Thank you NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book was so sweet and adorable! It was such a warm hug and I just wanted to protect both Mark and Eddie! This is a beautiful love story that deals with grief, loss, acceptance, found family, and learning to love yourself and someone else the way they deserve.

The only critique I had with this book is that there were parts that were very slow and seemed to drag on. But that is just a personal preference! I still highly recommend this book!

It’s like this book was made for me. Baseball ✔️ Gay ✔️ Historical ✔️ Grumpy-Sunshine ✔️

I adored Mark and Eddie and loved how their relationship developed. Normally I don’t love slow burn romances but their friendship was a real treat. I appreciated how Sebastian didn’t shy away from how dangerous it was in the 50s to come out as gay and the lengths people went to to keep their true selves a secret. There was just enough sweet mixed in with the spicy and I didn’t want the story to end.

A queer love story that also features professional baseball? Sign me up! Eddie O'Leary plays for the Kansas City Athletics in 1960. Suddenly he learns that he's been traded to the expansion New York Robins, a terrible team in their first year of existence. Eddie, a bit of a hothead, loses his temper and manages to alienate his new teammates, his manager, and the fanbase in a tirade in front of reporters.

Now Eddie's in the worst slump of his young career, his teammates won't talk to him and the fans aren't shy of criticizing him to his face in public. Eddie just wants to be left alone until he meets Mark, a writer for the Cheonicle, assigned to do a Diary of Eddie O'Leary series. Eddie is no doubt attracted to the grumpy reporter who has built a fortress around his heart after a devastating loss. Can these two men who can't see past the dark clouds ahead of them help each other see the light at the end of the tunnel?

This slow burn romance was excellent! I loved all of the main characters and how they grew throughout the book. The author also does a terrific job with portraying the very real fears and repercussions of being outed in 1960 America. The potential loss of Eddie's career, the potential of being jailed. I loved the tenderness and care that Eddie and Mark show each other during their respective trials. You can also tell how much research the author did into baseball and it's history. Highly recommend if you're a fan of MLM slow burn romance!

My thanks to Avon, author Cat Sebastian, and NetGalley for gifting me a digital copy of this book. My opinions are my own.

In "You Should Be So Lucky," Cat Sebastian delivers yet another gem of a romance, this time set against the backdrop of the 1960 baseball season. With her trademark blend of emotional depth and impeccable character development, Sebastian crafts a poignant tale of grief, found family, and forbidden love.

Fans of slow-burn romances will relish the tender dance between Eddie O’Leary, the struggling star shortstop, and Mark Bailey, the reluctant reporter. As they navigate the challenges of their respective worlds and the weight of their own secrets, their connection deepens in a beautifully gradual manner, leaving readers eagerly turning the pages, while longing for more.

Sebastian excels at creating richly layered characters, and Eddie and Mark are no exception. From Eddie’s batting slump and homesickness to Mark’s grief and determination to live authentically, their struggles and vulnerabilities make them utterly compelling. Watching them find solace and strength in each other amidst the chaos of 1960s New York City is a heartwarming journey that will resonate with readers long after they’ve finished the book.

In summary, "You Should Be So Lucky" is a masterfully crafted romance that combines a captivating slow burn with outstanding character development. Cat Sebastian once again proves herself as a gifted storyteller, leaving readers eager for more. Whether you’re a fan of the genre or new to Sebastian’s work, this book is not to be missed.

A sweet and charming love story, which is likely to trick you into learning things about baseball, set in 1960. A sequel in the same world as We Could Be So Good, and also about queer journalists in a time when being a journalist was a much better career than today (but when being queer could get you arrested and fired). I think it's fascinating how Cat Sebastian walks a fine line between seeing and recognizing the dangers and traumas of life for queer people in this time in America, while somehow still writing a book that is a sweet, happy-ending romance and not just incredibly dreary.

I'm a Cat Sebastian stan. Her writing chops, her eye for a story, her politics...all *chef's kiss* in my experience. This derfinitely is, please note, a slow-burn love story. I don't think this is a bug, rather a feature; I'm pretty au fait with what happens between men in bed. I'm as interested in how they got there, and why, as in what it is they're gettin' up to.

