Oops!! Sorry wrong Picture - that was
another one from my Not a Mullet stash
Slow Heat by Jill ShalvisWhy this one: Some of her books I've really enjoyed and this one has been getting good reviews
Steam Level: Yep, steamy's the word
Blurb: Baseball player Wade O'Riley's bad boy image is about to be cleaned up by his publicist Samantha McNead. But the sexual tension between them is about to drive Wade to his knees
My Thoughts: I will forever think of this book as the book that coulda been a contender. It had a lot going for it. Wade was adorable. He had such a sunny fun outlook on life. He was so nice and laid back. And while certainly uptight, Samantha was a pretty good heroine. I quite liked her. In the books by this author that haven't worked for me, it's been mostly because of the heroine. And that was not the case at all in this book. I really did like Samantha. She had good reason for being the stick-in-the-mud that she was and she wasn't a stick-in-the-mud in a bad way at all.
BUT
Alas, I was taken out of this book again and again and again by the author's lack of knowledge in her subject matter. There were errors - GLARING errors, needlessly glaring errors in my not so humble opinion, that really downgraded this book for me. And that was such a shame because this really was a good book - apart from the GLARING errors.
Let me count them - and I'm sure I've missed some. I would have highlighted them to remember but as anyone who knows me - that would be against everything I stand for and I couldn't find sticky notes while reading.
I pointed out the first one in an earlier post. The hero of the previous game pitches a COMPLETE game the first game of the season. NOT GOING TO HAPPEN! And as if that weren't bad enough, later on it was mentioned that he'd had surgery the previous year!!! Oh dear lord, that made that error even worse!!
ERROR: during one part of the story, they have TWO days off in a row!! Not gonna happen during baseball season!! It's rare they get one day off, but the only time they would have two days off is during the All Star game - and that would only be for the players not going. According to the book, both the pitcher and Wade, the number one catcher, would both be going.
ERROR: she has them playing a FIVE game series against the same team!! Not going to happen. Most are either three or four game series, maybe a rare two game series during the middle of the week - but a five game series????? Nope!!
ERROR: During one game, the author mentions that Wade pinch hit in the ninth inning and then later the heroine made a comment that he had such a tough game he must be tired. Uh - no!! If he pinch hit, that means he didn't even PLAY in the game. I don't know for sure - he might have helped out in the bull pen with pitchers warming up - except I don't think the author grasps the idea of relief pitching - so whatever - he wouldn't have been that tired!
ERROR: It seemed that Pace, the pitcher and the hero of the previous book, pitched an awful lot of games. He always seemed to be pitching.
HUGE GIGANTIC ERROR THAT PRETTY MUCH RUINED THE BOOK FOR ME : was almost a throw away line that Pace - who seemed to pitch an awful lot, threw a no hitter. One line was all that was granted to that bit of news. I have a feeling the author might have meant a shut out, but obviously she don't know baseball because many, many pitchers have never pitched a no hitter!! It would be cause for MUCH rejoicing!! Wade, our hero, would have caught a no hitter and would have been flying in space. I know this!! Years ago, I was AT the only game where a Blue Jay pitcher (Dave Steib) pitched a no hitter. It was in Cleveland, September 2, 1990!!. Pat Borders caught for him. I still remember that game as if it were just last season - the thrill, the electricity. Wendy's Justin Verlander had a no hitter in 2007 and I'm sure she will agree with me on how rare that is!
So now we come to the grade. If the reader doesn't really know baseball that much and likes sports romance than this is one they might like.
But if the reader is a baseball fan and decides to read this, best have a pillow on the desk for when they bang their head against it, while muttering 'no, no, no, no, no.
Me - it's probably unfair that I know so much because it annoyed me that the author got so many things so wrong. Because the grade would have and should have been so much higher. But because I've watched baseball for years, my sons played baseball for years and Ron coached baseball for years, I couldn't give this book a higher mark.
I saw that the author has a third one coming out. I surely do hope that she does a hell of a lot more research and goes to some games before she sends it in to the publisher.
Grade: 3 out of 5
