Book Review

Slow Heat by Jill Shalvis

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Title: Slow Heat
Author: Jill Shalvis
Publication Info: Berkley February 2010
ISBN: 9780425233665
Genre: Contemporary Romance

Book Cover Samantha McNead is the PR director for the Pacific Heat, a major league baseball team in California. Wade O’Riley is the catcher, both in the sense that he crouches behind home plate and grabs 90-mph fastballs, and in the sense that women throw themselves at him.

ETA: Forgot a paragraph – oops! When a crazy fan fakes a pregnancy and claims the baby is Wade’s, a decision is made to have Sam and Wade pair off for awhile in the public eye to take the negative attention off of him and to give him a person in his life that will keep both crazy fangirl and other potential crazy fangirls away. Their fake relationship begins at a wedding Wade is in, and being in close proximity forces them to confront a moment in their past that both Sam and Wade have been trying to forget.

So many times Shalvis sets up what could be a cliched tension or character, and she could have stopped there. It would have been familiar, though lame. There’s a series of examples of how she could have left something before drawing it out, and each time she takes the extra step (and another and another) to make the character, the situation, the plot into something more powerful, more important, just more.

For starters, the book begins with Sam and Wade going to the weekend wedding away,sharing a hotel suite, and pretending for the public to be a couple. Shalvis could have stopped there, or kept most of the book set at that weekend wedding, or made the wedding a week long extravaganza of sexual tension. Or it could have been a long, But no: Wade and Sam deal with their past, and their fradulent-but-sort-of-not-really present relationship and then move on from that weekend to reenter their lives. It’s not as if they escape into a wedding weekend and everything works out when they return home. They escape their lives temporarily, much like they do when they travel for away games. There is still “home” and problems that come with it every time they return. And since it’s baseball, they run home a lot.

Another example is Tag, Sam’s nephew. Tag’s father is checking into rehab, and sends Tag to Sam without warning or even explanation. Just ‘Hello, there’s a kid here for you.’ Tag moves into her condo, and begins life on the road with Sam and the team, learning from a tutor and trying to figure out what to do now that he’s not wanted by his mother or father. Sam initially accepts him because he’s family, and he’s a child, and she’s got a truly good heart, but ultimately, she learns to care about Tag in a way that scares her. But even with that fear, she perseveres because Tag is more important than her fear. In most things, she’s a grown up – how refreshing.

Tag could have been just a pesky kid who disappears and reappears at convenient plot points, but Shalvis takes him, like everything else, into new and dangerous territory. I didn’t always believe that Tag was so quick to adapt to the massive changes in his life, but Shalvis didn’t blink when it came to portraying the phases of adjustment Tag was going through. First he does everything perfectly to avoid being sent home, then he tests her to try to make her make him leave and prove that her promise of permanence (or semi-permanence) was a lie.

Sam’s relationship with Tag is as important in the story as her relationship with Wade. Sam is indelibly shaped by the men in her life, and this is a male of the next generation after her own, one who isn’t weighed down by the same pressure that was thrown upon Sam from an early age. Nevertheless, it’s difficult to understand how Sam, who is not a terribly instint-driven person, goes from not knowing Tag at all and having seen him twice in his life, to feeling a deep and prominent love for him such that his place in her life is crucial within a matter of weeks or a chapter or two. Theirs is a strange kind of familial insta-love that worked on some levels, but really didn’t on others.

Tag also serves as a mirror for Wade. Both males think they are temporary fixtures in her life, and are afraid to trust her completely, even though they both want to, and even though she’s given them no reason not to. All three of them are afraid for various reasons, and the steps of their learning from each other how to trust and be trusted are tiny and real and memorable.

Wade is a piece of work. Wade’s lazy. He hasn’t had to work terribly hard to be charming, and probably the greatest effort he’s exhibited is for baseball, and even then he makes it look easy. So with Sam, he figures he’ll take what he can get and doesn’t ever see himself permanently involved with her or anyone. Wade is a master avoider, and a lazy bum to boot, and seeing him have a fire lit under his ass and watching him realize that he has to face his own feelings to ever grow in any direction is wrenching and realistic. He’s also charming for the reader, and very likeable.

Wade’s father was a neglectful abusive alcoholic, and his father now wants to be part of his life. Wade avoids him, too, until he can’t avoid his father anymore, and must face his father and his father’s alcoholism and his past. Shalvis did a real job of portraying Wade’s dad’s withdrawal from alcohol. She could have left alcoholic father to experience miraculous recovery, but Wade’s dad goes through everything, and it’s painful.  Shalvis also doesn’t flinch from revealing how badly Wade needed to tell his dad what a shit he was so they could both recover. Wade’s dad is a painful but powerful character to read.

