Story #8 in the Series. Dave Hooks was a bright prospect in the Orioles' farm system, but this year, he wasn't hitting a lick! Was it because he had responsibilities now, taking care of his kid brother, Eddie? The Kid knew he might be a small part of the problem, but he was pretty sure he knew exactly what was wrong. And he knew how to help his big brother to succeed!
Size: 318 KB (59,766 words)
Genre: Romantic
Sex Contents: Some Sex
Tags: Ma/Fa, Consensual, Romantic, Heterosexual, Slow
Review by Quasirandom [other reviews by Quasirandom]
Reviewed: - (Review Updated: )
Obligatory disclaimer: I don’t like baseball, but I do enjoy Tony Stevens’ baseball stories. (The other author who can do this is Mitsuru Adachi.) His ‘Take Me Out to the Ball Game’ series is Great Stuff, being sweet and sexy romances with young adults where it just so happens at least one partner is involved with the game.
This story is installment #8, but that number means little — the series has a shadow of an overall arc, but each story stands alone and can be read in any order. You can also read it knowing little to nothing about baseball — the sport is important in the story only because it’s important to the characters, and the emotional significance of sports-ball events is always made clear.
This story is a departure from others in the series, in that it doesn’t have one first-person narrator, or even two — chapters trade off between minor-league catcher Dave, his little brother and ward Eddie (their parents are dead), and college student Emily, aka Dave’s love-interest.
I want to like this more than I do. It doesn’t fire on all cylinders — Eddie’s narration is a charming seasoning at first, but like most seasonings a little goes a long way. (He is very much a 13-year-old boy.) Not to mention, giving him the microphone means the very real issues of class and snobbery, in the person of Emily’s parents, get set up but not explored with any depth, or even resolved except in rather vague terms — and in Stevens’ capable hands, that exploration could have been excellent. A missed opportunity there.
That said, Dave and Emily’s relationship is sweet and strong, and I very much enjoyed that part of the story. Recommended with reservations.
(BTW, shout out for the use of Georgetown in this story. Hoyas represent!)
Oh, and one final note: this story is Premium, which makes it one more reason to support this site by getting a Premier membership.
