Review Stop on the Tasty Virtual Book Tour for ALL OF ME by Jennifer Bernard + #excerpt & #giveaway

Welcome to my review stop on the Tasty Virtual Book Tour celebrating ALL OF ME, book one in the Love Between the Bases series by Jennifer Bernard. After thrilling us with the sexiest Bachelor Firemen ever from San Gabriel, Jennifer is now setting out to addict us to her sexy baseball players…she’s off to a great start.

***eARC provided by publisher via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest and unscripted review

Blurb for ALL OF ME:

Jennifer Bernard, the USA Today bestselling author of the Bachelor Firemen series, scores another homerun with a brand-new series about sexy, single baseball players.

Playing for the Kilby Catfish is hotshot pitcher Caleb Hart’s last chance to salvage his career after a major league meltdown. But the day of his opener with the minor league team, Caleb strikes out with the gorgeous woman who is delivering a petition to run the unruly Catfish out of town. Now to stay in the lineup, Caleb will need to score big with the feisty brunette he can’t keep out of his thoughts.

After the nasty lies Sadie Merritt’s rich ex-boyfriend spread about her all over town, she’s lucky to have a job at all. She can’t afford to screw it up by falling for the player who is supposed to be helping her change the image of the fun-loving Catfish. But that’s easier said than done when Caleb’s voice alone is enough to make her pulse race. And when he surprises her with a mind-blowing kiss, she knows there’s no turning back.

~*~            ~*~          ~*~          ~*~         ~*~

My Review:

Sadie Merritt has survived a huge scandal involving her ex, barely. She has one friend left in town, and her job in the mayor’s office that she knows she’s way overqualified for but is just glad to have, and hopes to hang on to it. She has a mother constantly telling her she can do better and that men are nothing but trouble. To say her trust in men or anyone, much less herself is waning is an understatement. Running into a deliciously sexy playboy baseball player while running an errand for the mayor is not something she planned for or quite knows what to do with, and she certainly has no intention of falling into a man trap again. But he is very sexy...

Trying to salvage his career as a pitcher, Caleb Hart joins the minor league team, the Kilby Catfish. Having messed up his big chance in the major leagues, he’s determined to prove to everyone, but most importantly to himself, that he has what it takes to be the best. After a terrible first day, he literally runs into a sexy Sadie in the tunnels below when she comes to meet with the team's coach. A PR project throws them together, and Caleb has difficulty keeping his mind on the game on the field even as his strategy leans towards games with Sadie as he begins his pursuit of her. But can he win her...

After falling in love with Jennifer Bernard’s sexy Bachelor Firemen of San Gabriel, I was ready to give her baseball series a try but also a little wary that she might not be able to give this series the same small town romantic feel that we always felt with the firefighters. There was a camaraderie between the men/women of the San Gabriel station that was an important part of the series. Well, Jennifer has definitely created the same feel in her Love Between the Bases series. It’s off to a good start with ALL OF ME.

We get that small town feel, steamy romance, and a cast of characters we can hope to see reappearing often in stories to come. The base emotion of ALL OF ME is trust. Caleb and Sadie both carry trust issues, and not just in others but in themselves. I enjoyed the chase that Sadie put Caleb through to win her over. I loved the way Jennifer dealt with the long distance aspect of their budding relationship also. It’s very appropriate in today’s world since so many relationships must endure distance but with technology, the world becomes a much smaller place. The phone conversations and resulting heat, which exploded with so much steam when they came together, was natural, and realistic. When secrets, mistrust, and misunderstandings along with Sadie’s ex and Caleb’s father start to interfere, things fall apart quickly but as it should, love prevails.

I highly recommend reading ALL OF ME, the first book in the Love Between the Bases series by Jennifer Bernard. It might not be her absolute best—there were times I wanted the trust to come faster—but then every team needs a warm up time, and I suspect as this team comes together as a family, this series is going to heat up and become the champs we know they can be.

Happy Reading Everyone!

Excerpt:

Caleb made her lose her head, plain and simple.

 Sadie rested her forehead against his chest, amazed all over again by the firmness of his toughened muscles. The heat of his body contrasted with the cool water in the most heavenly way. “Maybe I didn’t think this all the way through.”

“Are you telling me a dumb baseball player got the better of a brilliant future law student? Nah.” He bent his head so he could nuzzle her hair. “You smell nice. Like water lilies.”

