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Men of Summer #0.5
Crushing on Him
Forbidden. Off limits. Dangerous.
This desire for my teammate was all of those things. For the last few years I crushed on him safely, from a distance.
Then on the first day of spring training, I come face-to-face with him for the first time and when our eyes meet and linger, it’s a whole new ball game. A much bigger risk too, one that can threaten my brand new career. But, he’s always been irresistible...
CRUSHING ON HIM is a prequel in the Men of Summer series and it leads into the full-length novel SCORING WITH HIM. You don't have to read CRUSHING ON HIM to enjoy SCORING WITH HIM, but you'll likely enjoy this story before the story!
This desire for my teammate was all of those things. For the last few years I crushed on him safely, from a distance.
Then on the first day of spring training, I come face-to-face with him for the first time and when our eyes meet and linger, it’s a whole new ball game. A much bigger risk too, one that can threaten my brand new career. But, he’s always been irresistible...
CRUSHING ON HIM is a prequel in the Men of Summer series and it leads into the full-length novel SCORING WITH HIM. You don't have to read CRUSHING ON HIM to enjoy SCORING WITH HIM, but you'll likely enjoy this story before the story!
37 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 23, 2021
About the author
Lauren Blakely
253 books25.3k followersYou can find Lauren on TikTok at @laurenblakelybooks! A #1 New York Times Bestselling, #1 Wall Street Journal Bestselling, and #1 Audible Bestselling author, Lauren Blakely is known for her contemporary romance style that’s sexy, feel-good and witty. Lauren likes dogs, cake and show tunes and she is the vegetarian at your dinner party.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 173 reviews
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July 8, 2021
Crushing on Him is book #0.5 in the Men of Summer series by Lauren Blakely. This is a super short introduction to this series that is not required but adds just a little bit of background on one of the main characters.
This is told from the point of view of Grant Blackwood. It takes us back to his high school senior year when he has finally accepted that he is definitely gay. We meet his best friend Reese as they discuss how to commemorate the occasion.
Grant has always known he wanted to be a baseball player and after high school, he is off to college which he hopes to complete in three years so he can move on to pro-ball. Grant has had a crush on Declan Steele since the first time he ever saw him when he joined the San Francisco Cougars as their short stop. He and Reese often went to their home games where he could admire him from a distance. For four years Grant has harbored his crush in secret. But after a year in the minors, Grant has been invited to attend spring training with the Cougars in hopes of making their roster. Which means they will meet in person.
“Declan Steele made my pulse surge. The man was understated, sexy, tall and handsome, and I was crushing on him from afar.”
This was cute and adds just that little bit of background to get us started on the series. The first book is called Scoring With Him. I’m pretty sure its going to be amazing!
For more about this book and so many others, come and visit me at Carol's Crazy Bookish World.
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April 26, 2026
I’M READY BUT ALSO ABSOLUTELY NOT READY ,SO BASICALLY I’M DOOMED 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭
June 23, 2021
The Crush Development
What a warm up! 🔥🔥🔥 Those fantasy scenes are phenomenal!
Grant tells how his crush on Declan began. It is sizzling as well as fun. I love how Grant surrounds himself with those that accept him - his grandparents, best friend Reese, and some supportive teammates.
I listened to Teddy Hamilton, as well as read this short story. Teddy is very easy on the ears! 😉 I look forward to seeing where this crush goes.
Story: 5 stars
Narration: 3.5 stars
What a warm up! 🔥🔥🔥 Those fantasy scenes are phenomenal!
Grant tells how his crush on Declan began. It is sizzling as well as fun. I love how Grant surrounds himself with those that accept him - his grandparents, best friend Reese, and some supportive teammates.
I listened to Teddy Hamilton, as well as read this short story. Teddy is very easy on the ears! 😉 I look forward to seeing where this crush goes.
Story: 5 stars
Narration: 3.5 stars
Read
October 28, 2021New-to-me author #67 of 2021 is...
...not a keeper.
This contemporary short offered a quick and easy way to get a feel for her writing. I found it technically correct (and yay for that, because it's never a given in this genre), but very boilerplate. Very "insert tab A into slot A." Flat, direct, and on-the-nose. This is the prologue for a full-length novel, but even though I'm in the mood for m/m baseball romance, I won't be reading further.
...not a keeper.
