Book Review ~ Line Drive by Sloan Johnson

Book Review ~ Line Drive by Sloan Johnson

Book: Line Drive

Author: Sloan Johnson

Release Date: October 19, 2016

Length: 227 pages

BLURB:

PJ Nolan has convinced himself he can get through one last year. That changes when he arrives for the first day of spring training and his teammates think it’s funny to mock the one night that made him feel alive. They don’t realize those pictures are all he has left of Nate Kendricks.

Nate knows nothing about baseball, but agrees to a spring training road trip with his twin brother. He’s not thrilled about the prospect of seeing PJ Nolan, the man who’d haunted his dreams since the night of the charity auction. Nate thought their chemistry was undeniable, but after that night, he never heard from PJ again.

Once they reunite, PJ’s certain of one thing: he’s not going to let Nate slip away again. As he gets closer to joining his dad in the record books, he feels Nate slipping away. What will he choose if forced to pick between new love and a lifelong dream?

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*Copy provided to Bayou Book Junkie by the author/publisher for my reading pleasure in hopes of an unbiased opinion, a review was not a requirement.*

This is Book 6 in Sloan Johnson's Homeruns series and each book could be read on its own, but come on, do yourself a favor and read all of them! Each book in this series just gets better and better, plus there's always crossover with previous characters and you really, really want to know their story! 

This book tells PJ's story, who we met in the previous book. PJ has been hoping to be traded to Milwaukee so he can finally come out of the closet but Miami is not willing to release him. PJ is a legacy in Miami but their locker room is very homophobic. PJ's friend Clint convinces him to be part of a fundraiser in Milwaukee as a bachelor up for bidding, which should also help sell his heterosexuality to Miami. What no one counted on was Nate. Nate sees PJ looking uncomfortable during the bidding and decides to do him a favor and buy a date with him so he doesn't have to go out with a woman. PJ isn't happy about the end result of the auction but when he gets stuck in the elevator with Nate, he feels differently. Nate understands nothing about sports, even though he works for his twin who is an NFL player. Both PJ and Nate are attracted to each other and feel that they could have more, but both have to figure out how to make it when things get difficult.

I think this may have been my favorite book in the series! There was a lot of drama surrounding PJ's career but it never felt like it was manufactured just to have it in the story. Though this was a story about baseball, there wasn't a lot of baseball in this book. It really was about PJ and Nate and them having to adjust to learning how to make a relationship between the two of them work. The challenges they face when one partner works in an unhappy, and sometimes unsafe, job, and how the other partner has to learn the boundaries within that. It's about two guys who don't get to spend all their time together because one travels for work and the other has to make a life for himself during those times. And it's about two men, who have to find a way to deal with their overwhelming attraction to each other and find a way to make a relationship work when nothing else is going right in life.

This was such a great book that really showed the dynamics of making a relationship work, the give and take that is required and how important compromise is. Though the guys jumped into a relationship due to circumstances, it wasn't picture perfect from the start, it was a real work in progress. And I was left wondering, will Sloan be taking on the NFL so we can see Nate's twin find love? I highly recommend this book and every book in the series!

Rating: 5 stars

About Sloan:

Sloan Johnson is a big city girl trapped in a country girl’s body. While she longs for the hustle and bustle of New York City or Las Vegas, she hasn’t yet figured out how to sit on the deck with her morning coffee, watching the deer and wild turkeys in the fields while surrounded by concrete and glass.

When she was three, her parents received their first call from the principal asking them to pick her up from school. Apparently, if you aren’t enrolled, you can’t attend classes, even in Kindergarten. The next week, she was in preschool and started plotting her first story soon after.

Later in life, her parents needed to do something to help their socially awkward, uncoordinated child come out of her shell and figured there was no better place than a bar on Wednesday nights. It’s a good thing they did because this is where she found her love of reading and writing. Who needs socialization when you can sit alone in your bedroom with a good book?

Now, Sloan is a tattooed, purple haired mom of two kids, one of which was a thank you present to her husband for letting her get a Staffordshire Terrier with more anxiety issues than Sloan has, which is saying something. She’s been kicked out of the PTA in two school districts and is no longer asked to help with fundraisers because she’s been known to lose herself in a good book and forget that she has somewhere to be.

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