Sapphic baseball romance should have been a home run (lol) for me, but unfortunately, this fell flat.

An incredible pitcher and the ref she fights with is such a strong premise, but there’s not that much to go on aside from that. It was kind of forgettable and to say disappointing is an understatement.

Hopefully this is for someone, but it just wasn’t for me.

I am a Jennifer Dugan lover, but this story fell flat for me. I didn't feel like the emotional connection between the two main characters was established, which really led me to just not believe the bulk of the story. Not for me, but hopefully someone else loves it!

**Book Review: *Playing for Keeps* by Jennifer Dugan**

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

*Playing for Keeps* by Jennifer Dugan is a charming and heartfelt YA romance that blends sports, friendship, and the complexities of self-identity. Dugan's storytelling is light, engaging, and full of warmth, making this book a delightful read from start to finish.

The plot revolves around two main characters, both grappling with their own personal issues and discovering what they truly want in life. The setting, revolving around a high school girls' soccer team, is unique and provides an excellent backdrop for exploring themes of teamwork, ambition, and unexpected romance. Dugan’s portrayal of these themes is fresh, and she succeeds in balancing humor with moments of emotional depth.

The chemistry between the protagonists is undeniable, and their relationship feels organic and real. The dynamics between them are fun and full of tension, but it’s the growth they experience individually and together that makes their connection so meaningful.

The character development in *Playing for Keeps* is strong. Both leads are well-rounded, and their journeys are relatable and filled with growth. The secondary characters also add to the richness of the story, creating a well-rounded world that feels authentic.

The pacing of the novel is fast, keeping readers engaged without feeling rushed. While the plot follows a relatively predictable path for a romance, the way Dugan handles the emotional beats and builds the relationships elevates the story above typical YA romance fare.

Overall, *Playing for Keeps* is a fun, sweet, and satisfying read that will appeal to fans of YA romance and sports fiction. It’s a well-crafted, feel-good story with enough depth to make it stand out. Definitely recommended for those looking for an enjoyable, heartfelt escape.

Cute, but not a lot of relationship development. I was more interested in the sports aspects, both on the side of the elite pitcher and the girl who wanted to be a professional ref - it was an interesting dynamic.

Adorable book of enemies to lovers / forbidden love. High school pitcher and high school umpire! Covers ethical dilemmas, injuries, homophobia / outing of gay teens. Highly recommend for young adults and adults alike!

This author is new to me, but I will be keeping an eye out for anything else they publish. I loved the story and the characters. The pacing of the story was great and the characters were relatable.

Ivy has an unusual dream - she dreams of becoming a league official at the topmost level, such as at the superbowl. When she gets the opportunity to be a baseball umpire at the high school / club level, she's overjoyed. Unfortunately this puts her in the path of a hot-headed pitcher, June, who she immediately butts heads with.

I got a bit hung up on the details of being an official. My experience with sports officials has always been adult volunteers, so the premise of Ivy being an official for her peers and the implications distracted me a bit from the plot. First, she jumps between refereeing soccer, to baseball, and dreams of having a career in football. Second of all, are the fraternization rules really so strict at the high school level, or is this just made up for the plot because it wouldn't come up in real life? I think this may have worked a bit better at the college level of play rather than high school.

In spite of these hang ups (which I think most readers won't have) I found the plot enjoyable and compelling. Ivy and June connect over their shared grief of losing close family to cancer, and each have rich backstories and personal challenges as they navigate their relationship and big life decisions like college and careers.

Despite being billed as a romance, I felt like most of Ivy and June's relationship felt rather glossed over. It consisted of a lot of time skips and vague statements like "she let me take her on more dates" and "she comes over most nights to do homework." The more dramatic and interesting aspect of this ended up not being the secret/forbidden relationship, but rather June's chronic pain. I felt like June's shoulder could be a character in its own right. I also enjoyed Ivy's personal growth as she learned to put herself first.

I wasn't fully bought into the romance, and even finishing the book, I still question whether Ivy and June are a great match. However, the individual stories and growth covered in this book make it a worthwhile and compelling read.

2.5 Stars

I really wanted to love *Playing for Keeps*, but it just didn’t hit the mark for me. The idea of a sapphic rivals-to-lovers sports romance between a baseball pitcher and an aspiring umpire is right up my alley. However, it felt like the execution didn’t quite live up to the potential of the premise.