Wade’s father, however, provides an unhappy contrast with Sam’s family: for a force of males who have influenced her profoundly, we don’t see much of them, and when we see them, they’re stereotypes or fixtures. I wasn’t sure how she hadn’t told one or all of them to go fuck themselves a long time before the start of the novel because they did little of importance and mostly existed as distant, cold, scary assholes or just complete wastes of breath. I think Sam, though not as explicitly as I would have liked, identified with Tag as an outcast in his own family, and she was instantly sympathetic to him because she could create the kind of family environment that she and he both ought to have had. But the Insta-Love for kids is a tough sell when there’s nothing to contrast that with, especially since her brothers and dad were really absent, and the reader had to take Sam’s word for it, and Wade’s to a lesser extent, what real buttholes they were.

Wade avoids, and Sam gives, and eventually, the two of them step over their own fears and challenge one another – and the last scene, though not nearly long enough for my liking, was a powerful moment for Wade. As usual Shalvis delivers a memorable hero, and a heroine who is his match, both in the coupled sense and the game opponent sense. There were moments when I couldn’t stop reading, especially in the first two-thirds of the book, because so many “could have been cliche” moments coalesce into big, real, and delicately powerful problems that I had to keep reading. The resolution is too fast in some ways, and I wanted more of the “more” that Shalvis built on standard cliches, but either way, I finished with a smile on my face.


Want a copy? I’ve got 15 to giveaway to random commenters. Just leave a comment here and tell me about sports romances – like or not? Baseball or no? One thing about Shalvis’ Pacific Heat series, it’s made fans out of readers who proport not to like baseball (Can you imagine?). I’ll pick 15 winners after midnight on Sunday, 31 January, 2010. Standard disclaimers apply: I am not being compensated for this review and the copies are being provided by the author from her stash from the publisher. Freshest if eaten before date on carton. Limited time offer, call now to insure prompt delivery. Beware of dog. 

Slow Heat is available from Amazon.com, Book Depository and Powell’s.

Comments are Closed

  1. Spider says:

    The only sports romances I’ve read have been SEP’s football related series, and many of those occur off the field/off-season, so to speak.  However, I LOVE baseball.  Big time.  And I’m impressed that Shalvis seems (at least from your comments) to have thought about the super-long baseball season and what that would mean for a woman suddenly caring for a child.

    So, throw me in for the drawing and GO CARDS!

  2. QLady48 says:

    I am one of those non-sport lovers!! I watch a little hockey when we fight for Stanley and then I watch the Olympics, that’s it. My hubby is also not a sports fan. I started out reading Lori Foster, then she had her fighting series. I didn’t really want to read about sports but I’m a HUGE L. Foster fan. Well, I luved her series!! Then I started reading Susan E. Phillips and got to her sports series. I LUVED her series too. Ok, I now realize I really luv a sports read!! I started looking for more sports reads. I then hear of Jill Shalvis and read her series, LUVED it too. I also found Kate Angell, and her sports series is verrry good too. I don’t think Kate is very well known but anyone who likes sports rom should read her books too. Also Bella Andre wrote 2 sports reads that I have in my TBR pile, I think baseball. I will now look into the hockey reads that were mentioned here!! I have been waiting not so patiently for this new J Shalvis book and also the new L Foster and Kate Angell also has another from her series out later this year.  Thanks, Sue

  3. Tovah says:

    This sounds great, enter me in the contest.

    I don’t usually seek out sports books but I’ve enjoyed the ones I’ve come across. Summer in the City is on my favorites shelf, gosh I love Soccer boys!

  4. Anonymousie says:

    I don’t like all sports romances, but I’ve so far enjoyed Shalvis’.  On the other hand, I can’t say I care for Lori Foster’s MMA romances, but that may be because I prefer baseball to ultimate fighting!  I’d love to get a chance to read this one.

    (Captcha: military21—I do love me some military romances)

  5. Carolyn says:

    I love football and I love SEP-style football, but I’m willing to branch out. 🙂  I’ve never read Shavis (there’s lots of authors I’ve never read, but would like to), so please put my name in the hat.

    Thank you for the chance, Sarah and … 

    ROLL TIDE, y’all!

  6. Scrin says:

    As an aside, I’ve seen an author pull this off with not just one, but three (and possibly four) characters in the same series.

    If you like your fantasy, check out Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files. First book is Storm Front. Second book is Fool Moon. Third book is Grave Peril.

    And the character I’m talking about shows up first in the third book—right in the first two chapters. The best part is…You, the reader, is told how Michael is at the beginning.

    And then as the book goes on you find out it was an understatement.

