You know what is great about this time of year? The ARC's for the fall season start coming in! Yay ARC's!

On Tuesday, two books came in, including Home Run by Paul Kropp. Now I noticed that it won't be out till October, so I was hemming and hawing about whether or not I should review it. But then I figured I would go ahead, because it's the sequel to Running the Bases which you can go out and purchase right now.

Both of these books are the story of Alan, a kindy of nerdy, but mostly nice guy who really wants to have sex. In the first book, Alan is in high school, and gets dating help from his friend Maggie, who coaches him through various short-lived relationships. I think I can say, without ruining the book, that Alan and Maggie get together by the end of this first book.


Home Run finds our hero with his virginity intact (after a year of dating Maggie) and on his way to his first year of university. Now here is where I found my only real problem with this book. Apparently Alan and his parents made the drive from somewhere in Ontario to BC in two days. That is ludicrous. Really. I have done that drive myself, and even driving 12 hour days, it was four and a half. I realize this is a small detail, but I gotta tell you, I sputtered in anger for a good fifteen minutes. Anyway, Alan arrives at the fictional Burrard University to discover his roommate is a pretty straight-arrow Christian. Despite that, Alan and his roommate have various adventures involving Alan trying to lose his virginity, and Kirk (the roommate) trying to keep his.

Eventually Alan does get to have sex, but not till he's gone back home for the summer, and not to any of the floozies he meets during the school year. I'll give you one guess . . .

I think what Kropp does best in these books is make teenage boys palatable. I have some reservations about how realistic Alan is, as a character, but I don't really care, because he's funny and endearing enough to make me want to keep on reading.

Running the Bases by Paul Kropp
ISBN 0385661479
160 pages

Home Run by Paul Kropp
ISBN 0385661487
208 pages