The fun in this read is that, once the guys get their bodily freak on, I believe that they'll be able, and willing to stay there! These relationships, the ones you can actually picture as real and lasting, are all too rare in fiction...let alone in romantic fiction. It is not, I hurry to reassure the bodyloathers, a meaty, intimately observed intimacy; more of a noises-off kind of affair, where we know what happened and now we see what that brought to Mark and Eddie. One-handed reading is not really Author Cat's stock-in-trade, she hasn't started now.

That being my expectation, and it being met, next point of tension for many readers (including me) is the elephant in the room of any midcentury m/m story: Outing. A reporter and a baseball phenom in physical intimacy would've had a lot of anxiety about being seen to be...a little too close, a bit off in the macho world of baseball...because it would uneash the horrors of public, untrammelled homophobia on the men. This was, after all, the time of The Lavender Scare.

So this backdrop means, in my reading, the HEAs and even HFNs many writers engineer for two men being publicly together in this time-period ring hollow. "That could not happen!" I think, all suspension of disbelief flying away on noisy bat-wings of knowledge. As always, Author Cat spares me the discomfort by making these two behave circumspectly. Mark, a reporter, knows the Power of the Press, and respects the cultural norms to avoid awakening it. He's also just lost his longtime love, and so isn't exactly in a huggy-smoochy frame of mind; Eddie's in his first-ever existential crisis..."I can't do this thing I get praise and an identity from anymore! Help!"...so he's, well, not gonna rock the boat. Such a good way to ensure there's layers of meaning behind their period-appropriate decorous public demeanor.

What makes any story centered around grief readable is hope. The men here don't have a path forward, can't see through the fog of the present into a brighter, better-defined future. Only as they learn to trust each other's love and support as real, solid stones capable of being made into a foundation do they find the ease they're seeking. That was the payoff I needed from this unlikely duo's coming-together: The sense that, to their mutual surprise, they had found together the path that neither had been able to see alone.

In the end, these two find their happiness in their connection. They are, it felt to me, solidly, enduringly connected and will weather their future storms better for being together. Now, how often do fictional people draw out that level of thought and that depth of interest? For anyone who hasn't read Author Cat's earlier work, it might sound surprising that this has happened. I assure you who haven't had the pleasure that this is a long-term feature of all her stories.

Lastly, I hope you'll read this, and resonate to it. It is a very clear statement of a deep, abiding truth of the experience of being Other:
It’s not just the burden of continually lying, it’s keeping your existence a secret. When the world has decided that people are supposed to be a certain way, but you’re living proof to the contrary, then hiding your differences is just helping everybody else erase who you are.

This book, in a period-appropriate way, presents two loving souls whose socially unacceptable love and connection truly prevent them from being erased.

Lovely, just absolutely lovely. I may have liked this one even more than We Could Be So Good, and I LOVED that one.

I really loved We Could Be So Good, so I was excited to see that Cat Sebastian's newest title was set in the same universe. And we do get some glimpses at Nick and Andy, but this book works perfectly as a standalone.

The setting is 1960s New York City. Eddie is a baseball player whose been traded from Kansas City to New York's fledgling professional team, the Robins, when the trade puts the former superstar into a slump. As a bit of a PR stunt, Mark agrees to ghost write a series of 'diary entries' following Eddie's season. As the two spend more time together, they get to know each other better and have to grapple with the risks associated with being two queer men in the '60s in NYC.

I've seen the author describe this book at 'less than 2% plot' which definitely tracks. My challenge was that without much plot, especially in the beginning, I struggled to get into the story while I was getting to the know and care about the characters. The first half is also pretty heavy on the baseball, which lovers of the sport will probably adore, but for those of us who don't care as much about the sport it did feel like a slog at times. Once we got to about the half way point and we started seeing more romantic development between Eddie and Mark, I was able to get more into the story. As we learn more about Mark's history and his previous relationship (his partner died of a heart attack), the stakes of their relationship felt more significant. I'd probably land at about 3.5 stars for this one.

Content flags: experienced homophobia; references to side characters' infidelity and substance use

I voluntarily read an early copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

I have read other Cat Sebastian romances so when I saw the newest one was going to be grumpy sunshine I knew I had to read it!

