Review: HardBall by C.D. Reiss

Title: HardBall
By: C. D. Reiss
My Copy: Ebook from Publisher
The BookWhisperer's Rating: 

Perfect ass.

Perfect arms.

Perfect swagger.

They call Dash Wallace the Diamond King.

He’s the hottest commodity in baseball and in the bedroom.

When he runs the bases, every woman’s eyes are glued to his stunning body and a smile that puts the night lights to shame.

I’m no queen. I’m a regular girl with a regular job. I just watch him on TV and from the bleachers, season after season.

Girls like me grab a guy like that one in a million times.

My number just came up, and he is as spectacular in bed as he is on the field.

But there’s not a woman in the world who can distract Dash Wallace from the game. Not for a moment. Not even me.

Until the night I do. And everything changes.

My first book by C.D. Reiss and I will say that I liked HardBall.  I felt that Dash and Vivian were solid characters, both opposite in a world of fame and fortune but kindred spirits in classical literature.  (Which let me say as a side note that I loved that Dash could quote Shakespeare and was a bookworm! He is not a sexy, dumb jock…he is a sexy, smart jock.)  Their fated way of meeting was adorable and so was their banter.  

Reiss also produced two sweet as pie characters: Vivian’s stepfather could quite possibly be the cutest secondary character that I have ever read.  His love for Vivian shined on the pages off of the pages and into my heart.  And Iris, a little girl that is one of Vivian’s students.

While I liked the two main characters, I felt as if there were moments that I felt didn’t add up.  Vivian stood up for herself throughout most of the book but then at the end kind of faltered.  She is a strong character that knew Dash’s luck was not because of her and the pre-game rituals but was because of Dash’s talent and love for the game.  However, I felt like when she rode herself ragged by flying out to every game to be his good luck charm, even after she said no to his request in the beginning, it made me think that she didn’t firmly stand her ground and that this just solidified Dash into believing that she was his lucky charm. And I found that Dash was so headstrong about his routines and lucky charms that the ending didn’t sit well with me.  To me, it would have taken a lot more than what happened to change his thinking and ways.   This left me liking the book but not 100% loving it. It still is a good book with two great characters and a beautiful story about love but for me it felt like the ending had to be wrapped up quickly instead of letting it flow.