Review-The Change Up by Elley Arden-5*

Title: The Change Up
Series: Arlington Aces #1
Author: Elley Arden
Genre: Sports Romance

Rating: * * * * *

Publishers: F&W Media

(May 16, 2016)

ISBN: 978-1440591518

FTC Disclosure: ARC provided by the publisher via Netgalley
Commercial real estate mogul Rachel Reed is the one person her father can depend on, so when he walks into her Philadelphia office two weeks shy of her fortieth birthday to drop a personal and professional bomb, she rises to the occasion. She will help get his independent professional baseball team up and running before the inaugural season, and then … she will sell the team to recoup his substantial investment. It’s a tall order, but Rachel knows one thing for sure: a sexy nuisance from her past and a few acres of trees won’t stand in her way.

Former minor-leaguer-turned-landscaper Sam Sutter is surprised to find his brother’s ex in the woods behind the house he bought when he cashed out his signing bonus and said so long to baseball. He’s even more surprised to learn “his” trees are on her chopping block. There’s no way he’ll desecrate his nature-loving mother’s memory by letting that happen. But butting heads with the beautiful business woman is a tricky task that leads Sam to accept a position as head groundskeeper at her father’s stadium. Working under Rachel’s watchful, smoldering eyes might be Sam’s undoing.

She doesn’t know a thing about baseball. He swore off the sport ten years ago. But strange things happen when field dust gets in your veins.
This had several of my favorite activities-baseball, gardening & romance- so it was  a natural choice when it came to picking it up to read. Our small town has few entertainment choices but the American Legion baseball team is one that we enormously enjoy watching. We had the once in a lifetime opportunity to see San Francisco's World Series winning pitcher, Madison Bumgarner, grow from a little league ballplayer to the accomplished pitcher he is today at this ball field. This love of baseball has had me reading several sports romances recently and "The Change Up" is definitely one of the more enjoyable ones. I loved that this was a minor league baseball team and loved the inclusion of some of the day to day running of said team. The romance was while not exactly a second chance romance but sort of. I loved that the guy was younger as this definitely lead to several funny exchanges. The characters were very down to earth and the issues were very relatable. Rachel is 40 so this wasn't a new adult romance, another plus for me. I definitely recommend this wonderful book and intend to pick up some more of her romances.  

Elley Arden is a born and bred Pennsylvanian who has lived as far west as Utah and as far north as Wisconsin. She drinks wine like it's water (a slight exaggeration), prefers a night at the ballpark to a night on the town, and believes almond English toffee is the key to happiness.

Elley has been reading romance novels since she was a sixteen-year-old babysitter, sneaking Judith McNaught and Danielle Steele novels off the bookshelves of the women who employed her. To say she'd been sheltered up to that point is an understatement. No one had ever told her women could live bold, love freely, and have sex lives that were exciting and fulfilling. (They don't teach these things in Catholic school!) Now that she knows, she's happy to spread the world. The women she writes about may be fictional, but the success, respect, and love they find on the page is a universal right for women everywhere.

Elley writes books with charming characters, emotional stories, and sexy romance.