Book Review: Called Up
Katie 
When I was writing down my quick notes on this book in order to remember what I wanted to include in my review, I seemed to focus more on the negatives than the positives and I think that gives an unfair look to how I really felt about the book. Once I got about halfway through this book one night I decided to just not do anything else but curl up in bed and refuse to go to sleep until I had finished it. Which was exactly what I ended up doing. Which is not something I would do with a book I was not enjoying, but I guess there were several imperfections in it. A major thing that I had to get over in order to enjoy the book was the nicknames of the main characters – Deke and Fitz. It took a lot of effort for me to picture Fitz as a female at first! There also were a lot of characters to sort out in the beginning – to the point I almost wanted to make myself a flow chart. But in the end they all became more familiar to me and it was not as overwhelming as I thought it was going to be in the beginning. The other piece that drove me crazy, and I guess it wouldn’t be a romance novel otherwise, was that Deke and Fitz kept saying that they wanted to be honest with each other – they had been friends for many, many years and didn’t want to throw that all away with a relationship – but each of them wanted the other and wouldn’t say so! I mean, I guess if it was all happy “I love you”, “I love you too!” then there’d be no plot for the book… but yeah. There’s also not as much baseball in the book as I was expecting considering the baseball on the cover. Not a bad thing but just not what I was expecting. (But again, I need to learn to stop judging a book by its cover!)
Overall I enjoyed the book and really enjoyed the author’s writing style because she was able to grab me and bring me into this town and make me feel like I was one of them. I will certainly be checking out other books by Jen Doyle.
I received a free e-copy of this book in order to write this review. I was not otherwise compensated.
About the Book
Jen Doyle delivers a home run of heart, heat and plenty of laughter in this contemporary romance, perfect for fans of Jill Shalvis’s Pacific Heat series
There’s one thing Max “Deke” Deacon can always count on besides his old high school teammates: Angelica “Fitz” Hawkins. But no matter how much Deke might secretly fantasize otherwise, a relationship with his best friend’s sister is off limits. Until one unexpectedly smoldering encounter has Deke and Fitz giving in to the feelings they’ve both been fighting for far too long.
Fitz knows for a fact that it is not better to have loved and lost. After losing her parents, she’d rather lock up her heart and throw away the key than endure that kind of pain again. If that means giving up any hope of a lasting relationship, then so be it.
But with Deke, Fitz feels dangerously close to falling in love. She can’t risk another broken heart—especially if it means losing one of her best friends for good. Now it’s up to Deke to convince her that the safest place she could ever be is right here with him.
This book is approximately 100,000 words
One-click with confidence. This title is part of the Carina Press Romance Promise: all the romance you’re looking for with an HEA/HFN. It’s a promise! Find out more at CarinaPress.com/RomancePromise
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I had high hopes for this book but unfortunately after 2 attempts and not being able to get into it, I had to skip it and move on to something else.
Unstrung Heroes is about some of the lesser known guitar players that you still should know. The first thing I did was go through the table of contents to see if there was any that I had seen live, and as far as I could tell, I hadn’t. They aren’t ranked as a Top 50 but instead just listed in alphabetical order. There’s a few pages of information on each guitarist and then an interview with them done by the author which was pretty neat and he asked a few silly questions as well which I liked. I also learned there are two Randy Jackson’s as the one included in this book is NOT the one from American Idol :P. I liked that this book went beyond the obvious greats like Clapton, Hendrix, etc. The author said that he found these guitarist to be just as good as the greats, but underrated.
Naked Dj is about Jazmyn Brown – although that’s not her real name, she’s had several throughout her radio DJ career. She has been hired in NYC to be a part of the “Bare Naked Radio Ladies” show. If you make it in NYC you can make it anywhere but it seems like everything is setting Jazmyn up for failure.
Coloring Books are just about the coolest thing lately, but I have to say coloring books that you get to read as e-books just aren’t the same! This book is about David Bowie and one page has some details about his life (that can be colored in!) followed by a coloring book page. It features some of Bowie’s iconic looks and I wish I had this book in an actual print form because it will be SO fun to color in!
A Long Pitch Home is about Bilal, a boy who was perfectly fine living in Pakistan and playing cricket. But then after his father had disappeared for several days, he comes home and tells the family that they will be moving to America with Bilal’s Aunt and Uncle and he will be joining them eventually. Bilal hangs out with his cousin Jalaal who helps him learn English and teaches him about baseball. Bilal wants nothing to do with baseball, he wants to play cricket!
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