Out of Left Field by Kris Hui Lee is a fun, heartwarming contemporary about breaking barriers and finding confidence. Marnie, a girl with a passion for baseball, earns a spot on the boys' team and navigates friendship, romance, and proving herself. It’s perfect for fans of sports-driven YA with a strong, determined heroine.

I received an Advance Reader Copy from the publisher. This in no way impacted on my view.

Marnie has always enjoyed playing baseball at the local field with the guys, but never thought about doing anything more than having a few games for fun. When her best friend, and crush, Cody, is injured, and can no longer play, he convinces Marnie to join the school's team, as she is the next best pitcher in town, and their only hope to make it to the play offs. Once friends, the other guys on the team don't like the idea of having a girl as a team mate, and now she has to deal with the pressure of the whole school, and being left alone and ignored by those who should support her.

Out of Left Field was a cute and fluffy read, perfect for summer. Marnie is a decent character, but for the most part there's not much development. I liked the baseball aspect of the story - I know next to nothing about baseball, so it was nice to read about it. I also liked the romance between Marnie and Cody, but feel as if something was missing from the book to give it higher than a 3 star rating.

I had an interesting read experience with Out of Left Field. I really hated about 75% of the characters, Marnie being the worst, but I was oddly invested in the story. I really found Marnie to be extremely self absorbed and I thought Joey was a terrible friend. I really liked Cody and I wish he was actually for the focus. All in all it was not a terrible book and was a very quick read just not a favorite.

Out of Left Field was perfectly marketed as a novel for fans of Morgan Matson and Kasie West. The romance and fun, upbeat vibe of the book was so great, and it was a real pleasure to read. The characters were well thought out.

Thank you for the opportunity to read and review Out of Left Field. Unfortunately, I was unable to get into this book and, since I've not finished it, I won't be rating or reviewing here or on my blog.

This was super cute. I loved that Tomboy Marnie is part of an all-male baseball team. I also loved the friends to lovers storyline and thought it was so sweet. I'll be watching this author. It's unfortunate that this book got so little marketing attention! It's a gem!

I picked this book because I work in youth recreation and I have girls who want to play baseball all the time. I thought this would give me some insight on how to help them.

This was a fun, quick read about a girl who just wants to play baseball. Marnie loves baseball and has a huge crush on a guy that she's grown up with, Cody. This book had a nice concept, but it was just slow. The main character does way too much whining for me. I was also very disappointed in the ending.

This is one book that I do not think I would feel good about recommending this book as it was just lacking and I don't think that it would help anyone.

Out of Left Field was a surprisingly heartwarming, cute read! I was intrigued by the summary, and I’m glad I decided to request it. The romance was super cute and I loved the characters.

Now, I’m not a fan of baseball, which is why I was a little wary of reading this, but Kris Hui Lee makes it so exciting! I still don’t care for baseball that much, but I enjoyed reading those scenes in this book. Baseball, of course, is incredibly important for Marnie and Cody and all of their friends. It’s central to their characters, in a way, especially how they deal with their love and talent for it.

I adored Marnie; I think, within about 5 pages I thought, wow, this girl is me. I really enjoyed how she was written. We honestly talk the same way, the same kind of rambling. She’s stubborn and has an easy temper, which I liked seeing in a female character. Sometimes, though, I did want to scream at her because of her stubbornness, but I understood her feelings.

The romance was so cute! Friends to lovers is a favorite trope of mine, and this book is a clear example of why. The teasing and the banter, I loved all of it.

Out of Left Field is definitely a book you want to pick up! Cute and wholesome, it’s a perfect book to read this baseball season (or just summer, as I think of it). It releases May 1.

Cute, easy read that has great friendships, BASEBALL (YAY!) and a somewhat repetitive plot. Wasn't my least favorite read of 2018, but not in my top 10. Marnie was likable.

Out of Left Field was such an adorable YA sports romance. This story was adorable, fun, and completely entertaining. Marnie and Cody were so cute together! I love the best friends to more trope and these two always kept a smile on my face.

I am all about feminist lit. It’s uplifting, engaging, and important. That’s why I was so excited to read "Out of Left Field", and I wasn’t disappointed.

I’m not typically one for sports novels, but I found it really interesting and fun. I loved seeing Marnie play, train, and learn. The fast pace and fun baseball scenes are a big part of what made this such a quick read. I couldn’t put it down, and I wanted to know what would happen next.

To see a young woman being brave and fighting for what she wants is inspiring and lovely. She struggles at times, and that’s refreshingly realistic. She isn’t treated well by some of the guys, and there’s definitely a boys’ club vibe at times. However, the support she receives from those arround her is great. It gives us hope.

