Play for Me by Libby Hubscher
Stars: 4
Spicy: PG, scenes are mostly behind closed doors
Will you like this book? You might if you like:
Grumpy/Sunshine
The Red Sox
Forced proximity romances
Snarky but funny secondary characters
Redemption stories
I should preface this by saying I’ve been a Sox fan for as long as I can remember. My aunt was one of the first employees at NESN (the New England Sports Network) and her office was IN FENWAY PARK. We went to lots of games as kids and in 3rd grade when the Red Sox lost to the Mets in the 1986 World Series, I cried. A lot. My husband moved to Boston in 2004 and claims that he is the reason they broke the curse, but really it was me sitting on the exact same spot of my sofa, night after night, that did it. All this is to say, the premise of this book was going to hook me.
Sophie was a trainer for the Boston Red Sox, but after she contradicted the team’s physician about the starting pitcher’s ability to play which led to said pitcher being benched for the game that caused the Sox to lose both the game AND the World Series, she finds herself out of a job. Thanks to her BFF, she finds herself as a trainer at a small private boarding school in New Hampshire where the emphasis is not on sports but rather music. She also finds herself living with the grumpiest of roommates, Jonas Voss.
Sophie and Jonas are both struggling with the loss of the things they love; for Sophie it was her job as a trainer and
her mother. For Jonas it was his career as a concert pianist. But, as with all great romance novels, our hero and heroine realize that there is so much out there for them, especially if they work together.
This was such a heart warming love story, I cried in more than one place (I might be crying now). I really liked all the characters; Hubscher has a deft touch with creating realistic parent/child interactions and Sophie’s relationship with her father felt very real. There were also a lot of laugh out loud moments and though the book deals with some serious issues, it never felt forced or there just for the sake of a third act break-up.
So, as we go into September and the chances of the Sox making the playoffs dwindles (there is always next year), I would highly recommend picking this book up. I’m off to watch Fever Pitch and listen to some Dropkick Murphys.
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