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Stealing Third: A Contemporary Baseball YA Summer Romance
For Emily, going to camp the summer before college starts means leaving her feuding parents alone for the next eight weeks and coming back to divorce papers is a risk she can’t take. But no matter how many meddling phone calls, questionable hair decisions, and skipped curfews she plans, her parents still march her off to Camp Champ totally against her will.
No problem. A few broken rules, and Em will be home free. That is, until she learns Tyler Ford, her father’s star baseball player and her drunken party hookup, is at camp too. And for Tyler, this summer is the onramp to the biggest decision of his med school or the major leagues. Mega hot, possibly underage Emily? A complication he does not need.
As the summer heats up with strikeouts and stolen bases will Tyler and Emily finally hit a home run and get what they’re after? Or will they both be thrown a curveball in the game of love?
No problem. A few broken rules, and Em will be home free. That is, until she learns Tyler Ford, her father’s star baseball player and her drunken party hookup, is at camp too. And for Tyler, this summer is the onramp to the biggest decision of his med school or the major leagues. Mega hot, possibly underage Emily? A complication he does not need.
As the summer heats up with strikeouts and stolen bases will Tyler and Emily finally hit a home run and get what they’re after? Or will they both be thrown a curveball in the game of love?
253 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 1, 2014
13 people are currently reading
265 people want to read
About the author
Marta Brown
11 books230 followersMarta Brown grew up in the Pacific Northwest and was a teenager when Doc Martens, Pearl Jam and flannel were the norm and Dylan loved Kelly forever. (Beverly Hills, 90210 shout out!)
She still lives just outside Seattle, now with her husband and cat, and loves the rain.
When she’s not writing about cute boys, first kisses and the magic and wonder of being seventeen, she’s watching The CW. And she sleeps in. Late.
She still lives just outside Seattle, now with her husband and cat, and loves the rain.
When she’s not writing about cute boys, first kisses and the magic and wonder of being seventeen, she’s watching The CW. And she sleeps in. Late.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
August 20, 2015
Stealing Third is an absolutely adorable and light-hearted summer read. I thoroughly enjoyed it and it was one of those books I couldn't stop reading till I finished.
Reasons to read this book
1) Emily. She's spunky, sassy, caring, and a little trouble-maker.
2) Tyler. His struggle between med school and baseball really made me feel empathy for him. Also he's such a sweetheart.
3) Emily and Tyler. Their chemistry is explosive and I love them.
Reasons to read this book
1) Emily. She's spunky, sassy, caring, and a little trouble-maker.
2) Tyler. His struggle between med school and baseball really made me feel empathy for him. Also he's such a sweetheart.
3) Emily and Tyler. Their chemistry is explosive and I love them.
January 31, 2016
Rating: 3.5 of 5 stars
April 25, 2015
4.5 Stars!!
Just a nice simple feel good read!
Just a nice simple feel good read!
May 18, 2019
Emily's parents are in the process of getting a divorce and are constantly arguing. She therefore decides to cause as much chaos as possible in an attempt to keep them together. I struggled understanding her logic and at 18 her choices were very immature. She tries to lie her way out of attending camp - thinking her presence at home might delay their divorce - but she ends up going anyway. Her new plan is to cause trouble at camp so she gets kicked out.
Meanwhile, Tyler's biggest problem is deciding between becoming a doctor or a pro baseball player.
Emily and Tyler meet at a party before camp and end up kissing. When they both turn up at camp together, Tyler discovers that Emily is his coach's daughter. This - and his need to stay out of trouble so he has a shot at his future dreams - means that he wants to stay away from Emily, though he can't quite manage it.
I found the plot lacking and I couldn't feel any sympathy for the main characters. Emily needed to grow up and be there for her parents. Tyler needed to realise his privilege - seriously having to choose between being a doctor and a pro baseball player isn't the worse position to be in. Nothing much happened and there was no real tension or... anything. Unfortunately this book just didn't keep my interest and if I wasn't on holiday looking for a light read I don't think I would have finished it.
Meanwhile, Tyler's biggest problem is deciding between becoming a doctor or a pro baseball player.
Emily and Tyler meet at a party before camp and end up kissing. When they both turn up at camp together, Tyler discovers that Emily is his coach's daughter. This - and his need to stay out of trouble so he has a shot at his future dreams - means that he wants to stay away from Emily, though he can't quite manage it.