This one took a minute for me to get into. The characters both started out in a bad place making the beginning a bit depressing. However, I'm really glad I stuck with it! I feel like Mark and Eddie are the definition of black cat and golden retriever. Eddie has such a big heart and while Mark is a bit more prickly. I had such a fun time reading about Mark being discerning (he'd definitely not a snob) and watching Eddie make fun of him about it.

I ended up really liking Eddie and Mark's relationship but it is hard to read a queer romance set in a time when the characters can't have a happily ever after where they live openly together. I have read some Regency queer romances (including others by Cat Sebastian) but for some reason, it was a little harder for me knowing they were so close to a time when they could have lived openly together. I like to think that they got the opportunity to one day.

We don't see a lot of romances set in the sixties. It's in an interesting period that doesn't quite feel historical but also is not contemporary. It is a period that people alive lived through but also one that is a completely different society from ours. It was interesting for me to read more about this period.

I recommend this one for fans of queer romance and particularly opposites attract or grumpy sunshine. I think readers who like other reading about earlier time periods will also enjoy this one.

I love baseball. Like, LOVE love it. So when I heard Cat Sebastian’s next book was within the same universe as We Could Be So Good Together, and centered around a queer baseball player and reporter Mark Bailey from The Chronicle, I practically begged for this ARC. Less angsty than WCBSGT, there is a tenderness and sweetness to Mark and Eddie’s story. This is a bit of a grumpy sunshine age gap trope and Eddie O’Leary is the lovable young “Sweetheart” who is currently in the worst slump of his batting career. And yet all I (and the Robins fans) wanted to do was root for him. Everyone loves an underdog and when crabby solitary Mark Bailey is tasked with writing a series for the Chronicle based on Eddie’s performance, he finds that maybe this loudmouth bat breaker is really just frustrated from being on the outs with his team.
Mark is the one with the power: he’s older, has authority over what gets published about Eddie, has a home and financial security, and yet I love how Mark doesn’t use his power to control Eddie, but instead to help him. What I think begins as compassion for Eddie’s slump and ousting from the Robins turns into genuine care and empathy as Mark gets to know the real Eddie.
This book deals with some heavy issues from loss of a loved one to being a homosexual man in the 1960s. And yet Sebastian handles them so deftly that it made me feel for and love Mark and Eddie’s story even more. As with any book by Sebastian, the side characters are just as complex as the main MCs. Mark finds a surprising friend in George Allen, an aging sportswriter, Eddie’s manager Tony Ardolino isn’t necessarily the screw-up that he seems, and even Mark’s dog Lula has her own ridiculous snooty personality. There are of course cameos of characters from WCBSGT, but this book could still be read as a standalone (but why would you want to?!).
You Should Be So Lucky gave me all the warm feelings of new love, the energy of a stadium cheering on its beloved players, the heartache of wondering if you can ever get back what you lost and I loved every minute of it. It’s a quieter, possibly slowburn of a book, and yet I felt compelled to keep reading into the wee hours, just wanting to know how the story ended. I received this advanced copy in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Steam: 🪭.5
Emotional longing: 🥹🥹🥹

Absolutely loved reading a story set in the 1960's! I am 1970's baby, so this was extra entertaining for me as it was an era that I just missed. Eddie our baseball player is just not having a good season of it at all, but he is still such an upbeat guy. Mark comes across as the grumpiest grump, but the unexpected friendship with a baseball player starts to change his perception on life. They become bantering friends and then develop a slow and quite cozy romance. This was a lovely realistic and comforting read.

5 stars!

Thank you NetGalley, Cat Sebastian and HarperCollins for this ARC in exchange for my honest review!

I'm continuing my project of clearing out my NetGalley shelf, although, this hardly counts as an ARC review because it's not exactly a risk reading a Cat Sebastian book. I knew this would be good.

I was a little surprised HOW good this was, it's for sure my favorite book that I've read by CS- to be fair, I've only read 2 others by her- but this was absolutely wonderful.

First of all for anyone who is wondering- this can totally be read as a standalone. There are some cameos of the MCs from "We Could Be So Good" which was nice, and one of the MCs in You Should Be So Lucky was a SC in WCBSG, but there's nothing in this that would be confusing if you haven't read WCBSG.