This contemporary short offered a quick and easy way to get a feel for her writing. I found it technically correct (and yay for that, because it's never a given in this genre), but very boilerplate. Very "insert tab A into slot A." Flat, direct, and on-the-nose. This is the prologue for a full-length novel, but even though I'm in the mood for m/m baseball romance, I won't be reading further.
July 10, 2021
Read this one more as a “sample” to see if it was worth giving book 1 a shot.
I’ve tried this author before, who I believe is (or was) predominately an MF author. Pretty sure I didn’t love the previous MM series so not holding out a lot of hope.
That being said, nothing really annoyed me in this one so will give the full book a go. Fingers crossed.
I’ve tried this author before, who I believe is (or was) predominately an MF author. Pretty sure I didn’t love the previous MM series so not holding out a lot of hope.
That being said, nothing really annoyed me in this one so will give the full book a go. Fingers crossed.
February 7, 2022
That was an awesome little taste that definitely left me wanting more.
April 12, 2026
Promising 🤞
April 14, 2023
A short teaser.
It was ok, bot bad but nothing special either.
If I hadn't loved other MM romances by this author I'm not sure it would interest me enough to continue the series.
Since I loved other MM books by Lauren Blakely, though, my hopes for this series are high!
It was ok, bot bad but nothing special either.
If I hadn't loved other MM romances by this author I'm not sure it would interest me enough to continue the series.
Since I loved other MM books by Lauren Blakely, though, my hopes for this series are high!
December 6, 2021
A wonderful little prequel (teaser) to the Men Of Summer series.
June 5, 2022
Short intro to this series
I'm not sure whether this needed to be a book on its own but it works great as a background intro to the Men of Summer series.
I'm not sure whether this needed to be a book on its own but it works great as a background intro to the Men of Summer series.
July 10, 2021
Start/Early view of this Hot MM sports romance! A cute short free prequel from Grant's PoV.
These prequels Lauren puts out before the books are sweet! This showcases Grant's early years, His relationship with his Grandparents & friendship with Reese, his childhood bestie. AND His crush on Declan that started from when D started playing as a Rookie, that ebbed & grew as years passed.
We see Grant's rising years, His love for baseball, intense focus, Completing College early... Then finally getting the chance to play for the Cougars (Dec's team!).
We end with how Book 1 of G+D's story will start, with their meet! I'm so excited to read their story. It isn't Required to read this before that, but it was fun!
These prequels Lauren puts out before the books are sweet! This showcases Grant's early years, His relationship with his Grandparents & friendship with Reese, his childhood bestie. AND His crush on Declan that started from when D started playing as a Rookie, that ebbed & grew as years passed.
We see Grant's rising years, His love for baseball, intense focus, Completing College early... Then finally getting the chance to play for the Cougars (Dec's team!).
We end with how Book 1 of G+D's story will start, with their meet! I'm so excited to read their story. It isn't Required to read this before that, but it was fun!
June 6, 2022
Demasiado superficial incluso para ser una precuela. La verdad es que no me intrigo lo suficiente como para leer el primer tomo, no creo que continue con las siguientes novelas.
1.75 Estrellas!
October 28, 2021
I need to address the elephant in the room, first. Namely: either Grant is the kind of weirdo who holds an XBox in his lap while playing games on it; the author didn't perform the bare minimum of research on gaming; or the editor (or proofreader) didn't see the glaring issue of using the word 'console' to mean, presumably, 'controller.'
Second elephant in the room: Sullivan is now an irredeemable jerk by rule of gamer law. Sorry, can't be changed. As a gamer myself, I have no tolerance for people who don't respect the potential for save file corruption, losing hours of progress, and just plain the amount of time put into gaming. You don't intentionally turn off a console while someone's gaming, unless the bloody house is on fire and they aren't paying attention. (The fact Grant just tolerates this is... weird.)
Aside from that, I found the reference to fist bumping as "knocking" fists together quite weird, but maybe that's just a regional thing. Everything else about the writing seemed technically sound - insofar as I can determine as someone whose baseball experience begins and ends with Wii Sports.
The characters (except Sullivan, hissssss) are alright, but I didn't particularly connect with any of them. In fact, I found the first person narrative from Grant to be oddly distancing. You'd think that having him talk about his best friend and his crush would make those aspects feel more solid, but for me it just didn't click into place. Maybe this just rushed too quickly through the prequel beats to set up the actual story told in another book...? I'm not sure. All I know is that the writing seems fine but I didn't feel connected.
