Rating: 4.5/5
Book Blurb: An emotional, slow-burn, grumpy/sunshine, queer mid-century romance for fans of Evvie Drake Starts Over, about grief and found family, between the new star shortstop stuck in a batting slump and the reporter assigned to (reluctantly) cover his first season—set in the same universe as We Could Be So Good.
The 1960 baseball season is shaping up to be the worst year of Eddie O’Leary’s life. He can’t manage to hit the ball, his new teammates hate him, he’s living out of a suitcase, and he’s homesick. When the team’s owner orders him to give a bunch of interviews to some snobby reporter, he’s ready to call it quits. He can barely manage to behave himself for the length of a game, let alone an entire season. But he’s already on thin ice, so he has no choice but to agree.
Mark Bailey is not a sports reporter. He writes for the arts page, and these days he’s barely even managing to do that much. He’s had a rough year and just wants to be left alone in his too-empty apartment, mourning a partner he’d never been able to be public about. The last thing he needs is to spend a season writing about New York’s obnoxious new shortstop in a stunt to get the struggling newspaper more readers.
Isolated together within the crush of an anonymous city, these two lonely souls orbit each other as they slowly give in to the inevitable gravity of their attraction. But Mark has vowed that he’ll never be someone’s secret ever again, and Eddie can’t be out as a professional athlete. It’s just them against the world, and they’ll both have to decide if that’s enough.
Review:
A reporter dealing with the grief of losing his partner finds a new spark at romance when he is assigned to cover the baseball season with the new star shortstop who is battling the worst slump ever. A sweet slow burn romance between a grumpy x sunshine and just a lovely read overall. The story follows Mark Bailey, an arts reporter who ends up assigned to cover the new season of baseball centered around the worst player... Eddie O'Leary. Eddie is playing the worst baseball of his life and after finding out he was transferred to a new team on live television and having a fairly bad reaction... he is feeling a bit outcasted by his team. Eddie feels lonely and the fact that he's in a new town and is a queer sports player in 1960 and is also playing the worst baseball of his life... it's definitely not a good time for him. Yet from the moment Mark and Eddie meet, they begin a tentative friendship that begins growing into something more as they go out to meals together, bound over their loneliness, and begin to open up to one another. The story was just a really sweet read and seeing Mark deal with his grief and opening himself up to romance again was sweet. I loved Eddie so much, he was such a sweetheart himbo who adored Mark. Eddie's struggles with trying to adjust to a new city and group of people was so relatable and he really was just trying his best. This book was just a comforting read and I would definitely recommend it!
*Thanks Netgalley and Avon and Harper Voyager | Avon for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*
