A baseball pitcher and an umpire fall for each other despite their differences and the fact that they are forbidden from dating. June is the star pitcher of her club baseball team and she's got the ego to match. She's readily on her way to being recruited at the college level. The only thing stopping her? Her little secret... her shoulder is injured and its only getting worse with every practice and game she plays. Ivy dreams about being an umpire for a soccer team, yet her reffing isn't going to pay for her athletic fees, so when she gets offered a job as a reff for a baseball team she takes the job. When Ivy and June's path's cross during a match, they have a pretty bad start (with June throwing a baseball at Ivy's head after Ivy calls her out, and then Ivy kicks her out of the game). Ivy and June start off as enemies but becoming begrudging friends... something more as they begin falling for each other. It's forbidden for them to be dating but they can't resist... and when a rival discovers their secret relationship and threatens to expose them, things only get more complicated. Can their relationship last or will it cost them everything they've ever worked for? This was an okay read for me. I wanted to like the romance more but I just felt that it was kinda meh and I just didn't really care for either of the characters all that much. The characters just felt a bit underdeveloped and i just wasn't all that attached to the story by the end. I do think that young adult readers will have fun with the sapphic sports romance though so I think you should check it out.

*Thanks Netgalley and PENGUIN GROUP Penguin Young Readers Group | G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

🦇 Playing for Keeps Book Review 🦇

❓ #QOTD Soccer or baseball? ❓

🦇 A baseball pitcher and umpire definitely aren't supposed to fall for each other, right? Especially not when star pitcher June and officiate-to-be Ivy are trying to go pro. Sometimes, life throws you a curveball, though. When Ivy is assigned as an umpire for June's elite club baseball team, they instantly clash on the field, only to find they have something in common: grief. Soon, they become enemies to friends to far more, despite the rules that prohibit them from dating each other. Will romance get in the way of them following their dreams?

💜 On the surface, Playing for Keeps seems like a fun, sweet young adult sapphic romance. The initial set-up gives us sharp, bittersweet enemies to lovers potential between a pitch and an umpire. Seems cute and fluffy, right? No one is that one-dimensional, though. Both Ivy and June are struggling with the loss of a loved one, balancing that on top of unrealistic expectations from their parents and the pressures they put on themselves to succeed. Add in the pressure you get from sports alone and it's enough to make anyone crumble. Ivy and June find happiness in each other, through stolen moments as they date in secret, wary that the conflict of interest between them will tear them apart. There's a potential for them to heal through one another, alongside one another, while learning how to navigate the external forces of loss while growing up.

💜 I loved that both Ivy and June were pursuing career paths that don't often make space for women. I would have liked to see more focus on that, though. It was sweet to see how the male players on the baseball team were quick to support June, but I expected to see more kickback (either from her team or other teams) to show (not tell us) how she struggled and still persevered.

💙 Unfortunately, the story is so rushed, so many scenes time-jumped, emotions mentioned but not illustrated, that you don't FEEL anything while reading this story. With the topic of grief, whether a character is processing it or trying to avoid it, readers should have an easy time sympathizing with the characters. Instead, the grief feels like a plot point, a reason for potential enemies to connect and eventually become more.

💙 Even with little jumps, the story lagged. Dugan has a tendency to pair selfless characters with less reasonable counterparts, which we certainly see between Ivy and June. Given that, it's difficult to root for both girls. Yes, they're both grieving, and yes, they both deserve happiness, but their actions are exhausting and (yes, I know it's YA) juvenile at times. Though the two girls had so much in common, the miscommunication trope constantly tugged them in opposite directions.

🦇 Recommended for fans of Some Girls Do, Home Field Advantage, and Cool for the Summer.

