#Review: High Heat by Linda Morris - 3 Wine Glasses

Title: High Heat 
Series: Hard Hitters #1
Author: Linda Morris 
Format: Kindle Edition
Published: June 16th 2015 by InterMix
ASINB:00LMGLY8I
Links: Goodreads | Amazon | B&N
Reviewer: Crystal
Source: Netgalley
Rating: 3 out of 5 Wine Glasses

The author of Melting the Millionaire’s Heart gives readers a front-row seat to her new Hard Hitters baseball series. First up at bat: a hotshot pitcher and a PR pro battle it out on and off the field…

Small-town Indiana tomboy Sarah Dudley grew up living and breathing baseball, since her father owned the minor league Plainview Thrashers. A talented player herself, she idolized her brother’s best friend: Tom Cord, a pitcher with a wicked fastball and an even more wicked reputation.

Now, Sarah is the Thrashers’ VP of public relations, and Tom—a star in the major leagues—has been assigned to the club while rehabbing from surgery. It’s Sarah’s job to keep the hard-throwing, hard-living star out of trouble. But when she gets a glimpse of the man behind the bad-boy image, they start to generate more heat than an inside fastball…

Crystal's Thoughts:
In this sweet sports romance, Sarah Dudley is the public relations VP of the Plainview Thrashers, a minor league team out of Indiana that her family has owned for generations. Sarah was not only raised on baseball but she has an intense love for it as well, she could tell you better then some coaches what a player needs. But ever since the death of her mother, Sarah's father has sidelined her and her love of the sport. 

Tom Cord is a veteran pitcher who while down, is not out. Recovering from an elbow injury and resulting surgery, he is rehabbing in the small town of Plainview with their minor league for a few weeks before moving up to Chicago's major league. Where he belongs. It is the only thing on his mind, until he meets Sarah Dudley...

High Heat was a cute contemporary romance for sports fans but not the heavy-hitter that I was hoping for. Sarah has lived and breathed baseball since she was a baby and has dreams to be more involved with the sport as a manager, coach, or anything else to get her down in the dirt. But her father has a stern stance on women in sports, and no matter how much Sarah tries to prove herself competent her father will not be swayed. Sarah had a lot of potential to be a strong, female character. She had the attitude and the back bone, but when it came to her family all of that melted away and she allowed them to walk all over her. Her father was a colossal bigot and an incredibly unlikable character up until the very end. We never do get any kind of reconciliation between him and Sarah, which I found to be disappointing. 

Tom has a fun and free demeanor. Sexy, talented, and boy did he know it! Tom has his own form to pitching and no matter what doctors, coaches, ect. tell him, he is sticking with what works in the here and now. Now matter what it might mean some time in the future. This was another character that could have been so much more. Tom's attitude throughout the story left a lot to be desired. I know a lot grown men have a 16 year old teenager trapped inside their body but those aren't the ones that I want to read about. Don't get me wrong, it was humorous most of the time but other times it took me back and made me say, "Really?!" He was also stupidly stubborn at times, but this to some extent fit an athletic character as many are superstitious and don't want to mess with a sure thing either. 

Sarah use to have a teenage crush on Tom when he played ball in college with her brother. When these two meet again Tom pretends not to remember Sarah and though she has grown out of her gangling tom-boy looks, he remembers her all too well. Sarah and Tom butt heads from the beginning and I liked Sarah's spunk when it came to Tom. Their romance was an enjoyably slow-build and Sarah definitely made Tom work for it. There weren't many deep, meaningful conversations between the two however. Mostly surface talk, and Tom remained a tough nut to crack through most of the story line which impeded my ability to connect with him. They were invested in each other though and they had good chemistry. I really liked how Tom urged Sarah to go for the job she loved while Sarah tried to encourage Tom to work on his pitching mechanics so there would be less chance for further injury. 

The over-all idea of the story in High Heat was good. The delivery was weaker then I would have liked but the bottom line is High Heat was a predominantly enjoyable baseball romance.