Third Base by Heidi McLaughlin

There are some authors that are able to convey emotion, not only with what they say but also and in some respects more by what they don’t.

Heidi McLaughlin is one such author, she is able to open a reader’s heart with mere implication, innuendo and intuition.

From the first sentence I had a feeling, I don’t know how but I just knew that this would be a book that would absorb me.

Baseball isn’t big on my side of the Atlantic but I am beginning to get a sense of appreciation and by the time I had finished reading this book, I was really beginning to find the locker room banter completely beguiling.

Ethan Davenport is the hot new thing on the plate, the Renegade’s rising star but his exuberance of young has him seriously re-evaluating some less than stellar decisions. His off field antics have been far from is finest achievement.

I like Ethan, he was realistic, a young man with the world at his feet and money in his pocket getting caught up with all the trappings of his success but now having had his wings clipped so to speak, he is trying to make good on some of his mistakes.

Daisy is a baseball fan is in the same seat every single game without fail. This young woman misses nothing and that means that she certainly doesn’t miss it when Ethan looks her way. More than once she has caught him looking. Now that has got to be a serious ego boost!

Ethan will hold his hands up and admit that the girl on the base line has him hooked but dating a fan – that has disaster written all over it!

I loved the build-up so to speak that the two of them undertake, the fact that Ethan and Daisy have had this casual flirting vibe going for a while before Ethan finally decides to step up and get to know Daisy.

But pitching a ball at her, as a ruse to ask her out... cheesy Ethan!

Now, Daisy may have lusted from afar but when the object of her desire is suddenly front and centre in her life, she is suddenly on the back foot, but her hesitancy only serves to encourage Ethan, he is more than willing to do whatever it takes to get to know this girl.

So when Daisy has her own set of rules to their seeing each other, Ethan may just have to learn to toe the line.

I love the fact that she doesn’t back down to him, that she gets her head around the fact that he wants to be with her and makes him work for it but what of the things she keeps inside … will they survive once her secrets are uncovered ?

And what about the plethora of other pressures … life in the spotlight is never going to be peaceful. They’re pushed and pulled in all manner of directions but being together was never going to be plain sailing, they both have mental schedules but they are determined and I loved them for that – the exuberance of youth.

Sportsmen have a way about them, it is in their DNA that they are relentless, they don’t know the meaning of the word no, and Ethan is no different, Daisy will not slip from his grasp of that he is 100% certain and in his pursuit he is a most gracious and attentive young man, I loved the attention he showered Daisy with the affection that she showed her.

He took his time and gave her space in order to allow what they had to blossom.

I was sucked in, churned up and spat out the other side of this beautifully engaging story.