My Quick Takes:
- 5/5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
- Language 🤐 none
- Spice ❤️‍🔥 kisses only
- Content 🤔 childhood trauma, foster care/adoption, single parent, toxic family relationship

Tracy Baack hits the ball out of the park (pun intended) with this sweet baseball romance!! She continues time and time again to write real and relatable characters.

Second guessing if you’re doing everything right or wrong in parenting was very relatable for me, even if I can’t relate on the adoption/single parenting front. I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know Danae and Griffin, but even more so Jason and Sam. I loved the character dynamics, especially of the side characters, they really brought another level to the plot.

Not a fan of baseball? Neither is the female main character, allowing readers with any stance on baseball to enjoy the read. I’m personally not a big baseball fan myself but that didn’t keep me from loving the plot, storylines, and characters!

Beautiful sports romance but this one is a bit more serious than the typical spicy sports romance books and I loved that. I loved the awareness of the foster care system and the compassion showed by our main characters. It brought a tear to my eye and I highly enjoyed and recommend this one.

Tracy Baack did it again - she once again wrote a Romance I couldn’t help but devour within an absurdly short amount of hours

We meet Danae, who is a school librarian, new foster mom and absolutely not a baseball fan. But then she runs into Griffin, who is perfect - except for him being a professional baseball player. And if you think this might be a slight problem, you don’t even know the half of it…

I loved the two main characters. Danae was so mature, caring, smart and an overthinker in all the good and bad ways. Griffin is so loving, determined and has the softest heart you can imagine.
The way the two of them communicate and try to work through things was so inspiring.

There were two main themes:
How vastly different the supposedly defining interests of our two mcs are and fostering/adopting a kid that had gone through a lot of challenging things.
Both themes are explored throughly, discussed, worked through, sometimes joked about. I as a reader feel like I really learned a few things and I appreciate that ♥️

If you like a romance with not a ton of fabricated drama, but between two adults who are different and have struggles in life, but try to work through it together, this is it!

Will from now on always recommend this 😍

PS: I am truly not a baseball fan. But the author managed to write about it in a way that I understood what was happening and didn’t feel bored, even when she described a baseball game ⚾️

Instagram review publication: June 18th

⚾️ Home Safe by Tracy Baack ⚾️
Publishes: June 30th, 2025
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 5/5

Home Safe completely stole my heart. It’s a closed-door baseball romance with so much humor, depth and emotional warmth. The story follows a sweet, very anxious librarian who is in the middle of adopting a book-loving boy, and a swoony baseball star who hosts a summer camp for foster kids. Their meet-cute? Absolutely hilarious and unforgettable.

One of my favorite parts? They both hate each other’s passions—he doesn’t get her obsession with books, and she couldn’t care less about baseball. Oops! Watching them talk this through made their banter so much fun!

This book also has incredible anxiety representation. Danae’s use of pros and cons lists and inner self-talk felt so honest and relatable. And her connection with her son, especially their shared love of Harry Potter, was just the sweetest. The adoption storyline? Beautifully done. Her son, a cute red head is working through trauma, and the book handles it with such gentleness, realism, and hope. You will definitely shed tears reading this. 😭

The romance grows through real communication, respect, and vulnerability. This story is full of heart, healing and the kind of love that makes you believe in second chances.

If you love opposites attract, relatable single parenting, and love stories with depth and charm—Home Safe is your next favorite read.

Home Safe was such a moving read. I found that the inclusion of a character with a trauma response and the surrounding emotions/feelings had a huge impact on me. It's a truly moving story wrapped up in a sweet baseball romance and I loved it. I feel like I highlighted a 3rd of the book!

I laughed, I cried, I got butterflies. The characters were so sweet while being realistic and down to earth. Tracy captures the sweetest romance using sweet yet imperfect characters making the book very relatable. I especially appreciated that she didn’t give in to the miscommunication trope. I finished this one and promptly sighed with contentment. The perfect amount of happy fluff mixed with the perfect amount of down to earth subject matter. There are so few closed door sports romances but Tracy is helping fill that void. You won’t regret this read!

TW - See author’s note
Spice - just kisses!
Langauge - None
Thank you Tracy and Netgalley for this ARC. All comments and opinions are my own.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Griffin West & Danae Collins
- Dual POV
- Baseball player MMC
- Elementary school librarian FMC
- Single foster mom going through adoption
- Opposites attract
- Strangers to lovers

✨ A few of my favorite things:
- Griffin’s patience with Danae’s thought factories
- Baseball teammates/best friends
- “Maximum” (*squeals and kicks feet*) 🫠🤭😍
- The village that rallies around Danae and Jason
- How Danae describes love to Jason 🥹😭
- The way Danae gives 110% to supporting Griffin despite loathing baseball 😂👏🏻 the color coded schedule 😭 are you kidding me?! Stop it.
- The terms of endearment 💕

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I absolutely could not put this book down. I was very very intrigued by both MCs especially when reading they both greatly dislike *cough* hate *cough* each other’s greatest passions. I really appreciated the way Tracy wrote these characters. They stayed true to who they were; they tried to enjoy each other’s passions; but ultimately did not come to LOVE reading or baseball. They still tried for one another and did the things to support each other. I really value that because in life just because you absolutely love something it doesn’t mean your spouse will automatically take to enjoying it too. Often times, our interests don’t drastically change but I absolutely love that they still sacrificed for one another, doing something they really didn’t like to show each other how much they loved one another.

Another aspect of the book I really appreciated was there was plenty of hard in the book (it’s not a depressing read, the hard isn’t like that). They have so many landmines they have to navigate around (crazy work schedules, media attention, adoption, childhood trauma, parenting a child with trauma, injuries, anxiety) and both Griffin and Danae give each other grace. They get short, close down, and make mistakes. But they still come to the conclusion to give one another grace and that sacrifices are worth it to be together. I think we need more of that today. We are promised trials and tribulations and people need to not throw in the towel the second something gets hard. I absolutely loved that Tracy had her characters constantly communicating, apologizing (when needed), and working towards resolutions together. Griffin and Danae truly embodied what it looks like to work as a team and to put each others needs (and Danae’s child’s needs) first.

Lastly, the village that whole heartedly shows up for the MCs and the child is truly inspiring. It encourages me to be a good friend and to keep loving on people well. Because we are made to be in community. God never intended for us to do life alone.

Everyone please go love on Tracy and congratulate her on all her hard work 💕 blessed to get to know you Tracy and read your work 💕👏🏻

This is a clean closed door romcom with nondescript making out that focuses on the emotions of the MCs or is brief.

**Thank you so much to Tracy for letting me read this ARC. I received a complimentary copy. No positive review was required. All thoughts are my own.**

Songs:
”feels like home” by Drew Holcomb & Ellie Holcomb
“More like Jesus” by Micah Fletcher
“Big girls don’t cry” by Fergie
“The rest” by Avery Anna *
“Bad for me” by Teddy Swims & Meghan Trainer
“Simply the best” by Billianne
“Never met at all” by Aimee Carty
“It’s not your fault” by Max McNown
“Love me back” by Max McNown
“Catch my breath” by Alex Warren *