Stealing Home by Allison Pittman is a wonderful summer time read! I’m not particularly fond of baseball, but that didn’t matter since this book is about so much more than baseball. I don’t want to give away any details which might ruin the story for you, should you decide to read it, but I have to mention that because I’m usually pretty good at guessing book endings, I was surprised that I didn’t correctly guess this ending. I didn’t see this ending coming at all and couldn’t figure out why the author would put such an event in the book, but she did a great job of bringing it all home in the last chapter! Now you’ll just have to read it to see what I mean.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY: It’s 1905 and the Chicago Cubs are banking on superstar Donald “Duke” Dennison’s golden arm to help them win the pennant. Only one thing stands between Duke and an unprecedented ten thousand dollar contract: alcohol.

That’s when sportswriter David Voyant whisks Duke to the one-horse town of Picksville, Missouri, so he can sober up in anonymity. He bides his time flirting with Ellie Jane Voyant, his unofficial chaperone, who would rather hide herself in the railway station ticket booth than face the echoes of childhood taunts.

Ned Clovis, the feed store clerk, has secretly loved Ellie Jane since childhood, but he loves baseball and the Duke almost as much–until he notices Ellie Jane may be succumbing to the star’s charm.

Then there’s Morris, a twelve-year-old Negro boy, whose only dream is to break away from Picksville. When Duke discovers his innate talent for throwing a baseball, Morris might just have found his way out.

Four individuals, each living in haunted isolation, each harboring a secret passion. Providence brings them together. Tragedy threatens to tear them apart. Will love be enough to bring them home? AUTHOR BIO: Allison Pittman spent seventeen years as a high school English teacher, and then shunned the advice of “experts,” quit her day job and set out to write novels that bring glory to God. She relishes inspiring other writers and leading the theater arts group at her church. She and her husband and three sons live in Universal City, Texas.