I wanted to like this book. The premise was good. I love a good hometown redemption story. This one wasn’t that. I wasn’t able to finish as the book was bogged down by too much detail and not enough movement in the story. I’m fine with watching a baseball game. I don’t need to read one too.

Thanks for the free audio PRHAudio and for an eARC Netgalley & Penguin Group Putnam.

Welcome Home, Caroline Kline by Courtney Preiss
Read by Mara Wilson

Caroline escaped her hometown in NJ for Manhattan a decade ago with no plans to return. She quit her dream job and was set to move to LA with her boyfriend to start their forever life together. However, he breaks things off right before the move, leaving her jobless and broke and unsure what to do.

When her dad has a fall, her family asks her to come home and help and she can’t say no. It’s also requested she take his place on his men’s softball team which has a shot at the championship. That was an adventure.

She’s unhappy and unsettled, the team hates her and she drinks a little more than she should and gets pulled over. She knows she needs to make some changes, and that process leads her into the path of her former teen crush. And some romance ensues.

While there was romance, this was really Caroline’s story of growth. Does she stumble along the way? Obviously. And you will question her choices at times.

A lovely journey and an amazing debut!

I received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review…

Oh boy. This book was insanely boring. I kept waiting for it to get good and it just didn’t. There was a lot to work with but it was too hard to keep up. It read like someone telling their best friend a story from back home but instead of their best friend it’s a total stranger and they have no clue what you’re talking about. This book had 1000s of names. Team names, company names, owner names, players names, bands, singers, old friends, new friends, exes, etc… there were WAY too many names mentioned. Eventually it started to run all together and I was just over it. I could not keep up with who or what those names belonged to.

The baseball stuff could have been really fun and interesting! A woman playing on a men’s team!! but it wasn’t. She acted like one of the guys. She didn’t seem to care much about it at all. Not even for her father could she get her act together. WHY? The baseball stuff may have taken up a lot of pages but it was only an excuse to get Caroline home. It was really a secondary story.

Caroline is 29 years old and her life is a complete mess. The character is just so unlikeable. There is no growth. She makes mistakes and makes more mistakes and on and on until the book ends. I fully expect that there isn’t a happily ever after because she doesn’t have any realizations about life she just kind of goes with whatever is in front of her. She had zero passion about anything and at 29, I just feel like she should know a bit more of what she wants out of life. Besides the guy. I usually don’t have issues relating to characters no matter how old they are but I could not enjoy this book. I felt like she was more younger 20s vs nearly 30!

Caroline’s father - Leo, is obsessed with baseball. It doesn’t seem like he cares about anything else in the world. Also, why does Caroline call her father by his name? That’s bizarre to me.

I guess Crispin is the love interest, he’s not the male main character. I believe that would be Leo. Crispin is a recovering alcoholic/substance abuser and he’s trying to make himself better. Caroline has been in love with him since she was a teen. I can’t really say much about him, I don’t feel like we got to know him very well. He shares some stories but they didn’t make me like him. I was just indifferent towards everyone.

Overall, there was so much potential but no execution. I did not enjoy this story, I kept scrolling through trying to find the next important part of the story but couldn’t find anything so I went back and continued where I left off.

Enjoyable read about a girl who returns home after a breakup and to help after her father has an accident. The dad convinces his daughter to join his beloved men’s softball team and the fun begins.

Thank you Netgalley and Putnam for the chance to read and review this book.

Caroline Kline is 100% sure that you can't go home again, and despite living in NYC she rarely goes back to her hometown on the Jersey Shore. She is running out of options personally, financially, and professionally, when her father has a fall and asks her to come home. He also asks her to take his place on the men's' league softball team because this is the year his team will win the championship.

For the first half of the book, Caroline is pretty awful to her stepmom, to the people in town, to herself. She also has to deal with a bunch of jerks on the ballfield. Eventually, reluctantly, she makes some changes. She also starts to look at things from other people's point of view and develops some empathy and reaches out instead of always deflecting. At the end of the book, I was rooting so hard for her.

Thank you to PENGUIN GROUP Putnam | G.P. Putnam's Sons and NetGalley for the advance reader copy. I am required by law to disclose this.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the chance to read this inspiring and witty book! The book centers on Caroline Cline who ends up back home at the Jersey Shore after her father injures himself and she ends up replacing him in his local softball league. It's always nice seeing a woman in a more male dominate field. I'm not a big sports person but I was still able to keep up and enjoy the story. It focuses on second chances, family, and empowering yourself.
I highly recommend it!

