Author: Lani Lynn Vale

Genre: Sports Romance

What’s wrong with my butt?
She means those words to be directed toward the woman beside her, not him. But he can’t stop himself from answering. Not when her ass is the most magnificent thing he’s seen in his life.
Apparently, answering her with ‘not a damn thing’ wasn’t what she was expecting.
She likely wasn’t expecting the baseball she took to the face at his next at bat, either.
All it takes is one ill-fated foul ball, and George Hoffman, Lumberjacks center fielder, falls head over heels in love with Wrigley Field—and yes, that is her real name.
From that point forward, George and Wrigley fall into a fast whirlwind love that ends with them eloping to Vegas. And he has his potty mouth, titty bar owning, pain in the ass grandmother to thank for it.
Not that he’s complaining or anything.
Who wouldn’t want to be married to a woman that made his heart race like he was in the final game of the World Series?
The only problem is trying to convince her of that.

3.75 ‘Second Round’ Stars

 

Oh my Lord, the ANGST!!! Lani Lynn Vale put my heart through the wringer with this one!

Everyone that knows and follows me, also knows of my addiction to all things LLV, and I have to say that after the perfection of that first book in this series, Pitch Please – if you haven’t read that you need to, STAT – I’ve been anxiously and impatiently waiting for this book. Well, I can say that George and  Wrigley sure surprised each and myself right along with them!

“Hello,” I smiled. “I’m sorry.” 
She smiled back. “Sorry for what?” 
I pressed lightly on her forehead, right above where the swelling was starting, and said, “For hitting you in the face with a ball.” 
She moaned. “That’s gonna suck the next few weeks.” she frowned. “I’d say I’d take your balls to my face any time you want but…I have a class for battered women tomorrow. This is going to be hard for them to look at.”

With the most unconventional – but surely impactful – first meeting, these two’s love story was a whirlwind of emotion and angst filled events. Wrigley Fields – yes, that’s her name, and wait until you read her siblings’, lol – ,not a fan of baseball, is dragged by her younger sister to watch the Lumberjacks game, where Furious George is playing. From the moment they locked eyes they were attracted, what they didn’t expect was the George’s odd ball would be the first thing to make contact with her.

He was beautiful, kind, thoughtful, and overall a really great guy. Plus, he had a beard.

I’d witnessed my first home run ever, and I was officially addicted to baseball. 
Or maybe it was the man. 
I didn’t know. 
But addiction was in there somewhere.

With a smoking hot bearded ginger giant I’d be hooked for life too. Specially with those tight baseball pants! Who can resist a handsome man in those?!

I loved how George was so open about wanting her and wooing Wrigley from the get go, and from that moment it was full speed ahead, marriage and baby, and what it seemed to be an HEA.

 He was my hero. 
Seriously, all I did was worry, and all he did was reassure me. 
We were a match made in heaven.

But no, something happens and we find these two divorced for eight months, but still very much in love. So we have a time jump, and normally I don’t mind them, but here it should make the story Arc a bit strange – specially given we jump the separation and are just told what happened – and it seemed very un-LLV. George is alone, away from his love and his baby boy, and I hurt for him SO bad. I could feel his pain, his frustration, his helplessness, and was seriously mad at Wrigley for allowing the past event and her stubbornness and pride, to keep them apart.

I used to be tame. I used to be able to control my temper…I used to be happy. 
Now, I wasn’t. 
Now, I was worse than before I’d met her. 
I was lost. 
I was broken. 
I was alone. 
And worst of all, I didn’t want to be found. 
Not by anyone but her. 
I was simply existing.

I was going to have her back. 
In my home. In my bed. In my life. And I was going to get back into her heart.

George was absolutely perfect in this first half of the book, he had the patience of a saint during those eight months but then all of the sudden BAM, he had the most idiotic, and one of my personal peeves regarding separated couples that it’s clear that still very much in love – I couldn’t believe not only his approach and how he dealt with it and the series of events and media repercussion – but also his carelessness of how much it would her Wrigley. True, the separation and divorce was her fault, but with the way he went that it completely made me forget her blame and become seriously raging mad at him, and it’s a shame because I had such high hopes for him (with the perfection that was Hancock and how spectacular George was on the first half). 

“You’re beautiful, and not a day will go by that I don’t find every single inch of you captivating.”

“I’ve regretted my decisions for a really long time now. It would make me the happiest woman alive if you allowed me the chance to rectify my poor choices.”

In between that initial media and OW drama, and horrifying disaster that had me crying , they ended up supporting each other, and finding his way back together, but the media, and George mistake snowballed in a way, that had me fuming at him! Wrigley had all the right to be beyond mad, and that last OW drama scene – that seemed out of the blue, and made no sense, and contradicted the whole background of both characters, more like a plot inconsistency/error, that I hoped it was fixed – , as well as his explanation, sadly tainted the whole story for me. Even more so because his senseless explanation and its close proximity to their ending, I felt a bit disheartened, because I truly adored the first half and their story had such great potential, with all their background and the motive for their separation, as well as their families, they had a LOT going on, so the unnecessary OW drama just  a step too much. Fortunately, after all this rollercoaster we got to see their beautiful and much anticipated HEA.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

Lani Lynn Vale truly pulls to all my emotions, that is for sure. I laughed, I cried (yes, I was literally gripping my seat when the disaster happened and I was transported to Shock Advise’s heartbreak), I swooned, I raged, and I just soaked in all the words from start to finish. Ms. Vale has the gift of gripping us in from the get go, and making us live through all the feelings the main characters are going through. And with the amazing cast that we have in these Lumberjack’s team – btw, I ADORED the tiny bits we got of Hancock and Sway! – and  I wonder who she will gift us with next. Maybe Gentry?! Manny?! Gunner?! I don’t know, I just know I need it NOW!!! <3 <3 <3 <3

“I think we’re two peas in a fucked-up pod.”

ARC kindly provided by the author via InkSlinger PR for an honest review