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Out of Left Field
There's no playing it safe in love or baseball in this sparkling debut, perfect for fans of Morgan Matson and Kasie West.
Marnie has never had a hard time fitting in with the guys. It would take a lot more than their goofy antics to keep her from joining them at the neighborhood sandlot to do what she loves best: play ball.
An added perk of hanging out at the sandlot? Spending time with Cody Kinski, their high school's star pitcher and Marnie's best friend. Sure, he can be stubborn and annoying. He also knows how to make her laugh and respects her skills on the field. And when he gets nailed in the arm by a bone-fracturing pitch, Marnie becomes the team's best chance at making it to the playoffs. Except no one told the guys they're supposed to be on her side.
With her own team against her, Marnie begins questioning her abilities. And when fate throws her a curveball, can she play without losing the game, Cody, and her belief in herself?
Marnie has never had a hard time fitting in with the guys. It would take a lot more than their goofy antics to keep her from joining them at the neighborhood sandlot to do what she loves best: play ball.
An added perk of hanging out at the sandlot? Spending time with Cody Kinski, their high school's star pitcher and Marnie's best friend. Sure, he can be stubborn and annoying. He also knows how to make her laugh and respects her skills on the field. And when he gets nailed in the arm by a bone-fracturing pitch, Marnie becomes the team's best chance at making it to the playoffs. Except no one told the guys they're supposed to be on her side.
With her own team against her, Marnie begins questioning her abilities. And when fate throws her a curveball, can she play without losing the game, Cody, and her belief in herself?
320 pages, ebook
First published May 1, 2018
43 people are currently reading
2111 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 141 reviews
June 27, 2018
RATING: 4/5
ARC provided by Edelweiss and Sourcebooks Fire in exchange for an honest review
You could say I'm a sucker for cute, lighthearted reads. Thankfully, this one did not disappoint.
In this book, we follow Marnie, a girl who loves baseball but feels she might fail as an official player. When Cody (star pitcher of their school's team and Marnie's best friend) gets injured, it's up to Marnie to step up and lead the team to victory.
To say I really liked this is an understatement. I love the Friends-to-lovers trope so this was right up my alley. All the cuteness made my heart melt! It reminded me of Kasie West's books, all of which I've adored. Definitely recommend!
ARC provided by Edelweiss and Sourcebooks Fire in exchange for an honest review
You could say I'm a sucker for cute, lighthearted reads. Thankfully, this one did not disappoint.
In this book, we follow Marnie, a girl who loves baseball but feels she might fail as an official player. When Cody (star pitcher of their school's team and Marnie's best friend) gets injured, it's up to Marnie to step up and lead the team to victory.
To say I really liked this is an understatement. I love the Friends-to-lovers trope so this was right up my alley. All the cuteness made my heart melt! It reminded me of Kasie West's books, all of which I've adored. Definitely recommend!
May 30, 2018
Find this review and more on my book blog.
WHAT TO EXPECT FROM OUT OF LEFT FIELD
1. Lots of mindless reading. Out of Left Field definitely doesn't have a lot of substance. It's incredibly shallow and typical--which was fine by me! Y'all have to admit: We have these certain moods where we just want a fun read that doesn't require any thinking! This was definitely one of those books.
2. A best-friends-turned-lovers trope à la cheesy local rom-com. AGAIN I WAS TOTALLY FINE WITH THIS!!! Best friend romances (with lots of angst and denial in between) are my guilty pleasure, and the one in Out of Left Field was cute and genuine.
3. Awesome non-romantic relationships. Marnie had a positive and empowering friendship with her girl-BFF Sara. She also had a supportive dad, a mother who doesn't know what to think, and a brother who stands up for what he believes in. I thought the relationships were pretty realistic!
4. Baseball talk! This is something I'm not familiar with, but I love sports in contemporary YA.
5. You'll either love it or hate it. Like I said earlier, this book doesn't really have a lot of Substance™, but it really depends on the reader's preferences!
WHAT TO EXPECT FROM OUT OF LEFT FIELD
1. Lots of mindless reading. Out of Left Field definitely doesn't have a lot of substance. It's incredibly shallow and typical--which was fine by me! Y'all have to admit: We have these certain moods where we just want a fun read that doesn't require any thinking! This was definitely one of those books.
2. A best-friends-turned-lovers trope à la cheesy local rom-com. AGAIN I WAS TOTALLY FINE WITH THIS!!! Best friend romances (with lots of angst and denial in between) are my guilty pleasure, and the one in Out of Left Field was cute and genuine.
3. Awesome non-romantic relationships. Marnie had a positive and empowering friendship with her girl-BFF Sara. She also had a supportive dad, a mother who doesn't know what to think, and a brother who stands up for what he believes in. I thought the relationships were pretty realistic!
4. Baseball talk! This is something I'm not familiar with, but I love sports in contemporary YA.
5. You'll either love it or hate it. Like I said earlier, this book doesn't really have a lot of Substance™, but it really depends on the reader's preferences!
April 15, 2018
I loved the idea of a girl playing on the boys team and the hint of a bff to more sold it.
I liked Marnie well enough. She’s tenacious and talented and stands up for herself. The rest of her friends and their dynamic was quite odd. I struggled with how they could be supportive of Marnie’s pitching when they played on the weekends, but after winning the spot on the school team, the same people she’s known since kindergarten now ignore her.
Plot wise it did get repetitive. There was a lot of telling and not showing, especially during scenes of the games. It felt like some threads of the story were thrown in for fun, as they didn’t really provide substance to the story.
Overall, it was a quick read and had a lot of potential. Sadly, the execution just didn’t work for me.
**Huge thanks to Sourcebooks Fire for providing the arc free of charge**
I liked Marnie well enough. She’s tenacious and talented and stands up for herself. The rest of her friends and their dynamic was quite odd. I struggled with how they could be supportive of Marnie’s pitching when they played on the weekends, but after winning the spot on the school team, the same people she’s known since kindergarten now ignore her.
Plot wise it did get repetitive. There was a lot of telling and not showing, especially during scenes of the games. It felt like some threads of the story were thrown in for fun, as they didn’t really provide substance to the story.
Overall, it was a quick read and had a lot of potential. Sadly, the execution just didn’t work for me.
**Huge thanks to Sourcebooks Fire for providing the arc free of charge**
July 15, 2018
This was pretty cute, but not my favorite contemporary! It had the friends-to-lovers trope so you know i'm in.
I also loved that it featured a female lead breaking the glass ceiling a bit with playing on the guys baseball team and OWNING IT.
I think where I didn't end up liking this is the miscommunication and back and forth of the relationship. It honestly didn't seem very healthy, even though they came around in the end.
Overall a quick, fun, fluff contemporary but not the best!
I also loved that it featured a female lead breaking the glass ceiling a bit with playing on the guys baseball team and OWNING IT.
I think where I didn't end up liking this is the miscommunication and back and forth of the relationship. It honestly didn't seem very healthy, even though they came around in the end.
Overall a quick, fun, fluff contemporary but not the best!
November 13, 2018
This was such a cute book! If you like your contemporary YA on the sweet and light side, with a fun cast of characters and an underdog MC, "Out of Left Field" is a great choice for you.