**Many thanks to Shelf Awareness, Penguin - Putnam, and Courtney Preiss for an ARC of this book provided via NetGalley!**

"Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack
I don't care if I never get back" - Take Me Out To The Ballgame

Caroline Kline definitely cares if she never gets back to her New Jersey hometown...in fact, she'd prefer it that way. But after her ex blindsides her with a sudden breakup and all the plans she had made to start a life with him were in vain, she has no job, no direction...and in some respects, very little hope. She pursues random hookups to occupy her time, but feels a sort of emptiness that she just can't explain. All of that personal strife gets pushed to the back burner, however, when her elderly father Leo suffers a nasty fall...and Caroline must make the long journey back to her hometown to help support him.

What this also involves, however, is Caroline taking her father's place...on an all-male softball team. The team thinks they have a shot at the World Series this year, so her involvement is met with skepticism (to say the least) but she is determined to try to give it her all.

...Until one night, when a few too many drinks causes Caroline to end up getting in trouble with the law and she ends up at an AA class...and sees none other than her high school crush Crispin in the class too. Caroline is shocked to see him, but even more surprised at the lingering feelings that remain from so many years ago. In her quest to reconcile her newly single self (and a self now on a road to recovery, no less!) she finds herself bonding with Crispin...but doesn't want to put too much stock in the perceived connection, with Crispin's gorgeous bandmate hanging around. Crispin tells her he cannot date until he's made it through a year of recovery...but is that REALLY the reason...or is he simply trying to let her down easy? Will Caroline find what her heart is looking for locked away with her memories in her childhood bedroom? And can she convince The Guys that this GIRL can play ball with the best of them...and maybe even snag the BIGGEST victory of all?

This is Courtney Preiss' debut, so with no point of reference, the premise alone was enough to pull me in...although I PROBABLY should have read the blurb a bit more carefully (since I am pretty much the last person on earth I would declare a 'baseball fan.') A good coming of age story, with a late twenty-something MC who returns home to reconcile the heartache and disappointments from her past, however?

THAT you can sign me up for time and time again.

However, this book felt more like a amalgam of themes and ideas...and while some of them clicked for me, others either felt out of place entirely or in the case of the (many) baseball scenes, overly drawn out and needlessly detailed..

From the off, we are introduced to Caroline via her dating life, which post breakup involves meeting men from apps and grabbing drinks with her bestie in NYC (many, MANY drinks sometimes) and Caroline's attempts to sort of 'fill the void' that had been left by her ex. I actually found these chapters pretty engaging, and they seemed to point at a certain complexity and a battle of the angel on my shoulder vs. devil on my shoulder, partaking in behaviors that are somewhat destructive but knowing at the same time that she deserved better...just not how to find it. Once Caroline got the call to return home though, the narrative took a pretty sharp turn into her relationship with her family, which again, was still interesting....and then we got to the sports.

...Sigh.

As much as I was hoping to feel 'part of the team', as it were, the crotchety old men and all of the machinations of the games themselves were SO DRAWN OUT, I felt like I was sitting at an ACTUAL baseball game...and unfortunately in my book, that isn't a compliment. I know Caroline had to have a reason to go home and an objective to shoot for once she arrived there, but I just wish it hadn't been sports...or at least, not this sport. The men were sort of awful to Caroline (unsurprisingly) so not only were the ins and outs of the games painfully long and seemingly unimportant to the plot, I'll be honest, a couple of weeks after finishing this book, I hardly even REMEMBER the outcome of the final game...THAT'S how unimportant I felt it was to the whole book.

What that points to more than anything else was that Caroline as a character had so much potential and seemed at first to have moved beyond her high school years and failings...but when she returns to that environment, everything sort of comes rushing back and she makes mistake after mistake, seemingly learning from NONE of them. As someone who started off this book really liking Caroline and finding her intriguing (she even randomly tosses in a spicy tidbit from a short lived affair with a WOMAN...and then this is sort of brushed aside a few pages later(!) I was disappointed to watch her sort of fall into traps of her own making over and over, only stepping away from bad habits entirely at the LAST possible moment, every time. I also would have liked to see more of Caroline's relationship with her family and there were glimmers and glimpses of this tossed in along the way, but between Caroline's addiction issues (which also seemed to reach a fever pitch out of nowhere after seeming fairly innocuous in early chapters), her will-they-won't-they with Crispin, and dealing with problematic people from her past...there was a LOT crammed in, and exploring the idiosyncrasies and the psychology of Caroline's life choices was probably not first on Preiss' list. (Honestly, I'm not sure it made the list...but as a former psych minor, I SO wish it had!)

