Rowena’s review of Hot Ticket by Julia London, Deirdre Martin, Annette Blair and Geri Buckley.

Lucky Charm by Julia London.

Hero: Parker Price
Heroine: Kelly O’Shay

Uninhibited radio host Kelly O’Shay loves to take on the egos of overpaid sports stars. then she goes after hot-shot shortstop Parker Price, whose losing streak takes an unexpected turn when he goes head-to-head with his lovely nemesis-on the air and off.

This story was a great big ball of corn. I mean, we have a whiny hot baseball player who keeps whining about how the talk show radio host keeps talking about him (badly of course) on the radio and then he blames her for her poor performance on the field? Yeah, how is a whiny baby hero going to make me drool with delight? He didn’t. I just didn’t really care for the story, it was too short and just really corny.

Grade: 3 out of 5

Same Rink, Next Year by Deirdre Martin.

Hero: David Hewson
Heroine: Tierney O’Connor

I’m not sure what it was about this story that I just couldn’t get. It fell flat for me, I couldn’t really connect with the characters and I really wanted to because this story had such good potential to be such a cute story but the dialogue felt forced and the witty characters and most especially the talk between the hockey players seemed…silly. I know, that word silly gets me in trouble with rabid fangirls but I can’t help it…that’s how I saw it, it may work for others but it just didn’t work for me. I read the chats between David and his friends as, not good. It didn’t flow well with the personalities of the hockey players, it just didn’t fit. But David and Tierny were good together, although once while they’re getting jiggy, I laughed because well, while they’re going at it, he says stuff like, “Better?” and “You like that?” and it totally just takes me right out of the scene…but it wasn’t the worst thing I’ve ever read, it just wasn’t the best either. So while the story could have been cute, it just sort of is silly.

Grade: 2.75 out of 5.

You Can’t Steal First by Annette Blair.

Hero: Juan Santiago
Heroine: Quinn Murdock

Famous for his big numbers at bat, Juan Santiago’s struck out only once in his life–with Quinn Murdock. Now the Red Sox star player is getting one more shot with the sexy sporting goods magnate. But first he has to prove he’s not just playing the field.

I don’t know what’s wrong with me but I did not really care for this story either. I mean, Tiago and Quinn are long lost lovers who have this big misunderstanding and go all these years without seeing eachother or talking to each other and then Quinn’s friends throw her on his train thats heading for Orlando for Spring Training and on the train, they fall in love again? Hmm, okay, but the dialogue between these two, can it get any cheesier? Tiago didn’t have as much game as he thought he did, if he said some of the things to me that he said to Quinn, I would have laughed at him. I didn’t get how him and her kissing making it on the front page of the newspaper was funny…it seemed childish and juvenile. I just didn’t get this and I didn’t feel any kind of connection between Quinn and Tiago, though one thing that was a sure winner for me in this book, was the name Tiago…I like that Latin lover name, it’s yummy!

Grade: 2.75 out of 5

Can’t Catch This by Geri Buckley.

Hero: Josh Weldon
Heroine: Lindy Hamilton

Lindy Hamilton got her two-timing boyfriend right where it hurts–by stealing his pricey tickets to the Florida Moccasins football game. When she discovers that the really interesting action is in the stands, it proves to be the hottest season opener on record…

Okay, I think this was the worst of all of them. I really wanted to like ONE of the stories a whole lot because I love sports and sports stories like SEP’s were such winners for me, but this one fell right on it’s face for me. I was bummed because I felt like, ehhh, I can’t wait til I’m done with this book so that I can read something else already. The problem that I had with this story was I didn’t care for Lindy and Josh fell in love wayyy too fast with her, I didn’t see them connect anywhere and yet faster than you snap your fingers, they were in love..it was unbelievable and I just didn’t enjoy the interactions between Josh and Lindy. I thought the nephew was cute though, but that’s about it. I thought it was really weird that Josh’s cousin used Lindy as his lucky charm considering he had never met her or talked to her, it was hooky but whatever…so yeah this story was just blah for me.

Grade: 2 out of 5.

Overall grade: 2.5 out of 5.

This book is available from Berkley. You can buy it here or here in e-format.