Reviewed by Valerie

TITLE:  Home Plate

AUTHOR:  Christina Lee

SERIES:  Easton U Pirates

PUBLISHER:  Self-Published

LENGTH:  256 pages

RELEASE DATE:  January 29, 2021

BLURB:

Dominic Girard

My final baseball season with the Easton U Pirates feels bittersweet. I’d like to go out on a high note, graduate, and focus on the family business. But a certain pitcher is making senior year a challenge. Not only because Maclain is stubborn as hell, but because he makes me feel things I never have about another guy. With each snarky comment and hard-won grin, he reveals a little more of himself, and before I know it, I’m in over my head.

Mason Maclain

I’ll be graduating college this year, which also means the end of baseball, a sport I’ve played my entire life. It feels like a significant chapter is coming to a close, leaving behind a void I’m unwilling to face. Something else I don’t want to face? The impossibly charming Pirates catcher, whose quick wit and killer smirk poke holes in all my defenses. With each lingering look and quiet exchange, I want to push him away and pull him closer at the same time. I’ve never felt this intense draw before, and there’s no way I’ll ever admit it.

When Coach proposes a team-building activity to improve our chemistry on the field, little does he know things are heating up behind the scenes as well. A flicker of a connection sparks into a firestorm, and soon Girard and I are experiencing things for the first time—together. But outside the haven of our hotel room, reality infringes all too soon. I’m clinging to my fraying relationship with my dad, and for Girard, coming out is still scary, loving family or not. Resisting the pull to Girard seems futile, but I struggle at every turn. Any longer and I’ll lose the only person who makes my pulse thud quicker than a fastball over home plate.

There’s a pitcher-and-catcher joke in there somewhere.

REVIEW:

Forget sloths and snails, the banana slug is the world’s slowest land animal, moving just three inches per hour. But that’s practically zipping along the Autobahn compared to the plodding sea anemone which creeps at a whopping .04 of an inch per hour. So what, pray tell, does this have to do with Christina Lee’s latest sublime baseball novel, Home Plate? It’s all about the delicious slow burn, and Ms. Lee serves it up hot. The slow burn in Home Plate is the sea anemone of love stories.

The first kiss doesn’t occur until three quarters of the way through the book (although there’s plenty of sexy action before that), and for me, it results in so much more the longer those feelings brew. What may have been an ordinary kiss early on in the book was everything by that point.

I was completely lost to his soft sounds and deep bruising kisses. “I want you,” he said against my ear as he pulled back to draw some air. “You make me so fucking hard.”

Moving on… Maclain and Girard, aka Mason and Dominic, are college seniors and teammates on the Eaton U baseball team, facing their last season of playing ball as pitcher and catcher, respectively. There is a lot of antagonism between them – mostly due to Maclain’s Oscar the Grouch personality. But these boys care so much for each other, they just don’t know it yet. For Maclain, in particular, it’s buried under so much inner turmoil. They’re each facing a bisexual awakening as they grapple with a building attraction toward the other, and neither understands his feelings.

At the core of this story is Maclain’s loneliness and low self worth. His mother died when he was ten, and with no bio-dad in the picture, he was raised by his detached stepdad who routinely broke promises and failed to make time for Maclain. He didn’t provide the loving environment young boy needed. As the book progresses, Girard becomes this safe space when Maclain so desperately needs to know he matters to someone, that someone is proud of him and accepts him. Ms. Lee does an excellent job of laying Maclain bare, making him beautifully vulnerable and uncertain under those gruff, grumpy layers, and creating the opportunity for Girard to break through Maclain’s brick wall defenses. He can’t admit the tension between them is rooted in attraction and keeps shutting down every conversation about it Girard tries to initiate.

The animosity sometimes negatively impacts their game play. Their coach’s solution is to force them to be hotel roommates when the team is on the road (forced proximity, y’all) so they can hopefully get past their differences, work better together, become friends, and strengthen their on-field chemistry. While it achieves all that, it also leads to some scorching hot mutual jerk off sessions – devouring each other with their eyes – behind those closed hotel room doors. I got all squiggly inside when they finally talked –  in the dark, facing each other in separate beds. Girard confronts Maclain and confesses his feelings, but Maclain is still in denial, terrified and angry. Girard is left with “the crushing disappointment of trying to bridge this thing between us, to have an honest exchange.”

Home Plate is not as fluffy as the delightful Bat Boy, the first book in the Easton U Pirates series. It’s perfect, though, in its balance of angst, heartache, and piles of warm fuzzies. All the Pirates teammates are back, including Donovan and his uber adorable boyfriend, Kellan, plus Maclain’s friend, Jasmine. Donovan and Kellan are instrumental in answering questions about their queer experience and providing support to Maclain and Girard. Girard’s family also serve important roles.

With graduation looming – and their days in those tight, white baseball pants nearing an end – they both fear there’s an expiration date on their relationship. Ms. Lee pulls out the best, heartwarming ending, though, complete with a realistic, swoony epilogue one year into the future. In my review of Bat Boy, I said it was my favorite of the author’s novels so far; I think Home Plate might have it beat. If you love a sea anemone slooooow burn, don’t miss this one.

RATING: 

BUY LINKS: 

Amazon