Review of “Fore Play”

Merry Christmas to those who are celebrating!  It was a quiet one for me as I decided to pick up a fictional golf novel to catch up on some requests and this one was a quick and fun read.  Also helped me toward my goal of including more sports fiction in my reading and reviews. Here is my review of “Fore Play.” 

Title/Author:

“Fore Play” by Linda Sheehan

Rating: 

5 of 5 stars (excellent)

Review:  

One never knows what truly goes on behind the scenes at any sporting Event. In this novel by Linda Sheehan , the 2011 ladies’ golf tournament at a fictional country club has so much more behind it than just the number of strokes for each golfer. 

The best parts of this book were the character development and how the story had enough twists to stay interesting but not too many that a reader will be confused. The two golfers who were the favorites of the tournament, Mandy Manville (an alias) and Jody Benson, the true protagonist of the story, are both excellent golfers and interesting people. Their spouses, along with a few other key characters (mostly men) are also profiled enough so a reader knows somewhat of what to expect from them.

However, not everyone and everything is given away early and the adventures in how the club President is trying to install a new wine cellar makes for interesting reading. The characters that are scoundrels, like the cheating husband of Jody, are made to look like scum, but not overly so. For just about every aspect of this book, I would call it just right. It isn’t often a fictional sports novel can hold my interest so well, but “Fore Play” did the trick. Heck, there’s even enough golf passages to make it enjoyable for the hard core sports fan that I am.

I wish to thank Book Sirens for providing a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

Link: https://www.amazon.com/Fore-Play-Linda-Sheehan-ebook/dp/B09WCT3VHV/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1K3C9CZPBOOU4&keywords=Fore+play+linda&qid=1672003346&s=digital-text&sprefix=fore+play+linda%2Cdigital-text%2C199&sr=1-1

Review of "The Fat Lady's Low, Sad Song"

While I read many more non-fiction books than fiction, I enjoy a good sports-related novel.  This was one of them - as good as I had hoped.  Here is my review of the baseball novel "The Fat Lady's Low, Sad Song."

Title/Author:

“The Fat Lady’s Low, Sad Song” by Brian Kaufman

Tags:

Baseball, fiction, novel

Publish date:

June 28, 2018

Length:

190 pages

Rating: 

5 of 5 stars (outstanding)

Review:

Parker Westfall is a career minor league baseball player facing a crossroad in his career when he gets an unexpected phone call with an invitation to play for the Fort Collins Miners, an independent league team.  He accepts and that is the beginning of a great adventure of one Miners season captured in this wonderful book by Brian Kaufman.

The reader will not only learn about Westfall and some of his secrets, but also about several of his Fort Collins teammates.  Along the way, the reader is introduced to a smart, aging catcher who is trying to play through the pain of injury, an inspirational shortstop who pushes teammates to put in extra work, the manager who is stubborn and won’t show his players any slack, and even some fans who instead of attending games in the stadium will gather on the other side of the river from the ballpark and form their own fan club. 

However, there is one other special member of the Miners and that is a young pitcher named Courtney Morgan.  She is a knuckleball pitcher who shows great promise but because she blindly follows the instructions given her by coaches and the manager, she is struggling.  Parker approaches her to help and she is very resistant at first. I had to admit that I thought this story would then turn into a sports romance novel, but it does not do so at all.  Instead, Parker and Courtney work on their skills together and develop a nice platonic relationship in which the reader learns more about these characters.

The baseball scenes are realistic and describe good game action and interaction between opponents and teammates alike. The interactions with fans, especially when Parker and Courtney visit the fans outside the stadium, are heartwarming. Through these and other scenes which range from humorous to dangerous to maddening, the reader will discover the true beauty of this book and that is that each person involved in a baseball team will have his or her own stories and contributions to the overall success or failure of that team.

Finally, the ending was one that was a surprise as the book ends soon after the season does I did not think that each of the characters would have the positions they would eventually take after the season.  There are no obvious cliffhangers but the reader does close the book wondering if there could be a sequel to this story for Parker and for Courtney, but in their own separate ways.  This was a very satisfying conclusion to a very satisfying book.

I wish to thank Black Rose Writing for providing a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

Book Format Read:

E-book (Kindle)

 

Buying Links:

https://www.amazon.com/Fat-Ladys-Low-Sad-Song/dp/1684330726/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr