The moment Grey Kelleher locks eyes with All-Star shortstop Chase Whitfield, she’s a goner. For years, she’s watched him play on TV, and now she’s gazing at his hard, lean body across a bar in her hometown.

Grey’s crush on Chase goes all the way back to his rookie season. So when she approaches him for an autograph, she’s startled by what a jerk he can be.

Chase is no mood to humor his fans, even one as alluring as Grey. He’s in the last year of his contract and stuck having to prove himself on a minor league team. He’s only there to rehab an injury, nothing more.

But when Grey tells him off, Chase realizes her fiery spirit may be just the distraction he needs to take his mind off not being in the majors. His heart is safe. No one’s going to break his streak as baseball’s most eligible bachelor. Not even someone as irresistible as Grey.

NIGHT GAMES
Author: Collette West
Published: February 28, 2014
Genre: Sports Romance
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Collette West grew up as somewhat of a jock-nerd hybrid. Entering the world three weeks premature, her dad nearly missed her birth because he had seats behind the dugout for a sold-out, highly-anticipated match-up between two of baseball’s biggest rivals. Not to be outdone, her book-loving mom taught her how to read by the time she was three. A love of the game coupled with an appreciation for the written word were instilled in Collette’s impressionable brain from a young age. No wonder her characters believe in the philosophy: sports + romance = a little slice of heaven.

Splitting her time between the Pocono Mountains and Manhattan, Collette indulges her inner fangirl by going to as many games as she can from hockey to baseball and downloading every sports romance novel in existence onto her iPad. When she’s not clicking away on her laptop, she enjoys walking her dog in Central Park, satisfying her caffeine craving at the Starbucks on Broadway and keeping an eye out for Mr. Right. But above all, she loves dishing with her readers.

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MY REVIEW:

I’m adding Collette West to my list of must-buy authors when it comes to sports romances. NIGHT GAMES is about Chase Whitfield, a well-loved and very dedicated professional baseball player who is doing everything he can to fight his way back into the game after an injury that would be career ending for a lesser man. He is sent by his team’s managers to their farm league team to complete his rehabilitation. There he meets Grey Kelleher, a local woman in the small town of Stockton who has followed his career since his rookie season when she was only sixteen years old. She’s a dedicated fan, but doesn’t fall for all the hype and façade. She’s all about the game, not the show.

Ms. West gives her readers a romantic tale of the small town girl who steals the heart of the seasoned player with hardly any effort on her part at all. That’s actually part of her magic as far as Chase is concerned. She looks right through him to the man he is, tells him straight up when he’s out of line, and yet still believes in him. She is intelligent, independent, understands and loves the game, and makes no effort to impress him. This is refreshing change for him and sparks his interest like no woman has done before. In Chase, Ms. West gives us the gorgeous, charming, totally fit, sex-on-a-stick athlete, who is used to things going his way both on and off the field. This injury has thrown him and Grey throws him even more. Right from the start he is hooked by her, but fights his feelings tooth and nail. The timing is bad, he needs to focus on his career, there are things in her past that if they came out would create bad publicity for him and the team, and yet he can’t let her go. Their romance is rocky and filled with trust issues, but their chemistry is off the charts. I loved them together and I loved that Ms. West has written this story from their alternating perspectives so we are privy to both of their inner dialogues. Even though I wanted to shake her a couple of times for her decisions, I loved Grey right from the start. There were aspects of Chase I loved right away too, but he was angry, surly, a non-repentant player through and through, and frankly a little selfish and spoiled for quite a bit of the book. However, I could see how his attitude was written very realistically for a man in his position and how much his personal changes and growth added to the story. I liked that it took him a while to be a man who deserved Grey, that he had to work for it and not the other way around.