Customer Reviews

Sliding Home (Richmond Rogues, Book 4)

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Kason Rhodes comes home from spring training to find Dayne Sheridan in his shower. Assuming the trailer was abandoned, and falling on hard times, she had taken residence in the trailer, to work on saving money and healing her broken heart (her fiance, a radio DJ, broke up with her on the air). Kason may play for the Rogues, but he is a Loner with a capitol L and wants her out. She has no where to go, and fights to stay.

I really enjoyed this book. The secondary story was just as interesting as Kason and Dayne's story, and I found myself again rooting for the Rogues, both on the field and off. For those of you who read and enjoyed Curveball, you see a lot of Psycho McMillan, who is my favorite of the "Bat Pack." There were more than a few laugh out loud moments (making love on poison ivy is never a good idea). I love sports romances, and have ready many many many! Kate Angell's Richmond Rogues are one of my favorites...right up there with Susan Elizabeth Phillips Chicago Stars and Dierdre Martin's New York Blades. I hope she continues to write more. They are now a definite auto buy for me.

This is a quick, fun story that will be great to read on that blessed first day of school when peace comes back to your house after a long summer of lots of noise. :)

Enjoy.

The Richmond Rogues is one of my favorite contempory romance series. I just wish that Angell would write them faster! Waiting a year is torture! Especially since every single one has been a keeper.

Sliding Home is no exception. The fourth book after Squeeze Play, Curveball, and Strike Zone. It features the moody/broody mobile-trail-home living-out-in-the-woods antisocial hero Kason Rhodes. He likes his peace, quite and solitary lifestyles until its disrupted by an unwelcome visitor. Looks like someone's been living in his trailer while he's been away at spring training. But Dayne, a tough talking tomboy, is no squatter. She found the abandoned trailer in the middle of the woods fair and square. And just to prove what a nice person she can be, she'll share some of her bulk foods and her comfort cooking with the good looking Kason. Its obvious that he's down on his luck, no money and no job. And Dayne knows exactly how that feels like. But Kason doesn't need anyone's charity. The Multimillion baseball player just likes living alone with his dog. He'll tolerate the sassy back talker until she can hitch up her stuff and leave. But soon he doesn't want her leaving. Dayne's the only person who's ever meant anything to the badass baseball player. What happens when she finds out she's been duped?

A keeper. Focuses more on a single romance than the previous books in the series, which is better IMHO. Kind hearted Dayne is an excellent foil to Kason's broody closed off nature. I enjoyed their romance though the secondary romance with Rhaden and Revelle (odd names?) is a bit lacking. All in all a great book. Light, fun and amusing romance. Good for a quick summer read. Recommended for light romance fans.

Loved the book, picked it up the first day is was available and read it in two days. I loved Kason & Dayne's story - saw a lot of Psycho in the book, was hoping to get
caught up with Risk and Jacy's but there was very little mentioned about them. Looking forward to Sweet Spot, hate to have to wait another year - does anyone know which Rogue the story
is going to be about? If you love the sports themed books by other authors you will love this one. It's spicy, but not over the top.

Kason Rhode is one of the toughest outfielders in the business. He is also one of the most secretive. Since the mid-season trade last year no one even knows where he lives. Which is why he is shocked when he returns home from six weeks of training camp to find a woman living in his trailer. He is further surprised to find not only is she unwilling to leave, but apparently doesn't recognize him. He is not heartless so he doesn't throw her out but instead barters for dinner knowing he will kick her out the next day. But, as days progress she just might be getting under his skin. He can see she has nothing, and thinks the same of him. Heck she has even hijacked Cimarron, his dog.

Dayne is nursing a broken heart from an extremely public breakup. She has vowed to go it alone and to not ever date a public figure again. When she finds the abandoned trailer she moves in and tries to make things her own. She never expected to find that someone lives there. So she claims squatter's rights and refuses to leave.

Will they be able to work out an arrangement so they can both live in the trailer? More importantly will they act on the obvious attraction between them, and how will Dayne take things when she learns what he really does for a profession?

Yeah! Kason gets a woman. I have been waiting for this moment from the first time we met him. And Ms. Angell has managed to create a woman for him that has even more spunk and audacity than Kason has himself, which in my book makes her perfect for him. I love how the story starts and it keeps me intrigued for the entire read. If you are a lover of baseball or just like a hot and athletic guy than Sliding Home is a must for you. If you are someone who loves a woman with spunk and will try to reason herself out of all situations, and not take handouts than you also need to add Sliding Home to your reading pile.


