, or will she be caught in Tucker’s aftermath?

What happens when you mix a socially introvert with the school’s most popular jock?  Scarlett never thought this would ever happen to her.  The only encounters she has had with Tucker, the college’s star soccer player, was running into him outside her class and occasionally seeing him on campus.  She was alright with that. 

Scarlett got anxious in social situations.  This happened when she was put in situations that were outside of the norm.  She was fine tutoring in the Math Lab.  Math equations calmed her.  Then one day, her world was turned upside down.  Tucker came into the lab needing to be tutored.  He had to do better in his Algebra class or he would risk losing his soccer scholarship. 

Scarlett didn’t want to help him as soon as he walked into the room.  She wasn’t that lucky, though.  He came to her station.  She helped him and thought that that was the end of it.  Then the director of the Math Lab informs her that the Chancellor of the college requested that she tutor Tucker on a regular basis.  Scarlett doesn’t want anything to do with this, but she is told that the math department is counting on this to get a program that they need.    Will Scarlett be able to get over her anxiety and tutor Tucker?  What will happen between Scarlett and Tucker?  Will Tucker be able to save his soccer scholarship?

When I heard that Swank had written this book, I was anxious to read it because I had participated in the blog tour of Here and it was well written.  I wasn’t disappointed in this book.  It seems that the New Adult category is just blossoming and there are a lot of books in this category.  The storyline starts out as the classic: the jock is being tutored by the “nerd” in order to stay on the [insert sport] team.  There are twists and turns in the book that make it worth the read.  Scarlett has some skeletons in her closet that have given her the anxiety disorder that she has.  She finds out that Tucker has some also.  I liked the way that Swank wrote in the discoveries of these skeletons.  As with a lot of books, I was disappointed that the book ended.  


There is an excerpt posted on Goodreads of After Math.  Here is the link:












1 comment:

  1. Sounds like a great read. Thanks for the review and recommendation.

    ReplyDelete

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