Debbi Rawlins hits a homer with three emotionally-charged, sexy novellas featuring minor league baseball players.

To celebrate Blaze’s tenth anniversary, Harlequin is publishing a selection of old and new stories from Blaze’s original six authors.

Extra Innings is actually a collection of three novellas based around minor league baseball players hoping to be called up for the majors.

First up is Playing the Field, featuring sexy shortstop Dylan Andrews. Dylan annoyed American fans by going to play in Japan for a while, but now he’s back and his agent is forcing him to do some public relations to change his image. The last thing he wants to do is submit himself to being followed around by a journalist from his hometown for a few days, but when he realizes Elizabeth Smith is the brainy girl he had a crush on in high school, he decides to let her in on his biggest secrets.

I admit, I’m a sucker for jock-loves-nerd stories, but I hate it when their love blossoms because the nerd has grown stunningly beautiful. Debbi Rawlins avoids that cliché, and instead gives Dylan some powerful reasons for admiring Elizabeth in school, an admiration that grows stronger as he realizes she’ll treat his struggles with respect.

The next story on deck is Bringing the Heat. Of the three, this was my least favorite. Rob Perry’s a pitcher who’s been sent down to the minors after causing quite a scandal for his major league team. He’s hoping to be called back up to the team. He is paid a surprise visit by the team owner’s daughter, Tori Gallagher, who used to flirt shamelessly with him when she was a teen.

Although the story was good, it wasn’t on par with the other two. Tori’s motivation for seeking Rob out now wasn’t very strong, and the ending relied on a bit of emotional manipulation that didn’t work for me.

Last comes His Lucky Charm, my favorite of the collection. It’s packed with humor, an intense emotional connection, and sexual tension that could singe your eyebrows.

A mutual friend keeps trying to set up teeball coach Tess Meyers and minor league first baseman Eric Lessing on a blind date. Neither is interested—until Tess misses a couple of games and Eric’s performance slumps. A superstitious athlete, he seeks her out to ask her to keep coming to the games, and they soon realize they have more in common than just knowing his baseball stats.

They’re both funny, flirty and fun, as this scene shows when Eric shows up at Tess’s teeball practice and tries to show her how to bat, curving himself around her from behind as her young players run laps.

RELAX? Sure, easy for him to say. He’d goaded her into this position, and she’d fallen for it. No, that was a lie. She hadn’t fallen for a damn thing. She’d seized the opportunity to show him that if he asked her out again, she wouldn’t say no.

But with her butt practically pressed against his fly, she’d never been more tense in her whole life.  Mostly because of where they were and who might be watching. Oh, what they were doing might seem innocent enough, but she knew better.

He released one of her hands to massage her shoulder. “Come on. Loosen up.”

Her gaze went out to the kids trudging through the outfield. Tommy and Connor had stopped to watch what she and Eric were doing.

He covered her hand again. “Okay, you’re gonna have to crouch a little lower.”

“Uh, I don’t think so.” She stiffened, his big lean body curled over hers, his warm breath tickling the side of her jaw.

“You can if you relax.” His mouth seemed closer, his voice huskier, and then his lips grazed her skin.

Her eyes fluttered closed, and she wished they were somewhere else, somewhere private so she could enjoy the solid strength of his chest pressed to her back, the thrill of his…

Oh, my God. “Oh, my God!”

 “What?”

“You know what—” Her panicked gaze went past the kids, to the parking lot. No mothers waiting in their cars yet. “That better be a baseball in your pocket.”

The book also includes a story from when Blaze was first launched, in 2001, which I can’t wait to read. This was the first Blaze—and the first of Debbi Rawlins’s books—I’ve read, but I’ll definitely be back for more.

~ Katrina