About book Straight From The Heart (Loveswept, No 351) (2007)
Straight from the Heart is the first romance novel that I have read by Tami Hoag. I don't usually get too excited over romance novels, but I enjoy Hoag's other works so I figured why not try a romance. The only reason I picked it up to begin reading it last week was because I felt like reading a quick, short book and I thought this might do the trick. I was right. It was a very quick read, but it was severely predictable. You know the typical, general romance story line of a successful woman and a hunk of a man who date, break up because of some issue with trust, and in the end get back together and live happily ever after? Well, spoiler alert, that is exactly what happened in this book. That's the main story line. Throw in the facts that the man is a baseball player who was at the beginning a troublemaker, but turned his life around during the separation period of the relationship, and maybe toss in the additional cheesy side romance of the woman's father and the man's landlady, along with a few "roll your eyes" moments of predictability like, oh, everything that happened in the last chapter, and you have yourself the full story of Straight from the Heart. Don't get me wrong, it was a sweet, well written romance novel. Maybe if I was a true fan of this genre, I would have rated this book higher. If it was written by any other author, I would probably have given it only 2 stars, but I'll admit that since it's written by Tami Hoag, I bumped it up to 3. Recommended only if you like cheesy, predictable romance novels.
Stright From The HeartTami HoagRomance215 pagesFrom #1 New York Times bestselling author Tami Hoag comes this powerful novel of passion, heartbreak, and redemption—a story that celebrates our capacity to love one time, for all time, even in the face of adversity and change.They say that each of us becomes an entirely new person every seven years. But Rebecca Bradshaw doesn’t feel any different when an old lover shows up severely injured at the hospital where she runs the physical therapy department. Seven years ago baseball player Jace Cooper left her without a second thought or the chance to share the life-changing secret she swore she’d keep from him forever. Now he was back, wanting both her help and a second chance. Becca hadn’t changed, and she didn’t believe Jace had either, but as she helped him repair his broken body and his fractured past, she would find she was wrong on both counts. The only thing that had stayed the same was the most important thing of all—and now suddenly time was running out.
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Straight From The Heart is the third stand-alone novel by American author, Tami Hoag. Physical Therapist Becca Bradshaw is not pleased to see Jace Cooper back in town. Seven years ago he left town, leaving her broken-hearted, to pursue his baseball career. But a knee injury has seen him dropped from the big league, and he’s chosen her hospital Physical Therapy department to recover and prove he is still big league standard. It seems Jace has decided he needs to prove himself a changed man to Becca too. But Becca is once-bitten, so, hard to convince. And where does six-year-old Justin fit into the picture? What is this huge guilt Jace is carrying around? This is a sweet romance with a few twists. A very early Hoag book, perhaps a little slow-moving, far too much baseball, but nonetheless a fairly enjoyable read.
—Marianne
Oh, the cheese. This book has more cheese than... than... Wisconsin? Lines that will make you roll your eyes right on out of your head. I drive quite a bit these days so I've gotten back into audiobooks, and the library doesn't have the greatest collection, so I just choose randomly and hope for the best. I was willing to give this a 2, despite the cheese and the cliches and the bodice ripper tendencies... but near the end it angered me so and I have to give it a 1. The male "protagonist" can be a bit of an arse and a bully and kept harping on the woman for not being able to trust him, even though he did something fairly awful to her once upon a time. Of course she can't trust him, yet he gets all whiny and mean about it. And she gets all guilty and apologetic and just UGH. The book is repetitive with the same argument and angsty pondering occurring over and over. And if bodice ripper is for you... this might be an OK choice for you but I found it laughable and ridiculous in many places.
—Shannon Arehart
This was an enjoyable, light read. I liked the hero and the heroine, but wished their romance had been fleshed out a little more. Their conflict seemed to be resolved too easily. I also wish Jace's recovery from his knee injury would have been drawn out a little longer. I thought the premise of the story was great -- famous baseball player dumps physical therapist girlfriend when he hit the big leagues, then comes crawling back to her when he is injured in a car crash and realizes that he really loves her -- I just don't think the execution was all that great.
—Pam
