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.
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