Swinging at Love

Swinging At Love is such a cute and sweet read. Alyssa is not your typical teen girl and I loved that about her! She's a former softball player turned ballerina who works at her parents' failing sports facility. Determined to keep the business up and running, she does all she can to help- something not every teenage girl would do, and I found that to be so admirable! I loved the relationship she had with her parents. Tristan is one of the stars of their high school baseball team and he's going through a slump. With parents that don't really take an interest in his sports career and his brother away at college he doesn't really have anyone to talk about what he's going through. Not wanting anyone, especially his teammates, to get wind of his troubles he ends up at Swing Away, where he runs into Alyssa. Not one to shy away from offering up advice, welcome or not, Alyssa gives Tristan a few pointers after seeing him swing and miss more often than he was connecting. Even as he shrugs off her advice, in typical boy fashion might I add, there's a little spark of attraction between them that's further fueled the more time they spend together. It wasn't every day that a hot guy stared at her like he'd just come in from the desert and she was an oasis. Alyssa and Tristan are such darling characters. I loved that they weren't afraid to share their feelings with each other, even with, maybe especially because of, how quickly things happened between them. They both come from such solid foundations, even if their upbringings were quite different. Alyssa is a calming and centering influence on Tristan and he was everything she didn't know she needed. You'll find some of the usual high school drama infiltrating the pages of Swinging At Love. Even the best of friends don't always get along, and at one point or another someone's feelings are going to get hurt, albiet unintentionally. Alyssa and her best friend, and Tristan and his best friend, find themselves in a bit of a love quadrangle, which leads to a bit of a conundrum between friends. But it's high school and these things tend to work themselves out in time. I liked how things weren't glossed over and everyone was able to have their say, especially Alyssa- I wanted to stand up and cheer for her! The ending to this book was particular sweet and had me swooning hard for Tristan. He's everything you'd want if you were a 17 year old girl! Here's hoping we'll be seeing books for the best friends in the near future!

Fabulous YA read! I really loved this second book in the Suttonville Sentinels series but is completely stand alone. We do get to see how Kyle and Faith from book 1 are doing. There is lots of baseball stuff in this book but you don't really have to know or even like baseball to appreciate this story. Tristan and Alyssa are a great couple and really bring out the best in each other. I really enjoy the writing style of Ms Highley and how well she develops her characters. I really felt like I knew these two. The story has a nice quick pace to it and is a very easy read. I would definitely recommend this one.