Wonderfully Written & Performed!

I truly enjoy Kelly Oram’s books. I’m a grandmother of 5 and my reading interests are all over the spectrum. I love Kelly’s books because they tell the real concerns of older teens & twenty somethings, without the drugs & sex in so many other books. She writes on the true to life dramas that families face and we’re carried away in the telling of it. Real people. Real problems. Really enjoyable!!

4 people found this helpful

Makes you feel good

Every one of Kelly Oram’s books leaves you with a smile. I loved this one, it describes real issues girls go through in wanting to fit in, playing sports and navigating all the girly feelings. Narration was awesome.

2 people found this helpful

G-rated, YA, baseball romance

Charlotte (“Charlie”) Hastings, is in the spring of her senior year and is an extremely talented catcher and batter on her school’s all-male (other than her) baseball team. Her widowed father is a former Major League baseball player who has trained Charlie in baseball since she was four years old. After he retired from his baseball career, he got a degree in broadcasting and has worked ever since as one of the commentators for the Pittsburg Pirates’ televised games. One of the perks of his employment are fabulous free seats for Charlie and one of her friends to attend all of the Pirates’ home baseball games.

Because her father is rich, Charlie lives in a huge mansion with its own private baseball diamond, swimming pool, and batting cage. Due to all of these amazing amenities and an extremely gregarious and generous father, Charlie had the potential to become one of the most popular girls in school. However, she's an extreme introvert, and during her school years she has only made friends with three boys from her baseball team, Eric Sullivan, Kevin Jones, and Diego Escobar. Since they have been friends since early childhood, all of these boys are like siblings to her, but Eric is her favorite of the three. He and Charlie consider each other to be their BFF. He is a near neighbor, and her father has practically adopted him over the years, due to the fact that his wealthy parents are quite neglectful. Eric has had the huge advantage of being trained by Charlie’s dad right alongside Charlie, since they were both preschoolers. He is a fabulous pitcher who is currently being scouted by at least a dozen different professional baseball teams, but he feels guilty because there is very little chance that Charlie, as a woman, will be able to play baseball after high school.

Charlie has had a non-platonic crush on Eric for years, but she realizes, to her continual disappointment, that it is unlikely he will ever view her as anything but a sister. All the guys on the high school baseball team, after a rocky start her freshman year as the only girl on the team, have accepted her as “one of the guys.” And all is going well with her life, other than moderately painful regret about Eric, until he inadvertently rubs her face in the fact that he will never see her as a desirable, potential girlfriend by inviting a beautiful cheerleader, who is a classic Mean Girl, to the prom. Not only that, Charlie discovers that Kevin and Diego have also asked girls to the prom, and the three boys have made plans to hire a limousine to ferry them and their dates to the festivities. Since none of the boys, any more than Charlie, typically date, this in itself is a shocking aberration, but even more surprising—and very, very hurtful—is the fact that it did not occur to any of the boys to invite her to come along. When Charlie expresses her pained surprise at their casually callous neglect, the three boys laugh loud and long at the very thought of Charlie ever wanting to put on a dress and go to a dance. They obviously view her as a confirmed tomboy, since she habitually wears jeans, T-shirts and sneakers, never puts on makeup, and always keeps her hair hauled back into a messy ponytail that she stuffs under a baseball cap. When she assures them she would certainly like to go to their mutual senior prom, especially if her three best friends are going, Eric piles insult on injury by proclaiming in a loud, joking voice to the whole baseball team at their lunch table, “’Hastings here is in need of a prom date. Any of you dateless shmucks desperate enough to volunteer as tribute?’” Charlie is utterly insulted and humiliated at this insensitive mockery, and her intense emotional pain at Eric’s perceived betrayal sets off a major identity crisis.

First of all, I adored Charlie’s father. I was delighted to perceive that he is not portrayed as either of the two cliché, parental extremes habitually found in YA fiction—either clueless or cruel. He is a former Major League pitcher and extremely prosperous, but he is not a snob, and he has not raised Charlie to be one either. He has been widowed for the past 12 years, but there is no indication he has ever dated during that time. All his love has gone to Charlie as a devoted father. Most impressively, he has strongly nurtured her tremendous talent as a batter and catcher.

This book does not follow the usual pattern of YA romances where it is inevitable that the heroine with a male BFF ends up with him as a romantic partner. Quite the contrary, it is made clear from the beginning of the story (so much so that it is not a spoiler to bring it up) that, for Eric, the very idea of romance with Charlie feels incestuous to him, given that he views her as a sister.

I was actually glad that Eric is not the romantic hero of this story because, personally, I didn’t like him at all—which is to be expected, because he is Charlie’s main Antagonist in this book. I very much enjoyed the actual romance of this story, a slow-growing, well-developed relationship with Jace King, a fellow senior and the captain of Charlie’s baseball team. He is an extremely sympathetic, Beta, metrosexual male—and believably so, because he has four sisters, including a sweet, wonderful twin sister, who have strongly influenced his positive attitude toward girls and women.

