The Hard Way

by Katie Ashley

There are two sides to Cade Hall, or at least I hoped so because eth guy that the author introduced at the start of the book was someone I didn’t really have much time for.

He came from money, but his moral compass was pointing way off grid, he wanted for nothing except I think, the belief that someone actually cared for him, it became clear as the story unfolded that even surrounded by everything he could ever want and need, the adoration of his peers, women willing to fall at his feet, he wasn’t really complete and when he finally found that someone, the chance at happiness, the opportunity to actually be loved was taken away from him by a father that did what he always did best…he put himself first. His political career came before his son it always had, I finally understood why Cade was emotionally immature.

Avery Prescott was everything that Cade wasn’t, she was so far out of the popular crowd that had it not been for an assignment they had to work on together it is safe to say that they may never have gotten to where they were.

The time they spent together changed Cade, that was obvious, the normalcy of Avery’s life, the love of her family and the grounding that all of that brought to her was an eye-opener for him, but after one magnificent night, his father put paid to any dream that Cade had for a future with Avery, his options were limited and his choice was brutal… Keep Avery and lose everything he had worked towards, his football scholarship that would pave the way to the career he had always dreamed of his for a kid his age, the decision was painful but clear, what I hated was the spite that he injected towards his rejection of Avery, he broke her and that was cruel.

But 4 years later and Cade had taken his disregard a step too far by creating an unforgivable scene at a faculty meal. Not even his father can save his a$$ this time…but he might be able to salvage his academia if he agrees to spend the vacation serving almost a community service at a local shelter for homeless kids.

Little did he know that the woman that he had never had the bottle to apologise too, is the day manager there. Up steps Avery and his day just disappears down the drain!

Avery is training to be a lawyer but devotes her time to the kids at The Ark, she is completely devoted to them, having Cade and his constant reminder of the pain she went through is hard going but she makes him pay but refusing to let him off lightly, if there is a menial task to be done, it has his name all over it. But can she keep it up?

Time works in their favour and when she starts to see that Cade isn’t the guy she knew all those years ago she begins to thaw but will he let her down again, I really hoped not!

Cade was fabulous with the kids, he took one of the kids Darion to training with him and it was that relationship that was tested to breaking point, Darion made him a better man, or maybe that is the wrong thing to say, I think we was probably always a good guy, he just kept his soft side where it was less likely to get him hurt…he locked it away and trusted that he wasn’t capable of being loved.

Don’t underestimate the effect that this kid has on Cade and at one point in the storyline between the two of them I was in tears, I won’t say, you’ll know it when you get there but when you do you will need tissues.

This would be easy to say is the story of a cocky jock and how long it takes for the wronged girl from his past to forgive him and for them to move on to a happy ever after but in my opinion this is so much more, it is a story that carries well a life lesson about appreciation and forgiveness, of looking at who you are and what you have and making changes.