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4.03 AVERAGE
4.03 AVERAGE
Really liked the beginning half of this book, loved the banter between holt and harmony, they were cute and fun together. Where this book lost me was the abrupt reveal near the 3/4 mark, and some weird decisions and miscommunications from the characters. Story line just didn’t do it for me in the end.
Love Holt and Harmonys story. The way Harmony didn’t “fall at his feet” and made him work for it. The way Holt didn’t back down and didn’t see it as just a challenge. He wanted Harmony for keeps. Their banter back and forth and the way Harmony sasses him back.
Found the story very fast paced but also drawn out. Their were some twists that didn’t seem needed. Also the love at first sight/know I want to marry you/you’re the only one for me didn’t fit with the insecurities and the weird lack of communication.
Overall good story with the Brentwood baseball players.
Found the story very fast paced but also drawn out. Their were some twists that didn’t seem needed. Also the love at first sight/know I want to marry you/you’re the only one for me didn’t fit with the insecurities and the weird lack of communication.
Overall good story with the Brentwood baseball players.
I have been waiting for Holt’s story forever and I am happy to say I enjoyed it. His and Harmony’s banter was fantastic. I loved the male and female friendships in the story too. I love this series and can’t wait for more.
medium-paced
I absolutely loved this story, it's a sweet slow burn, hate to love romance. The story of Harmony and Holt, it's full of emotions, you will cry, laugh, and be torn for this couple. I'm more used to Meghan Quinn's full-on romcoms, however, I think I love the emotional side of this book and would love to read more in the future like this one, with special twists that have me invested in the story. The audiobook narrated by Connor Crais and Mackenzie Cartwright was simply fantastic, I enjoyed every minute of it as I usually do with all Meghan Quinn's audios.
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Blog |BookBub | Amazon |Audible |Instagram |Twitter |Facebook |TikTok |YouTube |Pinterest |Tumblr |Bookstore
I really liked this book, but...
It was quite hard for me to read it.
Man... This book. If it would have been released around the same time the first two... It would be my favorite. But it was not the case so I caught myself stopping this book (multiple times) to go and read parts of Knox's book. It became quite messy on my ending.
Anyway... I loved their story and Holt's maturity.
It kills me that he didn't end up it his buddies in Chicago.
It was quite hard for me to read it.
Man... This book. If it would have been released around the same time the first two... It would be my favorite. But it was not the case so I caught myself stopping this book (multiple times) to go and read parts of Knox's book. It became quite messy on my ending.
Anyway... I loved their story and Holt's maturity.
It kills me that he didn't end up it his buddies in Chicago.
I have been in love with this series from the start and Meghan Quinn did not disappoint when giving us Holt's story!
As per usual the bickering and banter between this couple was on point! Their first encounter was horrible but yet set the scene for each character and how they viewed each other. I was surprised towards the back half of the book by what happens to this couple and thought there would be more on it. Also there was no time jump as in previous books. They each have their fears and stories to tell and overcome but overall I give this addition to the towel brigade a huge thumbs up! As always looking forward to more!
As per usual the bickering and banter between this couple was on point! Their first encounter was horrible but yet set the scene for each character and how they viewed each other. I was surprised towards the back half of the book by what happens to this couple and thought there would be more on it. Also there was no time jump as in previous books. They each have their fears and stories to tell and overcome but overall I give this addition to the towel brigade a huge thumbs up! As always looking forward to more!
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Content Warnings
Graphic: Pregnancy
Overall Grade: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 1/2
Let’s begin this review with what Meghan Quinn’s The Strikeout isn’t. It isn’t a romance where the hero and heroine fall in love and then find themselves separated for years, feeling the hurt of that separation before reconciling and living happily ever after. It isn’t a disappointed hero who meets an independent, feisty baseball guru of a heroine who helps him overcome the challenges of his baseball playing. It isn’t about a care-giving, home-building baseball and a heroine with a secret crush. It’s isn’t a baseball player and his best friend falling madly for each other and having that disrupted by the baseball player’s feelings of inadequacies. And it isn’t about a traded baseball player and the conflict of falling in love with a girl who is forbidden. It also isn’t about two baseball players turned high school phys ed teachers, one who loves his baby mama and the other whose story is yet to be told.
What this story is, however, is a story about one of my favoritest of favorite Quinn heroes and his tenacity in breaking down the walls of a relationship reticent heroine. I’ve loved Quinn’s Brentwood University baseball players, but her characterization of Holt Green in The Strikeout tops the rest. Holt is the type of hero that you can’t help but love because he’s sweet, inappropriate, mostly emotionally-mature, tenacious, and patient. Yes, he has his foibles: he is wildly possessive over his heroine and he makes some choices that put his health in danger. Yet, even when he’s struggling in his relationship, he is so darn sweet that you can’t help but swoon. Holt Green stole my heart in this story, and I couldn’t stop reading it because it made me feel good...and that’s all you can ask for with romance.
