Reviewed by: BigAl
Genre: Chick-Lit
Approximate word count: 75-80,000 words
Availability
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on a YES above to go to appropriate page in Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or
Smashwords store
Author:
The titles
of Caryn Rose’s novels, B-sides and
Broken Hearts and now A Whole New
Ballgame reflect her two major interests, music and baseball.
For more,
visit Rose’s blog.
Description:
“The story
of a 20-something woman who finds comfort and solace in baseball as her
carefully ordered world starts to unravel.
26-year-old
Laurie Nicholson thinks she's beginning to sort things out when it comes to
life, work, and love. When a sudden declaration from an on-again, off-again
boyfriend inspires her to take a risk, only to meet with crushing heartbreak
instead, Laurie finds herself searching for refuge.
A chance
encounter with Eric Morris and Peter Ellis, two friends spending their summer
visiting every ballpark in America, offers Laurie an unexpected way to salve
her wounds. Despite growing up in Boston surrounded by Red Sox fans, she wasn't
a fan of the game-until Eric and Peter's enthusiasm turn that around and she
falls in love...with baseball.”
Appraisal:
If you’re
one of those women who isn’t much into sports or at least not baseball, you
might be tempted to skip past this book. I’m not much of a sporty guy myself,
so I understand. But in skipping it you’ll miss out on a good story that just
happens to have baseball as a backdrop. Plus, you’ll find you have more in
common with Laurie, the protagonist, than you think. You might not understand
some of the references to specific players, but they aren’t important to the
story. (I don’t know who they are either.) Maybe you’ll understand the music
and band references better. (Those, I got, but they’re also unimportant.)
At its
heart, A Whole New Ballgame is a
coming of age story. Although Laurie is an adult, living on her own,
established in her career, and much more “grown-up” than many of her peers, the
struggles she goes through and the lessons she learns take her through the next
level of growth. I found myself struggling with her as she faced some tough
decisions, upset, when she was, and even gaining a small appreciation of
baseball, even if I’m not planning to run out to the ballpark on opening day.
Format/Typo Issues:
No
significant issues.
Rating: **** Four Stars
4 comments:
Baseball fiction! Sounds like something in my wheelhouse.
This is a book I've had on my to-read list. Happy to see it got a good review.
Thanks for the comment, Laurie. Let me know what you think if you read it.
Susan, When I was scheduling reviews over the weekend I thought about you and that it was one you might like. I even wondered if you might know the author. It's a big city, but the two of you have a lot in common.
We follow each other on Twitter :)
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