So here are a few of the things that stood out for me with this book:
I really liked how Marnie and her friend Sara hung out with the boys and weren't super girly. It reminded me of the group of guys I hung out with in high school - we had so much fun! We were always going swimming or cliff jumping at a lake, or 4x4ing through the mud, or rock climbing without any gear (stupid, yes, but it was the 90's and we didn't know any better!) Even going to Subway or the movies was an adventure with those guys, and reading "Out of Left Field" brought out some of that nostalgia.
I liked that Colby and the baseball coach had Marnie's back, even when her teammates didn't accept her and she doubted herself and her abilities.
There were some good platonic relationships represented here, which I haven't seen often in YA contemporary romance novels. I especially enjoyed the developing friendship between Marnie and one of her biggest rivals!
I also appreciated the relationships Marnie had with the members of her family. There were a few warm and fuzzy moments between Marnie and her mom, for example, that did their job tugging on my heartstrings.
How about the things I didn't love?
The romance was kind of...meh. I usually love the best-friends-to-more trope, but in this case, the first 10 or 11 years of Marnie and Colby's friendship happened off-page, so there was none of that usual slow burn development I love. Basically, Marnie tells us in Chapter One that she and Colby have been best friends for x number of years, but we're not given much from those years. Maybe a couple of anecdotes here and there, but as far as show and tell, this book was very skewed towards telling with minimal showing.
I thought the coach's language could have been toned down a bit. I thought his use of profanity was unwarranted and unprofessional. I know I sound like a total mom here, but honestly, if a coach was speaking like that around my kids, he wouldn't be coaching much longer, if you know what I mean.
Overall, I enjoyed my time with "Out of Left Field". For a debut, it was really well done, and I think that Kris Hui Lee is a name to watch for in the future of Contemporary YA.
So here are a few of the things that stood out for me with this book:
I really liked how Marnie and her friend Sara hung out with the boys and weren't super girly. It reminded me of the group of guys I hung out with in high school - we had so much fun! We were always going swimming or cliff jumping at a lake, or 4x4ing through the mud, or rock climbing without any gear (stupid, yes, but it was the 90's and we didn't know any better!) Even going to Subway or the movies was an adventure with those guys, and reading "Out of Left Field" brought out some of that nostalgia.
I liked that Colby and the baseball coach had Marnie's back, even when her teammates didn't accept her and she doubted herself and her abilities.
There were some good platonic relationships represented here, which I haven't seen often in YA contemporary romance novels. I especially enjoyed the developing friendship between Marnie and one of her biggest rivals!
I also appreciated the relationships Marnie had with the members of her family. There were a few warm and fuzzy moments between Marnie and her mom, for example, that did their job tugging on my heartstrings.
How about the things I didn't love?
The romance was kind of...meh. I usually love the best-friends-to-more trope, but in this case, the first 10 or 11 years of Marnie and Colby's friendship happened off-page, so there was none of that usual slow burn development I love. Basically, Marnie tells us in Chapter One that she and Colby have been best friends for x number of years, but we're not given much from those years. Maybe a couple of anecdotes here and there, but as far as show and tell, this book was very skewed towards telling with minimal showing.
I thought the coach's language could have been toned down a bit. I thought his use of profanity was unwarranted and unprofessional. I know I sound like a total mom here, but honestly, if a coach was speaking like that around my kids, he wouldn't be coaching much longer, if you know what I mean.
Overall, I enjoyed my time with "Out of Left Field". For a debut, it was really well done, and I think that Kris Hui Lee is a name to watch for in the future of Contemporary YA.
April 29, 2018
Out of Left Field was a charming, lovable, and fun contemporary romance novel!
The main character, Marnie, was a strong and determined girl! There were so many times when people tried to tear her down, and she always stood up for herself. I loved how fierce she was and how she continued to show she was just as valuable and useful as any guy! Marnie's best friend, Sara, was such a supportive friend to Marnie. Their friendship was so positive and sweet, which warmed my heart. I was so happy that there was a strong female friendship represent throughout this book. It was refreshing to see two girls build each other up instead drag each other down.
Cody, the romantic interest, was another supportive and kind character. He was someone that always believed in Marnie and wanted to see her succeed. The romantic relationship between Cody and Marnie developed at a believable pace and they had sweet moments. However, I wish Cody would have been more present in the book. I felt like their relationship had a lot of "telling" instead of "showing". It was constantly discussed how much they cared for each other and how strong their relationship was, but I was hoping to actually see more of that. I still thought they had a cute romance, but I think it would have been even more impactful if they had more scenes that showed their relationship.
Overall, I found this to be a quick and romantic read about high school, baseball, and relationships. If you are looking for a summer romance novel, I would recommend checking this book out!
3 / 5 Fangs
*This ebook was given to me in exchange for an honest review. *
MrsLeif's Two Fangs About It
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The main character, Marnie, was a strong and determined girl! There were so many times when people tried to tear her down, and she always stood up for herself. I loved how fierce she was and how she continued to show she was just as valuable and useful as any guy! Marnie's best friend, Sara, was such a supportive friend to Marnie. Their friendship was so positive and sweet, which warmed my heart. I was so happy that there was a strong female friendship represent throughout this book. It was refreshing to see two girls build each other up instead drag each other down.
Cody, the romantic interest, was another supportive and kind character. He was someone that always believed in Marnie and wanted to see her succeed. The romantic relationship between Cody and Marnie developed at a believable pace and they had sweet moments. However, I wish Cody would have been more present in the book. I felt like their relationship had a lot of "telling" instead of "showing". It was constantly discussed how much they cared for each other and how strong their relationship was, but I was hoping to actually see more of that. I still thought they had a cute romance, but I think it would have been even more impactful if they had more scenes that showed their relationship.
Overall, I found this to be a quick and romantic read about high school, baseball, and relationships. If you are looking for a summer romance novel, I would recommend checking this book out!
3 / 5 Fangs
*This ebook was given to me in exchange for an honest review. *
MrsLeif's Two Fangs About It
December 1, 2019
I liked this. It felt pretty realistic in both the friendships and the relationships and yay baseball!
May 5, 2018
I honestly think out of left field is shaping up to be my favourite kindle read of the month, I can't believe that this is the authors debut novel.
It was utterly amazing and so realistically written, I felt like It could've involved any of my friends and family. A very relatable novel full of unconditional love and believing in yourself even when there are differences to other peers.
I can't wait to see what this author writes next!!
Thank you to netgalley and the publish for letting me review this title for my honest opinion!!
It was utterly amazing and so realistically written, I felt like It could've involved any of my friends and family. A very relatable novel full of unconditional love and believing in yourself even when there are differences to other peers.
I can't wait to see what this author writes next!!
Thank you to netgalley and the publish for letting me review this title for my honest opinion!!
July 23, 2019
This book was super cute and such a fun read! I absolutely loved it! I loved how their was the sports aspect and how there was the whole family and friends and friends to lovers trope and it was amazing. I’d definatley like to try more books from this author
May 5, 2018
This was a fun fast read about a girl who wants to play baseball. There was definitely some fighting among the team after she joined but it wasn't the focus of the book like the blurb claims. It was mainly a cute rom-com and a girl trying to figure out what she wants to do in her friendships. I did enjoy the story but there were also small, like tiny, consistence issues I doubt anyone else will notice. I think it's more of a editing thing than story and I only noticed because I've sat at work and read it in one sitting.
