Love & Baseball – The Cinderella Plot
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 Love and Baseball and The Cinderella Plot
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
Jamie Jo Wright
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
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.
My Thoughts on Love and Baseball
My favorite gothic/suspense writer wrote a romance? What?! Is she going to the good and frilly side? Say it’s not so! Okay, but seriously, this is a great novel, and I do recommend it. I have just gotten used to her suspense and really love it. She can be good at more than one genre. I’ll allow it. I guess. If I have to. Because obviously I don’t have a choice, and I’m going to read everything she writes regardless.
Let’s start by saying I’m old. I remember a time with no internet, so of course, I remember a time with no AI. What other generation can say they lived in the time of no internet, dial-up internet, and now internet on our cell phones (which also were not a thing)? So crazy to think of technology!
Now. I’ve never used AI. It’s not that I think it’s evil (okay, so maybe I do a little bit), but just that I feel humans should do their own thinking. But this book does a great job of acknowledging AI, what it can do, and some of the pitfalls that might come from its use.
Can I say something that’ll make people mad?
I don’t like sports. Any sports. Okay, maybe the ones with horses, but I’d never watch them for fun or even voluntarily. I’d rather be reading a book!
Brielle is in high school. She doesn’t really care about a boyfriend. She’s got her relationship with books and baseball, and that’s enough for her. But she needs a boyfriend to fit in. So she makes one up. She uses AI. He’s perfect. And he’s not real. Win-win!
Until he is real. He shows up at her school! What’s she going to do?
Well, she’s going to have a boyfriend, that’s what. He’s agreeable, and it’s a win-win for both of them.
This is a great clean romantic comedy for young adults and those like me who are young at heart.
I have voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book, which I received from JustRead Publicity Tours. All views expressed are only my honest opinion. I was not required to write a positive review, nor was I compensated in any other way. All opinions expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the FTC regulations.
My Thoughts on The Cinderella Plot
Okay. Let’s be real. I’m a girl who loves to read. You have to know that by the number of books I read and review over here! So, a book about a girl who’s like me. Sign me up! I was always the brainiac in school. Everyone came to me for homework help. So of course, I could relate to Paisley.
Now, I’ve never used a self-help book to try to remake myself. But I did have a period where I thought if I could look more like the other girls, maybe I’d be included more. Spoiler. It didn’t work. But as I became confident in who I was and embraced that I did find peace and my own group.
Okay.
This is labelled a young adult book. Yes, they can read it, but hello, this is such a fun and humorous author so of course, adults need to read it too. Let’s just say ages 15 and up, but that bottom number is up to the parent for when their teen is old enough to read this book. I threw 15 out there because my 15-year-old did read and love it!
I loved this book. There’s not a single bit that I didn’t love. It’s about identity and embracing your true self. Highly recommend. It’s also clean, unabashedly Christian, and just an all-around great book that I would recommend to every library, whether that’s a school or a town or your own home. And, once you read this one, go grab Pepper Basham’s other books. She’s got some good historical fiction, suspense, and just comedic gold!
I have voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book, which I received from JustRead Publicity Tours. All views expressed are only my honest opinion. I was not required to write a positive review, nor was I compensated in any other way. All opinions expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the FTC regulations.
Tour Giveaway for Love and Baseball and The Cinderella Plot
(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)!
Find the full tour schedule linked below.
The giveaway begins at midnight on March 2, 2026 and will last through 11:59 PM EST on March 9, 2026.
The winner will be notified within 2 weeks of the close of the giveaway and given 48 hours to respond or risk forfeiture of the prize.
Open to the 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!
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