Welcome to the Blog + Review Tour for Love & Baseball by Jaime Jo Wright (with Chloe Joanne) AND The Cinderella Plot by Pepper Basham, hosted by JustRead Publicity Tours!
About the Books
Title: Love and Baseball
Author: Jaime Jo Wright with Chloe JoAnne
Publisher: MadLit Publishing
Release Date: February 10, 2026
Genre: Young Adult Romantic Comedy
She needed a boyfriend. AI came to her rescue. But then her fake boyfriend showed up at school.
Brielle has never wanted a boyfriend. She’s happy with her book boyfriends–purely fictional, right? Easy to maintain. She’s also not a huge fan of sports, except baseball. Not playing it. No. Again, books and cozy afternoons are her thing. But Brielle can get into baseball with the best of them when it comes to watching, repeating stats, and wearing her favorite jerseys. But apparently, that’s not enough in life. At least according to her four nosy aunts, who all think she needs a boyfriend, people at school who are convinced Brielle is a closet serial killer because she’s happier with her books, and yeah. Valentine’s Day is on the calendar.
There is a purpose for AI, and Brielle decides the genius thing to do is make a fake boyfriend. Complete with deepfake photos, Brielle creates the perfect boyfriend, and no one needs to know he’s entirely fictional. They just need to believe she met him over summer vacation, and he lives somewhere in North Carolina. Only he doesn’t. When baseball catcher, Brooks Mason shows up at high school, a lookalike to Brielle’s AI boyfriend, her entire world becomes a dog-eared, bent pages book nightmare.
Brooks is getting sick of all the girls at school wanting to date him. He wants to play ball and hang out. So, yeah. It makes sense to help Brielle out. Fake date? Why not? But once together, dating for show becomes an act that both Brielle and Brooks aren’t quite prepared for, and dealing with unexpected attraction, complicated situations, and interfering aunts and bffs?
It’s a grand slam of problems just waiting to happen, plus a game-changing shot at a championship home run at love.
** CLEAN YA Rom-Com Fiction you can read without skipping a page **
PURCHASE LINKS: Goodreads | Amazon | BookBub
Title: The Cinderella Plot
Author: Pepper Basham
Publisher: independently published
Release Date: March 19, 2026
Genre: Young Adult Romantic Comedy
Paisley Harper is invisible.
Not in a superpower way. More like the people-look-right-through-you-in-the-hallway kind of way.
She’s the girl with the oversized cardigan, random book knowledge, and the uncanny ability to tutor the school’s star quarterback without actually being seen as anything more than helpful. Meanwhile, her aunt and uncle’s beloved small-town bookstore is under threat from a shiny corporate chain, her best friend keeps giving her looks that feel suspiciously loaded, and Homecoming is looming like a glittery reminder that senior year is running out…and she’s never been kissed.
Enter The Cinderella Plot—a wildly popular self-help book promising total transformation in five easy steps. New hair. New confidence. New life. Maybe even… a date.
With nothing to lose (except her dignity), Paisley decides to follow the plan. Because if fairy tales have taught her anything, it’s that invisible girls don’t get happy endings unless they change something first.
But as Paisley starts stepping into the spotlight, she has to ask herself an important question:
What if being seen comes at the cost of being herself?
Full of heart, humor, bookish charm, and small-town magic, The Cinderella Plot is a romcom about friendship, first love, faith, and discovering that sometimes the greatest transformation isn’t becoming someone new—it’s realizing you were worthy all along.
** CLEAN YA Rom-Com Fiction you can read without skipping a page **
PURCHASE LINKS: Goodreads | Amazon
About the Authors
Jaime Jo Wright is a multi-award-winning author of gothic historical mystery novels that weave suspense through dual timelines. Her debut novel, The House on Foster Hill (2017), won both the prestigious Christy Award and the Daphne du Maurier Award, establishing her as a compelling voice in inspirational fiction. An ECPA and Publisher’s Weekly bestselling author, Wright specializes in chilling mysteries stained with history’s secrets, drawing readers into haunting tales set primarily in turn-of-the-century Wisconsin. Her work has earned praise from Publishers Weekly for skillfully wrapping intricate mysteries around dual timelines with enough surprises to captivate lovers of gothic fiction. When she isn’t writing mysteries, she co-authors YA RomCom with her teenage daughter, Chloe JoAnne, with a passion to provide sweet and witty romance for teenagers with no apologies needed. Residing in Wisconsin’s rural woodlands with her husband and their two children, Wright is a self-proclaimed coffee enthusiast and lover of all of her rescued felines.
