I need to stop reading reviews before trying a book. Though I can't stop, not really. When I haven't read the author before, and the book is slightly different than one I've read before, then I have to gaze at what I can find to see if I should give it a shot.

Somewhat 'ruined' the book, those reviews I'd read somewhere or another. I kept waiting for Duke to be this massive selfish bitch who needed to be forgiven, but . . . while there is one specific scene wherein Sarah Duke acted less than ideal, most of the trouble came more from Molly and her rotten background. And how stubborn and protective of her children she is. And a mother needs/should be stubborn/protective of her children. I just didn't see anything for her to get stubborn and protective, to build a wall against Duke, except for Molly's own past. (Except for one specific scene when Duke was freaking out about being in a situation she didn't know how to react to, and said something she shouldn't have).

So, there I was, reading a book and waiting for everything to come unglued, so that it could get . . . reglued. Expecting Duke to do something massively stupid, and be cocky about it. Because, hey, I read the reviews. Not all said anything like that, but enough gave me the ammo. Ammo I didn't need.

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Sarah Duke has worked her whole life to 'get to the big show' to earn the right to be on a major league baseball field. And she got there. She has the right to wander around on the sacred grass while major league ball players take batting practice. Watching the players, looking up at the stands and seeing them envying her (maybe). Seeing crowds hanging around the dugout waving things to be signed by ball players. Seeing a kid more interested in what's in his lap than in getting autographs. So she wanders over. Because she can.

She's a rookie, she even gets called Rook by some. But she isn't a rookie baseball player, no she's a rookie sportswriter. So she can wander over and glance down at a kid to see what has him distracted from what every other kid is doing, begging for autographs. The kid is working on his scorecard and his notes.

Duke then does something completely stupid. A completely unthinking move. One that does, but only rarely, pop up later. Well, lack of thinking before action. She decides to be nice to the boy and show him a great view of the starting pitcher warming up from a view most can't access. So she starts to lead him away. Without, you know, noticing she is attempting to lure away a nine year old boy into a dark tunnel looking like a sexual predator. Which the boy's mother immediately makes known when she stops Duke from abducting her boy.

So, Duke and Molly meet for the first time. With Duke attempting to run off with Molly's son. While her other son clings to Molly. Molly is noticeably and justifiably upset. You don't need Molly's massive bad background, and stubborn determination to raise and protect her family to know what Duke did was quite stupid.

Truthfully, one of the problems of the book is that this happened immediately at the start of the book. Where it would have to occur, if it would occur at all. Then Molly more or less reluctantly, tentatively forgave her. At, or near, the beginning of the book. Which is the problem. Any issue after that would have to be worse than unthinkingly attempting to abduct a small boy and looking like a sexual predator. Even if accidentally. Even with Molly's background.

Here's where I wonder if I end up putting this whole thing under spoiler warning. Because going any further would require revealing things. And I don't particularly care to do so. So I'll end here. ( )

Honestly I only had one big problem with this book. Well, less of a big problem and more of a slight annoyance because of my baseball allegiance. Cardinals, Cardinals, Cardinals. As a die hard and life long Red Sox fan, hearing all this Cardinals stuff made me want to read a fictional book that uses such beautiful language to portray the Red Sox (guess that's the next book search on my list). Although, I guess I should be grateful to them and the Cardinals' fans for being on the other side of the 2004, and 2013 World Serieses (and we won't speak of 1946 or 1967).

The novel is about Sarah Duke, a sports reporter on the St. Louis Cardinals' beat. She's just been put on that job after a ton of hard work. And it's her dream job. But then she meets up with single mom Molly and her two boys, Joe and Charlie, and suddenly (and sometimes slowly) she starts to realize that maybe her dreams might be changing a bit.

I thought the writing was awesome, my favorite quote in the book had to be when Duke pointed out the the "comment section is where America keeps its crazy". Very true. And there were a ton of those sorts of lines in the book. I also really liked just how intertwined the baseball and the story was, one flowed into the other and back into the first.

I love baseball, and so when it comes to fiction regarding baseball (or any other sports I love for that matter) I might be harder on those novels than on other books, but, this novel surpassed all the preconceived notions I had going into it (even if it was about the St. Louis Cardinals, heh). A definite five star book.

I got this advanced galley through Netgalley on behalf of Bold Strokes Books. ( )