What do you think?
Rate this book
Way Off Base: A North Bay Brother's Best Friend Romance
She's the law student with an embarrassing health issue. He's the professional baseball player who happens to be her brother's best friend. And she just accidentally forwarded him the most awkward voicemail of her life. Now North Bay's gorgeous first baseman knows way more about her body than he bargained for, and this situation is getting entirely out of hand!
Audible Audio
Published August 18, 2026
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
September 7, 2026
Way Off Base was such a fun, unexpectedly heartfelt listen! ⚾️🩷
This one had me laughing at the sheer awkwardness of some situations, especially the accidental voicemail situation—which is basically the kind of mistake you’d want to crawl into a hole and never come back from. 😂 But underneath all the humor, there’s a really sweet romance and some surprisingly emotional moments.
I loved watching Shelley and Jordan’s relationship develop. Their chemistry felt natural, and I appreciated that their connection wasn’t just about attraction. There’s friendship, vulnerability, communication, and a lot of personal growth mixed in, which gave the story more depth than I expected.
The audiobook narration worked really well for the story. The dual narration helped bring both characters to life, and I enjoyed being able to experience the story from both perspectives. The narrators kept the pacing engaging and made the funny and emotional moments land.
Overall, this was a cute, funny, emotional sports romance with plenty of heart. It had me smiling, cringing, laughing, and rooting for these two. Definitely a fun addition to the series!
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ALC in exchange for my honest review.
This one had me laughing at the sheer awkwardness of some situations, especially the accidental voicemail situation—which is basically the kind of mistake you’d want to crawl into a hole and never come back from. 😂 But underneath all the humor, there’s a really sweet romance and some surprisingly emotional moments.
I loved watching Shelley and Jordan’s relationship develop. Their chemistry felt natural, and I appreciated that their connection wasn’t just about attraction. There’s friendship, vulnerability, communication, and a lot of personal growth mixed in, which gave the story more depth than I expected.
The audiobook narration worked really well for the story. The dual narration helped bring both characters to life, and I enjoyed being able to experience the story from both perspectives. The narrators kept the pacing engaging and made the funny and emotional moments land.
Overall, this was a cute, funny, emotional sports romance with plenty of heart. It had me smiling, cringing, laughing, and rooting for these two. Definitely a fun addition to the series!
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ALC in exchange for my honest review.
September 14, 2026
Fun, swoony, spicy, and just a really good time. Stephanie Giese had me hooked.
One accidental text from Shelly to her brother’s best friend, Jordan, becomes the start of a beautiful friendship and love. Shelly is juggling law school, ADHD and intimacy issues. Jordan is the pro baseball player and brother’s best friend. I really liked the characters and the way their relationship developed. There was plenty of chemistry, banter, and drama to keep things interesting without completely taking over the story. I found myself genuinely invested in them and actually caring about how everything was going to work out.
Yes, the spice was there, and I’m not mad about it.
This book handled female intimacy issues in the best way. I could tell that a lot of research went into it.
Andi Eloise and Brandon Francis were fantastic. I could visualize and feel the characters. I especially loved how natural the dialogue felt. The dialogue never felt forced and I got completely lost in the story.
This was the first book of the series that I’ve listened to and it won’t be the last. I loved this book so much, that I’m going back to read the other two books.
The bloopers at the end of the story were a great added bonus!
Thank you NetGalley, Victory Editing NetGalley Co-op, and Stephanie Giese for the ALC in exchange for my honest review.
One accidental text from Shelly to her brother’s best friend, Jordan, becomes the start of a beautiful friendship and love. Shelly is juggling law school, ADHD and intimacy issues. Jordan is the pro baseball player and brother’s best friend. I really liked the characters and the way their relationship developed. There was plenty of chemistry, banter, and drama to keep things interesting without completely taking over the story. I found myself genuinely invested in them and actually caring about how everything was going to work out.
Yes, the spice was there, and I’m not mad about it.
This book handled female intimacy issues in the best way. I could tell that a lot of research went into it.
Andi Eloise and Brandon Francis were fantastic. I could visualize and feel the characters. I especially loved how natural the dialogue felt. The dialogue never felt forced and I got completely lost in the story.
This was the first book of the series that I’ve listened to and it won’t be the last. I loved this book so much, that I’m going back to read the other two books.
The bloopers at the end of the story were a great added bonus!
Thank you NetGalley, Victory Editing NetGalley Co-op, and Stephanie Giese for the ALC in exchange for my honest review.
September 13, 2026
Way Off Base was a fun listen. I liked Shelley and Jordan together and watching their brother’s-best-friend situation turn into something neither of them expected.
I appreciated how the story handled Shelley’s struggles with intimacy and ADHD, and how patient Jordan was with her. There was a nice mix of funny and more serious moments, and I liked how their relationship developed throughout the story.
Thank you to Stephanie Giese and NetGalley for the ALC. This review is based on my own listening experience. 🎧❤️
I appreciated how the story handled Shelley’s struggles with intimacy and ADHD, and how patient Jordan was with her. There was a nice mix of funny and more serious moments, and I liked how their relationship developed throughout the story.