July 21, 2018
so I finished this book in an airplane after postponding reading it so many times .. it was just so boring and nothing was happening ..the book is about a tomboy Marnie who loves baseball and has a huge crush on her chilhood friend Cody .. the concept is nice but the plot was really slow and we were just hearing Marnie's non-stop whining .. and the ending was so disappointing and wasn't worth it at all .. this was just a complete waste of time to me
April 27, 2018
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
I was really looking forward to this book. I love sports romances, YA, and friends to lovers trope, so I thought this would be a hit with me. Unfortunately, I DNF at 35%. I can usually get through a book within a 24 hour period, but it took me almost 5 days, and I could only get to Chapter 9 before I finally gave up. The writing was pretty good. But, I found the characters extremely unlikable, especially the main character, Marnie. All the characters were pretty nasty to each other, and I never really found out why there was so much animosity towards each other. Ultimately, I just could not connect with the characters and could not finish the book.
I was really looking forward to this book. I love sports romances, YA, and friends to lovers trope, so I thought this would be a hit with me. Unfortunately, I DNF at 35%. I can usually get through a book within a 24 hour period, but it took me almost 5 days, and I could only get to Chapter 9 before I finally gave up. The writing was pretty good. But, I found the characters extremely unlikable, especially the main character, Marnie. All the characters were pretty nasty to each other, and I never really found out why there was so much animosity towards each other. Ultimately, I just could not connect with the characters and could not finish the book.
March 30, 2022
I picked this book up from the library on a whim and I am so glad I did! “Out of Left Field” is packed full of baseball, friendship, humor and a sprinkle of romance. It was a quick YA novel that was a perfect summer read!
May 3, 2018
4 Stars - Cute, fun and entertaining.
Out of Left Field by Kris Hui Lee is a lighthearted and charming YA contemporary read!
I’m not really into sports that much, so I don’t find myself immediately drawn to sports-themed books. I just never really know if I’ll enjoy the plot since I don’t do sports at all and most likely wouldn’t be able to relate to the characters. But, I do love romance and friends-to-lovers stories. The premise for Out of the Left Field also sounded really cute and fun, so I figured why not. Well, I definitely do not regret requesting. This book was heartwarming, sweet, and so cute it made my heart melt. I loved the friendships, the MC chasing her dream no matter what, and of course the romance. I thought the writing was decent, but wished there were more scenes that actually showed me rather than telling me this or that. The characters were likeable to some extent. They’re teenagers after all, so it’s expected that they got on my nerves every now and then. While I did find some parts a bit repetitive and frustrating, I still really enjoyed the story.
I liked Marnie well enough. She was the typical angsty teenager trying to find her place and go after her dream. She obviously did not always make the right decisions and had her own insecurities, but she was also strong and fierce. I admired her talent, determination, and the way she always stood up for herself. Cody was absolutely adorable and I really liked him a lot. He was sweet and incredibly supportive of Marnie. He encouraged her and truly believed in her potential. I really wish there were more scenes with him in the book. I would have loved to see Cody and Marnie interact more, rather than have the other characters describe how they really felt for each other.
So, as you can guess, the romance was relatively slow, but it was totally cute and heartwarming. I love romance in general, so whether it’s insta-love or not, as long as the story works and it makes some sense to me, then I usually have fun with it. I definitely did with this one and enjoyed the tension. I thought the story wrapped up nicely and I turned off my kindle with a smile on my face.
There were some things that could have been better, but overall, Out of the Left Field was a delightful debut novel. With cute moments, fun bantering, and adorable romance, this was just the fluffy lighthearted read I needed. I’ll definitely be on the lookout for Kris Hui Lee’s future works and would recommend this book to anyone in the mood of something quick, sweet and entertaining.
I received an advance reader copy from the publisher, Sourcebooks Fire, via Netgalley in exchange for a fair and honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
To read more of my reviews, visit my blog - SINCERELY KAREN JO
Out of Left Field by Kris Hui Lee is a lighthearted and charming YA contemporary read!
I’m not really into sports that much, so I don’t find myself immediately drawn to sports-themed books. I just never really know if I’ll enjoy the plot since I don’t do sports at all and most likely wouldn’t be able to relate to the characters. But, I do love romance and friends-to-lovers stories. The premise for Out of the Left Field also sounded really cute and fun, so I figured why not. Well, I definitely do not regret requesting. This book was heartwarming, sweet, and so cute it made my heart melt. I loved the friendships, the MC chasing her dream no matter what, and of course the romance. I thought the writing was decent, but wished there were more scenes that actually showed me rather than telling me this or that. The characters were likeable to some extent. They’re teenagers after all, so it’s expected that they got on my nerves every now and then. While I did find some parts a bit repetitive and frustrating, I still really enjoyed the story.
I liked Marnie well enough. She was the typical angsty teenager trying to find her place and go after her dream. She obviously did not always make the right decisions and had her own insecurities, but she was also strong and fierce. I admired her talent, determination, and the way she always stood up for herself. Cody was absolutely adorable and I really liked him a lot. He was sweet and incredibly supportive of Marnie. He encouraged her and truly believed in her potential. I really wish there were more scenes with him in the book. I would have loved to see Cody and Marnie interact more, rather than have the other characters describe how they really felt for each other.
So, as you can guess, the romance was relatively slow, but it was totally cute and heartwarming. I love romance in general, so whether it’s insta-love or not, as long as the story works and it makes some sense to me, then I usually have fun with it. I definitely did with this one and enjoyed the tension. I thought the story wrapped up nicely and I turned off my kindle with a smile on my face.
There were some things that could have been better, but overall, Out of the Left Field was a delightful debut novel. With cute moments, fun bantering, and adorable romance, this was just the fluffy lighthearted read I needed. I’ll definitely be on the lookout for Kris Hui Lee’s future works and would recommend this book to anyone in the mood of something quick, sweet and entertaining.
I received an advance reader copy from the publisher, Sourcebooks Fire, via Netgalley in exchange for a fair and honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
To read more of my reviews, visit my blog - SINCERELY KAREN JO
March 1, 2018
Out of Left Field is a lighthearted, sport-adoring, lots-of-fun novel that revels in the celebration of strong friendship, pushing the boundaries, and finding the courage to chase your dream. I highly enjoying reading Out of Left Field, and highly recommend it to readers who love playful, sport-centred YA contemporary.
Marnie loves playing baseball with her friends in the neighbourhood park. She loves baseball. But after an incident while pitching for the softball team, Marnie only plays for fun and not competitively. Until, when her best-friend, Cody, is injured, the opportunity arises for her to take his spot as the pitcher on the boy’s baseball team. Trying out for the position challenges Marnie’s faith in herself, her friendships with the other boys on the team, and her relationship (friendship that has the possibility to become so much more) with Cody.
I do so love sport fiction. I especially love fiction centred around women in sport. And I adore stories where women get to challenge the guys by stepping up to the boys’ teams. Out of Left Field totally ticks all those boxes. The style of the book reminds me of Miranda Kenneally’s Hundred Oaks series, with the same balance between sport, friendship, and romance.
