Calling It by Jen Doyle
Publication Date: April 11, 2016
Contemporary Romance
Carina Press
Reviewed by Kini
Baseball player Nathan Hawkins needs to get away from Chicago. After a near career-ending car accident and with paparazzi surrounding his penthouse, Nate can only think of one place to go: home. But when he finds his old apartment occupied by a half-naked woman wielding a baseball bat, he’s not sure what to think…except that maybe his luck has finally changed for the better.
Librarian Dorie Donelli never thought she’d get to meet her fantasy man in person–much less while she’s wearing her bathrobe. To her surprise, her nearly naked run-in with Nate leads to more unclothed encounters. But Dorie is sure their fling is only temporary. As long as she remembers he’ll be gone once his life gets back on track, she won’t get hurt. In the meantime, she throws herself into enjoying their three weeks together before he has to report for spring training and go back to his old life.
One of my favorite tropes is the average person that falls for the famous person. Dorie is a librarian that recently relocated to Iowa to fix up an older library. She has six older brothers and she is a huge fan of sports, especially baseball. She left Boston and her family there so she could be seen as her own person. I won’t spoil it but Dorie has six names. Her father allowed each of her older brothers to give her a name. I found it super cute.
Nate is a hot shot baseball star that returns to his hometown in Iowa to get away from the spectacle his life in Chicago has become. He recently was in a car accident and his fiance left him. The library that Dorie starts to work for his owned by his family’s foundation.
Their meet-cute was great and a play on mistaken identity. Dorie is renting an apartment from Nate’s sister. Nate doesn’t know this and walks in the apartment and disturbs Dorie. It goes uphill from there. They have an attraction to each other from the beginning. Dorie cuts him no slack and doesn’t treat him differently because of his celebrity. There was some good banter in this book.
Nate falls for Dorie quickly. Dorie is hesitant to fall for Nate and longs to be seen as a person in her own right. There are some role reversals through-out the book. It worked for me.
Favorite quote:
“You’re not a pawn”, he answered, wanting so badly to take her into his arms, yet knowing that was the exact wrong move. “I want to make you my damn queen.”
When her head came up, there were tears glistening in her eyes and for once she didn’t deny what he said. It just turned other that had been the wrong move, too.“But that’s the problem, Nate. I don’t want to be the queen of your world. I want to be the king of mine.”
I LOVED that. Dorie wants to be the king of her world. She doesn’t need Nate. She doesn’t need to be famous. But she doesn’t flat out reject him because of his celebrity. There were some secondary characters that were clearly being set up for later books, but it did not take away from the story. I really enjoyed this book and the author’s voice. I look forward to more from her.
Grade: B
So glad to see this is good – I want to try it :)