Thank you to Stephanie Giese and NetGalley for the ALC. This review is based on my own listening experience. 🎧❤️
September 9, 2026
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Audio Rating: 🎧🎧🎧🎧
Spice Rating: 🌶️
📖 Way Off Base
📚 North Bay - Book 3
✍🏼 Stephanie Giese
🎧 Andi Eloise & Brandon Francis
🎙️ Duet
📅 Release Date: 14th July 2026
📩 NetGalley
Tropes:
⚾ Baseball Romance
💗 Friends to Lovers
📱 Accidental Voicemail
🔥 Slow Burn
💗 Emotional Connection
⚾ Sports Romance
💗 Vulnerability & Healing
🔥 Found Family
Review:
Thank you to Stephanie Giese and NetGalley for the ALC in exchange for an honest review. 🩷🖤
This was such a cute read!
Way Off Base starts with an accidental voicemail, which immediately had me laughing because I would have been MORTIFIED. There would be no recovering from it. New phone. New identity. Possibly a new country.
But what starts as an awkward and funny situation develops into a story that is really about connection, friendship and allowing yourself to be vulnerable with another person.
One of the things I really enjoyed about this book was that the relationship wasn’t built purely around attraction. There was a genuine friendship developing underneath everything else, and I loved getting to watch that connection grow.
Their relationship felt like it had an actual foundation.
There are plenty of cute and funny moments throughout, but there’s also a lot of vulnerability and personal growth. Both characters have things they need to work through, and I enjoyed seeing them gradually become comfortable enough with each other to let those walls come down.
It gave their eventual romance much more weight because it wasn’t simply, we’re attracted to each other, therefore we’re in love. They actually liked each other as people first, and that was probably my favourite part of their relationship.
The spice:
This one is definitely on the much tamer end of the spice scale for me.
Most of the intimate scenes are either fade-to-black or around a one-chilli level at most, so if you’re going into this expecting a particularly spicy sports romance, this probably isn’t that book. But honestly? It didn’t need to be.
The emotional connection and development of their friendship are much more important to this story. There is still chemistry and attraction between them, but the romance isn’t dependent on explicit scenes to show it.
And considering I’m usually very much a "give me the spice" reader, I still really enjoyed their relationship and the story without it.
The audio:
Another really enjoyable performance from Andi Eloise and Brandon Francis.
I’ve listened to both before and always enjoy both their narration, and both narrators did a great job bringing the humour, vulnerability and emotional moments to life.
The narration suited the tone of the story really well, particularly because so much of this book relies on the connection between the characters rather than huge dramatic or spicy moments.
Overall, Way Off Base was a really enjoyable sports romance with plenty of humour, emotion and cute moments throughout.
For me, the strongest part was the genuine friendship at the centre of the romance. It was about two people actually getting to know one another, becoming vulnerable with each other and building something deeper than attraction.
Four stars for the story, four headphones for the audio and one little chilli for the mostly fade-to-black spice.
Audio Rating: 🎧🎧🎧🎧
Spice Rating: 🌶️
📖 Way Off Base
📚 North Bay - Book 3
✍🏼 Stephanie Giese
🎧 Andi Eloise & Brandon Francis
🎙️ Duet
📅 Release Date: 14th July 2026
📩 NetGalley
Tropes:
⚾ Baseball Romance
💗 Friends to Lovers
📱 Accidental Voicemail
🔥 Slow Burn
💗 Emotional Connection
⚾ Sports Romance
💗 Vulnerability & Healing
🔥 Found Family
Review:
Thank you to Stephanie Giese and NetGalley for the ALC in exchange for an honest review. 🩷🖤
This was such a cute read!
Way Off Base starts with an accidental voicemail, which immediately had me laughing because I would have been MORTIFIED. There would be no recovering from it. New phone. New identity. Possibly a new country.
But what starts as an awkward and funny situation develops into a story that is really about connection, friendship and allowing yourself to be vulnerable with another person.
One of the things I really enjoyed about this book was that the relationship wasn’t built purely around attraction. There was a genuine friendship developing underneath everything else, and I loved getting to watch that connection grow.
Their relationship felt like it had an actual foundation.
There are plenty of cute and funny moments throughout, but there’s also a lot of vulnerability and personal growth. Both characters have things they need to work through, and I enjoyed seeing them gradually become comfortable enough with each other to let those walls come down.
It gave their eventual romance much more weight because it wasn’t simply, we’re attracted to each other, therefore we’re in love. They actually liked each other as people first, and that was probably my favourite part of their relationship.
The spice:
This one is definitely on the much tamer end of the spice scale for me.
Most of the intimate scenes are either fade-to-black or around a one-chilli level at most, so if you’re going into this expecting a particularly spicy sports romance, this probably isn’t that book. But honestly? It didn’t need to be.
The emotional connection and development of their friendship are much more important to this story. There is still chemistry and attraction between them, but the romance isn’t dependent on explicit scenes to show it.
And considering I’m usually very much a "give me the spice" reader, I still really enjoyed their relationship and the story without it.
The audio:
Another really enjoyable performance from Andi Eloise and Brandon Francis.
I’ve listened to both before and always enjoy both their narration, and both narrators did a great job bringing the humour, vulnerability and emotional moments to life.
The narration suited the tone of the story really well, particularly because so much of this book relies on the connection between the characters rather than huge dramatic or spicy moments.
Overall, Way Off Base was a really enjoyable sports romance with plenty of humour, emotion and cute moments throughout.
For me, the strongest part was the genuine friendship at the centre of the romance. It was about two people actually getting to know one another, becoming vulnerable with each other and building something deeper than attraction.
Four stars for the story, four headphones for the audio and one little chilli for the mostly fade-to-black spice.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews