I love a story where the journey isn't just about the relationship. For Caroline Kline it is first and foremost a journey of self discovery and growth. It's well written albeit a little slow.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Welcome Home, Caroline Kline by Courtney Preiss centers on the messy life of Caroline Kline. Caroline thought she had it all together and suddenly she's homeless, fianceless, and jobless and to add to the issues her Dad is ill and wants her to come home. The story walks us through Caroline's dawning understanding that her choices have led her to some messy places. Caroline is frustrating and real. The romantic interest of Crispin is an interesting character but Caroline's journey is not about finding her way to a man but finding her way to herself.

I appreciated this story because of her journey . Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest opinion. Welcome Home, Caroline Kline is available now.

Thank you NetGalley and Courtney Preiss for the eARC of Welcome Home, Caroline Kline. I feel like this book really targets a certain group of people, unfortunately I am not that well versed in the softball world. So much of this was really boring to me. I found it difficult to feel the relationship between the main characters because of this.

New Jersey and baseball are two of my favorite topics so I anticipated enjoying this, but WOW did I L O V E this 1/3-life crisis/Saturn return/mitzvah story. This is a fresh take on the hot-mess-heroine's-life-is-ruined-in-a-single-day trope. And friends: Caroline Klein is a mess, and her story is raw and painful at times but also witty and observant and filled with moments so tangibly relatable it feels like someone peeked into your brain. Somehow this little book had me reflecting on hometown pull, the ones that get away, whirlwind friendships, drinking culture, the mortifying ordeal of being the youngest child, and more, while giving all the salty breeze through an open window at night/grass stains on my knees that won't mean a thing/sticky popsicle hands vibes a girl could crave in a Jersey Shore book.

Note: don't go into this expecting a romance with tropes and BookTok quotes and open door shenanigans. This is solidly contemporary fiction with a dash of romance.

Also of note: out of the goodness of my heart I have decided to not deduct a star for the main character being a Yankees fan. Karma is my boyfriend etc but also #LFGM

Courtney Preiss’ debut novel WELCOME HOME CAROLINE KLINE was a fun read! I throughly enjoyed everything about it - the Jerseyness, Bruce Springsteen, baseball and Jewish rep. We watch Caroline return home to New Jersey after a breakup, losing her job and to help her dad with health issues. She also subbed for her dad in the local baseball league team. While this was labeled as a romance - it did covered serious issues such as health issues, alcohol dependency/drugs addiction, sexism/harassment. Caroline struggling with “what’s next” in her life made her seem very real and messy, but the growth was rewarding too. I loved the writing style, I was glued and intrigued to see where this went and wished the book was longer! I also went out on pub day to buy a physical book. I look forward to more books from this author in the future. Thank you to NetGalley and G.P. Putnam’s Sons for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

“The pull of knowing the right thing to do but the compulsion to do the wrong thing anyway had, I feared, always been particularly strong in me.”

This was a heart-warming debut just in time for summer! I must admit this one took me awhile to get into it and to warm up to the characters, but once the softball season started, I found myself cheering for Caroline and her team!

Speaking of Caroline, she has a lot of growing up to do in the beginning of the story, but she has great character growth throughout the book. In the end, you can’t help but want her to succeed. As someone that embraces fashion and moved away from my small town, she really spoke to me. She wanted to move to the big city and thought she had to do so to be successful. However, she discovers success can happen in a variety of places and situations.

While this book did have some great laugh out loud moments, it also dealt with larger issues like sexism, harassment and addiction. The sexism and harassment Caroline experienced on the ball field was frustrating and maddening. But, it did make me cheer even harder for her to succeed and win over the hearts of her teammates. Also, Crispin’s character showed the struggles of addiction and the crutch that alcohol had become in Caroline’s life, as well.

Sometimes our life does not follow the path we have envisioned, and this book explores how it can be rewarding, fulfilling and successful just the same! Overall it was a wonderful story of second chances and forgiveness.

Thank you @netgalley and @putnambooks for my e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

QUOTES –
“Trying to convince someone to love you back when they’ve already made up their mind is like reaching rock bottom and attempting, still, to gnaw through the subfloor.”

“Telling the truth even when it’s easier to lie has been one of the biggest game changers for me.”

