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

Tessa can be really hit or miss for me, but this one was definitely a hit!

This book was honestly such a fun time. I love both Skylar and Robbie as main characters, and really appreciated the character growth they went through in this novel. I enjoyed the first half a bit more because of Skylar's family's competition as a nice backdrop for the blossoming romance. The second half fell off a bit as Robbie and Skylar figured out their relationship without much else happening.

If you've enjoyed the other books in this series, I think you should definitely pick this one up!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

This may be my favorite Tessa Bailey book so far. I could not get enough of Robbie and Skylar!

I wasn’t sure what to expect for Robbie’s book, but I love that he absolutely melted for Skylar. A simp to the core. Everything she needed for her to feel safe, secure, and wanted.
I saw a lot of myself in Skylar. It can be daunting to live up to family expectations and when you don’t, it can be crushing. To have someone in your corner means the world and Robbie was that person for her to a T.
This book was also hilarious! Literally LOL’ed so many times. Snark and sarcasm are my favorite and Robbie & Skylar played off of each other so well. Their chemistry was there from the beginning and only grew as they got to know one another.
The story was silly, heartfelt, hawt, laugh out loud funny, and one I would come back to again and again. I can’t wait to pick it up in audio so I can hear their back and forth in person.

Thank you to Tessa Bailey, NetGalley, and Avon and Harper Voyager for an advanced copy. All thoughts are my own.

Thanks so much to Avon and Harper Voyager for the ARC via NetGalley!

I had been so excited to read Tessa Baileys next work and I feel like this one delivered on exactly what I wanted it to. It was spicy, lighthearted and a super easy read. I loved that we had a MMC who was goofy and unserious until he met our FMC and then changed his tune real fast. And I liked that they made one part of the “orgasm donors” an actual redeemable character.

Overall I liked this more than the last few books in this series and am already looking forward to reading about Madden and Eve next!

I think I’m in the minority in saying this wasn’t my favorite out of this current series. I love Tessa Bailey, but I couldn’t get a good handle on these characters and their chemistry didn’t quite work for me.

THANK YOU, Avon and Harper Voyager | Avon and Tessa Bailey, for sending me this ARC. I love this author and her books, so of course, I am absolutely over the moon to be able to read this before release day.

What to expect:

🥎 Enemies to lovers
🏒 Fake dating
🥎 Sport romance
🏒 Forced proximity

I truly loved everything about this book.

The characters were perfect for me, and I adored Robbie SO much. The storyline/plot was strong, and true to Tessa's writing style, she crafted and developed each character's background, making you feel like you've known them forever. All the elements worked seamlessly together, and by the end, it felt complete, yet I simultaneously never wanted it to end.

The book was hovering at a 4-4.5, but the dang kite had me. 🥹 FIVE STARS, it is! ✨

Pub Date Sep 09 2025 - you bet I already have a signed special edition coming my way!! Highly recommend you do the same. 😆

As always, all thoughts are my own. 🖤✨

Thank you to Avon and Harper Voyager for granting my wish for this arc on NetGalley!

Skylar took me by surprise as I was reading the book. In the beginning, I was hesitant and thought I wouldn't care for her character, but ended up LOVING her. Skylar has many layers to her, and you learn more about that as you read through the book.

Skylar and Robbie were so fun to read and had so much entertaining banter. Robbie has to be one of the funniest guys that Tessa Bailey has written. Tessa Bailey is for sure one author that I can trust that constantly delivers fun, yet steamy romance. Even with this book being the fourth in the series, Tessa manages to raise the bar with each book. I literally could NOT put this book down.

I am SOOOOOOOOOOO excited for the next book in the series!!!!

Tessa Bailey never fails to write the best books, and Pitcher Perfect is no exception. I DEVOURED it in one sitting. I started reading right after breakfast and then forgot to eat lunch because I didn't want to stop reading. I lost track of time and everything else because of this book, and I am not complaining in the slightest.

