Saturday, September 14, 2013

[Kame's Review]: "The Winning Season"


The Winning Season by Allison Packard
Publisher: Carina Press (July 15, 2013) 
Genre: Contemporary Romance


Kelly Maxwell has finally landed her dream job as publicist for the San Francisco Blaze. But the team's newest member, handsome bad boy catcher Matt Scanlon, is refusing every interview. She's got to get him to open up before the season ends, or she may not be back next year. And after everything she overcame to achieve her dream, Kelly's not about to let that happen.

Matt Scanlon just wants to be left alone to rebuild his life and his career. After a year of masking the pain of a recent loss with hard partying and fast women, he finally hit rock bottom and was traded to a team he's loathed his entire life—a team with little to no chance at the post-season.


Butting heads is getting Kelly and Matt nowhere but annoyed, and with the team's schedule on the road, they can't avoid close quarters—or their surprising attraction to one another. As the season winds down, Matt finds his growing feelings for Kelly have brought his numbed emotions back to life. But when betrayal shatters their fragile trust, winning it all seems more impossible than ever.











Where to Buy*:
More Info:



Kame's Review:




Kelly Maxwell is responsible for PR for the Blaze major league baseball team, and Matt Scanlon is the catcher who has been recently traded to the team. Their working relationship should be pretty straight forward, except they have a history; and explosive history. Kelly’s sister and Matt’s best friend have fallen in love and during a time when the four were together Matt and Kelly did not get along. Matt said things he shouldn’t have and Kelly predicted Matt’s beloved Dodgers would trade him. Just her luck she was right, but unfortunately it was her team that picked him up. Now Matt was Kelly’s headache, and soon to be her heartache too.




I am a baseball mom and now that the MLB is winding down its season I thought it would be a great time to read this book. This book has just enough baseball scenes. They do not dominate the book, but give you a flavor of the life of people associated with a MLB team. It was a great setting for a love story. This fantastic setting coupled with strong characters made this a wonderful read. Kelly is not your typical romance heroine. She is athletic body type and six feet tall. Kelly loves softball and is learning how to deal with her daily struggles in a different way than she has in the past. I applaud Alison Packard for creating a heroine who is outside the mold we see on so many romance book covers. Matt is reeling from a personal tragedy that he has kept private and his life on and off the field is chaos. I felt the connection between these characters. It was not love at first sight, but there was an attraction they could not deny. The relationship that developed was based on more than lust, and each character opened their soul to the other. It was so nice to see the depth in each character. 



When Matt pulled back, his eyes gleamed with passion. “I dare you to forget that kiss,” he said in a low husky voice and then relinquished his hold on her.

After he’d left the room, she sagged against the door to catch her breath. How was she supposed to stay mad at him after a kiss like that? And to top it all off he’d had the nerve to go and tell her he was in love with her. That was so not fair.



This book is the second in a series. The first book is the love story between Kelly’s sister and Matt’s best friend. It is not necessary to read first (as I didn’t), but I bet like me you will want to. My plan is to read Book 1 before the next book in this series comes out. The main characters in Book 3 are some of my favorite secondary characters in this title – I can’t wait!





  4 STARS!





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Kame received a copy of this book from the publisher, via NetGalley, in exchange for her honest opinion.


*Note: The quote used belongs to Allison Packard; Kame and TBQ's Book Palace do not claim it.
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Meet Kame:

Kame is part of a family of readers; one day she picked up the Nook she purchased for her husband and discovered her love of e-books. A few months later he purchased one for her so he could have his back! Kame’s Nook is never far, and she is hard pressed to pick a favorite book, genre or author. As long as there are characters that make her want to sit down and have a chat and a plot keeps the pages turning, she’ll read it.

Kame's GoodReads 
 



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Thanks for the review, Kame! :) Gah, I love the cover....again, how did I miss this for L4C? I'm putting it on my list right now, I am glad to hear you liked this one!

Do you like sports romances? Do you have a favorite, or perhaps a favorite sport that you want your hero (or heroine) to play? 










Enjoy!



Until Next Time,
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*TBQ's Book Palace is a member of both the Amazon and Barnes and Nobles affiliates program. By using the links provided to buy products from either website, I receive a very small percentage of the order. To read my full disclosure on the matter, please see this post!

4 comments :

Alison Packard said...

Thank you for the lovely review. I'm so glad you enjoyed the book.

Sharonda Lowman said...

There are so many beautiful covers popping up all over the blog-o-sphere this weekend....I love this cover and great review.

Kame said...

Thank you - great book for this end of baseball season!

Kame said...

Thank you! I am hoping for book 2!