Tanya
Reviewed for Joyfully Reviewed

The continuing saga of the Richmond Rogues. This is the fourth of the series following Squeeze Play, Curveball, and Strike Zone (Love Spell).

Kason Rhodes joined the team in the last book, Strike Zone. He was on arch-rival team the St. Louis Colonels until a trade brought him to Richmond. He's a loner and not well liked on the team--he isn't buddies with any of them and likes it that way. He lives on a thousand acres on his own and it makes him happy.

Dayne Sheridan is down on her luck. She's been dumped--publically, left penniless, and unemployed. She finds an "abandoned" trailer in the middle of nowhere and makes it her home. Too bad it is already Kason's home. She refuses to leave and he doesn't have the heart to kick her out.

In the secondary romance, the first baseman has a crush on the team's publicity manager. There is a no fraternization rule for the team, but she is willing to break it only for him. He's been a playboy, but since he laid eyes on her, he only wants to settle down with her.

Like all the other books in the series, I really enjoyed this book. The book is a little humorous and a lot fun. The characters are likable and have great chemistry. My only complaint is that I always want more of the secondary couple. If you like the other books in the series, you will like this one, too.

I started this book late in the afternoon and stayed up until midnight to finish it the same day--I liked it that much.

I can't wait to get started on Santa, Honey which includes another Richmond Rogue story about rookie center Alex Boxer.

I didn't want this book to end. I love all of these Rogue books. I can't wait for the next one to come out. She always writes good characters that you care about. The women are never bitchy and the men are always yummy. The love scenes are just right. There's something about professional athletes that just make these stories so enjoyable to read. There's even a little side romance in this one so it's like you got 2 stories in 1. Both were great!

STORY BRIEF:
Kason is a major league baseball player for the Richmond Rogues. He is a loner, anti-social, rarely speaks and lives with his dog in a mobile home in a secluded wooded area. When he returns from six weeks of spring training, he finds Dayne living in his home. She thought his trailer had been abandoned and is claiming squatter's rights. She had been dumped by her fiancé who took their joint money and changed the locks on their home. She also lost her job doing promotion for his radio talk show. She is now looking for a job while working part-time at Frank's Food Warehouse. Using her employee discount, she stocks the mobile home with family size quantities of mac and cheese, hamburger, kool-aid, pudding, etc. She doesn't know who Kason is, and he lets her assume he is low on money and between jobs. She offers him some of her food and stays in the guest bed. His dog loves her. Kason wants her gone as soon as possible.

REVIEWER'S OPINION:
A quote on the book's cover says "Kate Angell is to baseball as Susan Elizabeth Phillips is to football." I would not say exactly the same, but they are similar. There is wonderful depth of relationship development. The events, conversations, main story, and secondary story are all good, some parts excellent. I didn't want to stop reading. This is my first Angell book. I did not find as much humor in this book as I've found in some of Phillips' books, but it was thoroughly enjoyable. There were a few chuckles and some heart softening moments. There was one funny line that I kept thinking about and chuckling over after reading the book. Page 261, Coach Dyson asks a question, and Psycho gives a funny answer. In general, neat characters, good story, entertaining.

DATA:
Story length: 277 pages. Swearing language: moderate. Sexual language: moderate. Number of sex scenes: 3. Total number of sex scene pages: 7. Setting: current day Richmond, Virginia and Louisville, Kentucky. Copyright: 2009. Genre: contemporary sports romance.

OTHER BOOKS:
To date, I've read the following Kate Angell books.

Richmond Rogues baseball series:
4 stars. Squeeze Play (Book 1) Copyrt 2006. Review Date 10-1-09.
4 stars. Curveball (Book 2) Copyrt 2007. Review Date 10-1-09.
3 stars. Strike Zone (Book 3) Copyrt 2008. Review Date 10-1-09.
5 stars. Sliding Home (Book 4) Copyrt 2009. Review Date 9-18-09.
3 stars. Ho, Humbug, Ho (in anthology Santa, Honey) Copyrt 2009. Review Date 10-4-09.

Other:
1 star. Calder's Rose Copyrt 2003. Review Date 12-1-09.

Richmond Rogues starting left fielder Kason Rhodes arrives home following spring training. However, he is in for a rude awakening upon opening the door to his mobile home. Dayne Sheridan lives there claiming squatter's rights as he obviously abandoned his abode.

He wants her out as the only companion he needs is Cimarron his dog. Dayne, who had sworn off men after a recent betrayal, keeps bribing him with food. However, she feels he is an unemployed squatter like her instead of the owner and a baseball star. As they fall in love, he fears he will strike out when she learns the truth as to who he is. He believess his Dayne will intentionally walk out on him.

