Thank you so much to The Dial Press/Random House for the advance copy of this book!
Thank you so much to PRH Audio for the complimentary audio!

This book will be out on April 9th.

"I don't want to quit."
"Everyone wants to quite sometimes."
"I don't."

Leading up to me reading this, the hype around it was so real and I just couldn't wait to finally dive in to read it for myself. It was really enjoyable!! And it had one thing that I miss when I read other sport romances books - the sport!!! I really love that the author incorporated a lot of the baseball games in the book. It makes it feel more believable and perhaps because in this case both of the love interests on the same team, that plays into their dynamics on and off the field.

I just loved all the relationships in this book. Everyone was such a close group and so accepting of each other. The author didn't avoid that being queer in sports was hard but simply didn't make it such a spectacle (which it shouldn't be). The players were just who they were and that was that. There was just such positive representation through the book - a star player who is married to a man, a woman manager, two dads, anxiety rep with a service animal.

I love seeing the relationship between Gene and Luis redevelop over the course of the season. I think having them be former friends/teammates played really well into their current relationship. The intimacy of when they first got together was so beautifully written and I like how KT describes how Luis makes Gene feel in that moment, "with Luis it feels like he has exactly the body he should because it knows how to move with Luis's. It has nothing to do with any of the mechanics and everything to do with Luis himself."

I paired my reading with the audio and I thought Shaan Dasani did a fabulous job with the characters. Plus it's always a great having someone who is transgender doing the narration. It goes without saying that the representation and their voices matter.

On a side note, I am glad that this book focus was on a minor league team as oppose to the professional league. My city has a huge minor league team and I try to go to a couple games in the summer and it's just amazing how many people will go to root for their local team (Go Fightin Phils!).

I was thinking back on my readings and I am ashamed to say that this was my first adult romance book that has a trans main character. I know I have read them in the YA space which now makes me want to explore more romances with a trans main character.

I am looking forward to seeing what KT will do in the future!! I am hoping for more sports theme books as he did such a great job at balancing sport and romance.

Check this book out if you love baseball, small towns & enemies to teammates to friends to lovers!