Excellent, quick read! It was really well written with an engaging story line, good dialogue, and a lovely writing style. The main characters were each well developed and offered compelling narratives.

June has dedicated her entire life to baseball. Game after game, she proves that she's one of the most accurate pitchers that her team has ever seen. Despite June's shoulder injury, she's determined to get scouted by colleges and eventually pitch for the MLB.

Ivy was once a soccer prodigy, but she's realized since that her talents lie in being a referee. Ivy's parents don't take her ambition to someday ref for pro soccer games seriously, but Ivy is stubborn and set on making her love of refereeing into a career someday.

When Ivy throws June out of her baseball game, the two become enemies. But their animosity doesn't last for long; the two bond over loss and eventually decide to date. There's only one problem: umpires and players aren't allowed to date.

To start, I appreciated the themes of grief and loss that were present throughout the novel. Dugan shows that grief can be unpredictable and sometimes debilitating, but the grieving process can be easier with a support system.

I also liked that Dugan touched on feminism and the way that women are badly mistreated in fields dominated by men. Both Ivy and June must reckon with the fact that they will always struggle to be taken seriously, even if they are the best.

Their relationship was cute, but it was dysfunctional, and I don't think they'd work out in the long term. Both of them needed to focus more on themselves and their potential careers than each other, especially since June wasn't the best girlfriend.

The book also felt a bit cliche. A lot of the dialogue was uncreative and made me cringe a bit. I felt like I was reading something unfinished.

Gotta love a fast paced sports romance! I really liked this story and I loved how the author was able to balance the sweet moments and the deep moments. The discussions of sexism and grief were done really well and I had a great time reading this!

Playing For Keeps is a dual-POV sapphic romance book that took a surprisingly deep look into grief and mental health that I thoroughly enjoyed! The book follows Ivy, an aspiring professional umpire, and June, an aspiring professional baseball player who is currently dealing with a serious shoulder injury. The two initially have a meet-ugly during a tough baseball game, but eventually connect over having lost loved ones to cancer, and the relationship develops from there.

I found this book to be a realistic depiction of teenage relationships and a very deep look into grief and the different ways that it can manifest in people. June and Ivy's families both deal with grief, but they do so in very different, even unhealthy ways. However, we do see their families begin to heal and realize that things are unhealthy. June and Ivy's relationship is not perfect, but I think it is a realistic depiction of how messy teenage relationships can be.

This book unfortunately had a few weak points for me. It did feature an insta-love trope, which is not my favorite thing, however it wasn't too prevalent. The ending was not especially strong, and I wish Ivy's grief had been a greater focus. However, overall I really enjoyed this book and thought it was a fun and sweet ride!

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for this ARC! This was a cute, fluffy (sort of), quick read!

I like the fast pace of June and Ivy's (also such good names) attraction, as I feel like it's interesting to read about them trying to figure out how to make their relationship work around their lives. However, I feel like sometimes there needed to be a balance between on and off page events. When there was a baseball game, every detail, every strike/out/etc was described, but then Ivy and June would leave the field and be like "I'm so excited to go on our 500th date!". I'm pretty sure (other than at the end and in the epilogue), there were only like two dates that actually went into detail, which did take away from some of the chemistry. The book also deals with heavy topics like grief, sexism, and chronic pain, while still keeping a generally light tone. I'm surprised that neither Ivy or June ended up going to any therapy, but that could be for any number of reasons. Overall, this was cute, but I just didn't love it as much as other sapphic ya books. I think this is my least favorite Jennifer Dugan book.

Playing for keeps review
*NetGalley Arc Review*
I LOVE sapphic sports romance but this one didn’t hit for me AS much. I had a hard time getting into the story but I ended up enjoying it. It was a cute and fluffy baseball player x umpire relationship!
”I kissed Ivy. And Ivy definitely kissed me back.” 😭🩷

I absolutely love every Jennifer Dugan book I pick up, so I had high expectations for this book... and it did not disappoint. June and Ivy are complicated and authentic, and I loved following along on their journey. Definitely recommend!

This was an entertaining book with realistic stakes. The romance is a fast burn. The characters get together quickly and then spend most of the book dealing with sports-related obstacles.

I liked the main characters and their banter. Their relationship was sweet at times, frustrating at others. The villain and the main dilemma he presented were sadly realistic to the world today.

I'm not an athlete or much of a sports fan but the sports parts didn't bother me and even held my attention a lot of the time. I liked the way the book dealt with some deep issues, like grief and sexism, without drowning in them.

I read an ARC of this book from NetGalley. All comments are my own.

Playing For Keeps follows Ivy and June, two high schoolers trying to follow their dreams and make their marks in the professional sports world. Ivy has big dreams of being a professional referee and June wants to follow in her parent’s footsteps and eventually become the first woman in the MLB.

I love reading Jennifer Dugan’s work, wishing I had a sapphic YA book to read back when I was younger. There was a lot of miscommunication and stubbornness between the two, but that’s just how it is being a teenager. This book also shows how people adapt differently to grief, which I believe is great for readers to see and feel. I think Dugan did a great job working this into the book in a way that is open and understanding for readers, especially YA readers who are more impressionable and may not be fully understanding in that category.

I thought this book was a really sweet, thoughtful read with characters that you’ll love and a very interesting plot. It was also a very quick read, and could easily be knocked out in a few hours!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC!

Thank you so much to PENGUIN GROUP, Penguin Young Readers Group, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book early in exchange for an honest review.

Playing for Keeps is a YA sapphic romance about Ivy and June, two athletes who had different responses to the death of family members.

