Boys of Summer (Harlequin Blaze) - Julie Leto, Kimberly Raye, Leslie Kelly

....of why I stopped reading contemporary romance. I had such high hopes for this book to work for me: baseball players are my sports romance go-to guys and the HQ Blaze line was always good to me in the past. I figured reading a good baseball-centered book would be a great way to kick off MLB 2014 season. Good grief, Charlie Brown, what a load of crap! Three stories, three couples that I couldn't connect with and thus, didn't have any interest in rooting for them to get together.

 

Plot Summary: Since the major league team (Louisville Slammers - dumbest name ever) was used as collateral in a deal to help a team owner's pay off some family debt, players, fans, and business owners are upset that the team could leave Louisville for Las Vegas if owner doesn't make good on the loan. Three female business owners who depend on the team for their customer base decide to go after their sexual fantasies they harbor, using players from the team for one night stands. Stupid, stupid, stupid premise from the get-go. Needless to say, this pact among supposedly smart women wasn't mentioned in the blurb when I looked for baseball-themed romances.

 

Fever Pitch by Julie Leto

This story is why the book gets a one star. After finishing this story, I thought it was bad; compared to the other two stories, this is passable but major "meh". Callie and Donovan divorced six years ago and remained passive-aggressive friends since. When Donovan gets into financial trouble, he mortgages the team to pay off the debt. Callie helped him deal with the PR nightmare, and in spending time with Donovan, fell back into love with him. Ditto for Donovan. The sex scene was long, so I skimmed most of it, but it was wholly tame to most contemporary romance today. Callie had brains and she put them to good use in helping Donovan. Donovan was alright as a hero, but didn't really push my buttons. 1/5 stars.

 

The Sweet Spot by Kimberly Raye

This story was one hot mess. Babe (named after Babe Ruth because her father wanted a son - ugh) wants one night with playboy baseball star Cody Cameron. So she enlists the help of her childhood friend and current baseball coach Brody Jessup in seducing Cody. Brody agrees, just so he can finally admit his feelings for Babe and she can likewise admit she is hot for Brody, not Cody. Brody was a great hero; Babe was such crappy heroine, I wanted to yell at Brody "Run! Run now, save yourself from this loser!" Babe has serious body shaming issues, and uses her put-downs of her body to gain sympathy - well, it didn't work on me. I wanted to slap her and tell her to get over herself already. Babe was also way oversexed, to the point it was cartoonish; she would slut-shame groupies and yet she was planning on seducing a baseball player herself for an one night stand - so she was an oversexed, body-shaming, slut shaming hypocrite. *Sigh* 0/5 stars.

 

Sliding Home by Leslie Kelly

As if it couldn't get worse after the second story, the last story proves that yes, it can get worse. This time I couldn't like either MC; Riley was needy and hot tempered, and Janie was all sorts of awful. I don't read NA, but this story seems to be close to the type of story found in the NA genre. Janie was managing the sports collection type of store that her brother owns. Brother decided to up and join the National Guard after a bad marriage and divorce....and this is where I totally should have given up on the story. As a veteran, the military subplot/reason for Janie running the store had so many plot holes I could have driven a Bradley tank through them. The author did not do any proper research and it shows. Oh God, does it show. First, the NG does not do three year tours in the Middle East - hell, neither does active duty or the reserves! NG serves the state; it is a state asset, and as such, the federal government must seek permission from the governor to use the NG in overseas missions. Plus there are laws governing how long NG can be called up for federal active duty time - hint, three years is long past the time the law allows. Second, if brother was so upset over his awful marriage ending, his recruiter would not take him as quickly as the story dictated; military wants people of sound mind and emotional stability to join, not heartbroken idiots - those get us all killed. As for the MCs, he was scarred from a bad marriage and she is a typical self-sacrificing plain Jane. Janie also knows less than nothing about sports, and so the twist at the end was that Riley discovered baseball cards worth millions of dollars in her storeroom, giving her the opportunity to hire employees to run the shop while she travels with Riley - baseball's star pitcher. Whatever. 0/5 stars.

 

Overall, this book sucked as bad as my real team's record so far. Still, go Yankees!