First off, the so-called "rivals-to-lovers" dynamic wasn’t really there. By the third interaction between June and Ivy, they’re already starting to get close. I was hoping for more tension and build-up, especially with the whole "players and umpires can't date" rule hanging over their heads, but instead, their connection felt a bit too fast, and the emotional stakes didn’t have enough room to grow.

Another issue I had was the lack of relationship development. A lot of their bonding happens off-page, and the reader is left to just hear about it instead of experiencing it. That’s fine sometimes, but when it’s a romance, I want to feel the emotions in real time, not just be told what happened. This really affected my connection to their relationship.

The miscommunication throughout the book also started to get tiring. I’m all for drama and angst, but the constant misunderstandings here felt more like an easy plot device than a meaningful obstacle for the characters. There were times when I found myself asking, "Why are these two even together if they can’t talk through their issues?"

The dialogue was another sticking point for me. Dugan usually excels at writing natural, relatable conversations, but here, the exchanges between Ivy and June felt a bit stiff and forced. It didn’t have the same flow I’ve enjoyed in her other works, which made it harder to get invested in the characters.

By the time the ending rolled around, I felt like everything was resolved way too quickly and conveniently. All the tension and issues that had built up throughout the story were wrapped up almost too neatly, leaving me with a sense of anticlimax.

On the positive side, I did appreciate that Ivy and June were both out and had supportive families. It’s refreshing not to have the typical coming-out storyline, and it was nice to see their relationship evolve without that particular hurdle.

Overall, *Playing for Keeps* didn’t quite work for me. The concept was strong, but the pacing, relationship development, and miscommunication issues made it hard to fully enjoy.

I really wanted to like this one. I mentioned in my review of The Prospects that I wanted to read more queer baseball romance novels cause it was really cathartic to read that one and out of the queer baseball romance novels on my tbr, this is the one I was most excited for, cause it’s sapphic! But it was so poorly written.

First off, I’m sorry but June and Ivy should not be together. I was actively rooting for them to break up. Not a good thing to feel when reading a romance! June was really getting on my nerves. I know her tendency to make everything about herself is addressed but still it bothered me, especially cause I don’t feel like we really got to see her change. It’s addressed but then the book ends before we get to see the result of it being addressed. She also just does not get Ivy. This was particularly apparent whenever Ivy spoke to her best friend who understood her so well. (I lowkey shipped them.) And Ivy doesn’t get June in return! (At least she tried though.) It felt like they were upset with each other more often than they were happy, which I think is at least in part because they never really had much of a friendship phase. Its rivals to lovers, but there wasn’t much of a process to get there. Of course they’re going to have problems!

Almost all of the side characters felt rather one-dimensional. This especially bothered me in regard to Javonte, as without depth and as the only Black character in the book he seems to just be fulfilling the Black Best Friend trope.

I also would have liked for baseball to be a bigger part of the book. I didn’t feel like I could feel June’s love for the sport like I could with Gene in The Prospects or even with Ivy and her love for refereeing.

I thought about DNFing but ended up not cause despite it all this was still an entertaining book. I don’t think Jennifer Dugan is a bad author. I read her other book Verona Comics a few years ago and enjoyed it. But this one was really disappointing.

I've been putting off finishing and reviewing this book because as much as I love Jennifer Dugan, it's left me wondering what is going on with her. Dugan is just not as strong as a writer as she has been and I don't know if she's writing too many books or what.

But I finished this one and felt as if I read some rough draft or outline for a fun idea. The book pitches itself as a fun enemies to lovers sports book only to dwell on heavier ideas revolving around loss. Here I thought I was going to read a Romcom and I don't like to review books saying, it's not what I thought. But it really was hard to read because I thought it'd be cute but instead could've used way more content warnings.

It's a story about loss and pressure and while I don't mind that, I didn't want it here and I don't think this is Dugan's strengths. I look to her for fun little ditties not books like this and don't know who is pressuring the seriousness of books because already her horror book shows a lack of understanding when it comes to mental health making me double struggle with this one.

This is my first time reading Jennifer Dugan and Playing for Keeps did not disappoint! Sapphics and sports? IT IS A YES FOR ME. Super cute!