Marnie is a likeable character. She is most comfortable playing with her friends, throwing around insults and lively banter, and trying not to get into too much trouble. I loved that she is a typical teen trying to muddle her way through life. She has a great self-awareness and is quick to acknowledge her flaws, even if she is sometimes reluctant to make the first steps of apology. I also really liked Marnie’s friends, from dog-loving and black-belt karate champ Sara to the other guys on the baseball team. And then there is Cody. Theirs is a relationship I could totally support, and I loved watching Cody and Marnie struggle with the blurring lines of their friendship. Should they risk their history for a chance at a romantic relationship? Does the other share their growing feelings? So much fun.
Diverse characters, a strong but simple storyline, and the perfect balance between baseball, friendship, and romance. Out of Left Field is easy to highly recommend.
The publishers provided an advanced readers copy of this book for reviewing purposes. All opinions are my own.
Find more reviews, reading age guides, content advisory, and recommendations on my blog Madison's Library.
Marnie loves playing baseball with her friends in the neighbourhood park. She loves baseball. But after an incident while pitching for the softball team, Marnie only plays for fun and not competitively. Until, when her best-friend, Cody, is injured, the opportunity arises for her to take his spot as the pitcher on the boy’s baseball team. Trying out for the position challenges Marnie’s faith in herself, her friendships with the other boys on the team, and her relationship (friendship that has the possibility to become so much more) with Cody.
I do so love sport fiction. I especially love fiction centred around women in sport. And I adore stories where women get to challenge the guys by stepping up to the boys’ teams. Out of Left Field totally ticks all those boxes. The style of the book reminds me of Miranda Kenneally’s Hundred Oaks series, with the same balance between sport, friendship, and romance.
Marnie is a likeable character. She is most comfortable playing with her friends, throwing around insults and lively banter, and trying not to get into too much trouble. I loved that she is a typical teen trying to muddle her way through life. She has a great self-awareness and is quick to acknowledge her flaws, even if she is sometimes reluctant to make the first steps of apology. I also really liked Marnie’s friends, from dog-loving and black-belt karate champ Sara to the other guys on the baseball team. And then there is Cody. Theirs is a relationship I could totally support, and I loved watching Cody and Marnie struggle with the blurring lines of their friendship. Should they risk their history for a chance at a romantic relationship? Does the other share their growing feelings? So much fun.
Diverse characters, a strong but simple storyline, and the perfect balance between baseball, friendship, and romance. Out of Left Field is easy to highly recommend.
The publishers provided an advanced readers copy of this book for reviewing purposes. All opinions are my own.
Find more reviews, reading age guides, content advisory, and recommendations on my blog Madison's Library.
May 11, 2018
Reviewed on my blog, Becky on Books, on 5/11/18.
A fun read!
The emphasis here--as it really should be in YA--is more on Marnie figuring herself and her place in her world (with her family and friends, on the baseball team, what direction she wants her future to go in) and less on romance--though Marnie and Cody dance around things for the entire book, they don't really get around their we-might-ruin-our-friendship-forever fears until (literally) the last minute.
And really, this is fine.
Like Marnie's mom, I have no great love for baseball, which is Marnie's first and lasting great love, but that's okay. It's easy to identify with a heroine who has found something she's passionate about in life but who still is full of doubts. I've never even considered being the only girl on a boy's team, but who can't remember a time in their lives when they felt like the outsider? Even though I do enjoy wearing dresses (but not shopping for them, because that's just cruel and unusual punishment) I came out of this book somehow feeling like Marnie and I had way more in common than not.
Ms. Lee has apparently spent years writing stories about Marnie and her friends (as per her acknowledgments) and it really shows--it's obvious that Marnie and company have a long, complicated history that the author knows both it and her characters well. Little throwaway comments like, "For reasons that would take too long to explain, his voicemail message is Joey and Sara mooing for about thirty seconds" add both humor and realism to the story.
Out of Left Field is a fun debut from an author I'll definitely be looking for more from!
Rating: 4 stars / A-
I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy of this book.
A fun read!
The emphasis here--as it really should be in YA--is more on Marnie figuring herself and her place in her world (with her family and friends, on the baseball team, what direction she wants her future to go in) and less on romance--though Marnie and Cody dance around things for the entire book, they don't really get around their we-might-ruin-our-friendship-forever fears until (literally) the last minute.
And really, this is fine.
Like Marnie's mom, I have no great love for baseball, which is Marnie's first and lasting great love, but that's okay. It's easy to identify with a heroine who has found something she's passionate about in life but who still is full of doubts. I've never even considered being the only girl on a boy's team, but who can't remember a time in their lives when they felt like the outsider? Even though I do enjoy wearing dresses (but not shopping for them, because that's just cruel and unusual punishment) I came out of this book somehow feeling like Marnie and I had way more in common than not.
Ms. Lee has apparently spent years writing stories about Marnie and her friends (as per her acknowledgments) and it really shows--it's obvious that Marnie and company have a long, complicated history that the author knows both it and her characters well. Little throwaway comments like, "For reasons that would take too long to explain, his voicemail message is Joey and Sara mooing for about thirty seconds" add both humor and realism to the story.
Out of Left Field is a fun debut from an author I'll definitely be looking for more from!
Rating: 4 stars / A-
I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy of this book.
May 6, 2018
I received a free copy of this book to read and review for Wicked Reads.
When I started reading Out of Left Field I wasn’t in the mood to read. I had other things I needed to get done. So when I sat down to read I told myself I had to read at least 10% of the book in the first session. I was a third of the way through the book when I stopped reading the first time and I read the whole thing in 24 hours.
I was immediately drawn in to Marnie’s world. She is feisty, quick witted, intelligent, a good friend and a lover of baseball. Marnie’s life revolves around her friends Sara, Joey and Cody (who is also the love interest). When, Cody, the star pitcher for the high school baseball team is injured, Marnie tries out for the team to replace him.
As a sports fan I often find sports romances don’t actually feature much of the actual sport. But in Out of Left Field baseball in one of the key features of the story. I could feel the love Marnie has for the sport and I got caught up in the fun of the game, the comradery of being part of a team and the highs and lows of playing team sport.
This is also a young adult book full of teenage drama but it never felt heavy or over the top. The will they or won’t they between Marnie and Cody is well done. I loved the relationship between Marnie and Cody and watching her realise that Cody wants to be more than friends and her struggle with her feelings for him.
The author did a great job writing characters and issues that were age appropriate and because the story has no sex or drug use, I would recommend it for readers 13+. Out of Left Field is a really well written, fun, young adult romance and I had a great time reading it.
When I started reading Out of Left Field I wasn’t in the mood to read. I had other things I needed to get done. So when I sat down to read I told myself I had to read at least 10% of the book in the first session. I was a third of the way through the book when I stopped reading the first time and I read the whole thing in 24 hours.
I was immediately drawn in to Marnie’s world. She is feisty, quick witted, intelligent, a good friend and a lover of baseball. Marnie’s life revolves around her friends Sara, Joey and Cody (who is also the love interest). When, Cody, the star pitcher for the high school baseball team is injured, Marnie tries out for the team to replace him.
As a sports fan I often find sports romances don’t actually feature much of the actual sport. But in Out of Left Field baseball in one of the key features of the story. I could feel the love Marnie has for the sport and I got caught up in the fun of the game, the comradery of being part of a team and the highs and lows of playing team sport.
