Caleb's Choice

by Sarah Hadley Brook

Caleb Dodson has lived and breathed baseball most of his life. Playing in the Minor Leagues means he’s close to his dream of being in the Majors, and he doesn't want anything to mess that up. For now, that means keeping his attraction to men a secret. But when the new announcer arrives at the stadium, Caleb finds himself falling hard and fast.

Lucas Landry was hired as a news reporter for a local radio station, but instead he is thrown into the world of sports -- a place he's spent most of his life avoiding. He doesn't like baseball or athletes, yet he is drawn to Caleb in a way he can't explain.

Caleb needs to make a decision. Will he come out and possibly lose his dream? Or has his dream changed? Maybe it’s time for Caleb to figure out just what that dream is.

73 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 29, 2017

About the author

Sarah Hadley Brook lives smack-dab in the middle of the Heartland and is the mother of two wonderful young men, as well as two cats. During the day, she works in the nonprofit world, but reserves evenings for her hobby-turned-passion of writing, letting the characters she conjures up in her mind take the lead and show her where the story will go. When not working or writing, she can be found reading, working on dollhouses, trying her hand at new recipes, or watching old movies and musicals. In her ideal world, Christmas would come at least twice a year, Rock Hudson and Doris Day would have co-starred in more than three movies, and chocolate would be a daily necessity to live. She dreams of traveling to Scotland some day and visiting the places her ancestors lived. Sarah believes in “Happily Ever After” and strives to ensure her characters find their own happiness in love and life.

Reviews

[Aղցela W. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a short quick read that I read for a challenge. Caleb Dodson is a minor league baseball player with dreams of making it to the major league and will do anything to make it including remaining in the closet to do it. Lucas Landry is a new sports reporter for a local radio station he was hired to report the new not sports and he hates baseball and athletes. These two find themselves drawn to one another. This was a pretty good short read that i wanted more of this book was well written with no errors in grammar or spelling. This was my first time reading this author.

[AngelFire · Rating 1 out of 5]

I went into this with low expectations and the book didn't even manage to meet those. Everything about this was terrible. The writing was atrociously bad, there was barely any plot, the smut scenes and specifically the dialogue were cringey and everything about the book felt dated. I actually thought it was from the pre-2012 era and I was shocked when I checked just now and realized it was published in 2017.

One of the aspects that annoyed me is that the author wrote this as erotica but marketed it as being a romance. The MCs meet and from then on, their relationship consists of instalust. They can't think about anything except getting into each other's pants. Caleb is in the closet and isn't out to anybody in his life, yet the moment he finds out Lucas is gay, Caleb is kissing him. Did I mention this was only their second interaction? It probably won't surprise you that just a few weeks later, Lucas thinks he might be 'in love' with Caleb. Also, the smut scenes were cringey. The dialogue gave me second hand embarrassment because it reminded me of porn-movie dialogue, Caleb constantly called Lucas 'baby' and you could have swapped Lucas with a female character and barely anything would have changed.

The writing overall was also terrible. The pacing was way off with the author spending ages focusing on pointless details, like the exact sequence of steps that were involved in preparing lunch at Caleb's house but important events such as Lucas finding out Caleb is gay were done in a rushed, OTT manner. There were also lots of OTT dramatics with characters screaming, crying, throwing up their hands and acting like cartoon characters. The rushed pacing got worse as the story progressed with the last chapter involving a random gay bashing of side characters that started and ended very abruptly and of course, this pushes Caleb to immediately come out and that's followed by the HEA. The entire sequences was done within a few pages when that whole plotline should have taken place over the course of several chapters. But worst of all, we're told in the epilogue that Caleb was forced to retire from baseball after getting into a car accident that impacted his peripheral vision. Let me repeat. We're TOLD in the epilogue about a major life-changing event that completely changed one of the MC's lives. It's clear that this author has no understanding of how to tell a story properly, especially a romance.

I did like that the baseball stuff was a noticeable part of the story. It wasn't overly detailed but it was present enough that this felt like a sports romance, which was a nice surprise. But there were some very obvious mistakes. For example, Caleb is in the minors yet he's able to afford a comfortable home. Another example: Lucas somehow gets through commentating an entire baseball game by himself on television...while not knowing anything - ANYTHING - about the sport. But the author seemed to make some effort at depicting the baseball stuff, which I appreciated. Clearly, there was barely any effort put into the rest of the story or the writing process.

Overall, this was a waste of my time and I've answered my own question about why I've never heard anybody mention this author's work despite her having written quite a few MM romances.

[The Novel Approach · Rating 3 out of 5]

Caleb’s Choice is a short story for sports lovers. Caleb is a wet dream come true: athletic, hot, and kindhearted. Enter Lucas, who at first rubs Caleb’s nerves in all the right (and wrong) ways, and we have the makings for a firecracker of a story.

Ms. Brook delivers on some incredibly hot scenes, descriptive and oozing with heat. But she always delivers the inner thoughts of both characters as they struggle to deal with their attraction too. Caleb is closeted and not sure whether to come out; therefore, he has a choice. Lucas has vowed not to hide in the closet for anyone. So, how do they deal with their undeniable attraction?

For me, the build-up of the attraction and the struggle with making a decision about how far they will stretch for each other was the fun of the story. Once decisions (or choices) were made, the story wound down pretty fast.

This is one of those sweet stories that you would bring to the park while watching the kids, or to the pool/beach, as something to entertain yourself with as a start-to-finish experience in one sitting. Not a sink-your-teeth-in-and-chew for a while type of story, but as a short read, it hit the spot.

Reviewed by Taz for The Novel Approach