    So, um, here, for anyone’s interest (not really any spoilers. I mean, sure, you now know Harry, the narrator, doesn’t die in the first two books, but there’s 11 books so far. Of course he doesn’t die), I present: Michael http://www.jim-butcher.com/books/dresden/3/ch1/

  7. CaroleM says:

    Your review was so well-thought out, I actually forgot the story had anything to do with sports, until you reminded me at the end.  I’m not sure if I read romances to escape from reality, or if I want to see characters that real in the story.
    I’ll have to try it.

  8. Isabel says:

    Count me in, I don’t watch much sports other than soccer but I really like Shalvis’s style. Double Play was great.

  9. Francesca says:

    The only sports romances I have ever read are SEP’s and one about a lady golfer by Elizabeth Gage. Being Canadian, I’m with Cheryl on the HOCKEY, HOCKEY, HOCKEY, but my secret vice (even more secret than reading romance novels) is professional wrestling.

  10. theladyferris says:

    I’m just starting on Friday Night Lights so perhaps this would be a good companion read?  As a UK resident of course I haven’t a clue what is going on in either sport but I’m sure that won’t spoil my enjoyment!

  11. SandyH says:

    What a great review. Sounds like a book to read. I have read SEP sports romances and enjoyed them. Bull Durham is one of my favorite movies of all time.

  12. Francesca says:

    This site has lead me to some great readings and great authors. Jill Shalvis seems a new good author for me to enjoy: enter me in the contest!
    So, what was the reason for the minus?

  13. edieharris says:

    An ex-boyfriend of whom I have fond memories now plays pro ball, and I learned long ago that watching the form and power in a baseball player’s body made for prime entertainment…before, during, and (especially) after the game. I love athlete romances in general, but I hold a special place in my heart for baseball-themed romances. Bring on the slow heat!

  14. JBHunt says:

    I’m a Shalvis fan, but I wish she would finish the Wilder brothers trilogy (Instant Attraction…)—growing impatient to read the last installment!

    Thanks for the chance to win one of her books, even if it takes place on the baseball field rather than in the High Sierra.

  15. Laura (in PA) says:

    I really enjoy athlete heroes. I’m not sure I would be considered a huge fan of sports, but being married to a lifelong fan, and living outside a town (Philly) that takes sports ridiculously seriously, I am surrounded by them enough to like going to games and following teams.

    I like SEP’s sports books, and I’ve enjoyed Jill’s books I’ve read so far. I’m really looking forward to reading this one.

  16. Maria Phipps says:

    i like some out there sports.. Rugby, European Soccer.
    I do love Football, Nascar and Hockey.

    I also like the NASCAR Harlequin books. there quick fun reads.

  17. Theresa I says:

    I love sports and I love romance novels but I’m always hesitant about a sports romance.  The ones I’ve read generally haven’t been well done.  Either the author makes so many changes that the sport doesn’t really match real life or the author throws the heroine into the sport in a completely unbelievable way (i.e. a reporter who has never watched sports before but is now covering a sports team). 

    There have been one or two gems that I remember.  When I first started reading romances, I remember a Harlequin about a baseball player who decided to retire when he hit a certain age so he wasn’t in the game beyond his good years.  I’ll have to try to find it again, but that was one of my favorites.

    Jill Shalvis’ sounds like its a keeper as well!

  18. Abby Normal says:

    Caught Running was a sports romance, right? That’s a keeper. I don’t know about sports romances in general, but I think I could argue for some on a case by case basis.

  19. Polly says:

    I loved the SEP sports books. I think my favorite was It Had to be You.

    And if anyone’s looking for a new tv show to become an enslaved fan to—Friday Night Lights. The recapper on Television without Pity wrote once that she can’t decide if she wants Coach Taylor to be her father or her boyfriend, and wrong as that sounds, she’s exactly right. He had his wife have the best portrayal of a strong and healthy relationship that I’ve ever seen on tv.

  20. JennyD says:

    Growing up as the odd one out in a sports-obsessed family (I only played three sports as opposed to my brothers’ six or seven), I’ve tended to steer away from sports fiction. I figure, I got enough of that growing up – don’t need to spend my free time reading about it. =) But this one actually sounded good. I wouldn’t mind giving it a try.

  21. Sara says:

    I’m not a huge sports romance fan, but every now and then I pick one up and really enjoy it.  This book, however, sounds really good and I would love a free copy.

  22. D.L. says:

    Sports romances seem to be a big hit or miss for me.  I don’t like football, but love SEP’s series.  And I love hockey, but can’t stand Deidre Martin’s Blades series.  Baseball is another one of the few sports I enjoy watching, but have never read a book about.  Baseball movies are a different story- to echo other commentors, Bull Durham is amazing.

  23. LizM says:

    Great review-it definitely made me want to read the book. It took SEP for me to realize that “sports romances” could be great romances that a good writer can make interesting even to a non sports fan like me. Power Play by Deirdre Martin is another very good sports romance (hockey), but what makes it work, for me, are the charcters.  I’m still not interested in sports.