This is also a young adult book full of teenage drama but it never felt heavy or over the top. The will they or won’t they between Marnie and Cody is well done. I loved the relationship between Marnie and Cody and watching her realise that Cody wants to be more than friends and her struggle with her feelings for him.
The author did a great job writing characters and issues that were age appropriate and because the story has no sex or drug use, I would recommend it for readers 13+. Out of Left Field is a really well written, fun, young adult romance and I had a great time reading it.
April 3, 2022
I just super enjoyed this, okay?! I could tell I was going to love the dialogue from the page one; it was witty and had the best kind of well done profanity and was realistic for these characters. Loved it. And turns out it was a “childhood best friends turned lovers” story starring baseball? Obviously a win for me!! Sure, it had its cheesy moments. Yeah, it had that annoying back and forth, “omg just kiss already, you two”, and yeah there was a unnecessary fight. But I was about it because Cody and Marnie were super cute and played baseball (haha). I really liked Santino and Neha too, and thought they were a unique perspective to add in. The late night neighborhood “dates” were adorable, I appreciated the pace of the game action, and I thought the season ending was written with the perfect balance of being both realistic yet satisfying for my “happy ending” loving self. A sandlot? Fitting room flirting? Small but impactful conversations about life/parents/dignity/confidence/sexism/different family dynamics? Totally 100% normalized LGBTQ representation? Ice cream? A wedding with Taylor Swift? Themes about family importance? Cute baseball boys? There are simply too many of my favorites in here for me not to have totally enjoyed it.
October 1, 2018
I love a sports story. This just wasn't the best and wasn't the worst. Decent debut.
May 22, 2018
2.5 Cocktails
I wanted to like this one so much more than I did. Discovering that your best friend has the same feeling for you as you do for him should have been one of those heartwarming, angsty young adult reads. Instead, I found myself not really liking Marnie all that much. She used her attitude as a defense mechanism but often took it to an extreme that made it hard to feel bad for her when something backfired.
I wanted to like this one so much more than I did. Discovering that your best friend has the same feeling for you as you do for him should have been one of those heartwarming, angsty young adult reads. Instead, I found myself not really liking Marnie all that much. She used her attitude as a defense mechanism but often took it to an extreme that made it hard to feel bad for her when something backfired.
February 11, 2019
So stinking cute. And engrossing. And giddiness-loaded. I loved this. The gang, the writing, the friendships, other familial relationships everything. I dunno why I’m not giving it 5 stars. Maybe because I’m trying to be a little stricter with my ratings.
February 7, 2018
3.75 stars
rtc
rtc
August 4, 2019
ACTUAL: 4.5 stars
September 30, 2021
Meh. I was looking for a bit more character depth and a lot more tension between Cody and Marnie.
July 6, 2024
I’m being nice w my rating bc a certain someone has bullied me into reevaluating how I rate my books..
January 4, 2022
PG, coming-of-age, girl-power, talented-athlete, YA novel with romantic subplot
Marnie is a 17-year-old junior who has spent the past 11 years passionately devoted to baseball. She has played pickup games several times a week with her three best friends, Cody, Sara and Joey, whom she has known since kindergarten, and who all live in her neighborhood. Cody and Joey are on the local public high school’s varsity baseball team, and Cody is a star pitcher who is being scouted for college ball and even potentially for Major League Baseball. Joey hopes to play college ball. Sara plays on the varsity softball team, but she has no plans to attend college. Marnie played softball, as well as baseball, until she froze up at a major competition while pitching on the varsity softball team her freshman year, and her team lost. She could not get over her sense of personal failure, and has not played a team sport since. However, she has received personal training in baseball pitching from her brother Nick, who was a star pitcher on the high school baseball team until he graduated last year, and useful tips as well from Cody. She has taken great pride and pleasure in developing her specialty as a pitcher, a fancy type of curveball.
Marnie loves her life, with a happy family, good friends, and tons of baseball, and she wishes nothing would ever change. She tries not to think about the fact that, in a little over a year, her days of regularly playing pickup baseball with her friends will end, as everyone scatters to begin the next phase of their life. Then comes the day that Cody is injured during the winning, final game of the year that allows his baseball team to advance to sectionals. He can’t play until he heals, and someone needs to take his place while his team participates in these state competitions. He urges Marnie to try out for the spot on his team as substitute pitcher, and recommends her to his coach. With much trepidation, and only to please Cody, Marnie tries out—and is amazed when the coach picks her over two other relief pitchers on the team.
These are the things I enjoyed about this book:
1. Marnie is a fascinatingly quirky heroine. She has a feisty, flippant persona that made me think of smart-mouthed New Jersey and Brooklyn female characters from comedy movies.
2. There seemed, early on in the story, to be a possibility of the plot developing into a romantic triangle. Fortunately, that did not turn out to be the case.
3. It is a typical trope in YA novels to have the protagonist blessed with friends she has known and cared about since kindergarten, but too often they are just convenient wallpaper. In the case Marnie’s of two friends, Sara and Joey, they are well developed and intriguing additions to the story.
4. I really liked Marnie's father, who is a chef who owns his own restaurant. He is a huge baseball fan who has been utterly delighted to have both a son and daughter who are terrific pitchers.
5. It is well motivated that Marnie could step in and substitute for a star pitcher, because she has been passionately involved as an actual baseball pitcher, not just softball, since she was 6 years old.
6. I like Marnie’s romantic interest, Cody. He is a sweet, Beta male who is very supportive of Cody. They have been extremely close friends since kindergarten as well.
Things I struggled with in this story:
1. The premise of Cody not being able to continue playing the rest of the baseball season is that a 90-mph baseball hit his wrist and fractured it. Logically speaking, he would have been in such abject agony after that injury, there is zero possibility he could have kept playing, as he is shown as doing, for the rest of that game. There is no way that his coach or his parents would have allowed him to do so. He would have instantly been taken to the hospital.
2. The way that umpires are presented in this novel is completely divorced from reality. My husband, who is a huge baseball fan, showed me a series of videos of what happens in MLB when a pitcher hits a batter with a bad pitch when there is not even an outright injury, as in this book. The umpire is immediately involved, and if there's any indication there was any intentionality about it, which is utterly obvious with Santino, the guilty pitcher in this story, the umpire throws the pitcher out of the game. In addition, the batter is enraged, and his entire team runs out on the field in support of him. Many times the batter starts a fist fight with the offending pitcher, and when that happens, his entire team will frequently get into a fight with the pitcher’s team. Something like that would clearly have happened in the real world of high-school baseball and, not only that, the parents of juveniles playing team sports are notorious for being verbally and physically aggressive when there are bad calls by the umpire, as in the case of this story. Realistically, Cory's parents and the parents of his teammates would have run down onto the field screaming and cursing at the umpire as well for not throwing Santino out of the game after he, obviously, purposely hit Cory with a fastball.
In another major, egregious act of unrealistic umpire behavior, an umpire allows constant bullying and outright cheating by an entire high school baseball team during a championship game. And, once again, there is zero angry response by members of Cory’s (now also Marnie’s) team or from parents of players on the team.
3. There is no sense of place in this novel. Marnie’s town is basically a generic, Anywhere, USA. It is not clear if this is a small town, a midsize city or the suburbs of some large city. And it is never mentioned what state this story takes place in or what month of the year it is. I had to look up typical high school baseball schedules to surmise that it must be early June.