Caroline is in transition, she’s quit her job and broken her lease in order to move to LA with her boyfriend - but then he suddenly dumps her and she is homeless and jobless. While sleeping on her best friends couch trying to figure out her next move, her stepmother calls to tell Caroline that her father has fallen and they need her to move back home to the Jersey Shore to help while he recovers AND to be his substitute for his beloved baseball team (a girl has never played on the men’s league before). Moving back home comes with all the baggage one would expect (especially without a job and now that she is single again), and the baseball team has a lot of, shall we say, old fashioned views on how the game should be played (and a female on the team is not high on their list). Caroline has to forge a new path for her life and hopefully an old flame can help.

I was excited for this one since the Jersey Shore is a fun location for a novel, but this one had a few flaws I just couldn’t fully get past. Besides not being totally able to buy into the premise, I also didn’t love the main character and cringed watching her make some terrible choices. That being said, there were some cute moments throughout and I enjoyed some parts quite a lot. I think maybe the author was trying to tackle too many things in one story - alcoholism, taking care of an ill parent, divorce, misogyny…While I didn’t love it I would be up for trying the author’s next novel.

3.5 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and G.P. Putnum’s Sons for the ARC to review

It took me three weeks to read this fairly average-length book, which says a lot about how I felt about it. I kept picking up other books in the meantime. I just didn’t find the main character, Caroline Kline, likable or relatable. Her insecurities and frustrations with her life led her to continue to make bad decisions. There is some redemption at the end, but I didn’t feel that the last 20% of the book made up for the first 80%.

Thank you to Penguin Group - Putnam and NetGalley for the ARC.

First, thank you to PENGUIN GROUP Putnam | G.P. Putnam's Sons and NetGalley for providing me with an early copy to read and review.

The first half of the book was a drag for me to read, because I didn’t particularly care for the main character. Eventually I came around on her and could appreciate the story arc.

Overall, an alright read that tackles some tough topics and had a satisfying conclusion.

2.5 stars! This was just a little less than okay... Someone else might enjoy it more than I did, but I couldn't really connect to Caroline as a main character, and the driving plot point felt flimsy to me.

I wasn't really compelled by the small town softball storyline, and didn't find Caroline very likable. She "has everything" and then "has nothing" and I expected more growth and to have more compassion for her while reading, but just didn't. A little disappointing, and Caroline just kept on making bad decision after bad decision! She's completely regressed by the end of the book.

Thank you Netgalley and G.P. Putnam Sons for an arc of Welcome Home Caroline Kline by Courtney Preiss. Caroline moved from NYC to help her father in her hometown in NJ. He fell and needs a little help there, but really he wants her to take his place on a softball team that he has played on for years and help them win the World Series. Her dad and the family are huge Yankees fans and the passion for baseball is strong in this book. It’s a fun read for anybody who loves sports and romantic comedies.

"Welcome Home, Caroline Kline" falls short of its promise. The characters lack depth, the plot is predictable, and the writing lacks engagement. It's a disappointing read that fails to deliver on its initial premise of exploring identity and family dynamics. If you're looking for a compelling story, you'll likely find it elsewhere.

This was a DNF for me.

Caroline Kline probably isn't the most likeable character but her story is. Like some, she's lost her way - lost her fiance, her job, her apartment - you get the picture. And there was a reason for some of the loss, but what she has is a family that won't let her wallow in what's wrong.

I enjoyed the banter with the men's league softball players along with the experience of trying to fit in. I didn't like the way Caroline treated her friends but the experience also provided growth. What I really enjoyed is the author's style of writing! This is the first book I've ready by Courtney Preiss but will definitely look for her next book.

All in all, I liked the story and hope Caroline continues down the path she found at the end.
Thanks to G.P. Putnam's Sons and NetGalley for the opportunity read and review the book. Thoughts and opinions are my own.

Welcome home Caroline Kline was a sweet story. Felt very hallmark movie with a move home and the struggles she faced. I always love a Jewish, bisexual book and will never pass one up. However, I never truly fell in love with Caroline the character.

3.5/5

Sadly not as charming and fun as the cover presents it to be. There is occasionally some wonderful writing about an individual adrift and looking for purpose on these pages, but overall I found this to be a letdown. Although I'm hesitant to label Caroline as unlikable because I don't mind a main character with a penchant for being messy, it was frustrating how she repeatedly made rash decisions and showed little in the way of character growth until the very end. Between being recently broken up with and jobless, grappling with the reality of family health problems by moving back to her hometown to help, facing the uphill battle of taking her father's place on the local men's softball league, and reuniting with both her first love as well as a close friend turned rival, this tale juggles too many plots to handle all of them in a satisfying manner. The romantic storyline in particular leaves a lot to be desired as I didn't find Crispin to be that interesting aside from his journey with sobriety or sense much chemistry between him and Caroline. I also failed to see what was so great about her life in New York City to understand why she was so insistent on eventually returning to it for most of the book, and the flashbacks included provide context yet feel unnecessarily long. Justice for Robbie Walker, who seemed like a genuinely good guy that no one seemed to fully appreciate.

