A review by ravensandlace
Strike Zone by Brittany Ann

3.0

Title: Strike Zone

Author: Brittany Ann

Genre: Romance

Format: Kindle Unlimited

Series: Batter Up (#3)

Star Rating: 3 stars

tw: sexual assault, murder, mental issues: PTSD, anxiety, and depression

So I love a good angst story. I truly don't mind working for my happy ever after. I don’t like my happy endings handed to me sometimes. However, as much as I love this series, this one was the weakest one for me. This book is mostly about Haley and James. James was great. I enjoyed his character arc, but I got to talk about Haley. Because if this book hadn’t been all about her, I think I would have enjoyed this book a little more. 

I understand that Haley has had a bad past with an emotionally abusive mother but holy cow, she started to drive me bonkers. I truly tried to be patient with her. I don’t know what it’s like to have an emotionally abusive mother but I do have a degree in psychology so I have learned about what child abuse does to a person. But I only have so much patience. This next bit might be spoilery to the first two books so read at your own risk. 

My biggest problem with Haley was she expected everyone to leave her. Her siblings left her with her mom but I have no idea what they were supposed to do. I think they were going to college so I truly doubt they would have been able to keep her. A lot of colleges have rules that freshmen must stay on campus so I don’t think she would have been able to live on the campus. She expects her friends to leave her even when they tell her constantly they won't and have given her no reason to expect that. They stayed by her side throughout everything. Even when Gwen was dealing with the things she was dealing with, she still stood by Haley and was happy for her. But the biggest problem was that she broke up with James and then got mad when he respected that boundary and let her be for a time. She complained that all people do is leave her, especially James but SHE LEFT HIM! This was a constant theme in the book and Haley had a ton of page time so we constantly got to hear about it. I just couldn’t deal with it. If you wanted to be with him, then be with him but don’t string the poor guy along. Especially when he came clean with everything because he wanted to be with her so bad. 

Besides Haley and her issues, I am enjoying the dark turn this book is taking. There is so much darkness happening and I’m anxious to see the group try to recover from it. Or will they succumb to the darkness? I guess I will have to read the last book to find out. But personally, I hope they keep a little bit of the light they have but I do love that they are willing to do anything necessary to keep their family safe. 

Overall, I enjoyed the book well enough but Haley became a real problem for me. I really needed her to just grow up a tiny bit and realize the world is going to leave her but she definitely needs to change her attitude or she will truly be alone. I hope things change in the fourth book and I get the peace of mind that I need. But I still do recommend this book series quite a bit!