Tessa girl I love you!! Knocked it out of the park here (get it???)

Such a fun and easy read and I’m really loving this series. I see the setups for future books too and I’m ready👀

I’m not usually a huge fan of like love at first sight, but this just had me like giggling and kicking my heels. Like did Skylar call him out and Robbie immediately recognized it and changed his behavior? Yes, but that’s why I love an MMC written by Tessa. Because they’re amazing.

I kind of can’t believe that TB had me actively rooting for one of the silliest guys (aka Orgasm Donor) that I’ve been laughing at for the last 2 books, but Robbie clearly has a heart of gold and I really liked him and Skylar together. They just brought out the best in each other.

Skylar is very type A and Robbie is kind of the opposite. But they’re just so similar (in terms of competitiveness, yes) but also in just wanting to be taken seriously. Skylar kind of feels like she’s not living up to her family’s expectations, even though she is super successful. And Robbie has been the rookie and is tired of feeling like everything he does isn’t enough to prove himself.

I don’t love when an FMC is like still in college and the guy is older, but it works here because Skylar is a Division 1 pitcher, and short of being a former D1 pitcher she needs to be in college to accomplish that.

Truly Tessa is an autobuy author for me, and I’m excited for what I am guessing will be Mailer, Madden, and Elton’s stories coming soon??

Huge thank you to NetGalley and Avon for this eARC! Pitcher Perfect is out 9/9/25!

Pitcher Perfect was a delicious late summer romance pick with endearing characters and great open-door spice. Chock full of witty banter and tension, Tessa breathed new life into old favorite tropes including fake dating and reluctant enemies to lovers. I felt Madden’s storyline was a bit too predictable, but it didn’t detract from Skylar and Robbie’s storyline. The family game element was fun and fresh and I really enjoyed our MMC’s defense of our FMC. Robbie was a swoon-worthy reformed rake (a personal favorite). I also really enjoyed that Skylar was not an annoying FMC and, while a bit naive, it felt like there was substance to her and rationale behind her decision making.

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon for the advance copy!

Pitcher Perfect is a fun, steamy contemporary romance with plenty of humor and sizzling chemistry. Tessa Bailey delivers entertaining banter and engaging romantic tension that make the story easy to enjoy. The characters are charming, and the story moves at a brisk, enjoyable pace, perfect for fans of spicy rom-coms.

That said, the plot can feel predictable at times, and some character development is a bit shallow, which keeps certain emotional beats from fully landing. While fun and engaging, the story leans heavily on familiar romance tropes and doesn’t offer many surprises.

Overall, Pitcher Perfect is an enjoyable, light romance—great for readers looking for humor, heat, and a quick, entertaining read, though it doesn’t leave a lasting impression.

Skylar Page is a Division I pitcher for Boston University who likes every detail of her life planned to perfection. What she didn’t plan on? An early morning call from her brother asking her to pitch a game against the local NHL team—or the playboy, redheaded rookie who shows up and turns her world upside down.

When Skylar’s best friend Eve backs out of their annual family games tournament “The Page Stakes”, she reluctantly teams up with Robbie, the same guy who’s now crashing her carefully structured life. Together, they set their sights on the coveted family Pepsi can trophy and maybe helping Skylar finally win over the boy next door she’s secretly pined for over the years.

I loved this book from the very first page!! Skylar and Robbie are instantly magnetic, and their chemistry is obvious. The banter? Sharp and hilarious. The fake dating trope? Executed to perfection. The open communication made me so happy. This is one of the most enjoyable fake dating rom-coms I’ve read in a long time.

If you’re a fan of fake dating, witty dialogue, sports romances, or Tessa Bailey, this one needs to be on your TBR. I stayed up way too late reading it—and I would do it again.

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins for the ARC!

One of my new favorites from Tessa Bailey. I especially enjoyed the anti- miscommunication trope and the spice was dependable and fun as always. Thanks Avon and Harper Voyager and NetGalley for the ARC!

Thank you netgalley and Avon for my early copy!

Tessa Bailey did it again, not that I am surprised. I’m obsessed, forever obsessed with her books.

I love fake dating because they always fall in love. If you ain’t like Robbie then I. Don’t. Want. It. He ranks in the top 5 of my favorite Tessa Bailey men.