Connect with Jaime Jo by visiting jaimewrightbooks.com to follow her on social media and subscribe to email updates.
Pepper Basham is an award-winning author who writes romance “peppered” with grace and humor. Writing both historical and contemporary novels, she loves to incorporate her native Appalachian culture and/or her unabashed adoration of the UK into her stories. She currently resides in the lovely mountains of southwestern VA, where she is the wife, mom to five great kids, a speech-language pathologist, and a lover of chocolate, jazz, hats, and Jesus.
Connect with Pepper by visiting pepperdbasham.com to follow her on social media and subscribe to email updates.
Both of these books are delightful!
In Love & Baseball, bookish Brielle is so tired of being pestered about her lack of a boyfriend by her well-meaning aunts, her friends, and well, everybody, that she uses AI to create one. Imagine the surprise when Brielle’s “fake” AI-generated boyfriend walks into school one day. Hijinks ensue.
In The Cinderella Plot, Paisley Harper is the smart one, the one guys want homework help from. But dating? Forget it. When she sees a book called The Cinderella Plan at her aunt and uncle’s bookstore, she sees the possibility of transformation in her future. She’ll become the girl people NOTICE. And it seems to be working! But in the process, will she lose herself and miss out on the real happy ending?
Both Wright and Basham write with wit and humor, and both our heroines are wonderful. I could relate to them both. I was Paisley (except with no hunky best friend since childhood). I had my group of friends, and teachers appreciated me, but boys paid me no mind. I always had my head in a book. I couldn’t quote chapter and verse on baseball like Brielle, but I did like a good football game.
The different approaches to romantic mix-ups hit differently for me. Brielle’s mess was not intentional on her part. How was she to know that somehow, AI would generate a boyfriend JUST LIKE Brooks Mason, right down to the name? They both made the best of a really awkward and weird situation and ended up actually falling for each other. I wanted to shake Paisley a little more. Her mess was of her own making. She wanted so badly to be noticed that she was blind to what was right in front of her.
The side story arcs are also a lot of fun in both books. Brooks is trying to stay on the team and hoping his interest in baseball isn’t the thing that’s wrecking his parents’ marriage. Paisley is intrigued by a college guy who walks into her aunt and uncle’s bookstore one day, but then finds herself teeing it up with him to stop his plans to run the bookstore out of town with a big national chain. These add an extra element of suspense to the stories.
This is the first of Jaime Jo Wright’s books I’ve read, and I understand it’s a bit different from her Southern gothic novels. (I’ve got about three of those on my shelf, awaiting my attention.) I’ve read other books by Pepper Basham, and this one is as much of a joy as the others I’ve read. My favorite author list keeps growing, and these two ladies are on it!
Disclaimer: I received copies of both books from JustRead Publicity Tours. I was not required to leave a review. All opinions here are mine, and I don’t say nice things about books I don’t actually like.
Tour Giveaway
(1) winner will receive a prize pack of Brielle’s Faves (an signed copy of Love & Baseball, a copy of Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen, a Milwaukee Brewers lanyard, and a Brewers Christian Yelich baseball card) and Paisley’s Faves (a signed copy of The Cinderella Plot, a Cinderella carriage jewelry holder, and a beautiful copy of Emma by Jane Austen)!
Full tour schedule linked below. The giveaway begins at midnight March 2, 2026 and will last through 11:59 PM EST on March 9, 2026. Winner will be notified within 2 weeks of close of the giveaway and given 48 hours to respond or risk forfeiture of prize. US only. Void where prohibited by law or logistics.
Giveaway is subject to JustRead Publicity Tours Giveaway Policies.
Follow along at JustRead Tours for a full list of stops!
Im looking forward to checking this book out. Thanks for sharing.
great job reviewing both books!! Thanks for being on the tour 🙂
Fabulous review, Lisa! Both of these look like so much fun! I can’t wait to read them!
I am excited to check these books out.