This blog tour is organized by Lola's Blog Tours. The blog tour runs from 1 till 14 December, you can view the complete tour schedule on the website of Lola’s Blog Tours.
A League of Her Own
By Karen Rock
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Age category: Adult
Release Date: 1 December, 2014
He was attractive, talented…and way off limits.
Heather Gadway may have been a world-class college pitcher and a top university coach, but she's a rank amateur when it comes to managing the Falcons, her father's struggling minor league team. And when it comes to managing her aggravating attraction to Garrett Wolf, their talented new pitcher. It's going to be difficult enough to make it as the first female manager in the league and prove to her overly critical father she's worthy. No distractions. No missteps. And certainly no romances with players. Everything stands between them—including their troubled pasts—even as Heather's world falls apart and Garrett's the one who's there to catch her…
Garrett’s
grumbling teammates filed out of the pre-game meeting, followed by the coaches
and Heather’s father. Garrett, however, remained in his seat, watching the
lithe young woman as she stood by the door.
At
last she turned to him.
“We
meet again. Garrett, right?”
He
stood and strode to the door. When he stopped, her eyes widened, caution
swimming in their depths.
“You
mentioned having individual meetings,” he said, keeping his voice even, hiding
the irritation shimmering through him. “I thought we’d have ours now.”
She
blinked up at him, and her lips moved. Though he strained to hear, he couldn’t
make out what she’d said.
“I’m
sorry, I didn’t catch that.”
A
bright pink suffused her cheeks, and he forced himself not to notice how pretty
the color made her.
“I
said that I haven’t finished my notes for you yet. I’ll watch you pitch
tomorrow. We’ll meet after that.”
He
had to give it to her. Soft-spoken or not, she had a direct way about her. He
didn’t doubt that she could lead…just not professional baseball players. “That’s
what I wanted to talk to you about. I’m requesting to be released from my
contract. This isn’t the right place for me to advance in my career.”
Her
mobile face stilled. “And why would that be?”
“Look,
I’ll be blunt.” He tapped his fingers on the sides of his legs. “This team isn’t
hustling, and it’ll be a long time before they come around to supporting you.
Things will get worse instead of better. I have a limited window of opportunity
to advance. Given these factors, my bottom-line pitching won’t look good with a
losing team behind me. I’d like to help you, but selfishly, this is my last
shot.”
A
speculative gleam entered her eyes. “So you’re asking to be released because
you think I can’t help you reach your goals.”
A
long breath rushed out of him. She was going to be reasonable. “That’d be
great. Thank you.”
She
arched an eyebrow. “You’re wrong, and I’ll be as frank with you as you were
with me.”
His
relief turned to irritation. So she wasn’t going to make this easy. He held his
tongue and waited to hear her out.
“I
think you’re overvaluing yourself.” She nodded when his mouth dropped open.
Guys talked this way to each other. Not women…especially not pretty women…to
him.
“Your
control isn’t where it should be, and if that's not addressed, you'll also be another
reason why this team isn’t doing well. But you have potential, and I can help
you.”
“Right,”
he scoffed. What could a softball pitcher do for him? “No offense, but I need
someone with more experience.”
She
tapped her chin and angled her head, her eyes flashing up at him. “If I can
change your mind about that, will you drop your request and give me your
support and a hundred percent effort?”
He
held in a laugh. Was she for real? There wasn’t a chance she could change his decision.
“What do you have in mind?”
She
stepped closer, and her subtle citrus scent curled beneath his nose.
“A
contest. If I get more strikes out of twenty pitches than you do, you stay. If
you have more, then I’ll release you.”
He
stared at her. Processing. She couldn’t be serious. Sure, he had control
issues, but he was still better than a college-level player. She was making
this easy. But if she was foolish enough to offer him this out, he’d take it.
They
eyed each other for a long, tense moment before he jerked his chin at her.
“You’re
on.”
Another sweet romance from Karen Rock! I happen to love baseball, so I really enjoyed the focus on not only Garrett and Heather's romance, but also on the game itself. Emotional, sweet, and heartwarming, highly recommended to romance lovers.
Karen Rock is an award-winning YA and adult contemporary romance author. She holds a master’s degree in English and worked as an ELA instructor before becoming a full-time writer. Currently she writes for Harlequin Heartwarming and her first novel for the line, WISH ME TOMORROW, has won the 2014 Gayle Wilson Award of Excellence, the 2014 Golden Quill Contest and a finalist in the Published Maggie Awards. The first novel in her co-authored YA series, CAMP BOYFRIEND, has been a finalist in the Booksellers Best and Golden Leaf awards.
There is a tour wide giveaway for the blog tour of A League of Her Own. These are the prizes you can win:
- a 100$ Amazon gift card (INT)
- a set of signed paperback of Wish Me Tomorrow, His Hometown Girl, Someone Like You and A League of Her Own (US only)
For a chance to win, enter the rafflecopter below:
Thank you so much, Jen, for your kind review and for hosting me on your wonderful blog :) Happy Holidays!
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