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A review by multicoloredbookreviews
Homerun Proposal by Maren Moore
medium-paced
3.0
If The Kissing Booth and High School Musical had a smutty, late-90's/early-2000's rom-com baby with college aged characters, this would pretty much be it.
It had all the stereotypical tropes: the awkward, quirky, unpopular girl; the confident, good-looking, star athlete guy; the "transactional" relationship; the secret crushes and the classical musical anthems, etc.
I'm sure teenage me would have loved the heck out of this book: it's just that perfect blend of utterly unrealistic, charming and hot. Adult me, however, saw it for the silly, over the top story it was. But that's not to say I didn't had an ok time reading it. Much like classic rom-coms give us lovers of the genre that warm, nostalgic feeling, I found myself fondly rolling my eyes while reading Homerun Proposal where I would've been utterly delighted in my younger years.
It was pretty clear that Lane and Hallie were already in love from the very first page, so unpredictable this book was not. The writing also wasn't the best in the sense that the way sentences were structured was kinda wonky, not to mention the significantly cringe dialogues (that were painful to read, but undoubtedly had that 90's-movie, overly explain-y flair to them).
I also had issues with how the major conflict of the story was crafted. The way it was presented, it felt like Hallie was overreacting and being ridiculous. The only moment of doubt she'd had in her relationship with Lane had been at the very beginning, and from that point forward he'd never said or done anything to give her any reason to question his feelings. All the opposite, in fact. The set up for her plot-mandated freak out wasn't there, so the emotion of the moment ended up lacking, too.
The friction with Lane and his dad over his baseball career was also disappointing in its resolution. That conflict was the single side-plot the whole book had, and a significant part of Lane's character inner turmoil, and yet it was resolved off page almost as an afterthought. I didn't like that.
All in all, if you're looking for originality, you most definitely won't find it here. But if you're okay with formulaic, likeable characters, a predictable plot and unexpectedly hot smut, you may enjoy this novel.
It had all the stereotypical tropes: the awkward, quirky, unpopular girl; the confident, good-looking, star athlete guy; the "transactional" relationship; the secret crushes and the classical musical anthems, etc.
I'm sure teenage me would have loved the heck out of this book: it's just that perfect blend of utterly unrealistic, charming and hot. Adult me, however, saw it for the silly, over the top story it was. But that's not to say I didn't had an ok time reading it. Much like classic rom-coms give us lovers of the genre that warm, nostalgic feeling, I found myself fondly rolling my eyes while reading Homerun Proposal where I would've been utterly delighted in my younger years.
It was pretty clear that Lane and Hallie were already in love from the very first page, so unpredictable this book was not. The writing also wasn't the best in the sense that the way sentences were structured was kinda wonky, not to mention the significantly cringe dialogues (that were painful to read, but undoubtedly had that 90's-movie, overly explain-y flair to them).
I also had issues with how the major conflict of the story was crafted. The way it was presented, it felt like Hallie was overreacting and being ridiculous. The only moment of doubt she'd had in her relationship with Lane had been at the very beginning, and from that point forward he'd never said or done anything to give her any reason to question his feelings. All the opposite, in fact. The set up for her plot-mandated freak out wasn't there, so the emotion of the moment ended up lacking, too.
The friction with Lane and his dad over his baseball career was also disappointing in its resolution. That conflict was the single side-plot the whole book had, and a significant part of Lane's character inner turmoil, and yet it was resolved off page almost as an afterthought. I didn't like that.
All in all, if you're looking for originality, you most definitely won't find it here. But if you're okay with formulaic, likeable characters, a predictable plot and unexpectedly hot smut, you may enjoy this novel.