I found the plot lacking and I couldn't feel any sympathy for the main characters. Emily needed to grow up and be there for her parents. Tyler needed to realise his privilege - seriously having to choose between being a doctor and a pro baseball player isn't the worse position to be in. Nothing much happened and there was no real tension or... anything. Unfortunately this book just didn't keep my interest and if I wasn't on holiday looking for a light read I don't think I would have finished it.
July 31, 2020
Cute in a very saccharine way; insta-love followed by many declarations of love and no real conflicts but lots of flip-flopping from trying to make conflicts seem real. I'm a very squeamish and sensitive reader, so I never think I want tension, but then I read a book like this, and I realize: no, it's necessary.
Some interesting ideas here--Tyler is torn between pro baseball and pre-med, Emily is not a rebel but she wears that identity in the hopes it'll save her parents' marriage--but none of them are really developed fully and the author doesn't take enough risks for there to be any real payoff in the story. Mostly just lots of talk of Emily and Tyler falling in love and not really enough to make me believe it. But it does read quickly and if all you want is something sweet and quick, I guess this sort of works.
Also, lots of blatant dangling modifiers.
This seems to be trying to hit somewhere between YA and NA, which I'm actually all for, especially since NA tends to just be lots of sex scenes. Emily is eighteen; Tyler is twenty, and has presumably finished his second year of college (I don't think it ever specified exactly, but that's what it seemed like).
As for content--language but no f-bombs, it goes up to and including the s word. Teenage drinking without consequences. Mention of "jailbait" several times before this is debunked. Lots of kissing and even being in a pool or in a shower together (but fully clothed in the latter case), and lots of talk of being in a bikini or taking each other's shirts off, and some allusions to erections, but not explicitly named. Actual romance doesn't go beyond making out.
Some interesting ideas here--Tyler is torn between pro baseball and pre-med, Emily is not a rebel but she wears that identity in the hopes it'll save her parents' marriage--but none of them are really developed fully and the author doesn't take enough risks for there to be any real payoff in the story. Mostly just lots of talk of Emily and Tyler falling in love and not really enough to make me believe it. But it does read quickly and if all you want is something sweet and quick, I guess this sort of works.
Also, lots of blatant dangling modifiers.
This seems to be trying to hit somewhere between YA and NA, which I'm actually all for, especially since NA tends to just be lots of sex scenes. Emily is eighteen; Tyler is twenty, and has presumably finished his second year of college (I don't think it ever specified exactly, but that's what it seemed like).
As for content--language but no f-bombs, it goes up to and including the s word. Teenage drinking without consequences. Mention of "jailbait" several times before this is debunked. Lots of kissing and even being in a pool or in a shower together (but fully clothed in the latter case), and lots of talk of being in a bikini or taking each other's shirts off, and some allusions to erections, but not explicitly named. Actual romance doesn't go beyond making out.
June 14, 2019
Oh the Days of Summer Camp. Where firsts are abundant and wild nights are a given. Throw in complicated Parents, a goody to shoes turned sideways and trouble everywhere you look and you have a fun time. This book will bring back some memories. It will also make you shake your head.
September 28, 2015
I received Stealing Third in an Armchair BEA giveaway. I’d never heard of this book or the author before that time. Because this isn’t a book that I went out of my way to get my hands on, I probably would have put off reading it longer except for the length. I knew that once I started this book (even if I didn’t enjoy it) then I would be able to finish it really quickly. And that was the case for sure. I finished it in a couple of hours.
As the description says, Emily’s parents’ relationship has been kind of rocky lately and she’s worried that they’re going to get a divorce. She doesn’t want her family torn apart so she begins concocting all of these radical ideas and schemes to try to keep them together. Her biggest fear is that their marriage will fall apart while she’s off at summer camp and not there to intervene.
Tyler is a college baseball player (Emily’s dad is his coach) and he’s just been told that he has a chance at the minors. Yet, he’s also in school for pre-med. So he’s got a decision to make about his future. Does he want to play baseball or does he want to be a doctor? He’s not really sure. But in the meantime, he’s got a summer job shadowing the doctor on staff at the summer camp where Emily is planning to be a junior counselor.
Emily and Tyler meet at a party. They hit things off but are suddenly pulled apart with no firm plans on how to get in touch with each other from there. They’re not even sure they will see each other again. So when they both end up at Camp Champ they’re a bit surprised. Emily wasn’t exactly forthcoming about her age and the last thing Tyler wants is to screw up his future (his baseball future or his medical school future). Yet keeping the two of them apart is like a disaster waiting to happen. It can’t be stopped.
