Susan F. (scoutmomskf) -
This one has been sitting on my TBR for a long time, so it jumped to the top of the pile when I needed to read a sports-related romance. I enjoyed the quirky small town, the misfit-filled baseball team, and the importance of family to the main characters. The story was a lot of fun, the characters felt realistic, and many of the situations were believable.
Caleb is a baseball pitcher who had a shot at the big leagues and blew it. He's back in the minor leagues, playing for the Kilby Catfish. He knows he must get his act together, but he has family issues that complicate his concentration. Caleb is a good man. We learn what he has given up for his family and why it was needed. He has a great relationship with his younger brothers and his sister. He is also sexy and charming and protective of those he cares for. He also has trust issues and a deep-seated dislike of being surprised/blindsided.
Sadie is a young woman who hasn't had an easy life. Her father abandoned the family, and her mother shuts down whenever life gets stressful. Sadie dated the town's golden boy, Hamilton Wade, for a while but broke things off when she got tired of him cheating on her. Hamilton takes his revenge by trashing her reputation via social media, including sharing a video he made of a private moment between them. But with the Wade family owning the town, Sadie finds it difficult to get her life back on track.
Sadie and Caleb meet when she delivers a petition from the town to the team owner, calling for the team to clean up their act. The players can be very rowdy, which doesn't sit well with some more conservative townspeople. Management assigns Caleb to work with Sadie to find a way to reconcile the differences (Sluggers for Slugs?!!). The sparks between Sadie and Caleb are immediately apparent, but neither needs the complications a relationship would cause.
I loved watching their relationship develop. They first try to fight it because each has their own goals to focus on. But the more time they spend together, the deeper their connection grows. They start by enjoying the here and now, realizing it may not last. But it isn't long until they've gotten past each other's walls. I liked watching them fight to make their relationship work, which isn't easy when one person is frequently away. But both hold back a little, reluctant to share their deepest secrets. When those secrets collide with their fears, both Sadie and Caleb must face those fears. I loved seeing Sadie meet hers to help Caleb - and an incredible sight that was! Unfortunately, outside interference causes some crossed communication, and Caleb makes a total idiot and jerk out of himself. He has his work cut out to fix things, and I loved that Sadie didn't make it easy for him.
The secondary characters were terrific, each adding something special to the story. Sadie's mother showed us why Sadie has some of her trust issues. Her best friend Donna is a great foil and a tremendous source of support. Caleb's best friend, Mike, is a source of support for him. Sparks between Mike and Donna bode well for the next book. Caleb's father, Bingo, is the source of many of Caleb's issues. The strained relationship between them contributes to some of the drama in this book. I mostly liked the mayor, who hired Sadie and gave her a chance to move on from her past trauma. I liked the Catfishs' owner, Crush Taylor, a Kilby native and former pitcher. He tends to be as wild as the men on his team, which causes some interesting tension between him and the mayor. But Crush also backs up his players when they need it, and there is a terrific scene near the end of the book when he is there for his player's girl, Sadie.
Caleb is a baseball pitcher who had a shot at the big leagues and blew it. He's back in the minor leagues, playing for the Kilby Catfish. He knows he must get his act together, but he has family issues that complicate his concentration. Caleb is a good man. We learn what he has given up for his family and why it was needed. He has a great relationship with his younger brothers and his sister. He is also sexy and charming and protective of those he cares for. He also has trust issues and a deep-seated dislike of being surprised/blindsided.
Sadie is a young woman who hasn't had an easy life. Her father abandoned the family, and her mother shuts down whenever life gets stressful. Sadie dated the town's golden boy, Hamilton Wade, for a while but broke things off when she got tired of him cheating on her. Hamilton takes his revenge by trashing her reputation via social media, including sharing a video he made of a private moment between them. But with the Wade family owning the town, Sadie finds it difficult to get her life back on track.
