Stealing hearts isn’t as easy as stealing bases.Tomboy Casey Beeler is used to being a loner. But one viral video gives her more than she bargains for, including a chance to start the softball team she’s always wanted. In love and sports, timing is everything. If Casey doesn’t do what it takes to get her softball team off the ground now, she may not get another chance. The only problem . . . it … problem . . . it could cost her the one thing she loves more than sports—Lucas Hargrove.
Lucas Hargrove seems to have it all, money, looks, baseball, Harvard. But looks can be deceiving. The pressure of living up to his perfect image is getting to him. He doesn’t even know if he wants to go to Harvard. The only thing he does know is that he can’t fight his feelings for Casey Beeler any longer, no matter what his parents say. But who gives up Harvard for a girl they’ve only kissed once?
Casey attempts to navigate high school mean girls, homecoming dates and her new softball team, all while pursuing her long-time crush. But stealing hearts isn’t as easy as stealing bases.
Can these two star-crossed lovers find their way, or will they have to choose between love and the sports they love?
A sweet stand-alone high school sports romance.
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This was a phenomenal new novel in the How to Date a Tomboy series from Christina Benjamin. I was really excited that Casey and Lucas were getting their own story. Tomboys Don’t Wear Pink is a fun loving young adult novel with themes of teenage angst, insecurities, and drama yet is also filled with witty banter, self-doubt, maturity, and love. Lucas is a teenage baseball player with his whole future planned out for him, yet he questions whether it’s what he really wants. Casey is a young woman who grew up with a single father and doesn’t know how to be feminine. Do these star crossed lovers have what it takes to not only go after what they really want but also prove all the nay sayers wrong? A captivating and relate-able story that will hook readers from beginning to end. I absolutely loved this novel and can’t wait to read more from Christina Benjamin.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
This was a cute read. I loved that we got to see Alex and Grant again. Can’t wait to read the next book in the series.
I volunteered to read this ARC for an honest review. I loved this story about Casey and Lucas. Lucas is the star catcher of their HS baseball team and a good friend. When the boys win their championship game he celebrates by missing Casey. Unfortunately summer happens and they have different directions. He’s thinking about her and she’s doing the same. So when they have a chance to make more of their friendship they take the chance. But things aren’t always easy. Miscommunication is a pain. But great HEA in the end.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
This is book one in the How to Date a Tomboy series. Casey is a loner but due to a viral video, she has the opportunity to start a softball team. This should be easy but it comes with a bridge that she doesn’t want to burn, Lucas. Lucas, has it all, he is perfect. But this perfect image is exhausting him and his let go is Harvard of all things. These two characters are attracted to one another but can they make a relationship work with everything else they have going on? A sweet, clean, entertaining story. Enjoy!
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
This story was fantastic!! It was a great read that pulled me in from beginning to end. This is a spin off story from Trouble with Tomboys. It is a complete standalone but if you have read that book then you will recognize some characters. I was really excited when I found out that Christina Benjamin was writing this series! I was super happy to get to revisit these characters! I love Casey! She is a tomboy that has finally gotten a friend and things seem to be looking up for her but things take a turn fairly quickly. Lucas kissed Casey right before summer started and then they have not gotten to see each other or figure out what is going on with them. They both want a great year but things keep getting in the way as Casey becomes a target for the mean girls and gossips and there are a lot of misunderstandings that these two have to deal with. This story was easy to read. It pulled me in and I fell in love with the characters very quickly. Both Lucas and Casey are dealing with big things that they have to figure out what is best for them and how everything fits. They are at the time in their life where they have some bigger decisions as they are trying to figure out who they are and trying to break out of boxes. The characters were easy to relate to and I am very excited to read the next book in the series!
I voluntarily reviewed an ARC of this book.
This is a good story for teens and young adults. It has been a long time since I was that age but this brings back all the angst of that time. I actually enjoyed this story.
(4.5 stars) – cuz you can love a sport without being any less feminine for it
This is a spinoff series from “The Trouble With Tomboys: Playing the Field” (which is not necessary to read for this, & the story can be enjoyed as a standalone, but I still recommend reading Alex & Grant’s story first for a richer, fuller story – and it’s really good, too!)
Casey & Lucas are totally crushing on each other, but their family circumstances make things a little complicated, if not challenging. Even worse, there are people at school who would be happy to see them not work out, too.
It’s a fairly classic, lighthearted teen love story. It was immediately engaging, and Casey & Lucas were easy to care about & root for.
The antagonist is a little over the top, but it made for a more entertaining story, so it was a worthwhile trade off, lol
I’m totally looking forward to Marissa & Archer’s story now!
*Clean romance level: sweet kisses, nothing graphic
*Language: one use of h-ll as a swear
*Religion: about a dozen uses of the Lord’s Name in vain, mostly as omig-d, sadly & unnecessarily, but at least none used as curses
It was fun to reconnect with the characters from “Playing the Field”, namely Casey and Lucas, but also Alex and Grant, Coach Beeler, and a couple of others. Since I already liked both Casey and Lucas, it was really easy to root for them from the get-go. 🙂
A new addition to the cast is Archer, and I am very much looking forward to reading his story!
Solid YA Romance. This actually continues the world introduced in Benjamin’s collaboration with Maggie Dallen and Stephanie Street last fall, The Trouble With Tomboys, and serves as Book 1 to its own series, making Benjamin’s entry in that former series what would be called a “back door pilot” in TV terms. And honestly, this was exactly the kind of bubblegum pop high school romance I know *I* needed in these challenging times. Just a fun few hours to get wrapped up in a fictional world and leave the “real” one behind, and this does that excellently. Very much recommended.
