Dominic Girard
My final baseball season with the Easton U Pirates feels bittersweet. I’d like to go out on a high note, graduate, and focus on the family business. But a certain pitcher is making senior year a challenge. Not only because Maclain is stubborn as hell, but because he makes me feel things I never have about another guy. With each snarky comment and hard-won grin, he reveals a little more of himself, and before I know it, I’m in over my head.
Mason Maclain
I’ll be graduating college this year, which also means the end of baseball, a sport I’ve played my entire life. It feels like a significant chapter is coming to a close, leaving behind a void I’m unwilling to face. Something else I don’t want to face? The impossibly charming Pirates catcher, whose quick wit and killer smirk poke holes in all my defenses. With each lingering look and quiet exchange, I want to push him away and pull him closer at the same time. I’ve never felt this intense draw before, and there’s no way I’ll ever admit it.
When Coach proposes a team-building activity to improve our chemistry on the field, little does he know things are heating up behind the scenes as well. A flicker of a connection sparks into a firestorm, and soon Girard and I are experiencing things for the first time—together. But outside the haven of our hotel room, reality infringes all too soon. I’m clinging to my fraying relationship with my dad, and for Girard, coming out is still scary, loving family or not. Resisting the pull to Girard seems futile, but I struggle at every turn. Any longer and I’ll lose the only person who makes my pulse thud quicker than a fastball over home plate.
There’s a pitcher-and-catcher joke in there somewhere.
I’ll start this review with one word – WOW!
This book was a blast of emotions.
It touched my personal pain with losing my mom, and my heart hurt for McLain. My eyes were teary, and I just wanted to grab McLain and hug the sh*t out of him!
I’ve read books with a passing of a parent or a mom in particular, but somehow this book really entered my heart.
McLain and Girard were the most complicated couple I’ve read lately. Together, they were so powerful and so unique. I literally felt that intense feeling they had when they were together.
This book is written so well, so appealing, so exciting, so harsh, so light, so sweet, and God, how lovely it was!
I absolutely loved their love!
Everything in this book felt raw with those heartfelt moments that I just had to keep reading every second I couldn’t listen to the audio and vice versa.
The grumpy characters I’ve read weren’t as grumpy as McLain was! And it was so beautiful to see the soft side of him.
Perfect audiobook. Perfect narration. I wish this series would go on and on and on…