Absolutely loved this one! Baseball romances always hits different. It was so cute and I would def recommend it to any sports romance girlie.

Maggie, a sports photographer finds herself in a fake dating relationship with Tommy, a playboy professional baseball player needing a PR upgrade. Both of them have avoided relationships for different reasons. Both of them help each other confront past traumas. Both of them find themselves falling in love with each other. Sigh. It’s like the perfect fake dating to falling in love scenario with a baseball twist. A quick, fun read with well-written characters that show a lot of growth.

⚾️💘 Book Review: First Base by Ally Wiegand 💘⚾️

She’s behind the camera. He’s in the spotlight. 📸
What happens when a fake relationship starts to feel very real? 💕

Maggie Redford is a baseball team photographer with zero interest in drama—until one picture with hotshot player Tommy Mikals goes viral. Suddenly, they’re “dating” to keep the press at bay… but the chemistry? As the lines blur between pretend and real, can they make it past first base? ⚾️💑
⠀
🔥 Fake dating
💋 Enemies-ish to lovers
📷 Workplace romance
⚾ Sports + heart

This slow-burn romance is packed with heart, humor, and all the feels. If you love fake dating, redemption arcs, and workplace chemistry, this one's for you!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
⠀
#FirstBase #AllyWiegand #SportsRomance #FakeDatingTrope #RomanceBooks #BaseballRomance #Bookstagram #EnemiesToLovers #RomComReads #BookReview #SlowBurnRomance

This book was so cute, fun, and lighthearted! It had it's flaws within the writing, but overall, I found myself having a fun time reading it! The plot was incredibly fast paced and didn't require much building/development. I found myself really relating to our main character, Maggie, and her grief patterns throughout the book. I loved watching her grow into a woman capable of trust and love once again! 3.5 stars!!

Cute story with a happy ending, which is always necessary! Felt like the characters were trying too hard to be “good,” and it was like an insta-change sort of situation, which I sometimes find cringy. Tommy was the bad boy playboy and suddenly, he just wasn’t. Maggie’s character was a good one overall, especially in the middle of the book towards the end. Overall, not a bad book - I enjoyed it!

This book was cute, and a fun read. I feel like you got what you expected with this book, but I did very much enjoy it, Perfect for April and the beginning of baseball season.

i fear this was a dnf for me. it could've been the wrong time and the right book, but i know there are some people out there that will love it!

Thanks Netgalley for allowing me to read this book! The title and this beautiful cover drew me in and i was excited to read this book! I will be recommending this book to others for readers advisory.

Love love love!! Fake dating is one of my favorite tropes ever because it's so easy to fall for the characters as they fall for each other. Maggie and Tommy are no exception! I am A hopeless romantic and loved that this romance wasn't filled with descriptive sexual scenes. Everyone needs a light fluffy read once in a while and this is the one! I cannot Wait to see where this series goes. Great job Ally!

Thsi was a fun sports genre romance with great characters who are now part of a series. It should be worth continuuing

We love a FAKE TAKING SPORT ROMANCE BOOK! This please every single day! I love the characters Ally gave us with a book with high stakes and served the homerun with Tommy and Maggie. The stakes were high for Tommy and how he and Maggie fell in love, because of course there is a ride to a HEA was so good! These two were cuties from the start and it gave us all the feels we need! I love their forced moments that turned into something more with the fake dating aspect! We love this book and hope to share more with our customers!

Clearing out the NetGalley backlog and… this one just didn’t hit.

📕 𝗕𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗜𝗻𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: First Base by Ali Wiegand

📙 𝗦𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀: Chicago Heartbreakers character series. Book 1.

📗 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗗𝗲𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗹𝘀: E-book ARC from Netgalley and audiobook through Hoopla.

📘 𝗚𝗲𝗻𝗿𝗲: Sports romance

📔 𝗧𝗿𝗼𝗽𝗲𝘀: Baseball, reformed bad boy, grief journey, fake dating.

📖 𝗦𝘆𝗻𝗼𝗽𝘀𝗶𝘀: Tommy is the bad boy of baseball who is trying to shed his image. Maggie is the team photographer. They’re seen together by the press and forced into a PR relationship to help both of their careers.

🌟 𝗥𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄: Try as I might, I just couldn’t get into this book.

The book writing was just ok, but outside of that the story just felt forced. A lot of miscommunication that made my eyes roll. It kind of felt like one of those romances that just “check the boxes” - tragic backstories, one bed, emotional moments, miscommunication leading to a third act breakup.

It didn’t help that the audio had some editing issues as well, which distracted me several times.

𝗥𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴: 3/5 ⭐⭐⭐

𝗦𝗽𝗶𝗰𝗲 𝗟𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹: 2.5/5 🌶🌶

𝑰 𝒓𝒆𝒄𝒆𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒅 𝒂𝒏 𝑨𝑹𝑪 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒃𝒐𝒐𝒌 𝒊𝒏 𝒆𝒙𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒆 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒂𝒏 𝒉𝒐𝒏𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝒓𝒆𝒗𝒊𝒆𝒘.

I had a good time with this book! It was super cute and I love cozy it was. I read it very quickly too!

This is a closed-doors, fake dating sports romance. It was a cute and lovely story but it was almost missing a spark because honestly the main characters were missing a spark too. Nothing terribly wrong about the story just nothing super engaging or memorable happens. I didn't love nor hate the characters. I didn't care about the outcome of their love in the end, I was happy for them but that was it. It might have been the insta-love element that didn't allow for me to connect with them as they connected with each other... I don't know for sure but it was enjoyable while it lasted.

I stalled out on this one at about 20% - it was cute but just didn't hold my attention unfortnately. Cute premise & I adore a good sports romance but this one just wasn't for me - however I think others will really enjoy it. This was a classic it's me, not the book.

I flew through the audiobook of this. I am a sucker for a good professional athlete romance. This one was cute, I do wish that there would have been slightly more character development to get me more invested.

This book made want to watch baseball! Im not a fan but Ally Wiegand might be inspiring me to watch a game. This was a cute, light-hearted romance about a sports photographer and a baseball … guy (I really don’t know anything about this sport). He has a reputation to repair and she’s the one to help turn him around. This gave Lynn Painter vibes and was a fun read.

cute, short, easy read sports romance with some awesome and really fun aspects! i LOVED tommy, and i LOVED maggie, and i think they made great couple. 4.5 stars, tysm for the arc.

Let me start by saying that this book isn't bad, it just wasn't for me. I tend to read open door romances and I didn't realize that this wasn't one. I also found myself not eager to continue. However, I think it would still be enjoyed by the right person, so I'm still giving it 3 stars.

This is a good book. The two main characters are Maggie and Tommy. Maggie is a photographer for a baseball team. Tommy is a player for the baseball team. They meet on the day of practice before the team’s first game. They keep being in the same place, then the photos of them together gets in the newspaper. The teams pr department suggest they be a fake couple. They decide to do it. They start dating then it is not fake. They fall in love.