I loved this book!! Not only was it super powering to see girls stand up for themselves, but it was also so cute and romantic! I wish there was an extended epilogue because I love Lucas and Casey!!! Excellent read overall and definitely an awesome HEA!
I enjoyed this book, especially the way that Christina develops her characters. I am truly enjoying Christina’s books and look forward to the next one.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
Adorable, G-rated, YA, sports romance
This is the first book in a spinoff series from “The Trouble With Tomboys” (TTWT) series. We first met the stars of this story, Casey Beeler and Lucas Hargrove, in “Playing the Field” (PTF), which is Book 3 of TTWT. In this novel, we connect again with Alex and Grant, the protagonists of PTF, with the coach of the high school baseball team and Casey’s father, Coach Beeler, and with several other students at the local high school in the fictional small town of Northwood, Pennsylvania.
Casey’s mother died when Casey was only five, and it has been just her and her dad since then, in a very close, loving relationship. Casey will soon be a junior in high school. She has known Lucas since she was in preschool, and she has had a crush on him almost that long. Lucas is a talented catcher on her father’s baseball team. After he caught the ball that produced the game-winning out during the last game of the season at the end of the school year last May, Lucas swept Casey into his arms and planted a resounding kiss on her lips. It was her first kiss, and utterly perfect in every way. But instead of it being the start of something great, within days after The Kiss, Lucas and Casey’s BFF, Alex Prince, who plays shortstop as the only girl on Northwood’s baseball team, both swept out of town for college tours and baseball camps lasting all summer.
Casey’s summer has been quite different. While mowing lawns to earn cash to pay for tuition at the local community college in a couple of years, she has engaged in endless lovely daydreams about Lucas. She desperately wishes they could start dating in the fall but, realistically speaking, she’s afraid that Lucas is way out of her league. She and her dad barely scrape by on his unimpressive coaching salary, but Lucas’s family is wealthy, due to his father being a lawyer and his mother a doctor. Lucas doesn’t have to work to pay for college. Instead, he routinely spends his summers at pricey, elite sports camps. And after this upcoming school year, when he will be a senior, he will inevitably be off to some Ivy League school like Harvard. Not only that, his goal in life is to play Major League Baseball, and he’s talented enough to make it.
Casey is a huge fan of baseball. With a baseball coach for her dad, she’s watched endless games with him over the years and played one form of the sport or another since she could toddle. Up until her freshman year, that is, when local opportunities to participate in her beloved sport dried up since Northwood High doesn’t have a softball team. She was convinced her playing days were over, and that her only means to stay close to the game would be to serve as her dad’s coaching assistant, until Alex set an inspiring example by getting accepted on the boy’s team the previous year. As a result, Casey has decided to follow in Alex’s footsteps and try out for the baseball team this year as well. If she makes the team, not only can she spend more time with Alex, but she’ll be around Lucas a lot more as well.
Lucas has known Casey for years, but he didn’t actually develop a serious crush on her until last year. He still can’t believe he had the nerve to grab her and kiss her—and right in front of Coach, too! All summer, he hasn’t been able to forget what it felt like to hold her in his arms. Unfortunately, his life is so completely overloaded with endless pressure from his perfectionist parents to excel at school and sports, he isn’t sure he can take on any more hassle. Though he has only occasionally dated over the years, and he’s never before committed to a girlfriend, he longs to make a major exception for Casey. The trouble is, he’s almost equally afraid to find out that she likes him as much as he likes her—or that she doesn’t like him the same way at all.
I am a big fan of YA sports romances, and this one is a whole lot of fun. Casey is absolutely adorable, and I love her warm, mutually supportive relationship with her teddy-bear of a dad.
Lucas is a great guy as well, and I was rooting for the two of them to make their romance work.
I loved Playing the Field, so it was terrific to have a chance to see more of Alex and Grant as a kind of extended epilogue of their romance. Though this book can stand on it’s own, it is a much richer experience if one has had a chance to read PTF first. Alex plays a particularly crucial role in this story.
This book is G-rated, with no swearing, drinking or sex. But in spite of nothing happening physically between Casey and Lucas beyond a few kisses, there is a great deal of chemistry between these two very attractive, sympathetic protagonists.
This is shaping up to be a wonderful new series. I look forward to reading all of its tomboy books.
I rate this book as follows:
Heroine: 5 stars
Hero: 4 stars
Subcharacters: 4 stars
Romance Plot: 4 stars
Baseball Plot: 4 stars
Writing: 4 stars
Overall: 4 stars
Perfect read to lighten the mood and distance oneself from the present
I don’t know if there will be the book of this author that I won’t like. So far all I read was great. Some of the stories captured my heart completely, some were lighter with mood and less on the emotional side but always they were very well written, thought through with fantastic characters and great world built around. This one is no different. Lighter with the words, at times funny, entertaining. Other moments and situations that our characters found themselves in were moving and emotional. It was lighthearted and brought smile to my face and tears in my eyes.
This one reminded me of teenage crushes, need for love and acceptance. Sometimes emotions mixed with teenage angst confuse us, there’s need to please parents and fit in with peers. Insecurities that everyone is carrying somewhere inside could surface in the worst possible moments, the what ifs starts causing doubts and bring confusion as to what we really want and how should we proceed with the life.
This is not an easy time for the young people on the brink of adultery and author captured it perfectly. Heartwarming, easy to read, captivation and page turner. Couldn’t be better read to lighten the mood.
Casey and Lucas have been friends forever but some where along the way their feelings for each other developed into something more. When gossip threatens to tear apart their budding romance their friends are there to keep things in perspective.
I loved this book. I thought the characters were great. Loved the story line as well. I can’t wait for the next book in this series.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.