As usual with Sebastian, the research and attention to detail was amazing. Everything felt so authentic, even the fictional baseball team somehow felt like it must have really existed. I love that the logo for the Robins is a bird that is "definitely not a robin" lol. The humor in this is so good too. There is some great banter, and when the characters are cracking each other up, I was actually laughing right along with them (not just rolling my eyes like the cynic that I am).

Also as usual for CS, the character work is nuanced and crazy well done. Mark Bailey is a reporter and grieving his partner of 7 years who died suddenly. His grief is not only due to the death but due to the fact that their relationship was a secret to almost everyone. His late partner was a lawyer, which was a very conservative profession in the 50s/60s U.S., and they had to pretend that they were straight roommates. This is the brutal reality of American history and Cat certainly doesn't dance around it. I think it's handled very well, although if you have triggers surrounding homophobia, or queer kids getting kicked out by their parents, etc.... please take caution. There is a lot in this. It's heavy, but it's also full of sweetness, optimism, and joy. Anyways, after his partner's death, Mark has sort of vowed to himself that he won't keep who he is a secret anymore, and as a reporter, he's not under as much scrutiny as other professions, like say...professional athletes.

Eddie is a professional baseball player from Nebraska, who has just been traded from Kansas City to NYC (the Robins). He is notorious for having a short temper and no filter, and he is currently suffering through a batting slump after having an amazing first season. He is the very definition of a golden retriever and I ADORE him.

Mark is interviewing Eddie for a diary that will be published in the Chronicle. They are both lonely, they are both attracted to each other, but need to be careful. The development of their relationship, the way Eddie sort of...gently nurses Mark back to life... it's so beautiful and well done. There's a lot of push and pull, and comfort given, and I just really liked it. A lot.

The smut was... well... I don't even know if it really counts as smut because every orgasm is sort of glossed over, and much of it is glossed over. BUT it is tender and sweet, and, at least this time I knew what I was getting into and was expecting it because this is my third Cat Sebastian book.

You Should Be So Lucky by Cat Sebastian was a very moving and poignant story.
I adore this book. I loved every second of it. I loved the two characters and I loved the their perspectives and personalities! loved reading about Nick and Andy and how they developed their relationship. The growth that the characters exhibited throughout the book was amazing.
A sweet and charming queer historical romance that was truly unputdownable!
Cat Sebastian writes incredible stories and this one is no exception!

Thank You NetGalley and Publisher for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

This book surpassed all of my expectations. I thought it was really well-thought-out and an emotional read that let me connect with the characters really well. It's about Eddie, a baseball player who is only in his second year in the major leagues, and Mark, the reporter assigned to write up a weekly column for him. Mark is hurt and grieving while Eddie is young and naive (basically a puppy). Their developing romance is so emotional and well done. It has lots of hurt/comfort and deals with issues of trying to have a relationship in the spotlight in the 1960s while being homosexual. I love this book. It made me cry, laugh, feel giddy and so many other emotions.

We Could Be So Good was one of my favorite books of 2023 and I knew I had to get my hands on this one. 🙏 To be honest, I didn't pay that much attention to Mark in that book but now I'm going to have to do a reread and pick up all the crumbs! I absolutely loved Mark as a character. His journey through grief hit so close to home for me and the scene with the cherries absolutely ruined me. The book in general and his and Eddie's growing relationship is just so soft and tender and precious, filled with snippets of mundane beauty that tug on your heartstrings in just the right way. I don't know how Cat Sebastian manages to put so much emotion into these little moments but she does and it's one of the things I absolutely love about her books.

I also love how vivid the side characters are in all of her stories. Everybody feels so tangible and broken and well crafted, and they all work perfectly together. I would have loved to see more of our favorites from WBCSG of course but I loved meeting all the new characters like Eddie's teammates and his mom!

Anyways, I'm not sure there will ever be a book Cat Sebastian can write that I'll ever dislike. If there is, it's probably a silent plea for help.

Thank you to Avon & Netgalley for the eARC!

Cat Sebastian writes stories in a way that pulls you in and keeps you there. She is a master at the grumpy sunshine dynamic and I'm a sucker for it. I love a grumpy snarky character and Mark is that in spades. Mark is snarky but also has a huge heart and Eddie brings out the best in him. The grief as part of the story is done very well, its shown realistically in what it is to grieve alone and in secret. The story is heartbreaking and heartwarming at the same time.

