May 7, 2013

Blog Tour: After Math by Denise Grover Swank – Review and G1veaway

Welcome to our Tour Stop for

After Math (Off the Subject #1) by Denise Grover Swank

presented by AToMR Tours!

Be sure to enter the giveaway found at the end of the post!

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?

After Math (Off the Subject #1)
by Denise Grover Swank
Publication Date:  March 12, 2013
Publisher:  Createspace

Available for Purchase:
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** This title was provided to us by the Author for an honest review. We were in no way paid for our opinions **

After Math by Denise Grover Swank was a book that I was really excited to start reading.  I loved her book HERE, and so was curious to see what this book had in store.  What I found was a story that kept breaking my heart over and over again, and left me a little misty eyed at times.

The story revolves around college students, Scarlett and Tucker.  Scarlett is a math whiz who has her sights set on working with the FBI, and Tucker is the campus stud and soccer superstar, with a scandalous reputation.  But fate plays its wicked game and Scarlett ends up having to tutor Tucker in Algebra in order for him to keep his grades up and keep his soccer scholarship.

As the tutoring sessions proceed, feelings between Scarlett and Tucker evolve.  But with both of them trying to escape dark pasts, they are both pretty broken and any semblance of a relationship between them would be nothing but destructive…or would it?

This book pretty much tore my heart apart.  At first, we learn that Tucker is this star that pretty much lives by the saying “love ‘em and leave ‘em”.  Who knows how many hearts this stud has broken!  No, no it wasn’t this egomaniac Tucker that I found attractive.  It was the side that he showed to Scarlett.  His sweet and vulnerable side was what got me.  His honesty with her, his tenderness, and how even just little things he did (like buying a cup of coffee and a bagel for Scarlett) had me smirking over this bad boy.

But his bad boy attitude is something that he’s had for a while.  A terrible past has made him a completely different person than what Scarlett knows.  And it killed me to learn all these little bits and pieces of his past.  I wanted to reach into the book and hug him myself, that’s how much I felt for him.

But Tucker’s not the only one who had a troubled past.  Scarlett has lived a pretty difficult life herself, which led her to have anxiety attacks.  What I loved about Scarlett was her determination to not turn into her mother.  To be the best she can be to become exactly what she wants to be.  She is smart and funny, and someone that I really enjoyed getting to know in After Math.  I will admit that in the beginning, I found her a little snobbish with the way in which she would talk to Tucker, especially with the way in which she would speak.  But after reading the book, I guess that was the effect that author, Denise Grover Swank, was going for!  As the storyline between Tucker and Scarlett progressed, not only did I see a change in her personality, but she lost her snobby way of speaking and became someone that I really enjoyed watching breaking out of the walls she had built up all those years ago.

I know that Tucker’s reputation of sleeping around is one that should really concern Scarlett’s friends, but I was really annoyed with the Caroline’s attitude when it came to the subject of Scarlett and Tucker.  The way in which she would quickly go from friendly to pissed off-ish as soon as the subject of Tucker came up.  And why is the answer always “have a drink…have another drink…”?   Yah, no.  That’s not the answer to the problems.

All in all, this was a book that I was so glad to have been able to read as it has some subject matter that will really touch readers’ hearts everywhere.  After Math by Denise Grover Swank delves deep into the lives of troubled pasts and possibilities of second chances.  It will slowly imprint itself into your mind and have you thinking about it long after you’ve finished reading it.

About the Author:

Denise Grover Swank lives in Lee’s Summit, Missouri. She’s a gypsy who can’t live in one place too long or stay in one genre. She writes contemporary romance, urban fantasies without vampires and werewolves, young adult science fiction, and romantic comedy mysteries set in the south. Denise has six children, three dogs, and an overactive imagination. She can be found dancing in her kitchen with her children, reading, or writing her next book. You will rarely find her cleaning.

Connect with the Author:  Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

Be sure to check out the other amazing blogs participating in this tour! You can check them all our HERE!

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