4. Though baseball is Marnie's passion, she lives completely in the now, never making plans for her future opportunities to play baseball. Because the story ends abruptly at the end her junior year of high school, and there is no epilogue, we have no idea what's going to happen to Marnie when she loses the core of her life, which is the pickup games she plays many times a week with her three best friends and a couple of other baseball buddies. When they graduate high school, these four friends will all inevitably go their separate ways, which is going to be a tragic loss for Marnie.
5. This book is billed as a sports romance, but it is not. It is a book about a girl who loves baseball. Her relationship with Cody, Marnie’s romantic interest, is presented as a platonic friendship until the last few pages of the book. Because this book is written entirely from Marnie's first-person point of view, we don't get to know Cody very well. In fact, in many ways, we get to know Santino, her soon-to-be cousin-in-law and Cody's biggest enemy, better than we get to know Cody. And in some ways we also get to know her friend Joey and her BFF Sara much better than we get to know Cody.
6. Santino's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, dual personality is jarringly unmotivated. In public, he is a sneering jerk on the baseball field, who purposely hurts people with 90 mph fastballs. In private, he is a sweet-natured, dutiful son to his single mother and a boyfriend who treats his girlfriend like a princess.
7. There are two incredibly talented pitchers in this novel, Marnie's brother Nick and her love interest Cody, who have spent years playing baseball and were (Nick) and are (Cody) potentially MBA quality players. But Nick quits completely, and Cody is considering quitting baseball. Meanwhile, because she is female, Marnie has no chance to have their opportunities, even though she is a tremendous pitcher. There is a dramatic, misogynistic irony lodged in that contrast that is completely unexplored in this book and is a major, missed opportunity. This fascinating theme is explored in much more depth in the YA sports romance, Winging It by Cate Cameron. In that novel, the heroine was best friends throughout her childhood with her love interest, and they were equally talented at hockey until they hit puberty. After that, he grew height and muscles she would never have, and his chances to play competitive hockey continued to expand, as hers ended, because there was no girls hockey team in her town. I greatly appreciated the fact that, in that YA sports novel, the heroine’s romantic interest helps her figure out how to get a college women’s hockey scholarship. No such ideas are present in this book as to how Marnie could continue to play competitive baseball, other than being a relief pitcher for Cody on the high school baseball team her senior year. There is no discussion of her trying to play either baseball or softball on the college level and perhaps even get a scholarship.
8. The subplot with Marnie's mother, who is utterly unsupportive of her daughter's passionate attachment to baseball, is completely unresolved in any meaningful way. From Marnie's perspective, she is only her father's daughter. Her mother gave up on her years ago because she isn't traditionally feminine, wanting to go clothing shopping for dresses, style her hair, slap on makeup, and basically be a frilly Barbie. It’s quite obnoxious that her mother can't think of any way to spend time with her daughter by making an effort to seek out common bases with her, rather than resenting their differences. Unfortunately, which is typical of far too many YA novels, after making a big production of this serious issue, rather than realistically showing any kind of believable growth arc on the part of the mother, there is one conversation between Marnie and her mother, and the author pretends that it fixes 11 years of emotional estrangement.
9. It is just casually thrown into the story that Marnie's BFF Sara is a person of color, half Filipino and half Latinx (in the USA where people of color are routinely faced with bigotry), that she's bisexual (in the USA where LGBTQIA individuals are routinely faced with bigotry), and that she engages in casual sex with boys and possibly girls, too (a big life decision for a young person to make). That's a lot of heavy duty stuff for a 17-year-old girl to deal with, and it's frustrating that the author dumps this type of socially significant issues into the book without treating them with the seriousness they deserve.
10. Minor continuity issue: in a flashback we learn that Marnie was in kindergarten when her brother Nick was in first grade. But in the present day she is a junior in high school and he is a freshman in college.
11. Marnie is described as 5 ft 9 in tall but only weighing 110 lb. At that height, with that weight, she would be absolutely emaciated and would not have the muscle mass to be a pitcher who can powerfully throw the 84 mph fastball she is presented as able to do. She would need to be at least 150 lb of solid muscle to have a chance of achieving that feat, and we would need to see that she's been consistently lifting weights to build that muscle for years. In this novel, we never see her lifting weights even once.
12. The story is filled with constant foul language, including many F-bombs.
13. Marnie is a virgin who has never dated and never been kissed, but her actions toward Cory when they finally get together are those of a highly experienced, sexually active girl, which is irritatingly poorly motivated—not to mention unnecessarily raunchy.
In spite of my many issues with the details of the plot listed above, because I liked Marnie a lot, the book held my interest to the end.
Marnie is a 17-year-old junior who has spent the past 11 years passionately devoted to baseball. She has played pickup games several times a week with her three best friends, Cody, Sara and Joey, whom she has known since kindergarten, and who all live in her neighborhood. Cody and Joey are on the local public high school’s varsity baseball team, and Cody is a star pitcher who is being scouted for college ball and even potentially for Major League Baseball. Joey hopes to play college ball. Sara plays on the varsity softball team, but she has no plans to attend college. Marnie played softball, as well as baseball, until she froze up at a major competition while pitching on the varsity softball team her freshman year, and her team lost. She could not get over her sense of personal failure, and has not played a team sport since. However, she has received personal training in baseball pitching from her brother Nick, who was a star pitcher on the high school baseball team until he graduated last year, and useful tips as well from Cody. She has taken great pride and pleasure in developing her specialty as a pitcher, a fancy type of curveball.
Marnie loves her life, with a happy family, good friends, and tons of baseball, and she wishes nothing would ever change. She tries not to think about the fact that, in a little over a year, her days of regularly playing pickup baseball with her friends will end, as everyone scatters to begin the next phase of their life. Then comes the day that Cody is injured during the winning, final game of the year that allows his baseball team to advance to sectionals. He can’t play until he heals, and someone needs to take his place while his team participates in these state competitions. He urges Marnie to try out for the spot on his team as substitute pitcher, and recommends her to his coach. With much trepidation, and only to please Cody, Marnie tries out—and is amazed when the coach picks her over two other relief pitchers on the team.
These are the things I enjoyed about this book:
1. Marnie is a fascinatingly quirky heroine. She has a feisty, flippant persona that made me think of smart-mouthed New Jersey and Brooklyn female characters from comedy movies.
2. There seemed, early on in the story, to be a possibility of the plot developing into a romantic triangle. Fortunately, that did not turn out to be the case.
3. It is a typical trope in YA novels to have the protagonist blessed with friends she has known and cared about since kindergarten, but too often they are just convenient wallpaper. In the case Marnie’s of two friends, Sara and Joey, they are well developed and intriguing additions to the story.
4. I really liked Marnie's father, who is a chef who owns his own restaurant. He is a huge baseball fan who has been utterly delighted to have both a son and daughter who are terrific pitchers.
5. It is well motivated that Marnie could step in and substitute for a star pitcher, because she has been passionately involved as an actual baseball pitcher, not just softball, since she was 6 years old.
6. I like Marnie’s romantic interest, Cody. He is a sweet, Beta male who is very supportive of Cody. They have been extremely close friends since kindergarten as well.
