Review: Whatever Life Throws at You by Julie Cross

Whatever Life Throws at You
By Julie Cross
Publisher: Entangled Teen
Format: eBook
Source: Purchased

To Sum It Up: When Annie Lucas’s father accepts a job as pitching coach for the Kansas City Royals, they uproot from Arizona to Missouri. Not only does Annie find herself in a new city and a new school, but thanks to her dad’s new position, she’s in the frequent company of Royals rookie pitcher Jason Brody. Brody has the potential to be a pitching ace if he can overcome the bad reputation that’s followed him to the majors, one that will only be given credence if he and Annie get too involved.

Review: Whatever Life Throws at You falls outside of my typical reading fare as both a contemporary and a straight up romance, but it also has . . . BASEBALL. I love baseball! Lifelong New York Yankees fan here! Although the Yankees are referenced a couple of times in the novel, it’s the Kansas City Royals who are the featured team here. But still: BASEBALL!

I bought Whatever Life Throws at You almost a year ago, with the intention of reading it before the 2015 baseball season ended. That didn’t happen. We are, however, just in time for the start of the 2016 season! Even more coincidentally, the Royals are the current reigning World Series champs. So this turned out to be a pretty good moment to finally dust this off my Kindle shelf, coupled with just feeling like reading something different.

While we’re talking baseball, I’ll mention that you don’t need to know the ins and outs of the game to read this. The sweet, slow-burning relationship between protagonist Annie and Royals hotshot rookie pitcher Jason Brody is the book’s centerpiece. As a baseball fan, I really liked how the sport was worked into the novel, and I got very sentimental at one point when the Royals’ manager and close friend of Annie’s father reminisces about the Yankees’ 1995 season. It was a lovely trip back in time for me, too. I did think that a few elements of the game were stretched to suit the story, like Brody batting in a game against another team in the American League, which uses the designated hitter. I know I sound nitpicky and it probably won’t matter to most readers; I just happen to go full geek over things I’m passionate about, baseball being one of them.

I loved that Annie and Brody’s romance took its time reaching that point—not a whiff of insta-love to be found in this book. There’s also zero pressure from either side to take what begins as friendship to a level that the other isn’t comfortable with. The progression develops at a really wonderful pace; I’m quite impressed with how the romance was written.

Something that I wasn’t so keen on was the way Annie came across judgy at times. Brody’s reputation as a guy with a troubled past precedes him, but even after getting to know him better, Annie is still prone to jumping to the conclusion that Brody is living it up as a 19-year-old bachelor who’s just come into a sizeable payday. The book also feels a bit angsty when things start getting serious between Annie and Brody and both fear her father’s reaction if he finds out about them. I mean, I understand that every story needs a conflict and this is a significant one, especially since Annie is extremely close to her dad and he’s become a mentor to Brody, even outside of baseball. But, I don’t know, all the talk about how the long term wasn’t going to work out because Annie’s dad wouldn’t approve and the fact that Annie was still in high school while Brody was an adult got to me somewhat.

In the end, though, the truly irresistible romance made this an overall enjoyable read. And now please bear with me as I indulge in some bad baseball puns to close this review: the book as a whole is a solid triple; the romance between Annie and Brody: a bona fide grand slam homerun.

All in All: I probably wouldn’t have picked this up had it not been for the baseball, but I’m glad I did. I don’t think non-baseball fans needs to worry about being overwhelmed by the game’s lingo. Just sit back and enjoy watching the romance bloom.

ARC Review: Welcome to Sugartown by Carmen Jenner

Welcome to Sugartown (Sugartown #1)
By Carmen Jenner
Publication Date: November 3, 2013

* An advance copy was provided by the author for review.

To Sum It Up: Sugartown isn’t the type of place where much of anything happens. For Ana Belle, life consists of baking day in and day out at her pie shop. That is, until the arrival of Elijah Cade and his motorcycle turns Ana’s world upside down. The attraction between them is instant, but Elijah’s past may prove too difficult for them to overcome, especially when it ends up following him to Sugartown. Ana may be the one person who can save Elijah, if only he can earn her trust.

Review: My heart is still experiencing quite a lot of hurt after finishing Carmen Jenner’s page-turner of a debut. I haven’t read many New Adult novels, but damn if Welcome to Sugartown doesn’t make me want to run out and buy a boatload of them. Or put a slew of them on my Kindle. Either way, I really need to explore this genre more, though finding another NA book that matches this one’s impressively seamless pairing of humor and intense drama might be a bit of a challenge.

Welcome to Sugartown manages to be both laugh-out loud funny and very, very dark without making the tone changes feel abrupt. That’s not an easy feat to pull off, considering that I was giggling one minute and wincing a chapter later. Ana and Elijah go through so much over the span of the novel, yet I never thought that their troubles had reached unrealistic heights. I think this is where the humor, which is totally my type, plays such a pivotal role, keeping the book from becoming an all out sob-fest. There are plenty of scenes that will shred your heart into the finest of confetti, but there’s also a lot to chuckle about. Oh, and did I mention that the romance in this novel is scorching? Well, it is, and I’m not even going to pretend like it wasn’t a major reason why I didn’t want to stop reading, even when my eyes and brain wanted to surrender to sleep.

Characters always make or break contemporary fiction for me, and this cast pulls you in from the get-go. Ana and Elijah alternate narrating duties, and both perspectives are equally engaging to read from. Their relationship, which sees its share of high and low points, is absolutely riveting. Our two protagonists are the sort of characters who make empathizing with them very easy. Their happiness brings you happiness; their heartache is your heartache. I also have to highlight how awesome the secondary characters are, too. I love Ana’s best friend, Holly, who says the most outrageous, and obviously hilarious, things. Ana’s younger brother Sammy is simply adorable, and her dad Bob has the biggest heart underneath his don’t-mess-with-me-or-my-daughter exterior. Ana’s cousin, Jackson, is a bit of a latecomer to the story, but he puts his page time to excellent use and is definitely a character to keep an eye on.

I was so absorbed in Welcome to Sugartown that the qualms that often run through my mind when I attempt to read a contemporary never had a chance to form. My emotions received a thorough workout reading this, and they’re all set for a reprise with the rest of the series. Sugartown, you are one hell of a little town, and Carmen Jenner, you have written a fantastic first novel.

All in All: Clearly, I’ve been missing out on a whole lot of awesome by not giving New Adult more attention. That is so going to change because of this book, which had me feeling so many things, often all at once. In fact, I’m still working on sorting them all out.