Sadie and Caleb meet when she delivers a petition from the town to the team owner, calling for the team to clean up their act. The players can be very rowdy, which doesn't sit well with some more conservative townspeople. Management assigns Caleb to work with Sadie to find a way to reconcile the differences (Sluggers for Slugs?!!). The sparks between Sadie and Caleb are immediately apparent, but neither needs the complications a relationship would cause.
I loved watching their relationship develop. They first try to fight it because each has their own goals to focus on. But the more time they spend together, the deeper their connection grows. They start by enjoying the here and now, realizing it may not last. But it isn't long until they've gotten past each other's walls. I liked watching them fight to make their relationship work, which isn't easy when one person is frequently away. But both hold back a little, reluctant to share their deepest secrets. When those secrets collide with their fears, both Sadie and Caleb must face those fears. I loved seeing Sadie meet hers to help Caleb - and an incredible sight that was! Unfortunately, outside interference causes some crossed communication, and Caleb makes a total idiot and jerk out of himself. He has his work cut out to fix things, and I loved that Sadie didn't make it easy for him.
The secondary characters were terrific, each adding something special to the story. Sadie's mother showed us why Sadie has some of her trust issues. Her best friend Donna is a great foil and a tremendous source of support. Caleb's best friend, Mike, is a source of support for him. Sparks between Mike and Donna bode well for the next book. Caleb's father, Bingo, is the source of many of Caleb's issues. The strained relationship between them contributes to some of the drama in this book. I mostly liked the mayor, who hired Sadie and gave her a chance to move on from her past trauma. I liked the Catfishs' owner, Crush Taylor, a Kilby native and former pitcher. He tends to be as wild as the men on his team, which causes some interesting tension between him and the mayor. But Crush also backs up his players when they need it, and there is a terrific scene near the end of the book when he is there for his player's girl, Sadie.
Jennifer Bernard is the first author I reviewed when I started this blog last year. I fell in love with her Bachelor Firemen series and have read all of them multiple times. I wasnt surprised when her newest release, ALL OF ME, started hitting homeruns and scoring big right from the start.
Set in Texas and centering on the minor league baseball team, the Kilby Catfish, ALL OF ME features a cast of lovable but wild baseball players, strong-willed independent women, and quirky supporting characters, all guaranteed to make you smile. The romance is strong and the plot is very believable: hometown girl jilts her rich boyfriend who proceeds to make her life a living hell until a handsome ball player comes to her rescue. Jennifer Bernard tackles the serious issue of Internet bullying with a calm ferocity, using the issue to paint a vivid portrait of her heroine and her slimy ex-fiancé and their past and present dealings, and our hero's issues on the field and at home, all to create a tangled line of conflict that drives the story well.
Supporting characters are fun and well-drawn with some hilarious scenes. There are hints of future books in the series with the introduction of other players and characters that entice us but dont take over a scene. The story stays centered on Sadie and Caleb.
ALL OF ME is loads of fun and Jennifer Bernards best yet. A great beach read this summer or anytime and you wont have to like baseball to love it.
Rating: 5 stars
Set in Texas and centering on the minor league baseball team, the Kilby Catfish, ALL OF ME features a cast of lovable but wild baseball players, strong-willed independent women, and quirky supporting characters, all guaranteed to make you smile. The romance is strong and the plot is very believable: hometown girl jilts her rich boyfriend who proceeds to make her life a living hell until a handsome ball player comes to her rescue. Jennifer Bernard tackles the serious issue of Internet bullying with a calm ferocity, using the issue to paint a vivid portrait of her heroine and her slimy ex-fiancé and their past and present dealings, and our hero's issues on the field and at home, all to create a tangled line of conflict that drives the story well.
Supporting characters are fun and well-drawn with some hilarious scenes. There are hints of future books in the series with the introduction of other players and characters that entice us but dont take over a scene. The story stays centered on Sadie and Caleb.
ALL OF ME is loads of fun and Jennifer Bernards best yet. A great beach read this summer or anytime and you wont have to like baseball to love it.
Rating: 5 stars
