This was such a well crafted novel, all the characters had believable flaws and strengths, and dreams and doubts, that made you root for them and yes, sometimes, get you a little frustrated , but it was all worth at the end, because it was lovely, and having the background of baseball was a nice change, as they are not very many romances that focus on this sport.
Gene being trans was very well handled, I thought, what it meant for him, how it made his job more difficult in a way, but how he wouldn’t change being out because he could be himself and it was all worth it at the end.
Thank you NetGalley for a copy of this book.

Gene 'Nes' Ionescu is a minor league ball player, and he absolutely loves it. His dad was a pro baseball player, and it's all he's ever wanted to do. He's got his best friend, Vince, an older (lol, 38) player who is closeted but happily married to a rather charming man called Jack, and he's got baseball. Then Luis 'Nada' Estrada gets traded into the team. Luis and Gene used to play ball together for Stanford, but Luis got drafted and left Gene behind without a by your leave.

This is as much a story of growing up as it is of sport and falling in love. Throughout the book Gene slowly learns to accept that people moving on and growing doesn't mean they have to leave your life. It's a lesson I've really struggled with, that mandatory seeing a person every day because of work, etc, isn't the only reason you're friends with someone, and if they're important to you then you will still be in each other's lives as your lives continue to chug along.

The relationship between Nes and Nada goes from sorta-enemies, to friends, to lovers, and its really beautiful. It's not a perfect world, where no issues exist, but maybe it's a world that's a little better than ours.

This books was an absolutely delight to read, and I'd really recommend for, well, everyone. It's a brilliant debut from KT Hoffman and I can't wait to see what they write next!!!

This book was such a delight to read. Gene is a lovely character - funny, sweet, full of hope. You want nothing but the best for him. Luis is also so sweet and you just want to give him a big hug. The story had its hooks in me from the get-go, and it was a struggle to put it down to, like, work and sleep.

This book was SO FREAKING SWEET! Another one of my most anticipated reads that totally lived up to expectations, Gene and Luis were EVERYTHING and more. Not only is The Prospects a beautiful romance, it's also an enlightening commentary on trans people in sports, mental health rep, finding a place where you belong, and living your dreams even if they seem impossible.

Gene Ionescu, the first trans man to play professional baseball, is living his lifelong dream playing for the minor league Beaverton Beavers. He's looking forward to playing shortstop for the season when an unexpected trade brings Luis Estrada, one of his teammates from college, back into his life. Luis, who is expected to be called up to the majors at any time, takes his starting spot and acts standoffish, throwing the normally unflappable Gene completely off balance. As they struggle to get along, their performance starts to suffer, and something has to give. Will the two men be able to work out their differences and find a way to lead the Beavers to a playoff spot?

Y'all, Gene is just a ray of sunshine (most of the time), I loved him so much. He's come so far and he's so optimistic, yet he holds himself back from hoping for more and that just broke my heart. I love how his romance with Luis unfolded, from supposed unrequited crush/enemy to unlikely friends to lovers who cannot keep their eyes and hands off each other. And oh gosh, Luis is so special. He has overwhelming anxiety (to the point where he has a service dog - I'm OBSESSED with Dodger), but despite that he finds the strength to come out to his family (with Gene's help) and figure out what he really wants out of life.

I ended up tearing up constantly (for sad AND happy reasons) through the entire second half of this book. I can't believe this is KT Hoffman's debut novel, it's so heartfelt and absolutely beautifully written. These men (and this team) just had my heart bursting with joy, I loved every moment so much. I like to think we will someday live in a world where situations like Gene's are totally normalized and celebrated - I certainly have hope!

With a sexy, slow-burning rivals-to-lovers romance, a loveable cast of underdogs and misfits, and plenty of baseball action, debut author KT Hoffman’s “The Prospects” is a joyous, big-hearted, hopeful, triumphant home run of a book that will make you cry and cheer in equal measure. As a gay sports fan, I want to live in the world that this book created. I hope with all of my heart that, someday, it will be a reality.

Thank you to Penguin Random House/Dial Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book early, in exchange for an honest review!

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for my ARC of The Prospects.

The story follows Gene, a baseball player for the Beaverton Beavers who is the first openly trans player in the Minor League. Luis, his college teammate that ghosted him after getting drafted, gets transferred to the Beavers. The story shows their awkward relationship growing into a romance, while also following the Beavers’ season.

I was so shocked to see that this book was debut, because I thought it was fantastic! This has everything that I want in a sports story and everything that I want in a queer romance. The cover of this book is goregeous (and it ties into the story really well)! loved the writing and the humor, and I will be keeping an eye on the author!

