Review: Just not feelin' it
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 01 14, 2013
I've been eyeing the V.K. Sykes books for a while now, and when Hardball came up as a freebie, I jumped right on it. First of all, the cover is luscious. Secondly,thanks to Susan Elizabeth Phillips, Rachel Gibson, Jill Shalvis, Jaci Burton and a few other authors, I am a big fan of sportscentric romances. Thirdly, the premise sounded interesting, and bonus, Hardball is part of a series, so if I liked it, there are more stories to seek out. Truly a win scenario.Except...I was underwhelmed by the heroine. And the hero. They were bland. Beige. The secondary characters far outshined the leads. Maddie and Jake were interesting and fun. Martha, the hero's ex, was a hoot. Holly Bell, the heroine (and no mention was ever made of how her parents managed to land on that moniker)is a doctor, new to town, when she meets Nate Carter, our hero, baseball legend in the making. They went places, they did stuff, but Holly is uptight and kind of rigid, and apparently Nate is so bowled over by how she looks and the fact that she is a doctor, he is willing to overlook her boringness. Then a parent starts being threatening, and Holly's supervisor tells her to handle it on her own, which is completely unrealisitic, and Nate gets caveman-like protective.What worked for me - Not much.The main characters were not much fun, although, as mentioned above, the secondary characters were fun. I never understood why they were together other than physical attraction.What didn't work for me - So much. I never felt a connection between Nate and Holly. Holly was insipid. Nate was clueless. The plot tension was overly contrived. ****SPOILER***SPOILER*** For Nate, his sister had been divorced 3 times, so of course,in his mind, it stands to reason he will suck at committment. And yep, that was about it. Well, that and Holly was apparently on some sort of regimented time table as to marriage, because after 3 weeks of dating, she declares her intentions and asks Nate to do the same. What??? In her defense, I do think she had every right to ask about exclusivity. But even after he capitulates somewhat on that issue, she says she needs to know if they are headed down the aisle, or she needs to move on because she doesn't have time to waste on a relationship leading to nowhere. Again, this is 3 WEEKS in. ****END SPOILER****The writing was okay, although it seemed a little stilted, a little formal. Maybe this writing team had a hard time being inspired by the characters, too. I may try another of their titles, perhaps Fastball, since I liked Jake and Maddie.Hardball turned out to be a softball for me. YMMV.Bottom line - Wasted time.