He’s her brother’s best friend, her new softball coach, and now…her first kiss. Too bad he’s also totally off-limits.There’s no doubt about it, Noah is avoiding Callie like the plague now that she’s living in the dorms on his college campus. She’d hoped this weeklong softball clinic would help put their past awkwardness behind them–after all, he’d taught her everything she knows about the … about the game. But her brother’s best friend is more of a jerk than ever. Until he kisses her. And now…well, now she doesn’t know what’s going on between them. But it doesn’t matter, not really. She’s not here for Noah, she’s only here to show the recruiters at the big showcase game that she has what it takes to play for a college team.
It’s a solid plan…until it all falls apart. Thanks to Noah’s overprotective interference, she’s kicked out of the showcase game, and any chance of college scholarships slips out of her reach. But there might be a way to salvage her plan and her future. She just has to be seen, right? Noah’s the new coach for a charity softball event and he owes her big time. She might just be able to save her scholarship chances if she can survive his coaching…and his kisses.
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This was a fun story.
Review of audiobook version of delightful, G-rated, YA, sports romance
Callie Cooper and Noah Mason grew up together as next-door neighbors in the fictional small town of Fairfield in Upstate New York. Noah was Callie’s older brother Eric’s best friend from kindergarten through high school, though after graduation they have been attending different universities, with Noah staying local at Fairfield University, and Eric attending a university in San Francisco. Currently Callie is 17, a few months away from turning 18, and a rising senior in high school. Though Noah is only 18 months older than her, he is a rising sophomore in college.
Callie and Noah have been friends all their lives. The main thing they had in common for most of those years was that both of them are talented pitchers, her with softball and him with baseball, until some months ago, when Noah sustained an injury to his pitching arm that ended any chance of a future professional career. Ever since that time, Noah has been cold and distant with Callie, and she is convinced that it is because he is mourning his lost career, and it pains him to be around her, because Callie remains a star pitcher with years of play ahead of her.
Callie is scheduled to participate in a weeklong, summer, softball clinic at Fairfield University, where she will be staying on campus at the dorms. She is certain she will run into Noah frequently this week, because his mother has informed her that he is doing an internship at the sports health center on campus, where her softball clinic will be held. She is greatly hoping that he will have healed enough emotionally from his crushing loss such that he no longer feels the need to withdraw from her.
As she had hoped, Callie spots Noah immediately her first day on campus but, rather than welcoming her with the warmth of a lifelong friend, he acts as if she is an impertinent stranger when she bounces toward him and greets him with an enthusiastic hug. Callie is shocked and hurt. Why is he still treating her so coldly? And what will it take to get their friendship back to normal?
This is a fun, YA romance which offers several, ever-popular themes from that genre: “friends to lovers,” “forbidden romance with big brother’s best friend,” and a “girl power” sports romance with a heroine who is a talented athlete. Callie and Noah are admirable, sympathetic protagonists, and even though this book is G-rated, there is plenty of chemistry between this attractive pair.
This is the first book in a trilogy, and in it we meet, as important subcharacters, Levi and Kate and Ox and Maddie, who are the romantic pairings of the next two books in the series.
I have read this book in Kindle format, and this week I had the chance to revisit it as an audiobook. It is narrated by Liz Krane, a talented voice artist. She does an excellent job with both male and female characters, of all ages and backgrounds.
I rate this book as follows:
Heroine: 4 stars
Hero: 4 stars
Subcharacters: 4 stars
Romance Plot: 4 stars
Sports Plot: 4 stars
Writing: 4 stars
Audiobook Narration: 4 stars
Overall: 4 star
4.5 / 5 stars
I’m a big fan of Maggie Dallen’s Briarwood High series, and The Perfect Catch, start of a new series of YA (sports) romances, does not disappoint.
Callie and Noah are relatable main characters I can root for, they have an engaging cast of secondary characters eager to help and/or muddy the emotional waters. (Levi is one of my favorite team members, I definitely want to read more about him!)
The first book was a great setup for following stories, and I’m looking forward to read the next book in the series (whenever it will be released)!
Surrounded by balls, can she find love? This is a very fun, very light, very breezy read about two friends who happen to be excellent at their chosen sports – softball and baseball – coming together after one of them tries to drive the other away. Excellent book, and I can’t wait to see more in this series.
Sweet
17-yo Callie is good at softball. I like softball; it was one of the few sports I was actually good at 😉 Callie is sweet and innocent, but not shy. Noah is her brother’s best friend and he used to be her friend too. But now he’s so cold and distant. Rude even. She thinks she represents his lost opportunities. When she gets the chance to play for the recruiters, she wants to give it her all. But then she does something wrong. She never does anything wrong and the one time she does she gets caught and punished. The universe isn’t fair.
Alternating POV’s Callie and Noah. Which was good, because by just Callie’s POV in the beginning you could have thought Noah really wasn’t a nice person. It could have become one-sided and now it wasn’t, so that was really nice. There’s a lot of thought process giving us insight in their feelings. Maybe a little too much thought during conversations, but I did really like it. It was a sweet story.
Callie and Noah have known each practically all of their lives…after all he was her neighbor and her brother’s best friend since he was 5 and she was 3! Noah always stuck up for Callie, taught her how to play softball and was a good friend to her…until a life altering injury caused him to view things differently and that included how he saw Callie! Great YA romance!
The perfect, pre-college sporty romance!
A fun, lighthearted YA romance.