This story is long, and maybe a little too long. But it's not boring, we get to see the relationship develop and we also get to see how relationships outside of the romantic relationships.

The SWOONIEST slow burn to ever slow burn romance that I couldn't put down!

You Should Be So Lucky is a historical fiction gay romance set in New York in the 60s. It tackles tough subjects like grief, fitting in and finding your place in this world. The main characters are a recently traded baseball player in the middle of a horrible batting slump and a barely working reporter who somehow ends up covering baseball.

I LOVED this book so much. It took me a minute to get used to the writing style, but once I did I was ALL IN. Their quiet romance tugged on my heartstrings through the entire read and I was rooting for them to find their footing the entire time. I loved being thrown into the baseball world at that time (huge baseball fan) and the side characters were memorable and showed families can be created, not just consist of the one you were born into.

Read if you like:
- grumpy / sunshine
- found family
- sports romance (specifically baseball)
- queer romance

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to be an early reader! All thoughts are my own.

You can always trust Cat Sebastian to write queer love stories that are inextricable from the fabric of life, queer or otherwise, in the time period it is set in. Whether it be Regency or in this case, America in the early 60s. It is always a gentle and meaningful meditation on what it is to live at the intersection of multitudinous Otherness. While I'm not the biggest fan or follower of baseball or any ball sports, that wasn't as much of an issue I was afraid it might be. Which goes to show how little the world has progressed in terms of how isolating and heteronormative the world of ball.sports still is for queer men. Eddie, however, is a delightfully sweet himbo and his earnestness, even in the face of public scrutiny and perceived failure, is as refreshing as his complete self-assuredness about being queer even in this time period. I adored Mark and his queer book club agenda in We Could Be So Good. But a grieving and healing Mark, relearning how to live and love again, was a beautiful and gratifying journey to behold. I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop on someone getting outed, etc, and I'm so grateful that the author chose instead a journey towards finding and learning to trust a supportive community of allies and queer found family.

4 Stars Queer historical romance icon Cat Sebastian is back with You Should Be So Lucky, a slow burn, grumpy/sunshine queer romance between a baseball player and reporter in 1960 New York.

Despite an amazing rookie season, this year is shaping up to be the worst baseball season of Eddie O'Leary's life. He's been traded to an expansion team where his new teammates won't talk to him after he mouthed off about them, he's homesick, and he can't hit a ball to save his life. On thin ice, he's ordered to do a series of interviews with uptight reporter Mark Bailey. Mark is an arts writer, not a sports reporter, though he hasn't been writing much over the last year while mourning his late partner. The last thing Mark wants to do is write about the obnoxious new short stop for the New York Robbins. As Eddie and Mark spend more time together for the interviews, they recognize what they have in common--not only that they are both queer, but that they are both lonely souls. The two give into their attraction, but Mark has sworn to never be someone's secret again and Eddie can't be out as a professional athlete. Is what they can offer each other enough to make it last?

You Should Be So Lucky was an incredibly sweet and tenderhearted story. Though there's grief and loneliness, the story is hopeful and feels like being wrapped up in a warm blanket full of love. I was just as invested in the journeys of the side characters like George and Tony as I was in Mark and Eddie's story. Cat Sebastian doesn't ignore or minimize the reality that queer folks faced in this time period. It's honest about the fear of being discovered or outed, without piling on too much. This truly was such a lovely book and feels like the perfect story to get out of a reading slump!

MM - historical (retro) romance - white MCs - low steam - pov third dual - celebrity sports (baseball) MMC - child free - class gap (wealthy) - closeted - found family - opposites attract - workplace - widowed - ARC - 5 stars.

This books fits in so well with We Could Be So Good. There's many of the same themes and I was thrilled to see the couple from WCBSG as prominent side characters. Eddie starts as a really downtrodden baseball player who's being shunned by his team thanks to his temper. Once that turns around (found family vibes!) Eddie is such a sweet himbo. Mark is classic exasperated man who is also grieving. The book is low angst with the exception of being a queer person in the 1960s, especially someone who's a public figure like Eddie.

Bonus points for Eddie's midwestern mom who comes through when he needs her. Double bonus points for the adorable dog.