While I read Stealing Third quickly and I would say that overall I enjoyed it, there were some aspects that I didn’t love. At times the dialogue felt immature to me (both in the characters and in the writing style), and there were some major cheesy parts. I mean “Suck, Blow, Shots.” Really? I’m sure it’s a real thing, but it just felt like a better scenario could have been constructed. I’d say Stealing Third would sometimes fall into that category of books that “tell” too much versus “showing.” Showing is always better. Plus the amount of adjectives/adverbs used (specifically in the beginning) was a little overkill. My last complaint would be that everything fell into place just a little too perfectly. I like happy endings, but perfect endings I usually don’t love.
Stealing Third was a quick, light, and fun contemporary read. Although the writing felt a little unpolished and immature for my tastes at times, I still enjoyed the overall story. Would I go out and purchase Stealing Third? No probably not. But I would definitely read it if you had the option of getting it as a freebie like I did. Stealing Third gets 3 Stars from me. Have you read Stealing Third? What did you think? Let me know!
As the description says, Emily’s parents’ relationship has been kind of rocky lately and she’s worried that they’re going to get a divorce. She doesn’t want her family torn apart so she begins concocting all of these radical ideas and schemes to try to keep them together. Her biggest fear is that their marriage will fall apart while she’s off at summer camp and not there to intervene.
Tyler is a college baseball player (Emily’s dad is his coach) and he’s just been told that he has a chance at the minors. Yet, he’s also in school for pre-med. So he’s got a decision to make about his future. Does he want to play baseball or does he want to be a doctor? He’s not really sure. But in the meantime, he’s got a summer job shadowing the doctor on staff at the summer camp where Emily is planning to be a junior counselor.
Emily and Tyler meet at a party. They hit things off but are suddenly pulled apart with no firm plans on how to get in touch with each other from there. They’re not even sure they will see each other again. So when they both end up at Camp Champ they’re a bit surprised. Emily wasn’t exactly forthcoming about her age and the last thing Tyler wants is to screw up his future (his baseball future or his medical school future). Yet keeping the two of them apart is like a disaster waiting to happen. It can’t be stopped.
While I read Stealing Third quickly and I would say that overall I enjoyed it, there were some aspects that I didn’t love. At times the dialogue felt immature to me (both in the characters and in the writing style), and there were some major cheesy parts. I mean “Suck, Blow, Shots.” Really? I’m sure it’s a real thing, but it just felt like a better scenario could have been constructed. I’d say Stealing Third would sometimes fall into that category of books that “tell” too much versus “showing.” Showing is always better. Plus the amount of adjectives/adverbs used (specifically in the beginning) was a little overkill. My last complaint would be that everything fell into place just a little too perfectly. I like happy endings, but perfect endings I usually don’t love.
Stealing Third was a quick, light, and fun contemporary read. Although the writing felt a little unpolished and immature for my tastes at times, I still enjoyed the overall story. Would I go out and purchase Stealing Third? No probably not. But I would definitely read it if you had the option of getting it as a freebie like I did. Stealing Third gets 3 Stars from me. Have you read Stealing Third? What did you think? Let me know!
October 2, 2015
Fun read
I enjoyed this quick read about a girl trying to get kicked out of camp. She came up with a crazy plan to try and save her parents' marriage. But what happens when camp is where she wants to stay? Will she try to complete her plan or stuff . It to spend more time with Hottie Mchottieface?
I enjoyed this quick read about a girl trying to get kicked out of camp. She came up with a crazy plan to try and save her parents' marriage. But what happens when camp is where she wants to stay? Will she try to complete her plan or stuff . It to spend more time with Hottie Mchottieface?
May 20, 2016
This was the perfect contemporary for summer feels! It was cute, funny and light hearted. An easy read that draws your attention from the beginning. I loved the characters, the humour, the fact that it was set in camp. It's innocent with a little kick.
October 12, 2014
This was a sweet charming YA read.
March 25, 2015
Forevers.
The best book ever written. Short love story that caught me and wouldn't let go. Finished so fast, I just couldn't put it down. Amazing!!
The best book ever written. Short love story that caught me and wouldn't let go. Finished so fast, I just couldn't put it down. Amazing!!
July 2, 2015
2.5 stars
August 3, 2015
Really good read, really enjoyed the characters and the relationship development :) really good light hearted contemporary:)
June 28, 2020
loved this, a nice quick read
April 6, 2015
3.5 stars! This was a super cute, light and sweet read... plus baseball so <3 Review to come!
unfinished
September 28, 2015Ugh
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews