Ami's Hoard

3.5 stars

I know that Sierra Dean has written quite a LOT in urban fantasy genre with her Secret McQueen books -- but I guess I am a bit too lazy to catch up with them. Then I saw this one, and it's contemporary sport romance, and I thought, heck, why not? I'm finding my way back to M/F Contemporary Romance this year anyway.

Overall, I thought it was good. I thought Emmy and Tucker did have chemistry. I wasn't feeling too happy with the idea of Emmy having a long-distance relationship (although I didn't actually see her heads over heel in love with the boyfriend too) and then had some sort of 'moments' with Tucker. I admit, I never find it easy to read a book that flirt with cheating -- although it's not a deal breaker either. I just thought it wasn't a strong emotional issue here because again, Emmy didn't exactly love his boyfriend. Though it was nice that the resolution of that wasn't exactly a 'drama' as well.

Tucker was quite likeable -- I liked the idea of an 'aging' athlete (gosh, sport is cruel when 36 is OLD, huh?) who was trying to get back to the top of his game. I liked his friendship with Alex as well. It was fun reading their banters.

The middle part was a bit dragging for me -- or maybe I lost focus after awhile. Please noted that Emmy and Tucker were trying to be 'friends' first (well, SHE tried to stop things from moving forward because of the long-distance relationship while HE was pretty much challenging her about it) and they didn't immediately jump to bed. So the sex happened after halfway through -- but somehow it didn't feel as rewarding for me.

Now as for the baseball element, there were enough games here for the sports-fan to enjoy. I know SQUAT about baseball -- it's not a game in Indonesia -- so I don't know how authentic it is in this story. But I will say that the last two chapters brought a triumphant feeling related to the game, when Tucker was able to get a perfect game. It is like watching one of those sport movies about achieving something great, even if it's fictional -- it surely kept me on the edge of my seat!

So I might lost attention in the middle but I thought the ending was great and I liked Emmy and Tucker together.