Pop star girlfriend and pro-athlete boyf? Yes please!! Lacey Logan is THE global pop star--in charge of her own life and fate, enmeshed with her fans, only a little bit locked in by the constraints of her fame. MLBer Jimmy Hodges is at the tail-end of his career--giant shoulders, aching knees, and not sure what his next step looks like. Nobody writes inhabited characters in hot scenarios and smart+funny dialogue like Katie Cotugno. I gobbled this book up in a single sitting and still wanted more.

I thought this was very good and I will have to add this to the shop shelves. Thank you for the chance for us to review.

another taylor/travis fan fiction, I think it did a good job of capturing what must be the planning,stress and impact of their fame but I wasn't quite sure I got enough to know about the two main chracters to kknow why they like each other

I received an arc of this title from NetGalley for an honest review. Ummmm, this is just a story about Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce. There is no creativity away from this story playing out in magazines and on TV. It's like the author copied and pasted the story from a People magazine.

Heavy Hitter by Katie Cotugno had all the elements I usually enjoy in her books, but this one fell a bit short for me. While the writing and premise were solid, I couldn’t connect with the characters, which made it a little difficult to enjoy the book. Still, it’s a well-crafted story that earns 4 stars for its strengths. Thank you to the publisher for the Arc. This Arc was provided in exchange for my honest review

This was a mildly entertaining novella. FMC Lacey Logan is obviously VERY heavily inspired by Taylor Swift, with a publicist who emulates Tree Paine, fans who track her private jet, and of course, a pro-athlete, Midwestern boyfriend, Jimmy Hodges. Lacey even prepared for her current tour by singing while running on a treadmill, and she sends little messages to her fans through her social media. So yeah. I didn't actually mind all of the Taylor copying, but I would have liked to see Lacey go through actual character development. All of the characters here are fairly surface level, and all have super unlikable moments. Jimmy's behavior towards the end was especially annoying. And the actual ending was remarkably unsatisfying. I didn't hate it but I didn't love it.

2.5 stars, rounded up to 3. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a complimentary copy of this book. These opinions are my own.

A very quick read, but a very swoony romance. Heavy Hitter cements Katie Cotugno onto my list of auto-read authors. I was impressed by how much character depth she was able to infuse into such a short book.

after multiple attempts at reading- I have decided to DNF. I’m hoping to return to it in the future but right now i’m unable to connect with the author’s writing style.

I didn't realize until I was too far into needing to read this book for a NetGalley review that it's just a retelling of Taylor/Travis and their love story. It's quite literally copy and paste of many of the headlines that are written about the pair. I wanted some form of originality.

This was a good premise but I wasn't honestly a huge fan of the execution. It felt extremely fast paced and it was sort of hard to keep up with. I think it would be great for someone who likes fast books but unfortunately did not hit for me.

Cute idea but the execution was lacking. I’m definitely a Taylor x Travis fan. But the story seemed very surface level. I needed more depth for the characters and story.

⭐️⭐️⭐️ Heavy Hitter by Katie Cotugno

Heavy Hitter follows the relationship between pro baseball player Jimmy and singing star Lacey.

This was a solid romance. It had the expected banter, some spice and drama, and the required HEA -- all of the stuff you expect to be in your typical romance book. Jimmy is on the tail end of his career while Lacey is in full swing. Because of this, they struggle at finding time and ways to be together. Jimmy was my favorite of the two. I appreciated his struggle with life and making hard decisions, and trying to understand what Lacey’s celebrity was like. Lacey on the other hand was less likable, more bratty, and had the “I’m better than you” and “I told you so” vibe. The side characters made me mad quite often, blaming Lacey for showing up to things and “ruining” the moments. She gets to have a life too! For that, I felt sorry for her.

This book would have been better told in the first person point of view where we could maybe feel more of what the characters are feeling rather than being told what they are feeling. It hindered a solid connection with Jimmy and Lacey.

If you like the Taylor and Travis saga, then this is for you. Again, it’s a solid romance, just lacking in a little bit of depth.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for providing me with an ARC of this title for review.

Lacey Logan is a chart-topping superstar whose life no longer feels like her own. Every move she makes is photographed, videoed, dissected online and scrutinised by her fans. While I'm a bar recovering from a breakup with her ex-boyfriend, she meets baseball player Jimmy Hodges. Jimmy is the opposite of the picture-perfect guy Lacey thinks she wants. Soon, sparks fly and inhibitions go out the window when Lacey dares to take some chances.

I don't usually read other people's reviews before reading a book. This book gives me some serious Taylor Swift-Travis Kelce vibes. Even the cover's illustration of the FMC looks like Taylor Swift.

Usually I'm a fan of retellings but not this. I'm just disappointed that there is not much originality in this story although the author does include some scenes of her own.

If you are looking for a short, satisfying, steamy, swoony rockstar/sports romance with charming characters and a timely plot, 𝘏𝘦𝘢𝘷𝘺 𝘏𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳 might be your call. While this fares as an "okay" romance for me, it is not my favourite.

