Frankly, I’m not sure when baseball begins this year. It looks like my son may have a Little League season in 2021, which didn’t happen in 2020. Beyond that, I don’t know what’s on and what’s off anymore, but I do know that the advent of spring makes me long for baseball.

Here are some baseball books – some with a little baseball on the side, some with baseball as the main course. They range from Little League (All in Good Time) to high school sports (An Unexpected Role) to minor leagues (The Bird and the Bees) to major leagues (The Thirteenth Chance, Homestands).

Relevant Fiction Reviews: Let's Play Ball! Fiction with a side of baseball from Little League to Major League. Click To Tweet

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I don’t review my own books, so you’re going to have to take others’ word for it on All in Good Time. Here’s what one Amazon reviewer said: “Astfalk did a wonderful job handling the slow-burn romance, tackling some real-life, difficult issues with grace and care. She also brought to life realistic, flawed characters that the reader will fall in love with and remember long after they’ve closed the book.”

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An Unexpected Role by Leslea Wahl
Leslea Wahl has done it again – another great book custom-tailored to teens (teen girls in particular). I’m always a little put-off by present tense narration, but I quickly grew to enjoy Josie’s voice.

Great writing peppered with humor and insight, the author captures the human tendency to hyperfocus on our own problems that can be part and parcel of the teen years.

Take a mortifying yet hardly life-threatening problem, add an alluring backdrop of sunshine, sand, and an attractive guy, and watch Josie’s self-preoccupation melt away as she forges relationships with those outside her narrow Minnesota high school circle.

Her summer escape is populated by people of different ages, races, and backgrounds, and not everyone – even those she thinks she knows – is what they seem.

There’s a nice little mystery that keeps the story moving, but the most touching moments involve Josie’s self-discovery, the softening of her heart, and, eventually, genuine romance with an upstanding guy and reconciliation with her mom.

Enjoyable for adults, highly recommended for teens. Bonus if you’re a fan of musical theater.

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The Bird and the Bees by Neena Gaynor
Oh, my heart. What is it about this gentle book that made it ache so? Had to be Ketch Devine.

I didn’t know what to expect from this first-time author, but what I discovered was a unique voice, a slew of wonderful similes, and a redemptive, empowering story with the unfailing, unconditional love of God at its heart.

Part women’s fiction, part romance, with a little mystery and a heavy does of Truth, The Bird and the Bees follows broke (financial and otherwise) nurse Larkin Maybie from the hills of Appalachian Kentucky to Presque Isle, on the Pennsylvania shores of Lake Erie. (A place not so far from my native Pittsburgh, recognizable from childhood memories.)

Enter too-good-to-be-true (or at least too-good-for-Larkin) minor leaguer Ketch Devine, whose easygoing, steady, no-strings-attached friendship, slowly wears down the walls Larkin has built around her damaged, guilt-ridden heart.

If you’re looking for a selfless romantic hero, you’ll find it, but The Bird and the Bees runs deeper, with layers to uncover about what it means to live and to what or whom we anchor our lives.

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The Thirteenth Chance by Amy Matayo
Amy Matayo so perfectly suspended my disbelief that she endeared me to a cocky player like Will Vandergriff with lines like “there seems to be no end to my douche-baggery.”

Speaking of endearing, there’s not much to dislike about germaphobic, slightly OCD school teacher Olivia, whose fat cat/furball Perry brings hilarity to the book.

The interplay and banter between Olivia and Will in both their dialogue and thoughts is so well done, I wanted to read more and more. But more isn’t what the story called for.

I expected something bigger to come along plot-wise that would pull these attracting opposites even farther apart. That didn’t happen, but that’s okay. The Thirteenth Chance isn’t a heart-rending, cry-your-eyes out melodrama. It’s the Crackerjack downed during the seventh inning stretch: sweet, nutty, and addictive.

The Thirteenth Chance is a near-perfect, clean, contemporary romance. Its smart, wry humor, self-deprecating wit, and charming romance maker a super fun read!

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Homestands by Sally Bradley
With two very flawed characters, Sally Bradley had a lot of redeeming to do here, but by the final chapters, I’d become fully convinced of Mike’s and Meghan’s contrition, resolve, and, finally, love. The genuine, sacrificial kind, not the fickle, self-serving style of love they’d begun their marriage with. Add an element of suspense, and you’ve got an entertaining second-chance romance with some side servings of self-examination, forgiveness, and, ultimately, conversion. The professional baseball is an added bonus for this fan of the game.

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BONUS: Here are couple more baseball novels I read a while back, enjoyed, but didn’t review at the time.

Home Run by Travis Thrasher

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