Victoria AKA "Vic" is gonna play baseball.  Who cares if it is a male dominated sport.  She signed up, showed up, and played hard.  She is gonna prove herself if it kills her.

 

Daniel knows she has a boyfriend, but he also knows the guy is a tool.  He cannot help but be interested in a girl who knows her own mind.  She can play baseball, and is a great addition to the team.

 

This book felt like is was fast paced.  I love the characters and eagerly devoured each page.  I felt like this book was a great read.  The story was rich, the characters fun to read, and the heat was just gentle.  I cannot wait to read the next installment!  I give this a 4/5 Kitty's Paws UP!

I am not ADHD or anything, but I sometimes see a shiny before I finish a book, even ones I like, and don't get back to it. Happens to most readers, I think. So here are a few, some I first opened years ago. All novels this time out, because collections and anthologies can be returned to at any time without issue (except reviewing).

 

1. Name of The Rose, Umberto Eco

 

This is ridiculous. I've been reading it, off and on, for about five years. It's long, dense, and translated, mostly. There are still chunks of Latin, as well as religious jargon and lore. But the prose is gorgeous, and the combination of books, monastic life, and murder keep bringing me back.

 

2. Lonesome Dove, Larry McMurtry

 

There aren't a lot of 1,000 page Westerns out there, and this is probably the only one to ever win a Pulitzer. Beautifully written without being showy, but it takes a good while to get going. Still, I miss the characters.

 

3. Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, Susanna Clarke

 

Okay, a lot of these are doorstops, and this is another with seriously dense, intricate prose. The Victorian England setting also ensures many of the well-to-do characters are stuffy and dry. Still, the magic theory and use of Faery, along with Norrell's cantankerousness, are big draws for me.

 

4. The Eight, Katherine Neville

 

Chess, computer programming, and DNA are the cornerstones of this one, and it is fascinating. The characters are a little dull sometimes, and there are some doldrums that set in, but the story is intriguing enough that I need to find my way back.

 

5. The Alchemaster's Apprentice, Walter Moers

 

One of Moers's Zamonia novels, this one about a cat-like creature being fattened up for it's magical lard by an evil genius and learning alchemy while trying to escape. Fun, but a little too cutesy sometimes. Still, the flat-out weirdness and nifty lead, as well as my love for the author, keep scratching at the back of my brain.

 

6. Brittle Innings, Michael Bishop

 

SF/Horror with a golem, kinda, playing baseball in the Forties. He is, of course, a power hitter, but also a great fielder. It sounds perfect for me, yeah? The rub comes from the ineffectual narrator and rape as a major plot point. I tend to avoid that. But the core concept is still awesome.

 

7. The Well of Ascension, Brandon Sanderson

 

This is a different kind of thing. The book is second in a popular series, and quite good. The magic systems are deep, the story clever and twisty, and the characters are almost all engaging. I didn't stop because of the book itself, or even because of a shiny. It's because I saw Sanderson in an interview and disliked him terribly. A pompous, superior and mean-spirited if that hour was anything to go by. Still, I believe you should separate the art from the artist in most cases. He hasn't done anything to except him from that, and I didn't stop reading Harlan Ellison or Piers Anthony because they were jerks, and the books really good, so I need to just get over it.

 

That's the list. What books are crying out for you to come back?

Bye!

 

As far as the 3 short stories go [Extra Innings] . . .
Liked the first and third ones, but the second one seemed to take forever to get through - even though it was a short story. All three stories had to do with 3 minor league baseball players waiting/hoping to get called up to the majors. I don't always care for anthologies due to the shortness of the stories and the stories sometimes feeling 'rushed.'

The other story [In His Wildest Dreams] was actually an addition to this book of a story that was released 10 years ago. It was included in this book as a part of the 10th anniversary celebration of Harlequin Blaze.
It centered on the heroine needing an additional participant in her dream study in order to finish her Master's Degree in psychology. The heroine's best friend offers up her brother, the hero, as the final participant. The hero has a long history of dating, but not committing to anyone.
He reluctantly agrees to participate in the study in order to be able to use a vacation cabin during a year that was supposed to be his sister's turn.
The sister warns the heroine that the hero is not someone she should get involved with, that he was charming but would never commit to anyone, etc. She then warns the hero that he better not even think of getting involved with the heroine, as the heroine has too much she needs to take care of in order to finish her degree and is not the type to get involved with someone like him.
Of course, you can figure out what happens from there.