Review - Swinging at Love (Suttonville Sentinels #2) by Kendra C. Highley

Image and blurb from Goodreads

Title: Swinging At Love
(Suttonville Sentinels #2)

Author: Kendra C. Highley

Release Date: March 13th, 2017

Age Category/ Genre: Young Adult Contemporary

Publisher: Entangled Teen (Crush)

Outfielder Tristan Murrell has a problem. As the number two slugger for the Suttonville Sentinels, his team is counting on him to make their very first run at the state championship. But he has a secret—his swing has totally deserted him. As in, he can’t hit anything. He needs to fix the issue, and fast, but how?

 
Ballerina Alyssa Kaplan has a problem, too. The shiny new sports complex in town has left her family’s batting cage business on the verge of going under. Nailing her audition for a prestigious dance company is everything, but there’s no way she’s letting her some shiny big-box company destroy her family’s livelihood. 

Tristan needs a miracle. So does Alyssa. And maybe, just maybe, Tristan’s secret weapon might be the girl of his dreams… 

Disclaimer: This book contains hot, shirtless baseball players, kisses that bring a ballerina to her knees, and a lot of baseball smack-talk. 

Goodreads

Buy Links: Amazon

3 “Baseball & Low Drama” Stars

ARC via NetGalley.

Thank you, Entangled Teen (Crush)!

If you’re into baseball and YA romance, you’ll probably love this, but if you’re like me and don’t understand much about the game, you might find yourself a little lost at times.

This is my third book by this author, and second book in this series. I really, really enjoyed The Bad Boy Bargain, but it had a lot less baseball than this one.

I don’t really blame the story here for my lack of connection, because I bet the problem is my total lack of knowledge of everything baseball. Like hockey, this is just one sport that, no matter how many games I try to watch, I end up never quite understanding. And if there’s something Swinging at Love is heavy on is baseball.

Alyssa and Tristan are fans of the game—her family owns a batting cage business and he’s one of the school team’s stars, so they live and breathe baseball. That translates well into the story, which features many scenes with the guys practicing and playing, and the girls talking about the game. Even Faith and Kyle, the main characters from the first book, are all about it when they make an appearance.

Thankfully, Alyssa gets to do more than just talk about it, though. She practices with Tristan and uses her knowledge (and her kisses) to help him get over his batting slump. That was one of my favorite sport-related themes in this story. I liked seeing Alyssa in action and I appreciate how the author showed her as someone who could’ve gone down the athlete role if she’d wanted to. Like Faith, though, Alyssa was more into music and dancing.

Tristan also ended up having a real important role in Alyssa’s life. He helped save her family struggling business, showing me that those two were really good for each other. I liked how it felt as if they came into each other’s lives at the right moment. That made the romance even more special.

Tristan and Alyssa were really cute together, but they lacked the kind of chemistry I’d come to expect in books by this author. Maybe that’s because everything came a little bit too easy in their relationship. First, it took them too long to even share scenes—by chapter eight, they’d interacted once or twice. But once they did start interacting, they were already kissing and moving into a relationship. The obstacles that came were overcome to easily and never created the amount of tension I normally want in my romances.

I think part of the reason the story lacked tension is because both Alyssa and Tristan were mature for their age. They handled every situation the best way possible, and, even when they didn’t, they faced the consequences and didn’t back down. That made them “good people”, as Alyssa and Tristan said themselves, but also made the story a little boring.

There were many things to like about this story, though. Alyssa’s relationship with her parents, Tristan’s friendship with Kyle and Dylan, Faith and Kyle showing up again, the girls supporting their boyfriends and their boyfriends supporting them back… It had some great elements. Unfortunately, the focus on baseball and the lack of tension made it my least favorite book by this author so far.

*If you liked this review (or not), if you read the book (or not), come say hello and leave your comments bellow.