While i enjoyed this book it fell a little flat. The characters seemed to lack the enemy/rivals to lovers aspect that I was expecting. There relationship seemed to only really develop off page, something I hate in tv shows, and cannot stand in books. This book dragged on some parts while seeming to rush in others which is something I struggled to look past.

The two things that saved this book for was my love of softball and that coming out wasn't one of the many storylines. I definitely understand that being so prevalent in books, especially YA books, I have grown tired of coming out stories. So I enjoyed that it wasn't really a thing.

I have loved all of Jennifer Dugan's books, and this was good but I didn't LOVE it.
I did have a good time reading this YA queer sports romance, but I feel that it's not marketed well? It's not really rivals to lovers at all?
However, I really enjoy reading coming of age stories. This story is saturated with grief and trials with both Ivy and June's stories. Both are grieving the loss of a loved one while navigating the next steps in their lives. It was good, but not amazing. I will continue to read Jennifer Dugan's books because I have thoroughly enjoyed reading her stories!

I normally love Jennifer Dugan books but this one did fall a little flat for me. I'm hoping that it was just a case of the wrong "mood read" and plan to read it again at a later time though so I would still recommend it!

Over all the story was interesting. I enjoyed the relatability of the characters in this one. It didn't fee like they were unbelievable or overly dramatized. Stories that handle anxiety, family pressure, and grief always fascinate me because of how we all deal with these things differently. Personally, I thought these subjects were displayed really well in this story, especially for the age demographic portrayed. I also really loved seeing an aspiring umpires perspective! That was a new one for me and I loved it!

So good! I loved the ethical dilemma behind this book. It was so good. And the romance and the issues inherent in it were so well done.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review of Playing for Keeps. I've read some of Jennifer's other novels so I was happy to see this one come up. I did enjoy this because of the back and forth banter of the two MCs. There were a lot of relatable parts including career aspiration challenges, grief, keeping the relationship under raps.

I love this author. This book was a DNF for me. It took way too long to get to any great interaction and then it was a played out type of experience with the two main characters.

Playing for Keeps is a Sapphic YA sports romance about a student umpire and a star baseball pitcher who fall for each other. Due to the conflict of interest of a sporting official and a star player trying to get ahead in the play-offs, the two two keep their relationship a secret. June, the pitcher, is also trying to hide a shoulder injury from her team so she can keep getting scouted by colleges.

This book really hit at a good time for me! I read it while recovering from my second hip surgery and wondering what the future looked like for me and my sport. June's injury and the pressure that she was under felt really genuine to me. I also liked Ivy and her efforts to try to break into the professional sports official world. I haven't read about anything like that in a book or sports romance, so it was cool to see! I liked June and Ivy together, although June could definitely be the worst. I could see why she was acting the way she was, and I'm glad that she was kind of aware of it too.

The ending seemed really abrupt to me in terms of what June decided for her future, but that's really my only critique. I would have liked more of a wind up (geddit) to her ultimate decision before the epilogue.

Overall, Playing for Keeps really hit for me (geddit) and I highly recommend it! 4.5 stars rounded up to 5 from me. Thank you to Penguin Group and NetGalley for the eARC of this book, my thoughts are my own!

I thought this was very good and I will have to add this to the shop shelves. Thank you for the chance for us to review.

I’m a big fan of Jennifer Dugan’s work. Love at first set was one of the first sapphic books that I’ve read and I really enjoyed it. I’ve read several other of Dugan’s books as well and have enjoyed the variety of voices and age groups that she writes in. I’ve swooned in love at first set, and I’ve been too unsettled to sleep with Last Girl Standing (I’m also a bit of a weenie).

Growing up playing sports, I would have thought that I would have liked this one a hole lot more than I ended up liking it,

I realize that this is a book about baseball, but this book felt like it ran in circles a bit (pun very much intended), at least more than I’d like in a tropey sapphic fic.

And sort of a spoiler (but vague), this book just made me unnecessarily angry at the adults in the picture that allowed things to get so bad. Also felt a bit unrealistic, and short sighted, but if it helps the story 🤷🏻‍♀️.

Is this bad? No. Is it my favorite Jennifer Dugan title? Also no, but she’s quite prolific, so I look forward to the next one.