In every baseball game, there's a seventh inning stretch, by which time my grumbling about sitting at a baseball game has reached a fever 'pitch' (if you will) and I'm just about ready to tap out and beat the rush out of the parking lot. In the case of Caroline Kline, though she may have made it through ALL 9 innings, and also made it 'home'....I just couldn't QUITE call it a home run.

3.5 stars

Caroline Klein is full of contradictions. She’s a hot mess yet a total cool girl. She’s amazing at her job yet unemployed. She’s bold and takes no prisoners yet easily embarrassed and unsure. She hates going home but loves her family. She’s heartbroken yet falling in love again with her childhood crush. She’s a drinker but being sober might work better for her. She’s a big city girl with her heart in her hometown, hidden away deep to keep anyone from finding it too quickly (including herself). I loved her and I wish she was real so we could be friends in real life. I found myself reading this book and saying out loud “nooooo Caroline!!!” then cheering her on one page later.

I loved this book so much. It was quick moving, witty, endearing, and made me want to listen to good music and take a trip to the Jersey shore. Courtney did such a wonderful job picking up moments and feelings that are so relatable to anyone trying to figure stuff out. At a baseball game, I’m usually there for the hot dogs and beer but I thought the story set against the local baseball league worked so well with the dynamics and personalities of the different characters. And what a cast of small town characters! Courtney did Jewish comedians everywhere proud with the nonstop one-liners. I recognized myself and my community within Caroline and hers, and I think the same would be true for anyone who reads this book, regardless of when or how you grew up.

This is a great summer book and such an enjoyable read. Highly recommend! Thanks to Putnam and NetGalley for the eARC.

Welcome Home Caroline Kline by Courtney Preiss is kind of a coming of age story. Caroline was in the middle of the worst month of her life. In anticipation of her move to California with her long-time boyfriend, she had quit her job, cancelled the lease on her apartment, and discovered that he was still going but she had been uninvited. She was now couching it at her best friend, Winnie’s, apartment. Then she got a call from her step-mother. Her father had fallen and was badly hurt. She lived in Manhattan and they in New Jersey so it was not a difficult journey in miles, but infinite in emotions. She made it there to find out he was gravely injured but that what he really wanted was for her to substitute for him on his softball team. She was aghast. Seriously? But this was important to her and so she acquiesced. She really had nothing else to do. But, she was not that great a player. Her sister Harper was, but she lived in California with her husband and two small children. It started off rough. She was out of practice. The men didn’t want her there. Some were as old as her dad but some were younger, some even her age. But they were not nice. Nor was she. One night she drank too much and got pulled over. Then, her reformation and a new life, began.

Leaving home becomes an obsession to many people: a right of passage. So it was for Caroline and she was not anxious to go back. She was still hurt and furious at being jilted and reacted poorly when the time came. She nearly ruined her chances with a boy/man she’d liked since she was thirteen. She disrespected the baseball team and on and on. But she came around, slowly. She is a great character. Most of us are not Jersey girls but we can empathize. It was book, dragging us back to the time when we were younger and not as smart as we are today. Thanks Courtney Preiss for the reminder!

I was invited to read Welcome Home Caroline Kline by Penguin Group Putnam. All thoughts and opinions are mine. #Netgalley #PenguinGroupPutnam #CourtneyPreiss #WelcomeHomeCarolineKline

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for this ARC publication for an honest review.

This book seemed like something I would enjoy. Romance, baseball, second chance romance, family dynamics...but the execution did not meet my expectations. From the first page (a sexual encounter in a vehicle with a stranger) ...it just didn't get much better. Our female lead just wasn't someone I liked. I can usually gain some kind of a connection by the end of a book even from a messy protagonist, but Caroline just didn't feel like she developed into someone I could fully root for. The family/side characters didn't get me invested either. There was a lot of language, sexual promiscuity, and a lot of bad choices. The romance was too little and no deep pull for our couple.

Maybe it was just a me situation, but this book was not a hit for me.

2 stars

Sadly, this was not the book for me. The pacing was off and it felt way too long for a short book which is never a good sign.

"Welcome Home, Caroline Kline" is a poignant and heartwarming novel that explores themes of love, loss, and the power of forgiveness. Written by Courtney Preiss this emotionally resonant story follows the journey of Caroline Kline as she returns to her hometown after years of self-imposed exile, confronting the ghosts of her past and rediscovering the true meaning of home.

At the heart of the narrative is Caroline Kline, a complex and compelling protagonist whose struggles and triumphs will resonate with readers on a deeply personal level. Haunted by painful memories and unresolved guilt, Caroline embarks on a journey of self-discovery and healing, propelled by the desire to reconcile with her estranged family and reclaim her sense of belonging.