Rob, oh sweet Robbie! He was filthy and I mean absolutely, positively, a dirty, DIRTY man!! And I ate it up like I eat all the chicken and dumplings at my family get together.

Anywho, I was so tickled when Sky didn’t even up with her “crush” and I’m super excited to see if Tessa writes a story on said crush and E. I’ve said it once and I’ll say it a million more times; I will read anything Tessa writes including her grocery shopping list.

5 stars!!!

I’m so lucky to have gotten an ARC of this book. It was everything I was hoping for. I had a smile on my face for most of this story. It was such a cute romance.

Robbie and Skyler’s first meeting doesn’t go well. But he immediately was down bad for her. She woke him up and reminded him of who he wanted to be, who his Grandfather helped raise him to be. That wasn’t who he was putting into the world before he met Skyler but after meeting her his life reset. Skyler is an over achieving star athlete in her own right and she comes from an extremely competitive family. Everyone went to Brown except her and so she has some vulnerabilities even among those who love her most. I loved how Robbie saw her immediately and just showed up for her, supported her and made an effort to get her to see what he saw in her. Someone spectacular.

They have their ups and downs but for the most part this couple was a fun time. Just like the book which was filled with spice humor and vulnerable moments. I started it and couldn’t put it down finishing it in one sitting because I was hooked.

Pitcher Perfect follows Skylar, a D1 softball pitcher who is crushing on her brother’s best friend, and Robbie, a NHL hockey rookie who has a reputation of being a player. Skylar and Robbie come up with the plan to fake date in order to make her crush jealous, and of course chaos and shenanigans ensue from there.

This book is exactly why I love Tessa Bailey books. It’s fun and silly and somewhat over the top, but at the same time it is so full of heart.

This is Tessa’s best book since Fangirl Down. I saw someone else say that Tessa does best when she writes golden retriever men who are just down bad and I 100% agree. From the start I couldn’t put this down and loved every minute of it. The two main characters compliment one another so well and they’re just one of those couples that you know will stay together long after the book is finished.

This book checks all the boxes for me. Strong, take no shit FMC ✅ Down bad MMC ✅ Fake dating ✅ Dirty talk ✅ it was just the perfect book and exactly what I look forward to about Tessa’s books.

Thank you to Avon & NetGalley for the ARC!

I still can’t believe I got an early copy of Pitcher Perfect!! The Big Shots series is my favorite from Tessa Bailey so I’ve been dying to read this one since the story was hinted at in book 3.

I absolutely loved Robbie and Skylar’s story. It’s no exaggeration that I read this book in one sitting. I’m a big sports romance fan but I love this series in particular because it is also funny. The banter made me giggle and it was so fun to get glimpses of characters from the previous books. The wilderness competition was ridiculous but kept me entertained for sure. The ending was maybe a little rushed but I appreciate when a story line isn’t dragged out unnecessarily.

Book one will probably always be my favorite but I think it’s safe to say this one is my second favorite of the series. If you love enemies to lovers, faking dating, and sports romance then this book is definitely for you! Insta love is not typically my favorite trope but since it was one sided this time I think it worked. 4.5⭐️

Thank you so much NetGalley and Avon and Harper Voyager for the ARC!

Summary in Brief

Hockey’s Boston Bearcats rookie player Robbie Corrigan is living the dream. He made it to the NHL and has all the women he will ever need. That is, until Skylar Paige, a Division One softball pitcher, enters his life and seems immune to his charms. She immediately pegs him as a player. But Robbie cannot seem to stay away, even though Skylar has feelings for a childhood crush.

Genre + Plot

Tropes: Sports Romance, Fake Dating, Enemies to Lovers, Forced Proximity, Opposites Attract, One Bed, Golden Retriever MMC, He Falls First, Character Growth, Third-Act Breakup

I was so excited to get the ARC for this book. The first two books in the *Big Shots* series were just okay for me, but I loved *Dream Girl Drama* and had to read this one. I was pretty skeptical because it focused on Robbie, also known as one of the “orgasm donors” we hear about in the earlier books. I will say it is best to read this series in order. However, it is not absolutely necessary. Some things will just make more sense, and you will encounter a few spoilers from the first books.