I love that this book has a lot of baseball in it. I find that a lot of sports romances don’t feature much of the sport itself, choosing to focus on the athlete lifestyle. In The Prospects, baseball was essential to understand the characters, and in return the characters really made you care for the sport. I wish that more sports romances showed the sport actually being played.

I also thought that the progression of the romantic relationship was done very naturally. The story is told from Gene’s perspective, but Luis’s feelings are made clear to the reader. The two of them had different but compatible personalities. There was the right amount of a slow burn to keep you interested, and the “true love” aspect was convincing. I won’t spoil the story but the romance was beautiful.

I am not trans, so reading from Gene’s perspective was different for me. I appreciated that he took pride in being trans and being gay. While the story touches in issues he faces for being a trans athlete, it generally stays a happy and fun romance. The story also touches on ADHD and anxiety in ways I thought were appropriate. The book never feels too heavy.

I thought the story was fun and the ending was satisfying. If you like sports or romance, read this. If you like both, you NEED to read this one. I love a story that’s just as good as its cover!

i may not know anything about baseball, but even with zero knowledge of the sport, i wholeheartedly loved "the prospects." i didn't understand any of the baseball that happened in the book besides whether they won or lost, but that didn't take away my enjoyment of gene, luis, and their love story (not to mention the incredibly loveable cast of characters). it's so special to see trans and queer joy in novels and especially in the sports subgenre. gene and luis were both such delightfully imperfect characters, complex and flawed and real, that you really couldn't help but root for them and their love. this is such a strong debut and i absolutely cannot wait to see what kt hoffman does next!

Thank you to NetGalley for an eARC of The Prospects.

My usual sports romance selections involve hockey, so a baseball book was a nice change! I liked both Luis and Gene and feel that they both had very nuanced and fully explored characters. It’s so important to explore different perspectives and life experiences.

I definitely recommend this to all sports romance aficionados

i’ve been wanting to get into sport romance books and this was exactly what i needed. i found our main character, Gene really relatable and i loved how much different kinds of representation was in this book! definitely give it a go if you’re in a mood for a book that’ll leave you in good spirits!

thank you netgalley for the e arc!

Minor League Baseball— where dreams are made and crushed.

Gene Ionescu has been playing for the Beaverton Beavers for three years, and he loves it. Like all minor leaguer players, he dreams to reach major league status. But as an openly trans and gay man, he is both confident in his skills and realistic about his prospects. Enter, Luis Estrada, an old college teammate of Gene who was drafted into the majors until an accident knocked him down. Both professional and personal sparks reignite leading to Gene rethinking his future.

It doesn’t take much for me to enjoy a good sports romance. While I’m not a fan of watching most real life sports, there is something fun about reading about them. Baseball isn’t my favorite sport in real life or in books, but the heart of this book overcomes it. The focus on anxiety and fear of the future and wanting more comes through clearly with the main characters. While we only see Gene’s POV, Luis is able to communicate his anxiety and pain in a realistic and matter of fact way.

Even the things we want, or think we want, aren’t always what we need. Sometimes, we hurt ourselves more rather than taking stock of our lives and facing the facts. It’s easier to keep with the status quo and not want better or different, but when you take the chance magical things can happen. My hope is that all the readers of this embrace the difficulties of life and face them head on. You never know, you might just like what’s the other side.

PS- I did make the bagel recipe in the book. It was my first time making bagels so any issues were definitely user error. The bagels came out denser than they should have but the taste and look was there. 7/10 would try again!

The first half of The Prospects was a 5 star reading experience for me. The tension and build up was sexy and showed a lot of effort by the main characters to overcome the wounds of their former friendship. I loved the other friendships between teammates too. The second half of the book brought my rating down to 4 stars because I didn’t find it as strong and personally satisfying as the first. I really enjoyed the direction of the plot and the events of the second half. However, it didn’t have the level of tension and emotion I felt in the first half. The events would suggest similar emotions, but they didn’t quite reach me and fell a little flat. Overall, I really enjoyed this book. The representation of many intersecting identities, the hope and joy of many moments for the characters, and the overall writing and voice of the author will have me seeking out their future publications.

as someone who always hesitates picking up a sports romance for a sport I know little about, I did not struggle at all to fall into this baseball love story. there was little jargon and the small amount present was easily discernable based on context.

Luis and Gene felt real. in the sense that they were real people with real struggles and real challenges and real emotions. all of the characters were a delight, with no short amount of personality for even the smallest of some characters.

I'm definitely gifting this to my sister in law who adores baseball + romance. there's truly no better combination out there for her.

I SQUEALED through this whole thing. Absolutely so fun but also achingly beautiful and exciting and so incredibly real. The conversations about sexuality, neurodivergence and gender are so fantastic and while the plot is idealistic…. It gives me hope. Thanks to NetGalley, the author and publisher for the arc.