The Big Shots series is my favorite of the interconnected standalone series. Every book has the same energy and beautiful writing, but they're all so different with their tropes and characters. The relationships are always phenomenal, whether it's platonic or romantic. I love meeting new characters with each book and making my guesses as to the next story. Pitcher Perfect primarily takes place at a family competition, so meeting all these extra characters made it even better. By the end of this series, there will be a thousand people at Thanksgiving.

Skylar and Robbie??? These are my precious babies. Nobody is writing the reformed playboy trope like Tessa. Pitcher Perfect is kinda insta-love—at least on Robbie's end—but it still has that slow burn. I loved how they both supported each other with everything. Robbie needed Skylar to remember who he wanted to be growing up, and Skylar needed Robbie to remember her worth is not defined by her athletic performances. Those emotional conversations had me screaming into a pillow.

This is a Tessa Bailey book so of course the spice was spicing. I will never not gasp and giggle over her scenes. These scenes in particular fit with Robbie and Skylar's relationship so well considering Robbie's past and the fake nature of their relationship. Only Skylar would schedule spicy lessons.

There were so many scenes that had me feeling all the emotions. I will never move on from this book! I thought nothing could beat my favorite—if Dream Girl Drama has no fans, I'm no longer on this earth—but Skylar and Paige really said "hold my beer."

If you've made it through this entire review, thank you and GO READ THIS BOOK!!!

Pitcher Perfect is the fourth book in Tessa Bailey's Big Shots series. While one of the labels for this one was enemies to lovers, I'm not sure I would really classify it as that. To me it was fake dating and forced proximity. With that said, I enjoyed it and thought it was cute.

Skylar Paige is a fantastic pitcher and she is recruited to play in a game between her brother's baseball team and the local NHL team. Robbie Corrigan is one of the NHL players and he doesn't make the best first impression on Skylar when she overhears him talking about his conquests, which immediately turns her off. The irony is, that when her best friend backs out of being her partner at her families annual family competition, she needs a partner and Robbie offers to fill in.

They decide that Robbie will pose as Skylar's boyfriend and they head to her family home for the festivities. Skylar has always had a crush on her brother's best friend and Robbie is aware of this and while he doesn't love it because he's developing feelings for her himself, he goes along with her plan of making him jealous. Will the forced proximity change the dynamics between Robbie and Skylar? Or will she succeed in making her brother's bestie notice her?

This was a cute story, but I do think the timeline of how quickly things moved between them was not totally realistic. It felt like it moved at mach speed, however I still enjoyed the story overall.

**I voluntarily read an early copy of this title courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review**

3.5 stars. Netgalley arc review~

Tessa Bailey knows how to do a sports romance, and she knows how to do them well. However, i hate the miscommunication trope. it is one of my least favorites. this was a cute book, it made me laugh at parts. definitely a good book but probably not one i’ll remember much about. There were a few questions I was left with after the book ended. I would rate it a 3.5-4/5 on the spice scale. There are some open door explicit scenes. If you like romance books, you will probably really enjoy this book. It is a cute and easy read.

This was my first Tessa book!
I’m so thankful for this read now find on NetGalley!

I am officially a fan!
As a little girl who played baseball and they tried to push me into softball when the boys “got so much faster” than me, I felt this book!
The FMC is a tomboy through and through! Raised in a highly competitive family, she is the black sheep. She didn’t get into the family school and just doesn’t seem to click.
He family love her but she sees and feels the difference between her and her golden boy brother.
So, when he wakes her up on the weekend to be the punchline of a joke, playing a pick up baseball game against hockey players, she still shows up.
Because hockey players suck so badly even a girl can beat them.
Enter our MMC, a slutty cocky hockey boy, who rolls up to game likely still covered in the kisses from the night before.
He’s instantly drawn to the tall brunette who tells him “fuck you” after she hears him bragging about his conquests.

It’s a love that can never be, she is in love with someone else and he can never ever deserve her.

I loved that there was acknowledgment of past mistakes, past encounters and wishing you could change the past.
I feel like that missing in so many books. These sports MMC sleeping with at least one new woman every night and then suddenly change for one woman with no reflection??? No thought to consequences that might have for the woman they care about? Not realistic!