e-ALC, 09:20:17
Narrated by: Jesse Villinsky & Zac Chastain
Release Date: March 3, 2026
Published by: Books on Tape (Viking Books for Young Readers)
Read from: March 2-3, 2026
Stand-alone
Source: PRH Audio (I received this ALC free from the publisher and their app. This did nothing to influence my review!)
Content Warning: Fire/Fire Injury, Addiction
For Readers Interested In: Audio, Contemporary Romance, Contemporary, Dual POV, Dual Narrators, Sparkly Covers, Most Anticipated, Realistic Fiction, Romance, Sports, YAMy Life with the Walter Boys meets The Notebook in this small town baseball romance perfect for fans of Kasie West and Carley Fortune.
High school junior Eliza Crowley is known as the Princess of Fairfield, a farm town in North Carolina that loves two things—tradition and baseball. Although Eliza loves “the game,” her life goal is to become a lighting designer on Broadway. Shaking off her reputation as the rich girl and focusing on her town’s community theater production are what she’s set her sights on this summer, and nothing will stand in her way. That is until Reed Fulton, the grandson of a struggling Fairfield farmer, and ace pitcher of the Fulton Hawks, returns to town. Reed dreams of putting the catastrophe of last season behind him and leading the Hawks to a championship victory against the Crowley Cardinals. When his childhood friend turned stranger, Eliza, strolls back into his life, she makes his heart accelerate quicker than his fastball, and he’s not sure he can stay away from the girl he’s supposed to despise. Small-town summers and baseball draw Reed and Eliza together, even though the Crowleys and the Fultons are determined to run each other out of town. When the families make a deal to settle their thirty-year-long dispute once and for all, Eliza and Reed are stuck in the middle during the most important summer of their lives.
*MY THOUGHTS*
Ok so this was so stinking cute! I really loved this one. If you think I sound shocked, it’s because I am. Although I’m a huge fan of sports romances, I’m not a huge fan of baseball IRL. And yet, I couldn’t put this book down!
So I think the main thing I liked about this was the characters. I LOVED Eliza! She truly saw everyone equally and tried so hard not to see the differences everyone had. As we all know this could be a blessing or a curse, You don’t recognize your privilege in some ways when you do that. And that’s a bit of what happened. And with their difference being socioeconomic, this was a hard one to read. I felt for Reed, but I also didn’t like how he tried to trivialize her problems when she made room for hers AND his. But they’re also kids so I had to remember that part. And the ending? I was scared for it to end ngl lol I didn’t want to know who got what. I felt like they both deserved it.
The plot was Romeo and Juliet inspired. I didn’t know for sure until I was putting this review together just now lol It mentions it on the Overdrive description. I remember thinking this while I was reading, but I didn’t know for sure. And sure enough, these two feuding families and their love that transcends them is a little based off their story. Funnily enough, the ending was kind of like the other with one of them having to win and the other thing happening. It really was a lot like the original.
Another thing that stood out to me was the baseball throughout this. I am a huge supporter of putting the actual sport in the book when you write a sports romance. It’s one of my pet peeves when it’s missing. I went into this with some trepidation because its a YA book, but I was pleasantly surprised! There is so much baseball in this, from him practicing certain pitches, to playing in games, to practices with his teammates, I loved it all. I also loved that Eliza got to be her own person. Her dad was the coach of one team and even though she had been around the game her whole life, knew how to play, and all, she was still the theater nerd and that was her thing. I was glad her parents let her do what she wanted.
The epilogue was a bit meh tho. I didn’t like the whole build-up just to settle like that. They had been fighting so much the whole time, but then all of a sudden it was like eh ok that’s enough. They did the same when her dad magically changed. The author never showed the process of them changing or mentioning anything that they did differently. It was like they just woke up and changed. And while that may be true, we don’t get the ins and outs of every character, so it would have been nice to see them changing a little bit at a time instead of just showing up changed if that makes sense.
This will make a great addition to my Opening Day curation at work! Order them now so you can get your displays ready now! Until then, this pairs well with peanuts, cracker jacks, and a ball park too!
Overall, I give this