This story is also about a heroine, Harmony (how much do you love the alliterative couple name: Holt and Harmony), who has big dreams, she wants fame, but fame costs...oops, I devolved into a Fame quote. But she really does want to transcend her lower middle-class, predictable past with an eventual exciting career in the big city. She’s a journalist, she sits on the lower socio-economic scale, and she has had to work hard for her college education. She doesn’t need a relationship to derail her goals, and Holt Green is wealthy, seemingly privileged, and an athlete. However, as Holt begins to chisel at her emotional walls, she begins to see his perseverance and pursuit of her as his way of love. When she stops judging Holt for his family and their wealth, she realizes quickly that he is a dream of a man. Once she accepts the goodness of Holt Green, their relationship progresses quickly. As you read the story, you keep waiting for the climax, the moment when all romances fall apart. You honestly don’t really see it coming because it happens late in the story. Instead, Meghan Quinn treats her readers to this almost fully formed relationship from early in her book, and it’s strange to read a romance where the couple is so adorable for much of the story. It’s possible that I’ve been reading quite a bit of angsty contemporary romance as of late, so that’s why it caught me by surprise. But it was quite lovely to read a romance where the couple’s struggle is overshadowed by their big love. In fact, it made it the highlight of the book.
I love me a sports romance, and Meghan Quinn’s Brentwood University baseball players have provided me many hours of delicious sports romance. Holt Green and Harmony Styles are no different in Quinn’s The Strikeout. If you picked up the first part of their story in the Team Player 2 Anthology, and you wanted more, well, Meghan Quinn did right by them. The Strikeout is one of the sweetest books I’ve read in a long time.
Let’s begin this review with what Meghan Quinn’s The Strikeout isn’t. It isn’t a romance where the hero and heroine fall in love and then find themselves separated for years, feeling the hurt of that separation before reconciling and living happily ever after. It isn’t a disappointed hero who meets an independent, feisty baseball guru of a heroine who helps him overcome the challenges of his baseball playing. It isn’t about a care-giving, home-building baseball and a heroine with a secret crush. It’s isn’t a baseball player and his best friend falling madly for each other and having that disrupted by the baseball player’s feelings of inadequacies. And it isn’t about a traded baseball player and the conflict of falling in love with a girl who is forbidden. It also isn’t about two baseball players turned high school phys ed teachers, one who loves his baby mama and the other whose story is yet to be told.
What this story is, however, is a story about one of my favoritest of favorite Quinn heroes and his tenacity in breaking down the walls of a relationship reticent heroine. I’ve loved Quinn’s Brentwood University baseball players, but her characterization of Holt Green in The Strikeout tops the rest. Holt is the type of hero that you can’t help but love because he’s sweet, inappropriate, mostly emotionally-mature, tenacious, and patient. Yes, he has his foibles: he is wildly possessive over his heroine and he makes some choices that put his health in danger. Yet, even when he’s struggling in his relationship, he is so darn sweet that you can’t help but swoon. Holt Green stole my heart in this story, and I couldn’t stop reading it because it made me feel good...and that’s all you can ask for with romance.
This story is also about a heroine, Harmony (how much do you love the alliterative couple name: Holt and Harmony), who has big dreams, she wants fame, but fame costs...oops, I devolved into a Fame quote. But she really does want to transcend her lower middle-class, predictable past with an eventual exciting career in the big city. She’s a journalist, she sits on the lower socio-economic scale, and she has had to work hard for her college education. She doesn’t need a relationship to derail her goals, and Holt Green is wealthy, seemingly privileged, and an athlete. However, as Holt begins to chisel at her emotional walls, she begins to see his perseverance and pursuit of her as his way of love. When she stops judging Holt for his family and their wealth, she realizes quickly that he is a dream of a man. Once she accepts the goodness of Holt Green, their relationship progresses quickly. As you read the story, you keep waiting for the climax, the moment when all romances fall apart. You honestly don’t really see it coming because it happens late in the story. Instead, Meghan Quinn treats her readers to this almost fully formed relationship from early in her book, and it’s strange to read a romance where the couple is so adorable for much of the story. It’s possible that I’ve been reading quite a bit of angsty contemporary romance as of late, so that’s why it caught me by surprise. But it was quite lovely to read a romance where the couple’s struggle is overshadowed by their big love. In fact, it made it the highlight of the book.
I love me a sports romance, and Meghan Quinn’s Brentwood University baseball players have provided me many hours of delicious sports romance. Holt Green and Harmony Styles are no different in Quinn’s The Strikeout. If you picked up the first part of their story in the Team Player 2 Anthology, and you wanted more, well, Meghan Quinn did right by them. The Strikeout is one of the sweetest books I’ve read in a long time.
Disregarding the last 10% ish of the book where the real conflict of the story happened (though it wasn't really that much of a conflict tbh), the couple here actually communicated when they had problems and resolved said problems by sitting down, talking, listening, understanding, and compromising. The fact that I was surprised by how much I appreciated that just kinda cements how I read way too many romance books with far too much miscommunication going on.
This was pretty much a feel-good story with minimal angst, plenty of romance and heat, and it's funny. Those are things that I expect from a MQ book, so I'm not surprised. Plus I'm just grateful that she didn't make it a point to include the dreaded years of separation trope
This was pretty much a feel-good story with minimal angst, plenty of romance and heat, and it's funny. Those are things that I expect from a MQ book, so I'm not surprised. Plus I'm just grateful that she didn't make it a point to include the dreaded years of separation trope