ARC received from author for an honest review

Batter up!

When Sloan Johnson offers you an advanced copy of her new book, this little black duck takes it.

I am a huge fan of the Homeruns series, and the latest installment, Line Drive was just perfection.

I don't know much about baseball (other than what I have learned from watching Major League, Bull Durham) but I love diving into a good sports romance.

This is a sports romance with a bit of a difference though - there isn't as much of the sport in Line Drive as you would expect.

This is more a behind the scenes, what happens off the field sports story.

PJ and Nate's story is moving, it is emotional and it cuts right to the heart of what it is to be gay in the manly man's world of professional baseball.

PJ is in the twilight of his professional playing career, and what should be a banner year for him is becoming his nightmare. Shooting for a record before he retires, he has lost the fire in his belly due to the rampant homophobia within his club.

Nate is about as sporty as I am, but he knows how PJ feels, having to hide his true self from the court of public opinion (through his brother Zach who is just luuuurve!).

There is an intensity between PJ and Nate that leaps off the pages. From their first meeting to the end, I could feel the push/pull between them. The fear of what is happening, what could happen. But also how together it seems to quiet the storm.

Line Drive is a work of fiction, but the story Ms Johnson has told is being played out all day, every day in locker rooms across the globe. It is 2016, and the dinosaurs need to realise that their time has been and gone and that their bigotry will not be tolerated any more.

It was great that we got to see more of those Milwaukee Mavericks boys. I laughed, I cried, I wanted to throw my kindle across the room in anger at times. All signs of a great book to me.

Now I am impatiently awaiting the next book!