Things I struggled with in this story:
1. The premise of Cody not being able to continue playing the rest of the baseball season is that a 90-mph baseball hit his wrist and fractured it. Logically speaking, he would have been in such abject agony after that injury, there is zero possibility he could have kept playing, as he is shown as doing, for the rest of that game. There is no way that his coach or his parents would have allowed him to do so. He would have instantly been taken to the hospital.
2. The way that umpires are presented in this novel is completely divorced from reality. My husband, who is a huge baseball fan, showed me a series of videos of what happens in MLB when a pitcher hits a batter with a bad pitch when there is not even an outright injury, as in this book. The umpire is immediately involved, and if there's any indication there was any intentionality about it, which is utterly obvious with Santino, the guilty pitcher in this story, the umpire throws the pitcher out of the game. In addition, the batter is enraged, and his entire team runs out on the field in support of him. Many times the batter starts a fist fight with the offending pitcher, and when that happens, his entire team will frequently get into a fight with the pitcher’s team. Something like that would clearly have happened in the real world of high-school baseball and, not only that, the parents of juveniles playing team sports are notorious for being verbally and physically aggressive when there are bad calls by the umpire, as in the case of this story. Realistically, Cory's parents and the parents of his teammates would have run down onto the field screaming and cursing at the umpire as well for not throwing Santino out of the game after he, obviously, purposely hit Cory with a fastball.
In another major, egregious act of unrealistic umpire behavior, an umpire allows constant bullying and outright cheating by an entire high school baseball team during a championship game. And, once again, there is zero angry response by members of Cory’s (now also Marnie’s) team or from parents of players on the team.
3. There is no sense of place in this novel. Marnie’s town is basically a generic, Anywhere, USA. It is not clear if this is a small town, a midsize city or the suburbs of some large city. And it is never mentioned what state this story takes place in or what month of the year it is. I had to look up typical high school baseball schedules to surmise that it must be early June.
4. Though baseball is Marnie's passion, she lives completely in the now, never making plans for her future opportunities to play baseball. Because the story ends abruptly at the end her junior year of high school, and there is no epilogue, we have no idea what's going to happen to Marnie when she loses the core of her life, which is the pickup games she plays many times a week with her three best friends and a couple of other baseball buddies. When they graduate high school, these four friends will all inevitably go their separate ways, which is going to be a tragic loss for Marnie.
5. This book is billed as a sports romance, but it is not. It is a book about a girl who loves baseball. Her relationship with Cody, Marnie’s romantic interest, is presented as a platonic friendship until the last few pages of the book. Because this book is written entirely from Marnie's first-person point of view, we don't get to know Cody very well. In fact, in many ways, we get to know Santino, her soon-to-be cousin-in-law and Cody's biggest enemy, better than we get to know Cody. And in some ways we also get to know her friend Joey and her BFF Sara much better than we get to know Cody.
6. Santino's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, dual personality is jarringly unmotivated. In public, he is a sneering jerk on the baseball field, who purposely hurts people with 90 mph fastballs. In private, he is a sweet-natured, dutiful son to his single mother and a boyfriend who treats his girlfriend like a princess.
7. There are two incredibly talented pitchers in this novel, Marnie's brother Nick and her love interest Cody, who have spent years playing baseball and were (Nick) and are (Cody) potentially MBA quality players. But Nick quits completely, and Cody is considering quitting baseball. Meanwhile, because she is female, Marnie has no chance to have their opportunities, even though she is a tremendous pitcher. There is a dramatic, misogynistic irony lodged in that contrast that is completely unexplored in this book and is a major, missed opportunity. This fascinating theme is explored in much more depth in the YA sports romance, Winging It by Cate Cameron. In that novel, the heroine was best friends throughout her childhood with her love interest, and they were equally talented at hockey until they hit puberty. After that, he grew height and muscles she would never have, and his chances to play competitive hockey continued to expand, as hers ended, because there was no girls hockey team in her town. I greatly appreciated the fact that, in that YA sports novel, the heroine’s romantic interest helps her figure out how to get a college women’s hockey scholarship. No such ideas are present in this book as to how Marnie could continue to play competitive baseball, other than being a relief pitcher for Cody on the high school baseball team her senior year. There is no discussion of her trying to play either baseball or softball on the college level and perhaps even get a scholarship.
8. The subplot with Marnie's mother, who is utterly unsupportive of her daughter's passionate attachment to baseball, is completely unresolved in any meaningful way. From Marnie's perspective, she is only her father's daughter. Her mother gave up on her years ago because she isn't traditionally feminine, wanting to go clothing shopping for dresses, style her hair, slap on makeup, and basically be a frilly Barbie. It’s quite obnoxious that her mother can't think of any way to spend time with her daughter by making an effort to seek out common bases with her, rather than resenting their differences. Unfortunately, which is typical of far too many YA novels, after making a big production of this serious issue, rather than realistically showing any kind of believable growth arc on the part of the mother, there is one conversation between Marnie and her mother, and the author pretends that it fixes 11 years of emotional estrangement.
9. It is just casually thrown into the story that Marnie's BFF Sara is a person of color, half Filipino and half Latinx (in the USA where people of color are routinely faced with bigotry), that she's bisexual (in the USA where LGBTQIA individuals are routinely faced with bigotry), and that she engages in casual sex with boys and possibly girls, too (a big life decision for a young person to make). That's a lot of heavy duty stuff for a 17-year-old girl to deal with, and it's frustrating that the author dumps this type of socially significant issues into the book without treating them with the seriousness they deserve.
10. Minor continuity issue: in a flashback we learn that Marnie was in kindergarten when her brother Nick was in first grade. But in the present day she is a junior in high school and he is a freshman in college.
11. Marnie is described as 5 ft 9 in tall but only weighing 110 lb. At that height, with that weight, she would be absolutely emaciated and would not have the muscle mass to be a pitcher who can powerfully throw the 84 mph fastball she is presented as able to do. She would need to be at least 150 lb of solid muscle to have a chance of achieving that feat, and we would need to see that she's been consistently lifting weights to build that muscle for years. In this novel, we never see her lifting weights even once.
12. The story is filled with constant foul language, including many F-bombs.
13. Marnie is a virgin who has never dated and never been kissed, but her actions toward Cory when they finally get together are those of a highly experienced, sexually active girl, which is irritatingly poorly motivated—not to mention unnecessarily raunchy.
In spite of my many issues with the details of the plot listed above, because I liked Marnie a lot, the book held my interest to the end.
July 4, 2020
I received an Advance Reader Copy from the publisher. This in no way impacted on my view.
Marnie has always enjoyed playing baseball at the local field with the guys, but never thought about doing anything more than having a few games for fun. When her best friend, and crush, Cody, is injured, and can no longer play, he convinces Marnie to join the school's team, as she is the next best pitcher in town, and their only hope to make it to the play offs. Once friends, the other guys on the team don't like the idea of having a girl as a team mate, and now she has to deal with the pressure of the whole school, and being left alone and ignored by those who should support her.
Out of Left Field was a cute and fluffy read, perfect for summer. Marnie is a decent character, but for the most part there's not much development. I liked the baseball aspect of the story - I know next to nothing about baseball, so it was nice to read about it. I also liked the romance between Marnie and Cody, but feel as if something was missing from the book to give it higher than a 3 star rating.