I'm usually a fan of the MCs in romance novels but I don't like Jimmy in this. Personally, I find Jimmy to be self-centered and the scene whereby Lacey goes to his game to cheer him on irks me (sorry, no spoilers here. You're gonna have to read this to find out).

A lot of issues and the characters' backstories are not uncovered as well. The character development is poor. I've always loved characters which are well developed and have grown over the course of the story but this does not seem to be the case for this book. The character development (if there even is one) seems flat and nonexistent.

Unfortunately, the ending felt rushed too. At less than 200 pages, I feel like we've skipped too many parts. The good news is - the chapters are short! I finished this book in under 2 hours.

Thank you to NetGalley @netgalley, Harper Perennial and Paperbacks @harperperennial, and Katie Cotugno for the opportunity to read this book. The thoughts and opinions expressed above are honest and my own.
𝓜𝔂 𝓻𝓪𝓽𝓲𝓷𝓰: ⭐⭐⭐/5

DNF @ 17%. I thought I was going to love this one as a baseball romance is one of my favorites, but this one just had me annoyed. I didn't like either character, they both felt very toxic and I couldn't see the chemistry between them. Thank you for the eARC!

I’ve decided to DNF this book at 31% for a couple reasons. Mostly it’s just not for me. I found the two main characters to be very one dimensional and cringey. Additionally, there was way too much cussing in this book. When I notice it, it’s a problem.

Lacey Logan is an international superstar who is struggling with privacy and control over her life. Jimmy Hodges is a Baltimore Orioles player who has experienced a failed marriage. They are polar opposites, but Lacey takes a chance on Jimmy and sparks fly!

Overall, this book felt like a fan-fiction of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce (but maybe more Jason Kelce). There was lots of flirty texting and banter throughout the book. I just didn't feel particularly connected to the characters or the story. I liked it, but it didn't feel "special."

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Perennial and Paperbacks | Harper Perennial for the opportunity to read an Advanced Reader's Copy (ARC) in exchange for my honest opinion/review.

This was a very challenging read for me. I had a really hard time connecting with the characters. The pacing was weird. The interactions between the 2 MCs was off to me. I didn't feel like they had a good connection or chemistry. The plot was MEH- more focused on the characters that I couldn't wrap my head around. We have Lacey who is a superstar and ends up having a random hookup in a dive bar in NYC- is that realistic?? I think not. Now she is wanting to stay in touch with her hookup Jimmy who she seems to know but at the same time knows nothing about baseball (confusing much??). Then we have Jimmy who is about to retire from the MLB but decides to see where this thing goes with the superstar that is Lacey. He is all in, then gets freaked out. He wants to go out with her but then realizes he can't handle it. He was too wishy washy for me. He made Lacey feel small and unimportant but then realized what he was losing and wanted her back. One good thing- this was a short one. Bottom line- I would not recommend.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I DNF'd this pretty quickly. I just couldn't get into it at all, the characters didn't feel relatable, and the present tense writing just kinda of threw me off. Unfortunately, not my favorite, though I typically love sports romances.

(Actual: 2.5⭐) I truly wanted to like this one SO BAD and I just..... ugh. I did not, I'm sorry. It wasn't so much that it was "bad" per se, but rather just.... meh? Underwhelming. While the premise/trope of a Celebrity x [Professional] Sports Player is certainly nothing new (and a trope I've honestly enjoyed in previous books I've read), HH is very much inspired by Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce— which would be *fine*.... if it weren't for the fact that it was so painfully obvious (changing the type of sport the MMC plays is simply not enough, okay??) 🙃Is the story a quick read and relatively easy to breeze through while on holiday? Sure. But that doesn't always necessarily make it good, which is what happened for me here. I don't follow sports much and, while I do listen to TS/enjoy her music, I wouldn't at all consider myself to be part of her huge fandom.... which is why for me, personally, to be able to see so blatantly what (predominately?) inspired this book and its plot..... well, it honestly just felt like reading mid-tier fanfic to me ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Outside of that, my other true qualm is how both MCs lacked (or had very few) qualities to them that made them feel like real people. There would be brief moments throughout the book where they would showcase some depth........ and then it'd be gone just as fast and they'd go back to being 2-dimensional caricatures. I also am just not a fan of insta-love (and it was laid on THICK here) or the [weird] use of other people's [side characters] trauma/hardships to prop up the MCs without actually taking the time to acknowledge or tackle it in any sort of meaningful way. I liked Cotugno's previous book, so I'll chalk this one up to just not being for me and still implore others to check it out for themselves in order to draw up their own conclusions.

This book was just ok for me. If you are looking for a "Taylor Swift/Travis Kelce" inspired love story, this fits the bill. The story felt rushed however, and the characters a bit one-dimensional. It's also quite heavy on the spice level, which isn't my typical reading fare.