He often went hungry and had no adult role models. Wade’s an easy-going charmer and playboy, but he had a terrible time as a child because his father was a useless drunk and his mother abandoned him right after birth. Slow Heat features the Heat’s catcher, Wade O’Riley, and publicist, Samantha McNead. I wanted to pinch him and tell him to get on with it. But, for me, Pace was a little too relaxed in going after what he wanted. I really liked how the plot comes to a climax and how it ends. Pace is a decent leading man, but not one who’ll stand out in my memory after a few months.

It was neat to see how her conversations influence what she writes and how she struggles to write about people she comes to care about. The romance is driven by Holly’s insistence that she doesn’t believe in love, even as she falls in love, and Pace’s reluctance to commit, even as he falls in love.

(I found the athletes’ superstitions to be a familiar idea, thanks to one of my favorite romances of all time, Phillips’ It Had To Be You.)Īnyway, Double Play deals with injuries, drug use and some other more serious angles to sports, and it includes very few details of actual games. But they supposedly can’t sleep together because it’s their sexual tension that’s helping the team.

They’re struck by chemistry right away and get roped into kissing before every game to bring the team luck. Blog reporter Holly Hutchins is determined to find out the team’s secrets, starting with the delectable Pace. In Double Play, Santa Barbara Pacific Heat pitcher Pace Martin is trying to hide a shoulder injury and looking for something more in life now that he realizes he can’t play baseball forever. (One of the awesome things about e-books is how easy it is to find older books, not that these are that old.)Īnyway, I’d never read a Shalvis book before, and I was pleased by her engaging story-telling and her well-thought-out characters. I recently came across a pair of baseball books by Jill Shalvis, Double Play (July 2009) and Slow Heat (February 2010). So, it probably goes without saying that I love sports books too – Seabiscuit, Friday Night Lights, Susan Elizabeth Phillips’ Chicago Stars’ series. There’s just something about that kind of overcoming-all-the-odds plot that reminds me of – yes I’m going to say it – romance novels and their happy endings. If my husband has a game on (of any sport), I’ll watch, but I don’t go out of my way to.

Double play by jill shalvis