Sliding home…for a lifetimeThe girl next door… to keep her family together, Zoey has no time for romance…even with a hometown hero. But will this unlikely combo be the home run love story they all deserve?
I liked this read, it had a lot of heart. Zoey and Sutton’s story will give you plenty of feels. This book has an engaging story that entertains, while also maintaining a strong sense of realism. I could 100% believe in these characters, their situations and their romance. I felt both characters were extremely likable and I thought they made an easy to root for couple. Taken all together this creates a wonderful romance that was a real pleasure to read. I am posting a sincere, volitional review.
Author
lauriereadsromance
2 years ago
I was really looking forward to reading “A Winning Season” by Rochelle Alers because I’m a big fan of both baseball and small-town romances, but unfortunately, I didn’t enjoy it as much as I had hoped I would. On the positive side, I liked main characters Sutton and Zoey and thought that they were well-developed. That said, IMO the character development was achieved somewhat awkwardly through the insertion of random information dumps in the middle of conversations or as the characters were thinking about unrelated topics. There was also a fair amount of repetition; for example, how many times did we need to be reminded that Zoey “had to grow up quickly” because she became her brothers’ guardian?
Sutton and Zoey’s romance seemed rather lackluster to me as well. They didn’t seem to be a very good fit as a couple because they were at such different places in their lives and had opposing goals and dreams. Sutton was ready to settle down in his hometown, become a teacher, and start a family, while Zoey was counting down the days until her youngest brother graduated from high school so she could finally start living life for herself. She dreamed of attending nursing school and establishing herself in her career before thinking of marriage and children, but when Sutton came along, it seemed like those thoughts suddenly went out the window. They eventually agreed to marry right away and hold off on having children until after Zoey finished nursing school, but I had a tough time understanding why Sutton would go along with that plan. He made basically the same agreement with his first wife, and it didn’t work out very well for him. What happens if Zoey decides she still isn’t ready to start a family when she finishes nursing school? How much longer is Sutton willing to wait to have children?
The pacing of Zoey and Sutton’s relationship felt off to me too. They became close friends almost immediately and started exchanging confidences within hours of their first meeting, which seemed very unrealistic to me. It takes time to build the kind of trust necessary to share such intimate secrets! Then, just a few days later and before they had even been out on an official date, Sutton was already asking Zoey “hypothetically” what he’d have to do to get her to marry him. He progressed to telling her that he loved her shortly thereafter. It all felt incredibly rushed, and their feelings for each other did not feel believable to me as a result.
Overall, the things I didn’t like about this story outweighed the ones I did, so I cannot recommend “A Winning Season.” I would try another one of the author’s books in the future, however.
*ARC provided by the publisher via NetGalley. All opinions expressed are my own.
I liked this read, it had a lot of heart. Zoey and Sutton’s story will give you plenty of feels. This book has an engaging story that entertains, while also maintaining a strong sense of realism. I could 100% believe in these characters, their situations and their romance. I felt both characters were extremely likable and I thought they made an easy to root for couple. Taken all together this creates a wonderful romance that was a real pleasure to read. I am posting a sincere, volitional review.
I was really looking forward to reading “A Winning Season” by Rochelle Alers because I’m a big fan of both baseball and small-town romances, but unfortunately, I didn’t enjoy it as much as I had hoped I would. On the positive side, I liked main characters Sutton and Zoey and thought that they were well-developed. That said, IMO the character development was achieved somewhat awkwardly through the insertion of random information dumps in the middle of conversations or as the characters were thinking about unrelated topics. There was also a fair amount of repetition; for example, how many times did we need to be reminded that Zoey “had to grow up quickly” because she became her brothers’ guardian?
Sutton and Zoey’s romance seemed rather lackluster to me as well. They didn’t seem to be a very good fit as a couple because they were at such different places in their lives and had opposing goals and dreams. Sutton was ready to settle down in his hometown, become a teacher, and start a family, while Zoey was counting down the days until her youngest brother graduated from high school so she could finally start living life for herself. She dreamed of attending nursing school and establishing herself in her career before thinking of marriage and children, but when Sutton came along, it seemed like those thoughts suddenly went out the window. They eventually agreed to marry right away and hold off on having children until after Zoey finished nursing school, but I had a tough time understanding why Sutton would go along with that plan. He made basically the same agreement with his first wife, and it didn’t work out very well for him. What happens if Zoey decides she still isn’t ready to start a family when she finishes nursing school? How much longer is Sutton willing to wait to have children?
The pacing of Zoey and Sutton’s relationship felt off to me too. They became close friends almost immediately and started exchanging confidences within hours of their first meeting, which seemed very unrealistic to me. It takes time to build the kind of trust necessary to share such intimate secrets! Then, just a few days later and before they had even been out on an official date, Sutton was already asking Zoey “hypothetically” what he’d have to do to get her to marry him. He progressed to telling her that he loved her shortly thereafter. It all felt incredibly rushed, and their feelings for each other did not feel believable to me as a result.
Overall, the things I didn’t like about this story outweighed the ones I did, so I cannot recommend “A Winning Season.” I would try another one of the author’s books in the future, however.
*ARC provided by the publisher via NetGalley. All opinions expressed are my own.