I really enjoyed the complicated family dynamics of both characters, as well as how different their relationships were with their family and friends. I especially liked June’s dynamic with her best friend Javonte and Ivy’s over all personality. Also have the girls be connected not just by attraction but completely understanding the others sense of personal loss was a great addition.

However, the attraction between the characters and their relationship felt a little too fast, even for a high school romance. But the rhythm that the characters settled into was fun and I enjoyed reading it. 3.5 stars.

I enjoyed some parts of this book. i loved how complicated the family dynamics were and how it handled grief.

This book is supposed to be an “enemies to lovers” but i didn’t get that. They got together way too fast to be enemies and there was so much communication that i got very annoyed at times. I get that this is high school but at the same time it was just a little bit too much miscommunication for me.

I would have loved this book more if it slowed down a book. Everything happened so fast.

This was a 3.75/5 star read for me. I enjoyed it and had a good time with it. I read it pretty quickly. I definitely like that it's a YA sapphic romance, and there were parts that I was giggling at or crying at. I felt the emotions, and not many books can do that for me so the fact that this book did sets it higher for me. However, there were many problems that happened that would have been so easily solved by just talking it out. Some things like that in books are good, but it just happened too much in this book for me to consider it good. It was frustrating and made the book feel more middle grade than YA, in my opinion. But overall, the book wasn't bad and I don't feel that the time spent reading it was wasted. Would I recommend it all the time? No. But would I still recommend it to a few people? Yes. I would also be open to reading more books by Jennifer. All things considered, I would say read it but don't go into it expecting to read the best piece of literature ever written.

A sapphic YA sports romance? Sign me up! PLAYING FOR KEEPS follows Ivy, a high school student with dreams of being the second female NFL referee and June, a wickedly talented baseball (nope, not softball) pitcher trying to follow in the footsteps of her parents’ former ball careers. When Ivy ends up an umpire for some of June’s games, an enemies to lovers spark is undeniable. Can June and Ivy be together follow their dreams on the field? Or are they destined to strike out?

As a Jennifer Dugan super-stan, this book in particular felt heavier than her other YA romps. This book tackles familiar expectations, loss of a family member, sexism in the sports world, pressures on high school athletes, and chronic pain. While all of this topics are addressed and handled with care, PLAYING FOR KEEPS still gives you plenty of giggling, kicking my feet moments.

My only big critique of this book is that the pacing felt a little off. The enemies to lovers zipped through the enemies phase in a blink of an eye that almost turned it insta love. It left the pairing feeling a little forced through the first half of the book.

I thought this book was so stinking cute!! I'm a big fan of sapphic sports romances, so Playing for Keeps was right up my alley. With all the elements of a cute YA romance, this book also balances discussions on the pressure society places on teenagers to have their lives figured out at such a young age. Highly recommend for fans of Home Field Advantage and She Drives Me Crazy!

A really cute, easy YA read. I think the troubles both June and Ivy face are the realty of a lot of high school sports players hoping to make it to the next level. The book also did a great job of showing how easy it is to get caught up in other people’s expectations of you. It had a lot of important lessons for young girls and athletes in general. I didn’t love the “forbidden” aspect of ump and player, but overall I devoured this book. Definitely recommend.

For a supposed “enemies-to-lovers” sports romance, there sure wasn’t much of the enemies part. The pacing was a little off for me, the enemies part lasted barely past the introduction and the romance was very fast-paced. There was a LOT of miscommunication which I struggled with, I get they’re in high school, but I hated that they both were kinda shitty to each other. There was also a lot of grief mentioned, both MC’s had family members die and that was handled well, even if the characters definitely should’ve been in therapy. The romance, when it wasn’t stressful because they were dumb, was nice. I liked the supporting characters the best though- Javonte and Mia were truly the voices of reason and I wish Ivy and June would’ve listened to them.

Overall not bad, but the amount of miscommunication really turned me off, so watch out.

This is another one of those rare unicorn queer YA books that actually feels like it was written for real-life queer youths. And, at the same time, it healed me from all the heterosexual nonsense I’ve had to endure over the years every time a fictional girl outshined all the boys on her sports team. (I am truly never going to be over Bend It Like Beckham’s supposed straightness!)

June is a baseball pitcher phenom with dreams of being the first woman to go pro. Or, well, they’re her dad’s dreams, really, the only hope he’s had since June’s mom died. Ivy is an aspiring professional referee/umpire; she wants to bust down the doors that other women have barely pushed through. Only, her mom wants her to fulfill her dead brother’s collegiate dreams instead. Seems like June and Ivy are a match made in an Iowan cornfield, right? Wrong! It’s totally against the rules for umpires to date players! If you’re looking for something to scratch your League of Their Own heartache/itch, this is it.

Thank you to Penguin Young Readers Group and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book and provide and honest review.

Talk about anxious attachment styles!

This one made me cringe so hard. Every character needs therapy to deal with their shit before they jump into such unhealthy relationships. It felt like a bad car accident--I couldn't stop reading it just because it was so bad and I wanted to see how bad it could get.

Over the storyline was super cute and I found the relationship between June and Ivy cute. There were moments though when I definitely wanted to grab Ivy and tell her that she is way too good to be with June. I did find June’s character to be slightly (okay….extremely) selfish and I had a hard time connecting with her because of it.

Being a former college athlete, I did have a hard time with the recruiting aspects that are mentioned in this book. It all seemed a little out there in the way that this book talks about it. However, that is also just me being slightly picky and hypercritical.

This was a quick read for me which I loved, and I never felt like I was forcing myself to finish this story as I have with other books.

I really enjoyed this book! I loved how we got to see June and Ivy's relationship and the way that they each struggled with their own problems. It was a really sweet book!