Marnie has always enjoyed playing baseball at the local field with the guys, but never thought about doing anything more than having a few games for fun. When her best friend, and crush, Cody, is injured, and can no longer play, he convinces Marnie to join the school's team, as she is the next best pitcher in town, and their only hope to make it to the play offs. Once friends, the other guys on the team don't like the idea of having a girl as a team mate, and now she has to deal with the pressure of the whole school, and being left alone and ignored by those who should support her.
Out of Left Field was a cute and fluffy read, perfect for summer. Marnie is a decent character, but for the most part there's not much development. I liked the baseball aspect of the story - I know next to nothing about baseball, so it was nice to read about it. I also liked the romance between Marnie and Cody, but feel as if something was missing from the book to give it higher than a 3 star rating.
February 20, 2019
This review and more can be found at The Heart of a Book Blogger.
Out of Left Field is an adorable friends-to-lovers sports romance. When Marnie’s best friend Cody, who also happens to be the star pitcher of their high school baseball team, breaks his arm, it’s up to Marnie to save the day and help the team win playoffs. This story is definitely on the light-hearted side of YA and I really like how cute Marnie and Cody’s friendship turning into something more was. I definitely look forward to seeing what Kris Hui Lee will write next!
*This ARC was provided to me by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a honest review.*
Out of Left Field is an adorable friends-to-lovers sports romance. When Marnie’s best friend Cody, who also happens to be the star pitcher of their high school baseball team, breaks his arm, it’s up to Marnie to save the day and help the team win playoffs. This story is definitely on the light-hearted side of YA and I really like how cute Marnie and Cody’s friendship turning into something more was. I definitely look forward to seeing what Kris Hui Lee will write next!
*This ARC was provided to me by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a honest review.*
May 11, 2018
Rating: 4 stars ★★★★
If your looking for a fun, YA sports Contemporary, Out Of Left Field is the perfect read! The unique direction of the plot really makes this book stand out! I really liked it!!
Definitely going to be checking out Lee's future novels!!
If your looking for a fun, YA sports Contemporary, Out Of Left Field is the perfect read! The unique direction of the plot really makes this book stand out! I really liked it!!
Definitely going to be checking out Lee's future novels!!
April 22, 2018
*I received this book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review*
I don't read many sports-themed books and when I saw this one on Netgalley I thought I should rectify that. Many people like reading about sports or like the sports aspect with romance, so because this sounded cute and dealt with Baseball, one sport I know decently well, I gave it a try.
I'm glad I requested it because this is quite a cute story. I love how they called where they played baseball with friends the sandlot -- gave me The Sandlot vibes. Heck, the movie was even mentioned! So, I might be a tiny bit biased, since that was one of my fave movies as a little kid.
But, back to the book.
It is a cute, fun, easy, and quick read.
I really enjoyed reading it, even if I the main character annoyed me. She is so snarky! I usually don't mind, but dang... this was like every word. She didn't show or speak about her sad or confused emotions, instead keeping it bottled up and sassing people instead. Even with her friends, their way of communicating is usually through arguing. Then wonders why people would be intimidated by her -- really?
But, she does have problems she's working through that make her feel like a real person. Her interactions with other people don't always make sense to me, but her inner thoughts did.
A great thing about this is that Marnie and her friends don't always talk about romance. They talk about baseball, rivalries, and the future (i.e. after high school plans). Absolutely fantastic! The romance was pushed more into the background and felt more natural, letting Marnie's issue with pitching for a boy's team take center field.
Now, there are a few things you have to suspend your relief for. First, a girl gets to pitch for a guy's team. Professionally, I think the last time this happened was in the '50s and they kicked her out for essentially being too good (striking out Babe Ruth). Second, even in a good neighborhood, I doubt parents are okay with their kids running at midnight in order to help them fall asleep -- or if the parents don't know she really didn't try hard to sneak out so.... *shrugs*. Third, some things that happen with the baseball team and when playing against other teams.
It is a fun story though!! And while I wanted to scream at the characters to just kiss already, (seriously, how can they not tell if they like each other?! It is so obvious!), I thought the wrap-up was cute. I like friends to couple romances too ^_^
Oh! And going back to the talk about the future conversations: I thought it was awesome how Marnie's girl friend brings up how she doesn't want to go to college. This is a thing people need to know they aren't alone about thinking about. And there are other moments when the friends speak about how unsure of their future they are AND THAT IS OKAY! They are Juniors in high school --THAT IS ALLOWED. Not everyone knows what they want to do since they were 5 years old, or has their top colleges picked out by freshman year. Take your time, you;ll figure it out sooner or later.
I do wish more time was dedicated to talking about this, but I'm glad there was so time.
Okay, I'll end it here -- I know this is one of my longer reviews ^_^.
I will recommend this book to people who want a lighter romance in their contemporary and are interested in baseball.
I don't read many sports-themed books and when I saw this one on Netgalley I thought I should rectify that. Many people like reading about sports or like the sports aspect with romance, so because this sounded cute and dealt with Baseball, one sport I know decently well, I gave it a try.
I'm glad I requested it because this is quite a cute story. I love how they called where they played baseball with friends the sandlot -- gave me The Sandlot vibes. Heck, the movie was even mentioned! So, I might be a tiny bit biased, since that was one of my fave movies as a little kid.
But, back to the book.
It is a cute, fun, easy, and quick read.
I really enjoyed reading it, even if I the main character annoyed me. She is so snarky! I usually don't mind, but dang... this was like every word. She didn't show or speak about her sad or confused emotions, instead keeping it bottled up and sassing people instead. Even with her friends, their way of communicating is usually through arguing. Then wonders why people would be intimidated by her -- really?
But, she does have problems she's working through that make her feel like a real person. Her interactions with other people don't always make sense to me, but her inner thoughts did.
A great thing about this is that Marnie and her friends don't always talk about romance. They talk about baseball, rivalries, and the future (i.e. after high school plans). Absolutely fantastic! The romance was pushed more into the background and felt more natural, letting Marnie's issue with pitching for a boy's team take center field.
Now, there are a few things you have to suspend your relief for. First, a girl gets to pitch for a guy's team. Professionally, I think the last time this happened was in the '50s and they kicked her out for essentially being too good (striking out Babe Ruth). Second, even in a good neighborhood, I doubt parents are okay with their kids running at midnight in order to help them fall asleep -- or if the parents don't know she really didn't try hard to sneak out so.... *shrugs*. Third, some things that happen with the baseball team and when playing against other teams.
It is a fun story though!! And while I wanted to scream at the characters to just kiss already, (seriously, how can they not tell if they like each other?! It is so obvious!), I thought the wrap-up was cute. I like friends to couple romances too ^_^
Oh! And going back to the talk about the future conversations: I thought it was awesome how Marnie's girl friend brings up how she doesn't want to go to college. This is a thing people need to know they aren't alone about thinking about. And there are other moments when the friends speak about how unsure of their future they are AND THAT IS OKAY! They are Juniors in high school --THAT IS ALLOWED. Not everyone knows what they want to do since they were 5 years old, or has their top colleges picked out by freshman year. Take your time, you;ll figure it out sooner or later.
I do wish more time was dedicated to talking about this, but I'm glad there was so time.
Okay, I'll end it here -- I know this is one of my longer reviews ^_^.
I will recommend this book to people who want a lighter romance in their contemporary and are interested in baseball.
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