I can't decide if I care enough to read the next part of this series. I'm vaguely tempted, just to see if any more XBox controllers are misnamed.
Sullivan marched into the apartment one evening, strode straight over to the Xbox, and turned it off.
[...]
I said, setting the console down and pushing up on my feet.
Second elephant in the room: Sullivan is now an irredeemable jerk by rule of gamer law. Sorry, can't be changed. As a gamer myself, I have no tolerance for people who don't respect the potential for save file corruption, losing hours of progress, and just plain the amount of time put into gaming. You don't intentionally turn off a console while someone's gaming, unless the bloody house is on fire and they aren't paying attention. (The fact Grant just tolerates this is... weird.)
Aside from that, I found the reference to fist bumping as "knocking" fists together quite weird, but maybe that's just a regional thing. Everything else about the writing seemed technically sound - insofar as I can determine as someone whose baseball experience begins and ends with Wii Sports.
The characters (except Sullivan, hissssss) are alright, but I didn't particularly connect with any of them. In fact, I found the first person narrative from Grant to be oddly distancing. You'd think that having him talk about his best friend and his crush would make those aspects feel more solid, but for me it just didn't click into place. Maybe this just rushed too quickly through the prequel beats to set up the actual story told in another book...? I'm not sure. All I know is that the writing seems fine but I didn't feel connected.
I can't decide if I care enough to read the next part of this series. I'm vaguely tempted, just to see if any more XBox controllers are misnamed.
November 19, 2021
This was the perfect novella where we got to truly see where Grant Blackwood started falling for Declan Steele.
I absolutely adored the Men of Summer series and I just had to read this to get just a bit more Declan & Grant.
I absolutely adored the Men of Summer series and I just had to read this to get just a bit more Declan & Grant.
August 20, 2021
La verdad es que estoy empezando a coger manía a estas precuelas que no acaban de contar nada...
Aquí tenemos una cronología de Grant y su crush en Declan que termina en el momento en que se encuentran.
Aquí tenemos una cronología de Grant y su crush en Declan que termina en el momento en que se encuentran.
October 1, 2022
This reads like a long prologue. It's not bad, but it's a lot of rambling before we hopefully get to a romance in book 1. Unfortunately this prequel made me what to read the book less. You can probably skip it and go straight to Scoring With Him if you want to read it.
June 30, 2021
This felt rushed.
August 30, 2021
Loved this introduction to Grant and Declan’s story. Only a few chapters but I know I’m gonna love the rest of the books!
Read
September 4, 2021straight woman never fails to sexualize men 🤡
October 15, 2021
A good little intro into these two that only got me more and more excited to read their story!
August 17, 2024
adorable
September 12, 2024
Cute little read on how Grant discovers his sexuality and his journey to playing his dream team in Baseball. Best catch. His crush is also on the team 🥰
August 2, 2021
Fantastic beginning! Am looking forward to reading Scoring With Him
Part of the Men of Summer Series and must be read in order
October 26, 2021
What a way to start a series
July 1, 2021
Can’t Get Enough of Grant and Declan.
This is a real quick prequel to the duet Scoring With Him and Winning With Him. This novella gives us more insight to how strong Grant’s crush is on Declan. It also helps with the timeline and setting up what is to follow. With only seven chapters, it won’t take you long to be ready and waiting to start Grant and Declan’s duet.
This is a real quick prequel to the duet Scoring With Him and Winning With Him. This novella gives us more insight to how strong Grant’s crush is on Declan. It also helps with the timeline and setting up what is to follow. With only seven chapters, it won’t take you long to be ready and waiting to start Grant and Declan’s duet.
March 2, 2022
the MCs almost got together in this prequel so I don't think it's necessary to continue with the other books, I don't like this kind of banter.
March 23, 2026
I'm re-listening to the audiobooks probably for the 6th time or so, cause they are still my top favorite books/story/couple. I love everything about Grant & Declan🫶🏻
July 1, 2021
A wonderful little prequel (teaser) to the Men Of Summer series. I listened to the audio version narrated to perfection by the one and only Teddy Hamilton (oh that voice), as Grant Blackwood, who has a full-on guy crush for major league baseball player Declan Steele, who we find out before the end credits he will soon be meeting him in person. Yay! I can’t wait to see how this is gonna play out, it’s making for a hot hot hot series.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 173 reviews