About the Book
When her new job takes her to a New England boarding school, she’s surprised to find her roommates are all men – including a very handsome one who plays by his own rules.
Sophie Doyle has her dream job as the head athletic trainer for her favorite baseball team (go Red Sox!), a handsome boyfriend, and easy access to the finest cannoli in Boston. When she loses all three and the World Series to boot, she’s forced to apply for the open trainer position at an arts-focused boarding school in New Hampshire. The only available room is a glorified closet in an apartment with three guys: Jonas Voss, the aloof and attractive orchestra teacher, and his two rambunctious roommates.
Sophie knows that training a bunch of privileged high school kids whose idea of a play is A Chorus Line instead of a walk-off homer is going to be a big change from the pro athletes she’s used to. She wasn’t expecting that these students would have big-time talent and even bigger-time problems. Sophie has troubles of her own—Jonas is a full-fledged grump who clearly doesn’t want her near him or the precious piano he never plays.
With sunny optimism, Sophie sets out to win over Jonas and help the kids she’s growing attached to. But when her relationship with Jonas moves to the major leagues and plans change at the end of the season, they have to choose whether they are playing for keeps.
My Review
A book about a sports-loving female – yeah, sign me up. As a huge sports fanatic myself, I feel it’s more common to still read about them men who are athletic or pretend to coach teams with their fantasy leagues and have the love interests that don’t know the Super Bowl from Stanley Cup, so when I saw Sophie was the head athletic trainer for the Red Sox with baseball in her blood, I had to check it out. We meet Sophie right after she was fired from her job because she pulled the star pitcher in the World Series and feels like the entire town of Boston now hates her. She also gets dumped by her boyfriend, gets quite literally kicked to the curb, and has an incident with a cannoli that cements the fact she needs to leave town for a minute. She flees to New Hampshire to take on another trainer position – but this one at an arts-focused boarding school for privileged teens. To make matters worse, she is now living in a tiny bedroom that could be a closet with three guys, including Jonas who takes an instant disliking to her because she touched his piano. Literally.
Going from working with professional athletes to teenagers is a big leap, but Sophie is determined to make an impact on the kids she is now working with. She is also dealing with more personal struggles on the side – mainly, lying to her dad about losing her job and being shamed out of Boston because he is sick and in a home, and she doesn’t want to worry him any further. It’s heartwarming to watch the bond between the two of them, and it gets even better when you understand Jonas and how charming he is with her dad as well. The enemies to lovers storyline isn’t new, yet it somehow feels fresh and modern in this novel. Jonas comes across grumpy and cold, but once you get to know him more and his backstory, it’s easy to see why he has his walls up. I adored the boarding school setting – a little quaint if you will – and Sophie was such a likeable heroine. I enjoyed that we didn’t have a lot of focus on her ex – there was no pining for him or him showing up in New Hampshire to win her back. The story was really focused on her putting one foot in front of the other after a crummy situation and finding her happiness once again. I adored this one and I highly recommend for your summer reading list!
5 stars