Caroline Kline ends up back in the New Jersey town she thought she escaped from, living and working in Manhattan. Preparing to leave for LA with her boyfriend, finding a replacement for her job, Caroline ends up with nothing after her boyfriend breaks up with her. Returning home with her tail between her legs, Caroline has to cope with the reality of her father’s illness, as well as running into people from her past. Getting involved with recreational softball gives Caroline a purpose, but will she adjust to this new life? I enjoyed the story. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

I went into this book kind of blind just assuming it would be a fun easy second chance-ish baseball romance book but it was so much more than that.

For Caroline Kline, it started out as just a game but it ended up being the reset she so desperately needed without even realizing it. She was able to come to grips with all the recent changes in her life that happened in such a short period of time and she was able to envision a future she could feel comfortable with.

I liked how Caroline struggled because it was so so relatable for every millennial it seems. Life doesn’t always go as you envisioned it and sometimes it really kicks you in the butt and you need help getting back on your feet. Going home, albeit reluctantly, was just what Caroline needed to mentally and physically reset.


Thank you @putnambooks and @netgalley for this eARC in exchange for my honest feedback

Caroline Kline's dream life in the city is slowly falling apart. Dream job, perfect boyfriend, apartment and social life- slipping through her fingers..Now her dad is ill & she is being asked to move home to New Jersey to help care for him. The last thing she wants to do is face all the people who never left her hometown. To make it worse , her dad wants her to reprise her teenage softball career to save his beloved local team. But sometimes we find our dreams where we least expect.

I enjoyed this book and Caroline's journey. I think most of us can relate and maybe be inspired by her growth.
Thanks to NetGalley and Courtney Preiss ,and Penguin Random House for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Caroline’s life has blown up - her relationship recently ended and now she has no job, nowhere to live, and no plan. To make it all worse, her father injures himself in a bad fall. She moves back to her childhood home to help, but he has one more request - that she takes his spot on his local men’s softball team. This is his team’s year to have a real chance at winning the World Series. She’s met with challenges and resistance every step of the way, including reconnecting with her first love, as well as confronting her former best friend.

Caroline truly is a hot mess character and at times it was cringe-worthy to read the decisions she was making. In some ways it drove me crazy, but in some ways I could relate - how many of us have had our own sort of quarter life crisis filled with impulsive decisions we now regret? I know I definitely had my moments in my 20s. She really won me over in the way she came into her own on the softball team - a team filled with tradition and one that really didn’t want her there as a woman. I loved how she handled herself and the men on the team and I was rooting for big wins from her the whole time. I appreciated her transformation and how her life path drastically changed through the course of this story.

Thank you to Putnam Books and NetGalley for the advance copy.

Caroline Kline finds herself jobless, homeless, and single when the boyfriend she was going to move to California with suddenly breaks up with her. It's a tragedy as is, but then she finds herself back in her childhood home playing in her father's softball league as he recuperates from a nasty fall. Now Caroline has to deal with awfully misogynistic men on the field as she tries to figure out what she's going to do with her life outside of it. It's a good thing that a ghost from her past happens to be in town trying to figure out his life too.

It's a great story of personal growth that also comes with a message about fighting for your right to be a part of something. I could have done without the awful harassment and misogyny Caroline constantly faces and how everyone just ignores it, but I get that it's a big part of the story. There's a terrific moment when a lightbulb goes on for Caroline about the situation she's in with the league that really brings the story to a very satisfactory close.

My one complaint is that the romance angle is a little lacking because you don't get to see Caroline and Crispin actually develop a relationship. It's little mentions and tiny snapshots that show how great they can be together and how they push and complement each other, but we don't get to enjoy the parts about them getting to know each other after so many years apart. It feels like getting half the story.

Even so, I enjoyed following along as Caroline figured herself out and accepted to let go of some things and embrace others. There are some great moments and messages in her rebuilding story.

Very happy thanks to NetGalley and G.P. Putnam's Sons for the excellent read!