Rating: 5 Stars out of 5
Wayne Kerley and Tommy Knox have been together for twelve years but nobody knows it. As players on opposite baseball teams not only do they have to keep their relationship on the down low but they also stay apart for much of the season.As Wayne faces the end of his contract and starts thinking of retiring, things start to slump for Tommy out on the field forcing them to talk about the one thing they have avoided talking about for most of their relationship –the future.
I loved this story, it is more novella than novel but as they say good things come in small packages.
I love established couple romances and this book epitomizes everything I love about that particular trope that is about seeing couples face their life together with their love a quiet awareness that smolders all around.
Wayne is a pitcher nearing the end of his contract and we see him trying to ignore the elephant in the room while still powering-through on the field. This story is told from Wayne’s perspective and I will agree that the fact that we spend so much time with Wayne means that I can’t describe Tommy as well, but it didn’t matter because Wayne and Tommy were an amazing couple.
When I first came across this book I was skeptical about their relationship seeing as their relationship is something that can be classified as a long distance relationship and romance (at least romantic books) generally don’t look kindly on long distance relationships, they are always the ones fraught with problems. But what made this book so splendid was the fact that while reading this book that skepticism didn’t enter my mind. Much of this book speaks about Tommy and Wayne and how they keep in touch without it ever feeling like that is what they are doing. They communicate on the same level as people who have been together for years (as they have) do, they have their own routines and couple-y things that make them comfortable and so in-sync with each other.
Also what I liked was that Wayne acknowledges all the aspect of their relationships good or bad. The fact that they stay apart much of the time and it is very easy to be shut out of the other person’s life, the lack of mutual friends and how time together is always bittersweet with the tinge of the looming parting and also the fact that coming back to each other is the best feeling ever, like coming home after a long day.
The ending of this story is something that can come as a bit of a surprise, like a ‘that’s it!’ when you come across the “THE END” but somehow for me I liked even that and I am a big one for endings. I loathe bad endings, like the good ones and I love the bittersweet ones and somehow I felt that this ending was perfect for this book. In a way I felt that the book ended at the right time because it was going to be like an end of an era for Tommy and Wayne, something new was headed their way, new challenges and maybe even unexplored territory as they live together, and this story contained as it was in a different part of their lives couldn’t possibly have done justice to this new period in their life, having said that I would definitely welcome more on these two.
For as short as this book was it really captured by imagination as even though I have talked so much about the story, I have somehow managed to avoid talking about the baseball in this book. I have a rudimentary knowledge of baseball like just the basics and I may be missing a few of those too. So I can say confidently that not knowing baseball that well didn’t affect my enjoyment of this book but I can equally not say if as a baseball fan I might have liked this more (because I would have probably understood more of the nuances of this book) or less (because I would have been more critical of said nuances).
Having said it all, I would like to say for me this book kind of added up, with all the nooks and crannies I didn’t understand to the love story I did, to be an amazing read.
Cover Art by Written Ink Designs. I liked the cover what with the packed stadium and the bright sun and the pitcher getting ready to pitch the ball.
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Book Details:
Kindle Edition, 68 pages
Published October 15th 2016 by JMS Books LLC
ASINB01LZOFK6X
Edition LanguageEnglish
Published October 15th 2016 by JMS Books LLC
ASINB01LZOFK6X
Edition LanguageEnglish
Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words 