I thought this was a cute book. The characters are likable and had great banter. The insta love wasn’t my favorite though. It seemed like the mmc fell in love within days and completely changed his ways overnight. It was a little hard for me to want to keep reading. I prefer a little chase. Overall I enjoyed the book.

I am so lucky and grateful to have been an ARC reader for this book! This book is perfect for the over achiever perfectionist girlies who are secretly big old softies on the inside!!!!!

I love Tessa Bailey and the Big Shots series and this was just phenomenal. I LOVE a man who yearns and she just writes lover boys so so so well! The spice was just absolutely *chef kiss* and the fact that they had spot on physical chemistry and communicated so well and openly?! incredible. these two are truly soul mates and I love them so much. I cannot say enough good things about this book! It was sweet and spicy and funny and emotional and the love between them was truly palpable.

Can’t wait to talk about this on my bookstagram to everyone who will listen!!!!

I got an eARC from NetGalley for this book! So first off thanks NetGalley and Tessa Bailey plus team for early access to this book. The Big Shots series absolutely has my heart. I loved the snip of Robbie and Skylar we got in Dream Girl Drama and was craving this book. Also as a retired softball player it was nice to see a romance with a softball pitcher and hockey player *chefs kiss*.
The fake dating spectacular
The pining and slow burn also spectacular
10/10 recommend this book when it comes out in September.

Tessa Bailey is churning out these books. I like that she is leaning to sports romance but it's not stereotypical.

More in-depth review to come as I am enjoying this book

Competitive athletes. And fake dating. This is my first non hockey romance. This was a quick and fun read. I quite enjoyed it. The story flowed smoothly and kept you wanting to know more. Definitely recommend this one

Tessa Bailey knocked it out of the park with Pitcher Perfect, a steamy fake dating sports romance novel.

Skylar Paige, an All-American pitcher,is desperate to have her brother’s best friend notice her during her family’s annual wilderness competition. What better way to get his attention than to make him jealous? The opportunity falls in her lap when she meets NHL rookie and playboy Robbie Corrigan. Despite his crush on her, Robbie agrees to be Skylar’s romance tutor and fake boyfriend to help her win over her crush. Throughout the competition Skylar has to figure out if her crush is her brother’s best friend or if it’s actually Robbie.

It is part of a series, but it can absolutely be read as a stand alone. As with the rest of Tessa Bailey’s work it is spice heavy. My jaw was on the floor and my face was beet red reading those scenes. Tessa Bailey is for spice, and she does it well. The romance was an incredibly fast insta love where he falls first. I would consider it a solid Kindle Unlimited quality romance. It felt kind of odd switching between their explicit adult activities and almost childish romance especially considering how their personalities switched whenever it got spicy. I hated everything past the conflict, especially the epilogue. It was reminiscent of Wattpad, just incredibly unrealistic.

Overall, I really liked the book. I’ve enjoyed everything I’ve read from Tessa Bailey and will continue to pick up her books. Pitcher Perfect isn’t going to be added to my favorites list, but I’d recommend it to anyone looking for something extra spicy without kinkiness or an emotionally draining plot.

Thank you to Tessa Bailey, Avon Books and HarperCollins for providing an ARC via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

I loved this book so much! It was such a fun read. I literally couldn’t put it down. I loved the intertwining of characters from other books in the series. Tessa Bailey never disappoints! I loved the depth of all the characters and the happy ending.

Queen Tessa knocks my socks off again. How she manages to continuously come up with bangers I will never know. Being a Long Islander herself, I loved that she wrote about a character with LI roots and it made me cheer for home throughout the whole book. Damn straight Long Islander can win any swim challenge! I loved the perspective on Robbie because I often think I would write off men like him just like Skylar did. But I enjoyed that she showed how his in his youth he made mistakes but that he wanted to be a different man and he set out to change that. Love live women in sports, Skylar was so badass.

Pitcher Perfect might just be Tessa Bailey’s best in the series so far. Robbie and Skylar’s banter had me grinning from page one—they’re playful, sharp, and not afraid to call each other out, which made their chemistry feel so real and fun. But underneath all the sass and sarcasm, there’s a deep mutual respect that made their connection even more satisfying. Bailey nails that balance between flirty and heartfelt, and these two absolutely carried the story.

If I had one tiny critique, it’s that the romance felt a bit rushed—after all, the whole competition plays out over just a few days. But somehow, it still worked for me. Robbie’s character arc totally stole the show. Watching him do a complete 180 in his life just because he finally met someone who got him? That was gold. It felt earned, not just dramatic for drama’s sake. Overall, this book hit the sweet spot of laughs, swoons, and just the right amount of emotional depth.

I swear, every book I read in Tessa Bailey’s Big Shots series is my new favorite. They are all so good and this one is somehow even better!! HOW! I don’t know how she does it!!

I really couldn’t care less for the o-donors in the first two books they were featured in, but Tessa brought one of them around to realizing how dumb and pigheaded they were being so quickly. Within the first two chapters I was a believer that Robbie was a good one. And he turned out to be the best one!!

I loved Skylar. She was such a well rounded character who had well-founded insecurities, strengths, and desires.

And when the two of these characters finally collide!!! Oh my gosh. Seriously hot.


LOVED this book. Can’t wait to buy a special edition.