The latest Rogues baseball romance continues the saga of a team apparently filled with bachelors enjoying the single life in Richmond finding true love (see STRIKE ZONE, CURVEBALL and SQUEEZE PLAY). The story line is faster than Ichiro Suzuki can run to first base or Ricky Henderson stealing a base; yet the characters including hot dog Cimarron are fully developed. Although similar in tone as a one pitch tale, SLIDING HOME is an engaging fast splitter sports romance as another Rogue falls in love.

Harriet Klausner

~* 4.5 Stars *~
Coming home from six weeks of spring training should have been relaxing for left fielder and loner Kason Rhodes. Unfortunately relaxing isn't an option when he finds a squatter in his double-wide trailer. And it isn't Goldilocks.

Dayne Sheridan, suffering from a bad and public breakup with a well known radio personality, is hiding out and licking her wounds. Short on funds but long on moxie, she found the empty double wide on her flight from Baltimore. She slipped in through the bathroom window, settled in, and got a part time job near by, letting the solitude of the woods around the trailer settle her soul. The settling was going well...until a forbidding Kason shows up and claims she's in his house.

Dayne fights for what she believes is hers. Kason just wants her gone so he can be alone. The unstoppable force meets the immovable object and both will be rocked by the experience.

By now I'm I big fan of the Richmond Rogues series, and I've been looking forward to Kason's story since he was introduced in the last book. Something about the quiet, intense, and solitary man appealed to me. After reading about his history and seeing his character evolve with Dayne, I'm even more pleased. I loved his story. I loved Dayne. She's my favorite of all the female leads in the series to date. Her independence, her generosity of heart, and a stubbornness that was solid but never slipped into annoying were all very appealing. She fit extremely well with the stoic Kason, drawing him out bit by bit in a pleasantly natural and organic way.

I was completely enchanted by both of them and was especially pleased that for the first time in the series, we were given a fully developed and broad story that didn't focus on much beyond the main romantic pairing. It allowed for a full exploration and development of both the characters and their relationship, something that had been missing in the preceding books. There was an ancillary relationship between the head of Rogues promotions department Revelle Sullivan and first basemen Rhaden Dunn, but it was very sparsely featured and the development was really too brief to detract from Kason's and Dayne's relationship. For me it ended up being more of a distraction than a supplement, unlike the secondary and ancillary relationships from the first three books.

Of course, Rhaden was adorable in his feelings for Revelle, his embarrassment in his reaction to her, his hope to start something with her, and then the sweet way he wooed her, but for all that I wish they'd either been given a bit more story to develop or had been left off entirely. I never really got much of a feeling about Revelle. She just wasn't given enough time to be clearly defined as a character for me, or offered enough room for her personality to really develop, and while I enjoyed her interactions with Rhaden, I didn't find her as endearing.

I wasn't totally thrilled with the conclusion of the book. The plot and story arc was going along very well, but towards the end the book took on an odd pacing and the narrative became almost summary-style. After a nice, thorough relationship development, Kason and Dayne were suddenly thrust into an abrupt conflict and subsequent resolution, all contained in a chapter or so. It felt rushed and I didn't think it did their story the justice it deserved. That's the only thing that truly kept this book from being a five star read for me, but even with that issue, Sliding Home is the best of the bunch so far, and I completely appreciated the depth and dimension allowed for Kason and Dayne's development.

For a light, fun, feel good sports romance you can't do much better than Kate Angell's Richmond Rogues. Even for readers who don't like baseball (like me), this series provides a lot of solid romance base hits, and this one slams it out of the park.

Reviewed for One Good Book Deserves Another.

This is the first book that i have read in the series Richmond Rogues by Kate Angell though it is the 4th book in the series, i was completely shocked to find that the book was more then enjoyable and that the writer had an incredible talent for blending the story between romance and baseball.

Kason Rhodes is just getting home from 6wks of training before the season starts and all he wants is to go into his trailer and eat something. But when he walks in he notices that someone is there he wonders who since his trailer is so far away from town. When he sees a woman come from the shower he freezes until he has to tackle her to stop from having more things thrown at him.

Dayne Sheridan was down on her luck, she was lucky to have found the abandoned looking trailer in the middle of nowhere when her car broke down. And when a man she doesnt know claims to own the tailor she fights for it claiming squatters right.

Dayne and Kason are in for a ride thats going to change their lives, they just dont know it yet.

Kate Angell is a wonderful author who is great at combining the baseball world and the players who are finding the loves of their lives, the book is a great read with fully developed characters and is written with great humor and fun. A great read for any romance lover, even for those who are not.

ash