I loved the premise. Call me basic, but a playboy who has his world turned upside down by a no-nonsense girl who does not fall for his usual tricks, and who inspires him to change for the better? Okay, yes, I am basic, but I really do not care. I ate it up.

I also loved the setting. Robbie wants to be in this girl’s orbit so badly that he agrees to be her partner for her family’s upcoming yearly competition. Meanwhile, he helps her try to get the attention of Madden, the guy she has had a crush on since childhood.

Almost immediately, we see character growth from Robbie. In the earlier books, we see glimpses of him as immature, sex-driven, party-loving, and not super respectful to women. He fully admits to this in the beginning of this book when Skylar calls him out. That leads to some serious soul searching on his part, and he begins to recognize his past mistakes and tries to make things right.

Skylar—my sweet Skylar—is your classic Type A, focused, smart, no-nonsense girl who only cares about her pitching and playing a good softball game. That is, until she meets Robbie. I loved that Skylar has all these cute little quirks, like having a planner and scheduling her day to the minute. That just makes Robbie like her even more. He loves all her quirks and never makes her feel bad about them. This empowers Skylar to become more confident in herself. Robbie makes her feel safe, secure, and sexy. When she practices flirting and kissing with him, he is already falling for her, so he just hypes her up. Slowly, Skylar begins to see that Robbie is more than his reputation. He is sweet, sincere, funny, loyal, and extremely respectful.

I loved reading Robbie’s point of view. He understands Skylar from the start, and I loved how supportive he was to her family and how he encouraged her in everything she did. I was sad about the third act breakup. I was really hoping it would not happen, and honestly, I think it could have been avoided. But alas, insecurities rose to the surface again. Of course, they made up quickly, and the ending was so sweet.

Final Thoughts

Overall, I loved this next installment in the *Big Shots* series. Robbie is surprisingly loving, respectful, and falls hard for Skylar. Definitely recommend.

tessa bailey is back! after not loving the last book in this series, this one was such a pleasant suprise. a reformed man who is literally obsessed with his gf is always gonna work for me :) thank you to netgalley and the publishers for this earc in exchange for an honest review.

I have really enjoyed this series so far, but this is definitely my favorite one! Skylar and Robbie are fake dating, there is a fun wilderness competition with her family and the sports aspect of this book was great too. The lessons in spice and the flirty banter was what made this book so good in my opinion. Just a truly great story! Fun and entertaining but with just the right amount of spice and seriousness. Thoroughly enjoyed it.

NHL rookie Robbie can't believe his luck when he runs into softball pitcher, Skylar. Though she seems to have no interest in him, Robbie wants a chance with her and suggests they try to make her crush (her brother's best friend!) take notice. Will the fake dating pay off?

I have loved all the books in Tessa Bailey's Big Shots series so I couldn't wait to get my hands on Pitcher Perfect! The witty banter, the fun family scenes, the growing affection between the two and the spice spice spice all rounded up together to make this another fantastic installment in the series. I'm already gearing up and looking forward to the next book!

After finishing a day of fallen night I was desperately in need of romance, and this arc of pitcher perfect came in the perfect time. A huge thank you to Avon and Harper Voyager for the e-arc!

This book was everything Tessa Bailey books usually are, and I was not disappointed. We jump right in the love story, and before you know it we are in her childhood bedroom for a week, pretending to be dating so she can make another guy jealous. Fake dating is one of my favourite tropes, and it never fails me. Does she still like that guy, even though we just kissed? is this real or just pretending? everything is just so good. And the chemistry between our main couple definitely worked great. They had their cute moments, but also plenty of hot and steaming moments I really enjoyed. This book also featured the guy teaching everything (about romance, flirting, dating, kissing, sex) to the girl-trope, and oh my it was executed perfectly. The romance side of this book was perfect.

Jumping into this series from the fourth book however brought forward one problem with me, and that was side characters. People you would have known from previous books were bit one dimensional, whereas people new in this book weren't. Which is a shame but kinda makes me want to read the rest of the books in the series more.

(also I didn't like the epilogue, but I will be pretending that the story ends before it XD)

3,75 stars, strong Tessa Bailey book. Hot romance and fun moments.

