Cassidy Calloway never expected to go viral for grieving, but in the face of loss, little makes sense, especially when faced with a hit-it-out-of-the-park, over-the-fence, world-series kind of love.
This tropetastic fake dating sports romance is perfect for fans of Alicia Thompson and Tessa Bailey.
When her boyfriend dumps her at her father’s funeral, Cassidy Calloway does what she does best—turns her heartbreak into content. To honor her baseball-loving father, and if she’s being honest, to piss off her ex, she launches and season-long social media experiment to attend nine games with nine dates in honor of her father’s favorite player, number nine, Nate O’Brien.
The Gila Monster’s star pitcher is on the verge of his biggest season yet, and he’s not about to let some influencer-turned-ballpark-spectacle throw him off his game. But when the team starts losing, and fans start blaming Cassidy, Nate has bigger problems than his ERA—because the front office wants them to fix the narrative by pretending to date.
With his career on the line and her reputation at stake, Cassidy and Nate must turn their luck around. But the more time they spend together, the harder it gets to pretend they aren’t falling for each other.
And that’s the problem with fake dating. At some point, it starts to feel real.
Do I believe someone would actually break up with someone at a funeral? Sort of? But I believed it enough that I was instantly sympathetic to the heroine. And, I could also see the frustration of the hero as an influencer invades his world.
I liked Cassidy a lot. I think you can't help but feel for her, and the idea that the hits (to sort of use a baseball term) just keep coming on top of losing her father and learning that there was a lot about him that she didn't know.
Nate, for a large portion of the story was kind of a jerk. Better than the ex, but as he dumped Cassidy at a funeral, that wasn't too difficult. I do think the author did a good job of showing who he was and why he was acting as he did, but I would have liked to see a little more time spent on their connection when he wasn't being a jerk.
All that said, I enjoyed this one. I definitely had a few moments where I laughed, and I was engaged to the end.
