Thank you to the publisher and author.! This was such a cute debut and perfect for the spring. I loved that this was a baseball romance and how the two MCs really grew throughout the story. I am not the biggest fan of insta love so that didn’t really work for me… overall solid debut!

this was... not for me. i admittedly didn't get very far, (about 20% in) but that was enough for me.
there's absolutely nothing wrong with the writers voice or even the characters, i'm just not a fan of insta-love, and a lot of this felt like it might've been fanfiction at some point (which i DO devour) but this just didn't hit the mark for me.

i'd love to check in with ally again on their next book, i feel like i could really enjoy their work -- this one just wasn't for me.

Fake dating ✅
Sports romance ✅
Tattooed hottie ✅
One bed ✅

Don’t get me wrong, I love hockey romances just as much as the next girl, but lately, it’s so overdone. I was ecstatic to get an arc of this baseball romance!

This is a book about second chances. Each of our main characters had a sordid past and they helped each other through that. I loved how good their communication was throughout this book. Super healthy and little to no nonsense. There was obviously a miscommunication part, but it was so minimal I don’t count it.

I loved that Maggie’s mom was so supportive! I’ve read way too many books lately with terrible parents so this was refreshing! There was a part in here though where Maggie had to relieve her guilt and I didn’t like how she went about it. I felt like it was unfair and kind of selfish.

The pacing was pretty good for most of the book, but it did get repetitive toward the end and I was wondering why we were going over all the same stuff again.

I loved that this was set in Chicago! I used to go to Kane County Cougars games when I was younger and it was one of the highlights of my childhood so I really enjoyed the nostalgia!

This was heartbreaking as much as it was swoon worthy. It had me in literal tears, but also with a huge smile. It was definitely cringey at times and predictable, but I liked the story nonetheless. Overall, I absolutely loved this and Maggie and Tommy’s chemistry was perfect!

3.5 rounded up to 4. First I'd like to thank the publisher 8th Note Press and NetGalley for the advanced copy in exchange for my unbiased review. As a photographer and baseball lover, whose dream job would be a baseball photographer, I knew I'd feel a kinship with the main character, Maggie. This book is a fun fake dating trope, all to save the bad boy shortstops career. My only complaint on this book is the lack of trigger warning. As someone who suffered a similar loss to the main character, I would have appreciated a bit of a heads up prior to reading as it did trigger some feelings for me. Overall, the book was well written and very cute. Sometimes it's nice to be reminded there's hope and love after major loss.

3.75⭐️

This was such a great debut book. I loved the two main characters and who they were. I was going to give it 4 stars, but there are two reasons why I ended up bumping down the rating a little bit.

1.) Maggie had SUCH great character development. Watching her grown was so beautiful and heartwarming. I just wish we got more of Tommy's POV and got to actually see more of his growth. I wanted to see a little more of his change from his past self.

2.) I think a third act break up/miscommunication can make sense to the story if done right. I just feel like the miscommunication in this story didn't feel right, but slightly immature.

I'm so excited to see what comes next from Ally and for the rest of this series.

Thank you to NetGalley and 8th Note Press for providing me an ARC copy of the book for my honest opinion.

This book started off kind of slower but still caught my attention and made it difficult for me to put down because I wanted to know what was going to happen next. The characters were well thought out and I really felt for them and what they had to go through. I cried with the character as well as giggle with the characters. I wanted to know everything about these characters and how they felt. I even enjoyed the decisions both characters made when it came to the fake part of their relationship. I would have loved to see a little more development of their relationship after the conflict in the book but I’m hoping we will see more of them in the series! The conflict was a bit predictable for the fake dating trope but I’m not sure what other conflict could have arisen from these characters stories. Overall I really enjoyed this book and can’t wait to read the next book in the series!

First Base (Received as an ARC)
Rating : ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Release: 4.23.24

This was such a wonderful debut novel by Ally Wiegand, and it had two of my favorite things... baseball and fake dating! This story was sweet and hopeful in the best way, and while we had laughs and happy moments, we had heartfelt, emotional moments as well. The two MC's were well written with nice character depth and development. I found Maggie to be so relatable. My heart truly ached for her and everything she went through in her past. Tommy, bless him, had his fair share of troubles from the past to deal with as well. But boy, was he swoon-worthy!? I loved the way they supported and took care of each other, developing a wonderful connection as the novel progressed. The plot was well paced, and I found myself engrossed in the story. I just wanted more, more of each of them and their beautiful story.

