Wednesday, December 30, 2015

review || CAUGHT BY YOU { blog tour } by Jennifer Bernard


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Avon Impulse | December 29, 2015 | Sport Romance
Love Between the Bases, book 2
★★★★

SOURCE: TASTY BOOK TOURS


Love comes out of left field in the second novel in USA Today bestselling author Jennifer Bernard's sexy baseball-themed series...

Months of alternately flirting and bickering with Kilby Catfish catcher Mike Solo just turned into the hottest kiss of Donna MacIntyre's life—and that's a major league complication. Any hint of scandal could keep her from getting her son back from her well-connected ex. Then Mike comes up with a game-changing idea: a marriage proposal that could help win her case—even as it jeopardizes her heart.

Mike hasn't been able to get the gorgeous, gutsy redhead out of his fantasies. The least he can do is fix the mess he helped create. Yet their engagement is quickly becoming about a lot more than doing the right thing. Because after swearing he'd never risk love again, Mike has found a passion that puts all his emotions in play, and a woman he'll go to bat for again and again.

{ about jennifer bernard } .

Jennifer Bernard 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.

{ excerpt } .

He ran a hand through the rough curls at the back of his head. “I have to confess something.” His Catholic-boy conscience had been tugging at him this whole time. “Only a couple of those library books are mine. Mostly they’re my neighbor’s. He’s house-bound, so I pick up books for him.”

Amusement lit up her little heart-shaped face. “Your confession is that you don’t read big piles of books, and that you go to the library for your neighbor? I’m crushed. I was thinking there was a secret genius hidden inside that ripped body.”

“Maybe I was trying to impress you. We’ve been dancing around each other all season. Don’t you want to see if there’s anything to this chemistry?”

Her eyes widened. “Here? Are you trying to add public indecency to all those fines?”

“Just a kiss. One kiss. There’s nothing indecent about a kiss.”

She considered that for a long moment, while a pleasant tension rose between them. Finally she seemed to make up her mind. She took a step forward, brushing against him.

“Nothing indecent, Priest? I’ve got news for you.”

“What’s that?”

“There is if you do it right.” And she lifted her mouth to his.

{ review } .

While a standalone, I do feel that it is important to have read the first book, ALL OF ME, prior to reading this one. There were many times in the beginning I felt lost -- that I was an onlooker to a years' long play -- and I had read the first book.

The chemistry between Mike and Donna isn't new -- and their fun banter and flirting is definitely evidence of that. Putting aside the brief moments I felt that they were simply too familiar with one another for the fact we were only on the fifth page of the book... their story was a great one to read.

I loved Solo (...Mike). I loved his vow of celibacy and how even his priest told him it was slightly ridiculous. Equally, though, I loved that Donna wasn't about the vow -- and how at the end of the season, she wasn't going to just lie back for him and with that fact, there was a brief jump in time, allowing for even more growth between the characters.

Donna's battles in this story were extremely real, and I found that it was an extremely realistic, relatable occurrence. As such, I found her parenting and the changes she made in her life to be things that any female reader could sympathize with.

I found the emotion, banter, and humor in this book to be definitely in Bernard fashion (if you've read her firefighter books, you definitely have read these things before). I would have liked to have more solid ground at the beginning, though -- like I said, I read the previous book but it had been quite some time since doing just that, so I felt that the beginning was incredibly quick and left me a little lost.

for other reviews & tour goodies,

{ previously in series } .

ALL OF ME 4.5 { review }

{ giveaway } .

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