What is your opinion?
Great Story. Wonderful characters!!
"This was a wonderful little story about two people struggling together and falling in love. It offered a great and relevant conflict and a feel-good conclusion."
A heartwarming story about modern day dilemmas
"I really enjoyed this heartwarming story about a young boy who loves playing baseball, his single mum and her struggles and the new guy, with a few issues of his own, who enters their lives. The characters are strong and real, with adult and child vulnerabilities that we can all relate to. The petty politics echo the kinds of issues we see in kids sport everywhere as well as alert us to those same kinds of issues playing out on a bigger stage. As an Australian reader, I can also relate to the kids sporting politics and the characters Greg McLaughlin draws so well. Greg introduces us to interesting and likeable (and also not so likeable) characters and draws them, flaws and all, with a deft touch. He effortlessly weaves in the backstory to give us insights and depth. His antagonists are three dimensional and feel like the people you encounter in all walks of life. The story raises questions of fairness, equal opportunity and how to deal with those who want to control the access to opportunities for others. It is a universal theme and very timely. This is a warm, funny, entertaining and real story. I experienced a range of emotions while reading and was invested in the outcome. Well done Greg. Another great story."
l❤️ved it....
"like how the story runs... not too much drama and yet touching... "
Vivid, light-hearted portrait of Americana
"This book is not set in the Midwest, but being a Midwesterner I very much felt at home in it. The locations, situations, and personalities all rang very true, whisking be back to my own school days. Greg is a very self-aware writer in the best way possible. When he tackles a genre, he does so fully conscious of its tropes and cliches and uses those to play with the reader's expectations, faking us out, getting us to anticipate Development A or B only to be subverted by Development Q. And unlike certain romcoms on the market, these characters are the furthest thing from cardboard cutouts. They are messy, a little damaged, a little lost and afraid to feel too hopeful based on past disappointments. I'll read anything with strong characters--that is literally my only criterion--because strong characters, as Greg so deftly proves here, can take a plot about little league, small-town politics, petty grudges, the everyday minutiae of life, and make it more compelling than a spy thriller. Spy thrillers, while exciting, often leave me cold in the way of character attachment. From the earliest chapters I cared about Greg's cast with an almost familial intensity. They could've sat around collecting stamps and mowing their lawns and I would've been game for it. But instead Greg crafts a subtle, deeply nuanced, and representative tableau of small-town America that is so effortless to read it's easy to underestimate the amount of thought and creativity that went into it. Greg doesn't wear his mastery on his sleeve, and that's the mark of a true master."