The relationships in this book are great. We have regular family struggles, the growing pains friendships often face in your last years of high school, and romance. It’s at time dramatic and messy, but that’s real. One of Marnie’s guy friends was off-putting to me because he seemed more like a ‘frenemy’ than anything. And Cody makes mistakes too, that made me doubt the romance. However, I was happy with how things turned out.

"Out of Left Field" hooked me from page one. I loved the female power, the relationships, and the romance despite its issues. It was a quick read, perfect for the summer and for people who love a good contemporary.

Out of Left Field by Kris Hui Lee, 320 pages. Sourcebooks Fire, 2018. $11.

Language: R (100+ swears, 5 ‘f’); Mature Content: PG (implied sex, mention of bisexuality); Violence: PG

HS – OPTIONAL

Sara Fox watches as her best friend, Cody Kinski, gets hits with a violent pitch by his rival, Santino Acardi, and breaks his arm. Cody’s pitching may be over for the year – just before the post-season tournament, but Cody has an idea – Sara should take his place. She may have bailed on softball her freshman year, but she has been kicking butt at sandlot ball her entire life. Success, however, will require her to secretly make nice with Santino – who is also about to become her cousin through marriage. Add in Sara’s growing feelings for Cody and we have a heady recipe for possible disaster.

Its an interesting blend of sport novel and romance: for me, the romantic entanglements sometimes threaten to take over the other very interesting dramatic points of this novel. For the author, I think the romance is actually the end point. In this case, I wish it had been one or the other. Plus the language is unnecessarily, really jarringly crude. Had it been mostly limited to the reactions of the boys on the teams to a girl pitching, it would have worked, but instead it was all throughout.

Cindy, Library Teacher

2.5 Cocktails
I wanted to like this one so much more than I did. Discovering that your best friend has the same feeling for you as you do for him should have been one of those heartwarming, angsty young adult reads. Instead, I found myself not really liking Marnie all that much. She used her attitude as a defense mechanism but often took it to an extreme that made it hard to feel bad for her when something backfired.

What a cute little story. I think it's great to see a story about a girl belonging to an all male sports team, even if not everyone is happy about it. I really thought that Marnie was a tough little cookie, and her willingness to befriend someone to make her family life easier, was a good move on her part, even if it did cause problems between her and her best friend. I also really liked that the "love" story was there, but kind of took a back seat to the rest of the story. Even if it did affect the plot.

Reviews by the Wicked Reads Review Team

Veronica – ☆☆☆☆
When I started reading Out of Left Field, I wasn’t in the mood to read. I had other things I needed to get done. So, when I sat down to read I told myself I had to read at least 10% of the book in the first session. I was a third of the way through the book when I stopped reading the first time and I read the whole thing in 24 hours.

I was immediately drawn into Marnie’s world. She is feisty, quick witted, intelligent, a good friend, and a lover of baseball. Marnie’s life revolves around her friends Sara, Joey, and Cody (who is also the love interest). When Cody, the star pitcher for the high school baseball team, is injured, Marnie tries out for the team to replace him.

As a sports fan I often find sports romances don’t actually feature much of the actual sport. But in Out of Left Field, baseball is one of the key features of the story. I could feel the love Marnie has for the sport and I got caught up in the fun of the game, the camaraderie of being part of a team, and the highs and lows of playing a team sport.

This is also a young adult book full of teenage drama, but it never felt heavy or over the top. The ‘will they or won’t they’ between Marnie and Cody is well done. I loved the relationship between Marnie and Cody and watching her realise that Cody wants to be more than friends and her struggle with her feelings for him.

The author did a great job writing characters and issues that were age appropriate and because the story has no sex or drug use, I would recommend it for readers 13+. Out of Left Field is a really well written, fun, young adult romance and I had a great time reading it.

A fun read!

The emphasis here--as it really should be in YA--is more on Marnie figuring herself and her place in her world (with her family and friends, on the baseball team, what direction she wants her future to go in) and less on romance--though Marnie and Cody dance around things for the entire book, they don't really get around their we-might-ruin-our-friendship-forever fears until (literally) the last minute.

And really, this is fine.

Like Marnie's mom, I have no great love for baseball, which is Marnie's first and lasting great love, but that's okay. It's easy to identify with a heroine who has found something she's passionate about in life but who still is full of doubts. I've never even considered being the only girl on a boy's team, but who can't remember a time in their lives when they felt like the outsider? Even though I do enjoy wearing dresses (but not shopping for them, because that's just cruel and unusual punishment) I came out of this book somehow feeling like Marnie and I had way more in common than not.