She smelled hot man, mixed with lake water and sun-baked mesquite. Somehow they’d drifted away from the gravelly edge, so the stench of mud wasn’t as prominent. She felt so dreamy and secure, held tight in Caleb’s arms as they floated aimlessly in the lake. He grinned down at her, the light reflected off the lake water turning his eyes a soft, clear blue. Sun glinted in his hair, spangled with crystal drops of water. He really was a remarkably beautiful man. Everything seemed to still while she soaked in the details of his powerful physique, his rawboned handsomeness, the flash of vulnerability in his eyes.

She could really lose herself in him. Completely and utterly. Never before had she felt anything close to that.

“Dream on,” she told him, and flipped out of his arms. She dove under the surface, letting the slide of water through her hair and across her body wash away the effects of that alarming moment.

She’d always loved to swim, and it took only a few moments to put distance between herself and Caleb. But he wasn’t a professional athlete for nothing, and within moments he was splashing in her wake.

Shrieking with breathless laughter, she flung herself backward, as if onto a watery couch. He grabbed an ankle, and she flipped to her stomach, kicking hard. But it was no use; she felt herself being inexorably pulled toward him, his wonderfully big hands reeling her in.

And then there she was, snuggled against his chest again. It rose and fell with his rapid breaths. “There, that’s better,” he said with satisfaction, the words rumbling against her ear. “I kinda like this whole fishing thing.”

“No fair, I got distracted,” she protested, turning her body in the circle of his arms so she could see his face. Water streamed from his hair, down his neck to his wide shoulders. His eyelashes clung together, so his eyes looked bluer than ever. “I’d forgotten how much I love swimming in this lake.”

“It’s starting to grow on me too. Or at least something is.”

She giggled, and then, as a grin split his face, started laughing. As he watched her something shifted in his expression. His goofy smile vanished, replaced by an intent, hungry look. His head lowered, eyes glittering. The rest of the world receded, so only his face remained, coming closer and closer to hers, his mouth reaching for her …   

Oh wow. He was going to kiss her.

And then he was kissing her. His lips burned against hers, sending pure shock throughout her body. Kisses didn’t feel like that. They didn’t turn your lips to fire, they didn’t liquefy your lungs so you could barely breathe. They didn’t make you dizzy.

She pulled away with a gasp, still in his embrace, their faces close enough so she felt his quickened breathing. Caleb looked just as stunned as she felt, his eyes gone dark and gray as a hurricane. For a long moment the two of them just stared at each other, poised on the edge of the unknown. Water lapped against her hips, and a breath of air kissed her shoulder. Everywhere her body touched Caleb’s, heat seared.

And then they were on each other again. He seemed to consume her, exploring her mouth with long sweeps of his tongue that left sparkling trails of heat in their wake. He tasted so wonderful, like summer days, like fireflies and bicycling down dusty back roads, like every time she’d laid on her back in a meadow and dreamed about the future.

Little whimpers rose from her throat. She pulled her mouth from his, her cheek brushing across his stubbly chin, its roughness sending more shocks through her. His grip loosened and she slid down his body until she stood on the lake bottom, pressed against him from head to toe. The huge bulge in his briefs made her feel a little faint.

“Sweet Jesus,” he whispered as she nibbled on his jaw. She couldn’t help it; she wanted to eat him up. “You’re making me crazy. We can’t do this here.”

“Shh.” She didn’t want to talk. She wanted this all-consuming, crazy conflagration that she’d never even imagined before. Tugging at his shoulders, she rose on tiptoe, brushing her lips against his again. With a heartfelt groan, he gave in. – ALL OF ME

About the Author:

Jennifer Bernard is the USA Today bestselling author of the Bachelor Firemen of San Gabriels series. She is a graduate of Harvard and a former news promo producer. The child of academics, she confounded her family by preferring romance novels to … well, any other books. She left big city life for true love in Alaska, where she now lives with her husband and stepdaughters. She’s no stranger to book success, as she also writes erotic novellas under a naughty secret name not to be mentioned at family gatherings.

Author Links:  Website | Facebook | Twitter  | Goodreads

Buy Links:    Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | BAM  | iTunes

TOURWIDE GIVEAWAY

a Rafflecopter giveaway