Rating: ★★★★ and a 1/2 or 4.5 stars
Synopsis: As the daughter of a successful Major League pitcher, Charlie Hastings has baseball in her blood. Unfortunately, being the only girl on her high school baseball team, Charlie has always been just one of the guys.
When her best friend, and secret love of her life, asks another girl to the prom, Charlie is devastated. She’s tired of being overlooked by boys because she’s not like other girls. Suffering a massive identity crisis, she decides to hang up her cleats and finally learn how to be a girl.
But with only two weeks until the state championships, the Roosevelt High Ravens can’t afford to lose their star catcher. Team captain Jace King makes her a deal: Don’t quit the team, and he’ll help her become the girl she’s so desperate to be. After all, he’s got four sisters, one of whom happens to be a cheerleader. He knows a thing or two about girls. (And if he can win her heart in the process, all the better.)
From the bestselling young adult author of Cinder & Ella, V is for Virgin, and the Avery Shaw Experiment comes a new sweet romance that’s sure to leave you with all the feels! Girl at Heart is a clean and wholesome sports romance that will leave you with warm fuzzies and an itch to watch a baseball game.
Review: I had been wanting to read this book for a while but kept putting it off. And what better time than to read it in quarantine. And my verdict is “this is so cute, my heart exploded!”, some bits were not that cute but overall it was just so heartwarming and sweet.
The book starts with Charlotte (or Charlie) with her 3 best friends which are all guys, in fact, she has no girl friends. When she is hurt by their comments about prom and how she is not a girl (said by the guy she has a crush on) she has an identity crisis and quits the baseball team she’s on (baseball being the most important thing in her and her dad’s life as her dad was a famous baseball player). Jace, the team captain, convinces Charlie to come back and tells her that his twin sister (the most popular cheerleader) will help her with ‘girl lessons’.
The book was just generally loveable. And although some parts were not as enjoyable as others (for example when Charlie has to talk to her best friend and crush Eric) we know that it was necessary to include it. This book really was a rollercoaster of emotions and to be honest, Jace is the fricking cutest. I want a Jace, like who doesn’t want a Jace. He is the most caring and amazing person and his personality is loveable it’s just 🥺
Also just in general I love Kelly Oram’s style of writing, we loved it before in Cinder & Ella and we love it here. As we get this from Charlie’s point of view we can understand how overwhelmed she is and you can really sympathise with her. You can see how she’s struggling and it’s just so heartbreaking sometimes but don’t worry we get our HEA. Also I loved how Charlie was a realist, I feel like that’s not often the case and I sometimes get annoyed that characters are so confident that the ‘miracle’, whatever is may be, will happen to them. So I enjoyed her realistic outlook, it was very refreshing.
Overall, this book was just what I needed to get out of my book slump and we are back people!!! It was just so adorable and sweet that it’s impossible to not love it!!
Diary of a Book Addict 