MEET ME UNDER THE LIGHTS, by Cassie Miller, Viking Books for Young Readers, March 3, 30326, Paperback, $13.99 (young adult, ages 14 and up)
Meet Me Under the Lights, by Cassie Miller, is a baseball themed YA novel inspired by Romeo and Juliet.
High school junior Eliza Crowley is known as the Princess of Fairfield, a farm town in North Carolina that loves two things—tradition and baseball. Although Eliza loves “the game,” her life goal is to become a lighting designer on Broadway. Shaking off her reputation as the rich girl and focusing on her town’s community theater production are what she’s set her sights on this summer, and nothing will stand in her way. That is until Reed Fulton, the grandson of a struggling Fairfield farmer, and ace pitcher of the Fulton Hawks, returns to town.
Reed dreams of putting the catastrophe of last season behind him and leading the Hawks to a championship victory against the Crowley Cardinals. But when his childhood friend turned stranger, Eliza, strolls back into his life, she makes his heart accelerate quicker than his fastball, and he’s not sure he can stay away from the girl he’s supposed to despise.
Small-town summers and baseball draw Reed and Eliza together, even though the Crowleys and the Fultons are determined to run each other out of town. When the families make a deal to settle their thirty-year-long dispute once and for all, Eliza and Reed are stuck in the middle during the most important summer of their lives. —Synopsis provided by Viking Books for Young Readers
Meet Me Under the Lights is an enemies-to-lovers romance told from the alternating viewpoints of Eliza and Reed. It’s the sort of book that you can read over a weekend and enjoy, even if you’re not a fan of baseball.
Eliza is from a rich family known throughout the community as baseball royalty. Reed’s family is the opposite. There’s history between both families and between Reed and Eliza.
Reed and Eliza are middle-of-the-road characters that at times are a little off-putting, but still manage to grab attention.
Meet Me Under the Lights is a fast-moving read that touches on family, community and class differences while maintaining a sweet romance that suits the premise.
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