ARC Review + Giveaway: Hardball by CD Reiss

28 Mar 2016


Book Title: Hard Ball
Author: CD Reiss
Series: Standalone
Release Date: March 29th, 2016
Genres: Erotic Romance, Sports Romance
Perfect ass.
Perfect arms.
Perfect swagger.

They call Dash Wallace the Diamond King.

He’s the hottest commodity in baseball and in the bedroom. When he runs the bases, every woman’s eyes are glued to his stunning body and a smile that puts the night lights to shame.

I’m no queen. I’m a regular girl with a regular job. I just watch him on TV and from the bleachers, season after season. Girls like me grab a guy like that one in a million times.
My number just came up, and he is as spectacular in bed as he is on the field.

But there’s not a woman in the world who can distract Dash Wallace from the game. Not for a moment. Not even me.

Until the night I do.

And everything changes.





When I heard the news that CD Reiss was writing a novel centered around a Major League Baseball player, I didn't believe it. No freaking way! Life couldn't get any better for this self-professed baseball whore me...

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I think I counted the days till this book hit my kindle (I know- loserville). CD Reiss can seriously write the hottest damn dominant alphas without even having to call him an Alpha or a Dom...they just open their mouths and women open their legs we swoon! Dash Wallace did not fail to be the newest addition to my Reiss super-Alpha-hero spank-bank favorites! Here's an example...In THREE WORDS!

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But I digress...

Dash Wallace is a star short stop for the LA Dodgers. He's a bit of an unknown in regards to his personal life as he refuses all on-camera interviews. When he meets a feisty elementary school librarian at a school field-trip ball signing, he's taken back by her lack of swooning for him. At the ball signing she offers her ball for Dash to autograph...

“It’s for my dad. He’s the most loyal living Dodger fan.” He found a spot and signed while he spoke. 



“You brought all these kids out here to get this signed for your dad?” 



“Thank you. If it was too much trouble to sign without an insult, you shouldn’t have bothered. My dad probably wouldn’t notice it was missing.”

When Dash's prized baseball glove goes missing after the signing event, Dash finds himself visiting that snarky librarian on the hunt for it. The glove is irreplaceable for him. It's not about money but all about luck...about rituals. Everything with Dash is methodical to keep him on his game. Losing that glove will throw his rhythm off and nobody wants his luck to run out. But little does he know, he's embarking on a whole new list of priorities in his life once he sets eyes on Vivian again. She's not a groupie fangirl... She's normal and he doesn't know what hits him...

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Here's the thing with CD Reiss- she's consistent in a lot of things, all being good. First, her heroines are always pretty damn tough. Even if some of them are a hot mess (Fiona Drazen in Forbidden), they're tough. They're confident and even if they're inexperienced sexually, they're no shrinking violets in or out of the bedroom.

Second, her heroes are beyond masculine and hot without really even trying. And holy mother of dirty talker and texters! So many books try to paint us an Alpha. With Reiss, we experience it in technicolor. Her writing, poetic and beautiful just further strengthens her ability to fall into her plots wholeheartedly. Dash Wallace almost, almost beats my Jonathan Drazen for favorite heroes. Why? Obviously his demeanor and his athletic physique but also because of his flaws... and who doesn't love a perfectly flawed hero? He sure makes up for it in...other ways.

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Baseball is bar-none my favorite sport and I look forward to each springtime not only for the snow to finally melt but the chance to see professional baseball on TV, watch my kids play, or go to the ballpark. It's the definition of "summertime" for me. Reiss nailed baseball in this book. The terms, the plays, the rituals, superstitions, everything! Rock. On. She takes a famous, put together on the surface major league ball player and makes him human in his struggles. Makes him struggle for perfection in his game all the while trying to hold a relationship together while playing over 150 games a season. I completely devoured this aspect of Hard Ball.

But can Vivian Foster be what Dash needs? And at what cost to his focus on his career? Or at what expense to Vivian's career and family?

Hard Ball is just everything...entertaining, a bit angsty, hot as heck, with a great sports-romance cherry on top! She hit it out of the ballpark with this one! I know, that was cheesy but I couldn't resist.


Advanced review copy received by the author in exchange for my honest review.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR


CD Reiss is a USA Today and Amazon bestseller. She still has to chop wood and carry water, which was buried in the fine print. Her lawyer is working it out with God but in the meantime, if you call and she doesn’t pick up, she’s at the well, hauling buckets. 

Born in New York City, she moved to Hollywood, California to get her master’s degree in screenwriting from USC. In case you want to know, that went nowhere, but it did embed TV story structure in her head well enough for her to take a big risk on a TV series structured erotic series called Songs of Submission. It’s about a kinky billionaire hung up on his ex-wife, an ingenue singer with a wisecracking mouth; art, music and sin in the city of Los Angeles. 

Critics have dubbed the books “poetic,” “literary,” and “hauntingly atmospheric,” which is flattering enough for her to put it in a bio, but embarrassing enough for her not to tell her husband, or he might think she’s some sort of braggart who’s too good to give the toilets a once-over every couple of weeks or chop a cord of wood. 

If you meet her in person, you should call her Christine. 

Stalk Her: Facebook | Twitter | Website | Goodreads | Pinterest | Instagram

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