REVIEW: Squeeze Play by Kate Angell

JaneBook Reviews / C Reviews Category / C+ Reviews5 Comments

Dear Ms. Angell:

I had to google you when I was finished with the book to make sure that Kate Angell wasn’t a Suzann Ledbetter psuedonym. Your writing style is so close to hers and hers is very distinct. I am still not convinced that you aren’t the same person.

This book is one that is a breezy, fun read despite its numerous problems. The book is at its best when it focuses on Jacy Grayson and “Risk” Kincaid. Risk is a major league baseball player with the Richmond Rogues. At first, I thought the name denoted a minor league ball club, but the book opens with Risk hitting the World Series winning run. After the World Series, Risk heads to his home town of Frostproof, FL. He had one month off and intends to use to woo Jacy Grayson. He has always been Jacy’s rebound guy since high school. Risk wants to turn this casual sexual relationship into a permanent partnership.

Risk takes with him Zen Driscoll to play in a fellow Frostproof major league player’s charity event. Aaron Grayson is Jacy’s second cousin and long time lover of her best friend, Stevie. Unfortunately, Aaron isn’t there to pop the question but to break it off because he has gotten engaged to the daughter of the owner of Tampa Bay Bombers’.

There are three relationships going on in this story and it is 2 too many. The face time that we get with Risk and Jacy is quite limited. We get sex scenes with three different couples and while the sexuality of the book is in the “hot” category, it doesn’t have much emotional impact as we flit from couple to couple. We also have the “Bat Pack”: three young professionals who come to town to play in the charity event.

The other storylines were interesting but it was too much in one short book to be successful. The third story between Aaron Grayson and Natalie, the daughter, was resolved much too simplisitically. Essentially everyone got the short shrift.

There were other niggles as well. Jacy and Risk’s conflict was a tad manufactured with a simple misunderstanding keeping them emotionally apart. This conflict lasted much too long, with Jacy not seeing the signs of Risk’s love for you even though it was practically spelled out in big Neon letters in front of her. The way in which Jacy’s coffee store was run, with “blows” and “sugar” was overtly sexual for morning coffee shop. More than one couple has sex in the food prep or cooler area. As a starbucks frequenter, the idea that my scones came in close contact with naked body parts and sex fluids is enough to put me off my coffee for a year. Finally, Stevie is supposed to be a lushly style woman who wears size 12 or 14 but you state that she weighs around 137. Are you kidding me? Stevie, at 137, is no Rubens model.

In spite of those niggles and the too many couple plotlines, this was an enjoyable read. C+.

Best regards,

Jane

PS – is Kate Angell and Suzann Ledbetter the same person? Anyone?

Jane

Jane Litte is the founder of Dear Author, a lawyer, and a lover of pencil skirts. She self publishes NA and contemporaries (and publishes with Berkley and Montlake) and spends her downtime reading romances and writing about them. Her TBR pile is much larger than the one shown in the picture and not as pretty. You can reach Jane by email at jane @ dearauthor dot com

→ Jane