K.T. Hoffman's debut novel is a love letter to baseball, trans joy, and queer love. It is a story of hope and finding one's place. Growing up as a queer, genderfluid teen with a passion for baseball, reading The Prospects made reminded me why I love baseball and how important it is to push boundaries in sports.
Hoffman developed a cast of complex characters that I couldn't help but root for. I was rooting for each character's success. As the reader, I was sucked into the Beaverton Beavers' universe, celebrating each character's wins and aching for each of their losses.
The Prospects is not only a story of queer romance, but a story of self acceptance and letting oneself want.
Thank you, K.T. Hoffman, for telling Gene's story.

I absolutely loved this book. There are so many books out there about queer angst, and those are good, and they have their place, but this book encompassed queer joy in a way that I have rarely seen. As someone with raging ADHD and anxiety, the issues the main characters dealt with were entirely relatable, and as a baseball fan, I couldn’t help root for their team to defy the odds. I read this book with a smile on my face. Nes and Nada will stay with me long after I’ve put this book down.

Perfect book is perfect. What can I say? I loved this book. I loved the MCs. I loved the side characters. I loved the baseball. I loved the writing style. It made me laugh. It made me cry. It's an absolute joy to read and I'll be highly recommending it to everyone. It even has a recipe at the end from one character and a running playlist from another character!

One thing I do want to mention, just because it zoned right in on my anxiety triggers, is that a character describes an incident where a panic attack leads to them fainting while driving. This is, obviously, a thing that can happen. However, it's really rare and it's kind of like the number one thing people who have driving anxiety often fear is going to happen and speaking from experience, I know that anxiety attacks often make you feel like you're going to faint, even when you aren't, and learning to kind of push through those feelings and keep driving is the way to combat that anxiety, so imagining this situation and its repercussions was rough.

But truly, this book is just so wonderful. You want this book in your life. Highly super recommend.

This was alright - maybe I've overdosed on sports romance lately, because it felt fairly average -- there were some good charcters and friendships and relationships.... but overall, it did not zip to the top of my sports romance list of recommendations. You do have to suspend disbelief a bit, because this is not taking place in actual the current day sports climate. I think it could be a great read for people looking to read some types of characters that, in the past, have perhaps been under-represented.

The premise of this book was everything I was looking for when I read the description, but I will still surprised by how well it managed to meet those expectations! A lot of the time, debut authors have a great concept, but the delivery doesn't match the expectations. That is not the case here; KT Hoffman knocked it out of the park (please excuse my baseball puns, there will be several in this review).

While homophobia and transphobia were not extinct in this world of baseball, it did not play as large of a role as it would in real life. To be honest, I loved that about this story. The world of sports is often filled with ideas of toxic masculinity, but that doesn't mean there shouldn't be books and stories that allowed gay and trans people to exist within those worlds. It would be wonderful if our world was at that point, but the slight escapism of the world Hoffman creates is comforting to fans of the sport who do not get to see themselves represented often. As someone who is both queer and Jewish, though cis, it was fun to see a world where people like me and Gene and Luis could see themselves succeed in a sport that is so dear to me.

The love story was beautifully done and none of the conflict felt contrived. The struggles Gene and Luis faced individually and together made sense for the world they lived in and their character motivations. The pacing of the romance over the course of the season kept it from feeling rushed and nothing felt like it just came out of left field. You will find yourself rooting for them and celebrating their wins.

A true homerun of a story!

This review will be posted to StoryGraph and TikTok on 3/3/2024. Links will be posted once the reviews are available.

Right now, having just finished this book all of thirty minute ago, this book is sitting at a comfortable 3.5. It's definitely better than mid, but I didn't overwhelmingly love this book as much as others do. Yes, I love Gene's boundless positivity and optimism and I love Dodger, and I appreciate the anxiety and trans rep, and I'd love to see more of Vince and Jack.

But I just wish we were shown more.

A lot of this book is telling. We're told what happened during the baseball games. We're told that Vince and Gene aren't talking. We're told Gene fudged it when he was called up. But we rarely get to see any of it actually happen. We get to see Luis' panic attacks when they happen and that's awesome, but I wanted to see more.

And I wanted more of the subplots be better developed. I still don't understand what happened between Gene and Luis at Stanford and what caused their falling out. Vince's inner turmoil is barely explored. Even when Gene takes headshots for Baker we don't get to see what came of that.

I just wish this story had been a little better developed and fleshed out so we could see more.

The Prospects is so much more than a baseball romance. It is soft and tender and filled with so much hope that the baseball -- which could be a character and setting within itself -- takes a backseat to Gene and Luis' love story. From rivals to teammates to lovers, these two don't have a linear path to love, nor is it without challenges, but they overcome these challenges together in the most beautiful ways.