Welcome Home, Caroline Kline

A debut novel sparkling with wit and insight about a young woman whose reluctant return to her Jersey Shore hometown gives her the second chance she didn’t know she needed.

Caroline Kline isn't ready to strike out.

In New York City, newly single Caroline is stumbling her way through the recent implosion of her life. After a surprise breakup leaves her with no job, no apartment, and no backup plan, she’s unsure of what to do next. That is, until Caroline’s father, Leo, injures himself in a bad fall and asks her to move home to the Jersey Shore suburb she’d always been desperate to escape. But Leo doesn’t want his daughter to be his caretaker; he needs her to replace him as third baseman in his local men’s softball league. This isn’t just any season, Leo claims. This is the year they have a real shot at the World Series, the pride and joy of Glen Brook, New Jersey.

Caroline agrees to move home, concerned that Leo is hiding a more serious health condition than he’s willing to admit. As the first female player in a league full of old-school men, she’s up against more than a few challenges. And when a night gone wrong lands her in the path of her hometown crush—and first love—Caroline struggles to reconcile the life she thought she’d have with the life she might actually want.

Sharply observed and full of humor and heart, Welcome Home, Caroline Kline is a touching tribute to the many unconventional paths that victory, and recovery, can take.


Genre: General Fiction

"Welcome Home, Caroline Kline is compulsively readable, riotously funny, and filled with sentences you'll want to read aloud to the person next to you. It's tender and hopeful, with a romance that will make you swoon. It's a laugh-out-loud love letter to baseball, New Jersey, and rock and roll. Most of all, it's life-affirming. You'll continue rooting for Caroline long after you finish the last page." - Mandy Berman

"With warmth, humor, and that special brand of New Jersey suburban splendor, Welcome Home, Caroline Kline is the perfect messy, mid-twenties coming-of-age story that should be required reading for anyone looking to find their place in the world. Preiss' prose absolutely shimmers as she sends Caroline on an endearing journey of discovery, from begrudgingly subbing for her ailing dad on his local men's softball league to reopening her recently broken heart to a romance of her youth. A novel that perfectly captures all those nostalgic yet life-affirming feelings that arise when returning to one's roots, Preiss' first publishing 'at bat' is a total home run. This is a debut not to be missed!" - Becky Chalsen

"Courtney Preiss' debut novel Welcome Home, Caroline Kline is lovely and engaging, funny and smart and sometimes sad. I rooted so hard for Caroline Kline, a young woman who makes a life for herself out in New York City, but somehow finds herself back in her childhood bedroom. This is a worst nightmare scenario to anyone who had grown up in New Jersey and also so very relatable. Her journey is a quiet triumph." - Marcy Dermansky

"Courtney Preiss has written a laugh-out-loud original love letter to New Jersey and hit a home run with her debut novel. Wry and big-hearted, Welcome Home, Caroline Kline is a sporty romp, a summer romance, and a thoughtful exploration of what it means to grow up. Playful with a game-face focus on what matters, Preiss had me at 'rec specs'." - Beck Dorey-Stein

"Despite a total lack of athleticism, I'm hard-wired to love a baseball story. But it's not just my affinity for fictional home runs that made me fall in love with Welcome Home, Caroline Kline. This book is wise and winning, a profound coming-of-age tale sharing the field with a thrilling and hilarious wallop of a sports saga. Courtney Preiss's debut didn't just make me root for the home team, it made me root for the very idea of home." - Bobby Finger

"Brimming with warmth, humor, and bit, Welcome Home, Caroline Kline is an absolute home run of a novel. Courtney Preiss has written an unputdownable love letter to baseball, New Jersey, and the power of starting over, featuring an unforgettable heroine for whom you can't help but root." - Laura Hankin

"Original and unexpected, this second chance romance is perfect for baseball lovers and lovers of deeply emotional, complicated relationships. I was cheering for Caroline Kline from the first page." - Annabel Monaghan

"An uplifting and sassy debut - with just enough Jersey attitude and plenty of heart - about family, love, finding yourself, and finding home base." - Margarita Montimore

"Preiss knocks it out of the park in her heartwarming, witty debut. When her life falls apart, feisty, jaded Caroline Kline returns to her New Jersey town and gets a second chance to discover the excitement of a good challenge, the joy of romance, and the wonder of home." - Amy Poeppel

"Welcome Home, Caroline Kline is a warm, big-hearted novel about celebrating the people and places that are foundational in shaping our lives. Caroline might be dreading her return to New Jersey, but how lucky for readers that we get to accompany her back to her hometown. As she reconnects with a childhood love, rediscovers her love of baseball and makes peace with her father, Caroline surprises herself by learning she can go home again - and that there is nowhere else she would rather be. An enormously fun and rewarding read." - Kirthana Ramisetti

"A field of literary dreams that will have you cheering." - Steven Rowley

"Watching Caroline's hesitant, brave, and acerbically funny transformation is exactly like watching a come-from-behind victory on the ballfield: beautiful and unexpected, riveting and memorable." - Katie Runde