One of the novel's greatest strengths lies in its richly drawn characters, each with their own hopes, fears, and flaws. From Caroline's stoic yet compassionate father to her spirited and resilient childhood friend, every character feels authentic and fully realized, adding depth and nuance to the story.

Moreover, "Welcome Home, Caroline Kline" is distinguished by its evocative prose and vivid sense of place. Set against the backdrop of a small, close-knit community, the novel captures the sights, sounds, and smells of rural life with breathtaking clarity, immersing readers in the world of Caroline's hometown and inviting them to experience its joys and sorrows alongside her.

As Caroline navigates the complexities of family dynamics and confronts long-buried secrets, the novel explores universal themes of redemption, forgiveness, and the enduring power of love. Through moments of heartache and triumph, readers are reminded that healing is possible, even in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles.

In conclusion, "Welcome Home, Caroline Kline" is a captivating and emotionally resonant novel that will tug at the heartstrings of readers from beginning to end. With its unforgettable characters, lyrical prose, and timeless themes, this book is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit and the transformative power of love. Whether you're a fan of heartfelt family dramas or simply in search of a beautifully written story, this book is sure to leave a lasting impression.

As a former softball player who would do anything for her dad (except practice when he told me to), I adored this book.

I do think the sports theme will bore you if you’re not a baseball fan, but the petulant-20-something-moves-back-in-with-her-parents-in-her-small-hometown storyline really pulled at my own small-town heartstrings.

The author is a debut author, and I’m so impressed with how she pulled this all together (alcoholism, family drama, long lost preteen crush, growing apart from friends, etc.). Can’t wait to see what she does next.

One more note: this isn’t a romance. The first chapter goes down this path, and then wildly veers directions. It was very clear to me…. But I’ve seen several reviews calling it a romcom, so wanted to raise the flag.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy!

A heartfelt debut with a seriously adorable cover. Caroline finds herself in a predicament after she loses her job, relationship and home. When her dad is injured he asks her to return home not to care for him but to take his place on third base in a men’s softball league. Returning home puts her back in touch with her first love. As she returns home she can finally figure out what she wants out of life. This was a cute one!

Huge thank you to #putnam and @netgalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to PENGUIN GROUP Putnam | G.P. Putnam's Sons and NetGalley for the ARC!

Anytime I can read a book with true emotion, character development, a little humor, and female empowerment - I am in! This checked all of those boxes for me, and with witty writing to top it all off.

A great start for a debut!

Thanks to Netgalley and PENGUIN GROUP Putnam for the E-Bok. While this was a solid book there was not much else for me. I totally enjoyed a lot of the parts but found Caroline to be childish at some points of the book. I enjoyed the baseball aspect of it and I really did enjoy the journey that Caroline found herself on to become a better person.

While her own life is in a state of upheaval, Caroline returns to her hometown to help her dad. The return home is fraught with complications and Caroline struggles with her relationships and with finding a direction for her life. Overall this story didn’t hold my attention as well as I would have hoped but I think the characters were well written and I wanted to know how their story ended.

I enjoyed reading Welcome Home, Carolyn Kline.
It was entertaining, went at a fast pace, left me wanting to read more, and described New Jersey perfectly. Caroline is requested to return home after he father has a fall and can't continue playing on his softball team. Caroline is jobless, homeless and had recently broke up with her boyfriend. Caroline will make you mad on some of her decisions she makes but you will also be cheering her on from the sidelines.
This is a book I recommend. I will definitely keep looking for the next book written by this debut novel, Courtney Preiss.
Thanks to Net Gallery for the ARC.

I wanted to love this book, but I did like it! Seeing Caroline come out having overcome so many of her struggles felt very triumphant. However, I think this book could have really benefited from slightly different pacing. It felt like the story got a bit sidetracked and tangental at points, which both threw off the pacing and carried me away from the central story. However, this was very entertaining and I did enjoy it.

Caroline Kline has been left behind by her long term boyfriend right as they were about to move to California together. While she's trying to pick up the pieces of her NYC life in the wake of her heartbreak, she gets a call that her dad has taken a fall. With nothing tying her to New York anymore, she heads back to central New Jersey to help him. What he really wants most is for her to take his place on his softball team and take them to the championships. Caroline is back in a town she couldn't wait to leave, playing a sport she has a complicated relationship with, and the hits just keep coming.

There were so many things I loved about this book. As a Yankees fan and a Springsteen lover with a lot of ties to central NJ, this book had so many references that made me feel like I was visiting with family. There were a couple of story lines that I wish had a little more attention, but overall this is a great summer read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam for the ARC of Welcome Home, Caroline Kline.