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dfwsusie 's review for:
Heavy Hitter
by Katie Cotugno
The premise of “Heavy Hitter" seems a guaranteed grand slam — an international pop star and a major league baseball player meet one night in the city and the rest is hot and heavy history. And Katie Cotugno’s attempt to blend humor, sizzle, and a ripped-from-the-headlines vibe does occasionally hit the mark. Unfortunately, there are plenty of swings and misses in this story.
When characters are not-so-loosely-based on two real people as famous as Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce, character development in the fictional versions becomes extremely important.
Deep third person, past tense is my preferred point of view and reading tense. However, one of the primary issues with "Heavy Hitter" is its distant third-person, present-tense style. This choice creates a significant barrier between the reader and the characters, making it difficult to feel connected to Lacey Logan and Jimmy Hodges, the fictional Taylor and Travis.
It feels as if their emotions are delivered by an increasingly unreliable narrator - not someone intimately familiar with these character’s inner lives - as if we are reading the gossip rag randomly referenced in the story and not in their hearts and heads. This undermines the romance at the story's core, leaving Lacey and Jimmy’s feelings toward each other flat and unconvincing. We are told they care, but do they really?
The present tense aspect makes this problem worse, each person often lashing out like children or working through their moment-to-moment feelings on page. They aren’t growing in our view as people. They are just bodies in motion doing stuff.
Not to mention that these two characters spend almost no physical time together in the story. Their relationship exists as more of an idea they have in their head, and in casual texts, and in wondering if the other person is on their way out the door than it does in togetherness. The relationship and the love isn’t real in any definable way. We are told it’s real and are supposed to accept it’s true.
But reality, as it goes here, is subjective in many ways. Lacey, with her perfectly curated Instagram feed and high-profile celebrity woes, never quite emerges as a fully rounded person. Jimmy, the scruffy baseball player with the banged-up knees, a bruised ego, and maybe a decent heart, feels half-baked. Their interactions and budding relationship lack the depth and complexity that would make their romance feel genuine and compelling.
Moreover, the pacing of the story is breakneck. Key moments in their romance are glossed over until they are slammed into an abrupt and unsatisfying conclusion. While the book does end on a happily ever after note, it feels incomplete and hastily wrapped up, leaving many threads unresolved.
“Heavy Hitter” is a first draft of an amazing book I would have no doubt loved, and a second draft of a very good book I would have liked. But as it stands, this is an intriguing concept which failed to deliver a true home run of a love story.
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Thank you to NetGalley & Harper Collins for the Advanced Reader Copy. Expected publication date Aug 20 2024
When characters are not-so-loosely-based on two real people as famous as Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce, character development in the fictional versions becomes extremely important.
Deep third person, past tense is my preferred point of view and reading tense. However, one of the primary issues with "Heavy Hitter" is its distant third-person, present-tense style. This choice creates a significant barrier between the reader and the characters, making it difficult to feel connected to Lacey Logan and Jimmy Hodges, the fictional Taylor and Travis.
It feels as if their emotions are delivered by an increasingly unreliable narrator - not someone intimately familiar with these character’s inner lives - as if we are reading the gossip rag randomly referenced in the story and not in their hearts and heads. This undermines the romance at the story's core, leaving Lacey and Jimmy’s feelings toward each other flat and unconvincing. We are told they care, but do they really?
The present tense aspect makes this problem worse, each person often lashing out like children or working through their moment-to-moment feelings on page. They aren’t growing in our view as people. They are just bodies in motion doing stuff.
Not to mention that these two characters spend almost no physical time together in the story. Their relationship exists as more of an idea they have in their head, and in casual texts, and in wondering if the other person is on their way out the door than it does in togetherness. The relationship and the love isn’t real in any definable way. We are told it’s real and are supposed to accept it’s true.
But reality, as it goes here, is subjective in many ways. Lacey, with her perfectly curated Instagram feed and high-profile celebrity woes, never quite emerges as a fully rounded person. Jimmy, the scruffy baseball player with the banged-up knees, a bruised ego, and maybe a decent heart, feels half-baked. Their interactions and budding relationship lack the depth and complexity that would make their romance feel genuine and compelling.
Moreover, the pacing of the story is breakneck. Key moments in their romance are glossed over until they are slammed into an abrupt and unsatisfying conclusion. While the book does end on a happily ever after note, it feels incomplete and hastily wrapped up, leaving many threads unresolved.
“Heavy Hitter” is a first draft of an amazing book I would have no doubt loved, and a second draft of a very good book I would have liked. But as it stands, this is an intriguing concept which failed to deliver a true home run of a love story.
______
Thank you to NetGalley & Harper Collins for the Advanced Reader Copy. Expected publication date Aug 20 2024