Thank you @netgalley and @8thnotepress for providing this arc in exchange for an honest review.

⚠️Warning⚠️
Contains language, explicit content, and low/medium spice

this book sadly fell very flat for me. I feel like there wasn't much dialogue and I wish we had more of Tommy's POV. I'll recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of insta love it just wasn't my cup of tea.

Thank you so much to netgalley and the publisher for this ARC!

this was a cute read! But ultimately it did fall flat in a few aspects. I didn’t feel connected to either of the characters so I wasn’t very interest in where their story was going. Some things felt a little cliche, which is okay if done correctly, but again it was just a little flat for me. I would love to see what this author puts out next though

(DNF at 20%)

I’m sorry, I really tried, but I just could not continue this. The number of times I got second-hand embarrassment from this book is wow…😬😬


"𝙈𝙖𝙜𝙜𝙞𝙚 𝙬𝙖𝙨 𝙪𝙣𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙚 𝙖𝙣𝙮 𝙬𝙤𝙢𝙖𝙣 𝙄 𝙝𝙖𝙙 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧 𝙨𝙚𝙚𝙣. 𝙎𝙝𝙚 𝙬𝙖𝙨 𝙖𝙣 𝙚𝙭𝙥𝙡𝙤𝙨𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙤𝙛 𝙚𝙣𝙚𝙧𝙜𝙮. 𝙀𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙮𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙖𝙗𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙛𝙚𝙡𝙩 𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙚 𝙞𝙩 𝙬𝙖𝙨 𝙩𝙪𝙧𝙣𝙚𝙙 𝙖𝙡𝙡 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙬𝙖𝙮 𝙪𝙥-𝙛𝙤𝙧𝙘𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙩𝙤 𝙣𝙤𝙩𝙞𝙘𝙚 𝙝𝙚𝙧—𝙗𝙪𝙩 𝙬𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙄 𝙛𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙙 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙣 𝙢𝙤𝙧𝙚 𝙞𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙬𝙖𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙨𝙝𝙚 𝙙𝙞𝙙𝙣'𝙩 𝙨𝙚𝙚𝙢 𝙩𝙤 𝙠𝙣𝙤𝙬 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙖𝙗𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙨𝙚𝙡𝙛.." YOU LITERALLY EXCHANGED LIKE WHAT?? 10 WORDS??? WHAT DO YOUUUU KNOW ABOUT HER???


I’m an insta-love hater till I die, so when he already thought about her this way (see quote) on page 17 YES!! SEVENTEEN!!! I cringed a lot. 😬✋🏼
So I’m really proud of myself for continuing this instead of DNF at that exact moment. (But at the end, I wish I had just DNFed it earlier on.)


𝚂𝚒𝚍𝚎 𝚗𝚘𝚝𝚎: 𝚃𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚒𝚜 𝙼𝚈 𝚘𝚙𝚒𝚗𝚒𝚘𝚗. 𝙿𝚕𝚎𝚊𝚜𝚎 𝚍𝚘𝚗’𝚝 𝚕𝚎𝚝 𝚒𝚝 𝚌𝚑𝚊𝚗𝚐𝚎 𝚈𝙾𝚄𝚁 𝚘𝚙𝚒𝚗𝚒𝚘𝚗 𝚘𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚋𝚘𝚘𝚔, 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚠𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚛 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚠𝚊𝚗𝚝 𝚝𝚘 𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚍 𝚒𝚝 𝚘𝚛 𝚗𝚘𝚝.🫂

!!𝗜 𝘄𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗴𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗺𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗸𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗡𝗲𝘁𝗴𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗲𝘆 & 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝘂𝗯𝗹𝗶𝘀𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝟴𝘁𝗵 𝗡𝗼𝘁𝗲 𝗣𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀 & 𝗼𝗳 𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗮𝘂𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗿 𝗔𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗪𝗶𝗲𝗴𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗮𝗿𝗰 𝗶𝗻 𝗲𝘅𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗮𝗻 𝗵𝗼𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄!!