  24. RachelT says:

    I absolutely love sport (we’re really rooting for Andy Murray in the UK this weekend) and I love romance, so sport romances are a no brainer to me. I think I’ve read most things here, except for Lori Fosters’ books which are in my tbr file.

    I would like to add Carly Phillips’ books about three sisters who co-own are sports agents – Hot Stuff, Hot Number, Hot Item, and Hot Property. Hot Ticket is a sports based anthology including stories by Deirdre Martin and Julia London.

    Ana – I remembered seeing that Mills and Boon teamed up with the RFU to publish some rugby novels: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/01/27/rugby-romance-novel-serie_n_161345.html (sorry about the long address, I still haven’t learned how to put a link in to a post)
    I looked at Mills and Boon website and found them through the advanced searc – looking at each month in the Modern imprint and looking for the cover with the Red Rose and England Rugby on it. Mind you, none of the summaries mention rugby, so I don’t know how signficant a part the sport plays in the books.

  25. TracyS says:

    LOVE sports romance books. ESPECIALLY baseball ones. I love baseball and can’t wait until April!!  Some of my best childhood memories involve Milwaukee County Stadium (now gone!) and the right field bleachers!

    I’d love to win this book, but will be buying it if I don’t!

  26. Jennifer M says:

    I love sports themed romances! I wish there were more of them out there. My favorites are hockey and baseball because I watch them but so far just about any sport in a book and I’ll read it.

  27. kytten says:

    This sounds… interesting. Grown up and well written. I might have to check it out.

  28. Leah Vincent says:

    I was never a huge fan of sports romance until I read SEP’s “It Had to Be You.”  I can’t count the number of times I have re-read it.  Rachel Gibson’s “True Love and Other Disasters” was almost as good, with a very similar storyline.  My third fav is probably Jill Shalvis’s “Double Play.”  I loved those three so much that other books by the same authors in the same sports genre tend to pale a little in comparison, but it doesn’t stop me from reading more and more of them!!

  29. Kimberly C. says:

    Baseball fan here (Let’s Go Red Sox!!) & I enjoy sports themed romances. Thanks for the great review. I am definitely putting this one on my TBR list.

  30. Lil' Deviant says:

    I Love Sports!!  Sports themed romance are even better.  When ever there is a specific game Mr Deviant wishes to catch he always picks me up a new book.  That way he enjoys the game and I enjoy the game.  *grin*  What a wonderful afternoon.  Thats why I love baseball season.  There are sooooo many games.  *giggle*

  31. Sybylla says:

    I’ve been generally iffy on sports-themed romances, largely for reasons mentioned above: the book-sport doesn’t really match the actual-sport, or the heroine initially knows nothing about it and yet magically winds up super-involved in it, or the game becomes this crushingly obvious metaphor for the relationship.  I’ve come across a few that I thought were well-done, and I’m always interested in finding a new author, so I’m signing up for the contest in hopes that this one pulls it off.

  32. Fran says:

    I’m Jill’s fan – love her books. And I love sports romance, especially after reading Susan E. Phillips’ books – there’s nothing as hot as an athlete 🙂

  33. Cecilia says:

    Hmmm… I’ve never tried sports romance, but after reading this review, I may have to! I’m also not a baseball fan, but I have to chalk that up to the country I grew up in. I have to confess that I don’t really “get” baseball. I know, I know, sacrilege… But maybe this book will help!

  34. Mera says:

    Haven’t read a lot of sports romances.
    But I would like to read the one by Jessica Bird, if she continues her O’Banyon Brothers series … the brother of Sean in “The Billionaire Next Door”, Billy, is a football player.

  35. Fedora says:

    I do love sports romances; not a huge fan of baseball, but love Kate Angell’s Rogues!

  36. Tessa K. says:

    I love sports romances, especially baseball romances, and I also really like Jill’s stories – I am so excited for this book and I would love to win a copy.

  37. Chris says:

    I’d love to win a copy of this! I used to think I didn’t like sports romance, but Rachel Gibson changed my mind with her hockey stories, so I bet Jill Shalvis can change my mind about baseball. 🙂

  38. Kristin says:

    It sounds like a fabulous book with just enough complexity to avoid me rolling my eyes at the cliches.  While I’m not a huge baseball fan, I do enjoy it.  I have thoroughly enjoyed romances involving sports in the past and this one definitely sounds like one I would like.

  39. Amy M says:

    I sort of always thought of baseball as a boring sport.  Not a lot of action, slow on TV.  Well, I love reading about baseball and all of the fun things that go along with it in a Jill Shalvis book!

  40. Lori says:

    Sounds awesome. I love the SEP books and I have the Dierdre Martin on my bookshelf. Please enter me, I’d really like to read this.

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