Let's Play Ball
Author
Linda Gould
Publisher
iUniverse
2 Review Copies Left
Miranda is a bright, attractive woman with an important government job, a nice home, and a prominent lawyer husband. Her fraternal twin sister, Jessica, is a sportswriter who has spent years sacrificing her social life and conventional career prospects to establish a magazine. Jessica's publication has finally caught on after she receives renown for an article she writes about local baseball star Manny Chavez and his perilous journey back to his native Cuba to retrieve his abducted son.
Jessica, now engaged to Manny, invites Miranda, her husband, and their parents to join her in a luxury suite to watch the hometown Washington Filibusters take on their archrivals, the Florida Keys, in a championship game. As they are wined and dined by the team owner, Miranda envies her sister's seemingly perfect life and faces the reality that her own is a facade. But when the forces of revenge and corporate greed catch up to the "perfect" couple and blow their world apart, Miranda is suddenly thrust into a world of international politics.
Let's Play Ball dramatizes the struggles of two ambitious sisters against the backdrops of immigration, global conflict, and the nation's pastime.
Reviews
I confess to not understanding a thing about baseball prior to reading this book. Now I have an insight into the politics and intrigue behind the sport, but still don't understand the game itself!
The action centres on twin sisters, Jessica and Miranda. Jessica is engaged to Manny, a Cuban baseball player, who is the star of the local team. After the end of season game, he is abducted from the stadium, and nothing is heard about him for some weeks. Eventually, he surfaces in Cuba, where he is supposedly being looked after by the president's family. A complicated idea is proposed, whereby a team from the US travel to Havana to play the Cuban national side, and then a team from Cuba will go to the US to play a return game the following week.
At this point, the behind the scenes wheeling and dealing comes into play. Lines are drawn between the US and Cuban officials, and the not so officials, as to where the blame lies for this situation. Both games are played out in relative peace, and the protagonists assume this will be an end to the sabre rattling. All appears calm for some months, but Miranda and Jessica are still trying to find out the truth about Manny's abduction. In the spring, Miranda is invited to attend an important game, and although she risks losing her job to be there, she feels she must in the pursuit of the truth.
The game is eventful and afterwards, a situation arises at a press conference where lives are in danger, and many revelations are aired about some of the people Miranda suspects of complicity in the crime. The results are many and far-reaching once this information has gone public, and changes are afoot in high places.
A well written story, both well paced and entertaining.
Reviewed on 01/13/2012 by ReviewTheBook.com Member Suzy Watts
I wanted to read this book because I love baseball. It is the story of two sisters, who are both ambitious but quite different. Miranda has a government job and is married to a lawyer. Her sister, Jessica is a sportswriter who is engaged to Manny Chavez who plays ball for the Washington Filibusters. These two sisters love each other and the national pastime, but they are thrown into international politics which threatens to damage their relationship. In addition, Miranda has been involved with a ballplayer which threatens her marriage.
Gould uses the backdrop of baseball as these two sisters realize more deeply what they value most. Jessica is willing to stand by her man as he is kidnapped to Cuba and she follows him there and marries him. Miranda suddenly finds out she is pregnant by her ballplayer friend but realizes she wants to make things work with her husband who has had his own affair.
This book at times reads like a thriller with issues of immigration, threats of global conflict and the world of international politics. The characters are real and the sisters likeable. Baseball is the dropback for the novel but you will enjoy this book even if you are not a fan of the game.
Reviewed on 06/24/2010 by ReviewTheBook.com Member Janice Hidey
Reviewed on 06/04/2010 by ReviewTheBook.com Member Tiffany Schlarman