Charlie has never dated and never been kissed—which is, admittedly, a very common type of heroine in G-rated, YA novels. That degree of innocence isn’t always well motivated, but it is fairly well done here. And, fortunately, Jace is not a “player,” but is almost as innocent as Charlie.

In terms of believability, I personally find it rather hard to imagine that any boy, even those she has been friends with since early childhood, would view Charlie as a “guy” rather than a very attractive girl, given that she is pretty, lean and fit, and has, by her own proud admission, a D-cup bust. That kind of precocious bra size inevitably gets a girl lots of male attention in high school—unfortunately, most often attention of the undesirable, sexual-harassment type. However, there is no indication in this book that anyone at all has ever noticed her gorgeous figure until—tah dah!--she has a makeover. I’m not personally at all fond of this eternally popular, romance-genre trope, but many romance readers are, and they may enjoy the section of this book dedicated to Charlie's discovering within herself a previously unknown preference for a frilly version of female, gender identity.

There is also far more focus in this book on Charlie’s identity crisis as a secretly “girly girl” buried in male culture, rather than focusing on her passion for baseball. Readers who enjoy a true sports romance, with heavy focus on the heroine as a star athlete, might be somewhat disappointed at the comparatively weak focus on Charlie as an amazingly accomplished athlete in this book.

This novel is more of a dramedy than a romantic comedy, which is rather too bad in some ways, because there are many moments in this story which would have been ripe for a comic turn. However, on the plus side, the author never slides into overdone melodrama, which is a frequent flaw in many novels in the YA genre.

I read this book in Kindle format when it first came out, and this week I had the chance to experience it again as an audiobook, purchased as a bargain price through Amazon Whispersync. The narrator, Hallie Ricardo, does an excellent job of avoiding a major, irritating pitfall of far too many voice talents who narrate YA novels—voicing the heroine in a constant whine throughout the book. Instead, this narrator never whines when voicing Charlie, and she also does a good job acting out the parts convincingly for characters of both genders and all ages.

Finally, this G-rated novel is suitable for all ages. There is no drinking, smoking, drugs, swearing or sex. There are a few kisses, but no strong sense of sexual passion.

I rate this book as follows:
Heroine: 4 stars
Hero: 5 stars
Subcharacters: 4 stars
Romance Plot: 4 stars
Baseball Plot: 3 stars
Makeover Plot: 3 stars
Parent Plot: 5 stars
Writing: 4 stars
Audiobook Narration: 4 stars
Overall: 4 stars

1 person found this helpful

My favorite Kelly Oram book so far!

I’ve listened to all the other Kelly Oram books on Audible so far, and this is by far my favorite! It actually compelled me to write this review instead of just entering the star rating! It brought me back to my high schools days, and all the fond memories of sleepovers, baseball championships, and all the conflicting thoughts of being a teenager. It’s super relatable, and I listened to the whole thing in one night. I could not bring myself to stop listening! The story is great, and the narrator was spot on in the feelings of each character. This really needs to be a movie!!

1 person found this helpful

Good YA story.

A sweet, PG romance between high schoolers and a budding friendship with others. It was a good thing I was not reading this for realism as some of the details of this story don’t add up as well as the author was going for. Mostly I didn’t believe a fit pretty girl with big breast is not noticed by the boys, especially if they go swimming all the time, the author should have made her have a lithe body type to be believable, but it is what it is. Also, the story acted like baseball was an all year event. I would like to see Jace’s sister get together with Erik. I think the author saw the movie Duff and decided to make a book as this was a similar story line. I would listen to this author again though as it made me feel good about the conclusion in the end. Narrator does a good job.

Very cute, funny, and adorable

Loved it. sweet, clean and kept me interested almost the whole time. The story was different, not the same old love story line.

Best book boyfriend

Very supportive, caring, curtious, and sweet all describe Jace King.
He can also braid your hair.

it is good

I liked it more than I thought. though I wish was more baseball. worth reading.

A MUST READ

First the narrator was amazing! Second, this is probably the cutest story line and I absolutely love this book that I listened to it twice lol. The author did a great job giving each character their own voice and had great imagery throughout.

EXCELLENT Story EXCELLENT Narrator

I love Kelly's writing style! Her stories have hearty characters and great storylines. Her ability to know just how to write her characters with real emotions and the qwerky way she can make you laugh makes her an outstanding author. I've read and listened to thousands of books in my 70 years and I find myself returning to Kelly Oram books because they are a great read and... they leave you with a smile not only on your face but in your heart as well.
I hope the producers of this book take note of "Hally Recardo" as well. She is one of the best narrators I've heard ! it takes so much more to be a good narrator than being able to read the words, and Hally truely has what it takes. You never wonder whose speaking and she captured each emotion and inflection to perfection! please please do Kelly Oram books justice and hire quality narrators, like Hally Ricardo! she rocked this book!
Thank you Kelly and Hally for a great ride. I enjoyed every minute!