The book was really sweet, going into the cozy predictable tropes. The author developed Robbie's character really well. The only thing I wasn't a big fan of was the insta-love and the 3rd act breakup. But I'm just not a huge fan of those tropes. Overall, it was a solid story. Wish it spent a little more time developing Skyler's character, but I liked it.

A romance between a hockey player and a softball player sounds like the perfect book for me, especially when you add in a fake dating trope and dual points of view. While the writing and emotional elements of this book were excellent, in the end, it wasn’t quite the right fit for me. I enjoyed the emotional growth Skylar and Robbie experienced, learning to be honest and trust one another, building belief in themselves at the same time. I especially loved Robbie calling out Skylar’s family for their insensitivity in continually bringing up her rejection from their family Alma Mayer, Brown. They clearly love her but had failed to notice how upset being left out made her, and how insecure she’d always felt in her family. It’s to their credit that they didn’t react with denials but shamed acceptance, immediately apologizing and changing their behaviors. I have a hard time believing Robbie could change his behavior around women so quickly, but I was willing to suspend my disbelief on that, and trust in the Magic of True Love.

What I have I really hard time accepting and looking past is all the baseball inaccuracies in this book. I am a huge baseball fan, and whenever Skylar’s brother and his bff talked about playing in the minors or being signed out of AAA to play for the Yankees (!), I wanted to pull my hair out because that’s not how major league teams and their minor league farm systems work. The baseball development pipeline is different from every other professional sport in how it’s structured, so their descriptions didn’t make any sense. There’s rookie league, then teams at the A, AA, and AAA level, and it’s very, very rare for a player to jump from rookie ball to the majors (and you wouldn’t say “I’ve been brought up to the professional level” you’d say “I’ve been called up to the majors”). Also players are signed to a system, so there’s no way Madden was training with a AAA team and from there was scouted and signed by the Yankees. I know this seems like a minor issue, and I’m sure for a lot of people it will be a non-issue, but for me, it was clearly something I can’t get over, haha. Even before the Yankee thing came up, though, if this week in Rhode Island was happening between the Hockey regular season and the start of playoffs, in mid-April, there’s no way minor league baseball players would be free to go hang out with their families. Baseball activities start in late February/early March and official games start at the end of March. But I’ll stop talking about my baseball issues now.

The other issue I had was just a personal preference - obviously I knew this book would have spice in it, but there was so much spice, it felt like every other chapter was either Skylar and Madden having sex or talking about having sex, both indoors and outdoors. This is my first book by Tessa Bailey, so I was unaware how spicy it would be - I’m going to assume it’s about the same as usual, so people who love her books will probably love this one, too. It was just a lot for me personally, especially considering Skylar had almost no experience prior to this relationship.

In the end, my personal rating for this book is 3 stars, but I can see it being a 5 star book for romance readers who don’t care about baseball details and like the spice level. The characters were charming and likable, even Skylar’s family who I initially found off-putting due to their competitive natures. (If you are a big baseball fan maaaaaaybe skip this one or just prepare yourself to be annoyed. Or my biggest hope is some of the misinformation was changed before publication!)

Thanks to NetGalley, Avon, and Harper Voyager for an advance copy of this book for review purposes. It will be out in stores next week, September 9!

I love Tessa Bailey so much. I think this was a great ending to the series. I didn’t really like the nicknames but I can get over that. Her level of spice is perfect. Fake dating is one of my favorite tropes.

Not my favorite book in the series and the chemestry felt a bit forced at first but I really enjoyed watching how our main characters let each other in slowly and learn about and from each other!! fats paced and overall a good read!!

Laugh-out-loud funny and surprisingly, my favorite in Tessa Bailey's Big Shots series.

I love that there's more to Robbie than expected. Not going to lie, I went in with low expectations because in previous books he comes across as a crass player, but wow, the man has hidden depths that surface after falling hard at first sight for Skylar Page. 🫠

Robbie and Skylar's chemistry and banter reeled me in, and I inhaled Pitcher Perfect in 24 hours.

That epilogue. 🥹😂

• He falls first and hard
• Fake dating
• Sports romance
• Banter for days
• Teaches her to flirt and more