I'm not a big sports fan, but baseball is one of the few that I can understand pretty well without having to do a ton of research on rules, yard lines, whatever. I remember seeing the commercial for the show Pitch and when The Perfect Game was comped with that, I thought I'd like to check it out.

Pauly is a very dedicated person to baseball and it was easy to feel that throughout the book. Her knowledge of stats was amazing, as was her commitment to the sport. 

Ian started out as kind of a douchebag, which was the point I think. His drinking and womanizing was a much talked about point on the team and I wasn't sure how he and Pauly would ever work out, whether professionally or personally.

The relationship that did develop was a bit confusing, as I couldn't really connect with it. Even though they had been teammates for a few years now, the more personal and physical relationship happened really quickly and became more serious than I'd have expected in such a short period of time.

As to side characters, the most developed one were Ian's father, though more were introduced including other teammates and members of Pauly's family. Ian and his father, Ray, had an intense history and the troubles they went through in The Perfect Game was interesting. It's ending was a bit sad, but I thought the author did a well thought out job of dealing with Ray's alcoholism and it's effect on his life.

There were moments of tension regarding Pauly and her career, but as important as these events are, they didn't feel like a big deal within the context of the story. What tension they brought up didn't last long or leave much of a real mark on the story.

There were definitely some steamy scenes between Pauly and Ian, which should satisfy those looking for the romance aspect of the story. As I said before, I didn't care for the rapid development of their relationship, but I can see that there will be reader that enjoy those scenes, as well as the happily ever after once The Perfect Game concludes.

This was a good story, if not among my favorites. There were aspects I didn't care for, but I think other readers may well. I liked the baseball aspects, even if I wasn't quite familiar with the set up of major league, minor league, and club teams. There's a little of something for quite a few classes of reader and I do hope others will enjoy Pauly's rise in the sport.



I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.