Squeeze Play
Grade : B

This baseball-themed romance, set in Florida just after the World Series, is a sweet story of a couple who have always come together as rebound sex partners, but now they each realize that they want more from their relationship. The bulk of the story comes from each of them trying to decide how to confess their feelings, and wondering how their confession will be taken.

Jacy Grayson and Risk Kincaid grew up in the same small Florida town, where Risk was the best friend of Jacy's cousin. He never noticed her though, until he found her crying on the bleachers after her boyfriend dumped her right before the prom. Risk took her to the prom, and even though he moved on to college and then to the Major Leagues, there has never been anyone else for Jacy. She stayed in their town, Frostproof, where she opened a hugely successful coffee shop. Although she’s happy with her life, the one thing she is missing is Risk. Since their relationship consists of him being her rebound lover, every six months or so she fabricates a painful breakup with an imaginary boyfriend in order to get Risk to visit for a day or two.

Risk, having recently hit the winning home run of the World Series, decides to take a month off to go home and try to convince Jacy to start a serious relationship with him. He hijacks his best friend from his team, Zen, and drives home to Frostproof where Jacy has supposedly just broken up with the local pharmacist and is in need of some comforting. When Jacy gets a broken ankle and cracked ribs in a softball game, she and Risk have to see if their relationship is viable out of bed, and not just in it.

On the whole, the story was appealing and amusing, and I could definitely believe the chemistry between Risk and Jacy. There was also a strong secondary romance between Zen and Jacy's friend Stevie, and these two secondary characters are well-developed. There are plenty of fun scenes, but many of the funniest in Squeeze Play involve some of Risk's teammates, who have also found their way to Frostproof.

On the other hand, there were several details that detracted from the narrative flow. For instance, when Risk first drove into town, he went straight to Jacy’s Java, where they had sex in the walk-in cooler. This, and other scenes, like his licking caramel off her fingers while she was baking rolls to sell, totally grossed me out. And because they would come out of the back room all rumpled and flushed, the customers knew what they were up to. I personally would not want to eat in a place where I knew people were having sex by the food.

Another thing that bothered me was the amount of attention that was paid to Stevie’s weight. Although she is described as being 136 pounds, every other description of her mentions either her thighs rubbing together, or her round hips, or that she can barely squeeze into a size twelve. Many people are uncomfortable with their weight, and that wasn’t what I found hard to believe. What bothered me were the constant descriptions of Stevie being fat and the fact that other people seemed to think she was as well when, let's face it, 136 pounds is not exactly ginormous.

And finally, the main conflict between Risk and Jacy - that both were afraid to admit their true feelings - felt a bit contrived at times. Risk wanted to propose to her, but he kept losing the opportunity. I felt that the tension was drawn out longer just to keep the story going, because there were plenty of examples of their compatibility. Why was Risks character so afraid to bring up the subject of a serious relationship? After all, he was nicknamed Risk for "all the chances he took both on and off the field."

Although I found the story flawed in the above-mentioned instances, overall I enjoyed the book. I flew through it quite quickly, for which I would partially credit the humorous tone of the story. I enjoyed the characters - the author was every descriptive and made them believable. I especially liked reading about a couple who were compatible and whose attraction to each other I could believe. I'd recommend Squeeze Play with some qualifiers, to readers who enjoy a light-hearted contemporary romance.

Reviewed by Jessica Langlois
Grade : B

Sensuality: Hot

Review Date : June 29, 2006

Publication Date: 2006

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Jessica Langlois

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