First Base was interesting. It doesn't stand out as an unputdownable romance book for me unfortunately, even though it really checked the fake-dating trope box! I think it was just a little too similar to Game Changer by Lana Ferguson which I just read, although having a baseball player was refreshing!
A good spring romance, I just wasn't in the right headspace

this was such a cute cozy read, i loved it so much. fast pace, lovable characters. very low stakes romance which is Exactly what i wanted. it has also made me long for being at a baseball stadium - thank goodness there's only one more week until home opener.

thank you netgalley for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

I'm so excited for baseball to be getting some contemporary romance attention! Wiegand perfectly captures the feelings of being at a baseball game and why fans love the sport so much. I love the setup of this book and the fake dating scenario, plus the dual POV was a really fun surprise. The dialogue was a little cheesy at times, but overall the story was very sweet. The first 75% was particularly strong, but I wasn't completely sold on the eventual conflict and resolution. Overall, this was a fun debut and I'm excited to see what's next in the series.

This was 2.5 ⭐ for me. I really liked the characters, their backstory, and their relationship (fake dating that was never really fake). My problems were with the writing, particularly the continuity and dialogue. I feel like all the parts were there, they just didn't get there in the best way. Also, I'm irritated by the title because the MMC was not a first baseman and there was no talk about first base in regards to their relationship. The title felt like "oh, this would be a cute play on words for the first book in a baseball romance series!" I see potential with this author, though, so I would give her another shot.

3.5

First Base follows Maggie who works as a photographer for a baseball team the Cougars. Tommy is a baseball player for the Cougars. This is his last shot in the MLB. One night before the season the team and all the people that work for the team go out. A photo of Maggie and Tommy from that night blows up all over. Maggie and Tommy agree to fake date for the sake of the team. But is it really fake? They start to fall hard for each other.

I thought this book was super cute. Fake dating is one of my favorite tropes. I am also a huge baseball fan so I loved this. I like how this book had some serious moments along with a lot of lighthearted ones. This is a closed door romance but that didn’t take away anything from the story. This was just a cute lighthearted romance.

Thank you to NetGalley and Ally Wiegand for the ARC of this book!! I was hooked from the beginning and did not want to put it down. Maggie and Tommy’s story is so heart warming; it made me giggle, smile, tear up, and feel all the emotions. Watching these two push each other to be the best versions of themselves while also trying to move on from their past made me love them even more. This is the perfect book for spring and I can’t wait to continue this series. Ally Wiegand you knocked this book out of the park (see what I did there) and the fact that it is your debut novel is shocking. I need the second book in this series now and it better be about Olivia!!!

This was entertaining and the romantic elements themselves were chef’s kiss perfection; I honestly want to read it again it was so wonderful and captured my heart so quickly. Loved it

I was really hoping J would love this book, but unfortunately it really fell a bit flat to me. I was really intrigued by the main characters and their backstories, but I didn’t feel like there was much conflict or action, it was just perfect perfect perfect and nothing interesting happened.

I really, really liked this book. I really enjoyed the story itself - romance tropes galore and they were used so very well. The story moved pretty quickly, almost too quickly sometimes, and was an easy read. I’m generally not a fan of the dual POV but for this book it was great. It was sporadic, but just enough to give the MMC’s perspective right when it provided the greatest impact. It was so cleverly done. I loved all the characters, every single one of them. Maggie and Tommy had a good depth of character and I liked the way that they grew and healed, separately and together. I want their best friends to be my best friends - we love supportive besties! I also really liked the author’s writing. Sometimes it was a little repetitive, but there were some truly beautiful passages that speak to the author’s talent with words. The end was satisfying - I love a good epilogue. My only complaint is the spice was too tastefully written. It wasn’t full closed door, more so fade to black? But it could have been more descriptive. Overall, I’m honestly stunned this is the author’s first published book - it’s that good. Sequels please!! ASAP!!

I absolutely adored this book from start to finish. The romance was stunning and sweet, showcasing two people that had been through trauma bringing out the best in each other. This should be on the TBR of all sports romance lovers!
Thank you to NetGalley and 8th Note for the review copy.