Ms. Lee has apparently spent years writing stories about Marnie and her friends (as per her acknowledgments) and it really shows--it's obvious that Marnie and company have a long, complicated history that the author knows both it and her characters well. Little throwaway comments like, "For reasons that would take too long to explain, his voicemail message is Joey and Sara mooing for about thirty seconds" add both humor and realism to the story.

Out of Left Field is a fun debut from an author I'll definitely be looking for more from!

Rating: 4 stars / A-

I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy of this book.

WHAT TO EXPECT FROM OUT OF LEFT FIELD
1. Lots of mindless reading. Out of Left Field definitely doesn't have a lot of substance. It's incredibly shallow and typical–which was fine by me! Y'all have to admit: We have these certain moods where we just want a fun read that doesn't require any thinking! This was definitely one of those books.

2. A best-friends-turned-lovers trope à la cheesy local rom-com. AGAIN I WAS TOTALLY FINE WITH THIS!!! Best friend romances (with lots of angst and denial in between) are my guilty pleasure, and the one in Out of Left Field was cute and genuine.

3. Awesome non-romantic relationships. Marnie had a positive and empowering friendship with her girl-BFF Sara. She also had a supportive dad, a mother who doesn't know what to think, and a brother who stands up for what he believes in. I thought the relationships were pretty realistic!

4. Baseball talk! This is something I'm not familiar with, but I love sports in contemporary YA.

5. You'll either love it or hate it. Like I said earlier, this book doesn't really have a lot of Substance™, but it really depends on the reader's preferences!

Cute, fun and entertaining.

Out of Left Field by Kris Hui Lee is a lighthearted and charming YA contemporary read!

I’m not really into sports that much, so I don’t find myself immediately drawn to sports-themed books. I just never really know if I’ll enjoy the plot since I don’t do sports at all and most likely wouldn’t be able to relate to the characters. But, I do love romance and friends-to-lovers stories. The premise for Out of Left Field also sounded really cute and fun, so I figured why not. Well, I definitely do not regret requesting. This book was heartwarming, sweet, and so cute it made my heart melt. I loved the friendships, the MC chasing her dream no matter what, and of course the romance. I thought the writing was decent, but wished there were more scenes that actually showed me rather than telling me this or that. The characters were likeable to some extent. They’re teenagers after all, so it’s expected that they got on my nerves every now and then. While I did find some parts a bit repetitive and frustrating, I still really enjoyed the story.

I liked Marnie well enough. She was the typical angsty teenager trying to find her place and go after her dream. She obviously did not always make the right decisions and had her own insecurities, but she was also strong and fierce. I admired her talent, determination, and the way she always stood up for herself. Cody was absolutely adorable and I really liked him a lot. He was sweet and incredibly supportive of Marnie. He encouraged her and truly believed in her potential. I really wish there were more scenes with him in the book. I would have loved to see Cody and Marnie interact more, rather than have the other characters describe how they really felt for each other.

So, as you can guess, the romance was relatively slow, but it was totally cute and heartwarming. I love romance in general, so whether it’s insta-love or not, as long as the story works and it makes some sense to me, then I usually have fun with it. I definitely did with this one and enjoyed the tension. I thought the story wrapped up nicely and I turned off my kindle with a smile on my face.

There were some things that could have been better, but overall, Out of Left Field was a delightful debut novel. With cute moments, fun bantering, and adorable romance, this was just the fluffy lighthearted read I needed. I’ll definitely be on the lookout for Kris Hui Lee’s future works and would recommend this book to anyone in the mood of something quick, sweet and entertaining.

I received an advance reader copy from the publisher, Sourcebooks Fire, via Netgalley in exchange for a fair and honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I loved the idea of a girl playing on the boys baseball team and the hint of romance would be a welcome addition. Unfortunately that's about all I liked about it. There was just a bit to much drama coming from different directions and I did not like Marnie, so it was hard to connect with her,.

I could practically smell the fresh cut grass and leather on the baseball gloves in Out of Left Field. This book was a sweet surprise, as I didn't think I would like it as much as I did, but then again I'm a sucker for a YA unrequited best friend romance. This one had it all: new and old friends, beginnings of relationships, secrets, and best of all: baseball. I loved how strong Marnie was and how she faced her fear of rejoining a baseball team, especially one that was all boys. It reminded me of the Fox TV show Pitch from last year. I really liked how more and more books are showing female strength and empowerment. I can't wait to read more from Kris Hui Lee!