I LOVE this series and was so glad to get Skylar and Robbie's story! This book is classic Tessa Bailey with SPICE, humor and a fun love story. I love that there were cameos from the Big Shots series. This was so fun and I hope there are more to come.

ARC review
Publication date 09 Sep 25

“Pitcher Perfect” by Tessa Bailey is part of the "Big Shots" series of interconnected standalone romance books.

Thank you Avon and Harper Voyager for the advanced digital copy of the book (via Netgalley).
Opinions from this review are completely my own.

I liked the other books in this series so I wanted to read this one too.
Robbie is a playboy hockey rookie but after he meets Skyler, a softball pitcher, he is only interested in her.
Unfortunately, she has been in love with her brother's best friend for a while.

I wanted to like this book, but there were just too many things I did not enjoy.
This is described as enemies to lovers, but they quickly get along and decide to fake date to make her crush jealous.
He is also helping her with "love lessons" and is her partner is a competition with her family.
I did not like that they fall in love very fast; they went from "enemies" to lovers in 2 weeks.
Also, the love for her brother's friend was gone too fast.

There were some parts that I enjoyed, mainly the fake dating part and the character cameos from the other books.
Also, there are some funny parts, like in all Tessa Bailey books.

The book hints on the couple from the next book and I'm curious enough to read it.

Notes about issues in book - not posted in review
In the beginning she “took a medium gulp of coffee” then proceeds to say she only drinks orange juice. In ch 5, “ Skylar studied Robbie’s face long and hard, probably double-checking that she wasn’t being had” is this a common phrase?
The yellow kite - his grandpa died, was it from trying to get it, inferred in ch 16? But does he ever tell her that? Especially with the ending?
Mentions Kitt Harrington and Game of Thrones as a 13 year old writing in her journal - show is definitely inappropriate for that age.

TYSM NetGalley for the arc!

I LOVED dream girl drama so I was excited for this one. I enjoyed Robbie and Skylar’s dynamic - enemies to lovers, fake dating, and both athletes.

Overall I enjoyed this story. I loved the snippets of Sig and Burgess helping Robbie. The break that happened made sense, and honestly wasn’t too frustrated with it. The relationship moves fast but it makes sense with these two honestly.

It was a quick read for me, and it was great for breaking up my fantasy read with some sports romance banter! These two were so funny and I was giggling and kicking my feet during some of these parts!

Hands down my favorite Tessa Bailey book. Possibly my favorite read of the year so far. Loved this book.

Robbie and Skylar are the perfect couple and I loved watching them learn to trust each other and be that support the other needs. Great banter and great spicy scenes. All hail Queen Tessa!

I had low expectations going into thus book because aupair affair and dream girl drama didn't stack up to fangirl down. this one is way better than the previous 2 and I'm so glad I read it. Robbie had some great character growth moments, Skylar is probably my favorite fmc of Tessa's. I'm excited to see if Mailer and Maddox get their own storyline

I received this book as an arc from Netgalley

I genuinely enjoyed most of Pitcher Perfect. The banter between the characters was sharp, witty, and engaging—easily one of the highlights of the book. The storyline was fun and had a good rhythm, keeping me invested in the characters and their journey.

However, about halfway through, the tone of the book noticeably shifted—particularly in the sex scenes. What started as a charming and flirtatious romantic comedy suddenly felt as if someone else had taken over the writing. The language turned unexpectedly crude and jarring, which didn’t match the tone of the rest of the story or the characters as they’d been developed. It felt more like a man had stepped in to write those scenes, disrupting the flow and emotional connection that had been built.

Overall, Pitcher Perfect had great potential and many enjoyable moments, but the inconsistency in tone during intimate scenes pulled me out of the story and left me feeling a bit disconnected from the characters by the end.

This book was everything you’ve come to love about Tessa Bailey books! The sports, the romance, the SPICE! The book was fun and easy going with the banter between Redbeard and Rocket. I really enjoyed their characters and their love story! The extra family elements for Skylar’s backstory were great and the story’s pace and flow were good! Of course there were things that were predictable, but a good romance is a good romance and this was definitely that.

if you know me, you know i LOVE tessa bailey and her books. this one??? no exception. giving robbie depth was so so much fun and him being put in his place about his former womanizer ways was genuinely one of the best parts about this book. this wasn’t perfect for me, the third act breakup made me shrug and banging in the nature preserve was WILD.

thank you to netgalley, tessa, and the publisher for the arc!!!

I have a horrible obsession with Tessa Bailey
Books and this one did not disappoint! I love how all of her stories are intertwined with each other. It helps to give the stories more depth for me. I thoroughly enjoyed how corny and adorable this book was but also with tons of comedy thrown in. I enjoyed the growth of each character through the book and also how the background characters had their own growth. She also set it up for a possible couple more books found forward which I will absolutely read!

My life got better the day Tessa Bailey decided to extend this series.

Look, there’s nothing I enjoy more than a fuckboy desperately pining over an amazing woman, but in this case Robbie’s insta-love for Skylar was a bit too over the top to feel believable? Contrasting that, Skylar’s situationship with Robbie was more convincing than her supposed lifelong crush on Madden! And also what exactly was happening with Eve (guess we’ll find out…)
The ending was a little rushed and felt like conflict just for the sake of conflict, which I didn’t love. Still, I flew through this book and had a good time, loved seeing my other favorite characters (wish they were involved more), and am already looking forward to the next one.

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