Ron Does Stuff

I hadn’t really planned to review or even read this book at all. I was supposed to read another independently published book I bought during the Philippine Book Festival but it wasn’t grabbing my attention with the first few chapters so I decided to look for something else to read instead.

I found this book in the Bookbub newsletter I receive regularly and have only started to check again after I finally started reading more again. And because I am a CREATURE I clicked on this one because I thought the guy on the cover was hot. Also because it was free.

Will this be another one of those decisions I’ll end up regretting or will this book actually be worth my time? Let’s find out!

Stealing Home by Tara Wyatt is a second chance romance between 28-year-olds Maggie Jennings and Dylan McCormick. The two had been a couple when they were teenagers, with Maggie even giving her virginity to Dylan. However, Dylan breaks up with Maggie the summer before he heads to college, and it is a heartbreak that hits Maggie hard.

Ten years later, their paths cross once more when Dylan is traded to the Dallas Longhorns where Maggies the media director. Maggie can’t deny that even with the decade lost between them, their sexual chemistry is still undeniable. What she intended to be a closure fuck ends up becoming something else instead and now she has to choose between letting Dylan into her heart again or cutting him off from her life and keep her heart safe instead.

I didn’t know what to expect when I got a copy of Stealing Home. Other than the guy on the cover, I’m not particularly interested in baseball as a sport and the only baseball-related piece of media that has truly left an impression on me is the 1992 film A League of Their Own. And that guy up there whose ass got hit by a baseball. Whose name I only found out today!

I kind of went into this with an open mind but admittedly not much in the way of expectations as well. Whether it was the open mind of the lowered expectations, I actually found Stealing Home a pleasant read, especially when compared to Dirty South, which was my last romance read from a Western author. Compared to Dirty South, the parent-child conflict here is better written, with the male lead grappling with how much like his father he really is.

The female lead also doesn’t magically slve all of the male lead’s problems once they start sleeping with each other, with the love interest still having to work on his baseball skills. The final conflict in their relationship was also something I liked as well, with the female lead wanting to ensure that who she is still remains intact if the two of them decide to become an item once more.

I do wish that the final conflict could have happened a little earlier than 70 percent of the book because it didn’t feel like there was enough time for the male lead to win the heroine over. Or maybe the conflict happened at the right time and I just found the grand gesture lacking. And not to spoil or anything but it was symbolically grand — he’s fully opening himself up to the female lead! — but it still felt small?

Either way, this really was a pleasant read and quite a good bargain. Maybe I’ll check out the author’s other books if they ever show up in the next Bookbub email.