✨ The Vibes ✨
⚾ Enemies to Lovers
⚾ Young Adult Romance
⚾ Sapphic Romance
⚾ Forbidden Love
⚾ Lesbian & Bi FMCs
⚾ Sports Romance
⚾ Grief
⚾ Pressure From Parents
⚾ Miscommunication

🦇 Major thanks to the author and publisher for providing an ARC of this book via Netgalley. 🥰 This does not affect my opinion regarding the book. #PlayingforKeeps

💬 Quotes
❝ Expecting it means I can prepare for it, plan for it, and figure out a way to keep my cool in its face. What I didn’t expect, though, was for there to be an extremely attractive girl throwing balls at about seventy-five billion miles per hour, striking out dumb boys left and right, like some kind of varsity, all-star Black Widow. ❞
❝ There’s a lot of pressure on girls to conform, to become nice women, to do what’s expected. Smile more, whiten your teeth, lose the weight, don’t be too loud or too funny or too much. Make yourself less so the boys can feel like more. Don’t wear spaghetti straps or you might tempt them. Hold yourself accountable for the both of you, so they don’t have to. ❞

*Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an arc copy in exchange for an honest review.*

3.75⭐ rounded up.

The cover of this book is honestly so cute and it was what initially drew me in, but it's not hard to get me on board for a sapphic romance.

There were times where this book was incredibly YA and juvenile and I felt like I was too old to be reading it, but it was still a super fun and fluffy read. I probably wouldn't read this again, but I would recommend it to others looking for a good sapphic read.

I did really like the characters in this book. The two main characters both have a tragic backstory about losing someone they loved and I think it's beautiful that that brought them together.

There were characters in this book that I really did not like (the main characters' parents) because they were toxic and controlling and overall just unwilling to change or listen.

This book could feel kind of heavy at times when the girls and their families are both dealing with grief, but I think it was all a pretty realistic representation of being a teen.

I loved the idea of a baseball player and an ump having a secret, forbidden romance. I don't usually read a lot of sports romance, and this made me think that maybe I should try more.

⚾ Forbidden Romance
⚾ Rivals to Lovers
⚾ Grief representation
⚾ Loss of a parent
⚾ Loss of a sibling
⚾ Ump/Pitcher
⚾ Coming of age
⚾ Sapphic

I will be recommending this book and I am excited to see what else the author has written.

LGBTQ & female in male dominated fields
Good for YA, but lacked character development
would recommend for young teens

If you like other Jennifer Dugan books, you’ll probably like this one too. The plot wasn’t personally my favorite and the characters felt a little underdeveloped at times. By the end, I did like them, but I didn’t feel any attachment to them until I finished the novel. The pacing was just a bit off. But it’s a sweet book with some good lessons.

This was a great YA sports romance. Touched on a lot of important subjects. I connected with Ivy quite a bit, I found it hard to root for June at times. I really enjoyed the baseball aspects of this book and I only slightly like baseball so that’s a good sign 🤣 (Slight spoiler) I had a bit of a problem with Junes dad and a sort of lack of repercussions he had at the end. Overall, I enjoyed this book though and I would recommend it!

Jennifer Dugan hits it out of the ball park with her latest sapphic YA effort. What I thought was a sports romance was in actuality a wonderful treatise on grief and trauma. in other words, the best of intentions can always go sideways. June and Ivy have big dreams, but both are dealing with parental expectations that hang heavy over their hearts and minds. They also have to contend with a sadness that was never addressed in a timely or proper way. Dugan is so able to channel the voice of teenagers that it sometimes overshadows the overall storytelling apparatus. I will forgive her here though since I've never read a book where the MC wants to be a professional umpire of all things. Overwhelming enjoyed.

Thank you to PENGUIN GROUP Penguin Young Readers Group | G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers and NetGalley for providing an eARC for an honest review.

This is the Sapphic baseball YA romance I absolutely needed!

Ivy's loves sports, but her dream is to officiate a pro game. For now, she'll have to settle as an ref/umpire for her local teams. June is a start baseball pitcher with a temper and an increasingly painful shoulder. Even though the two girls don't see eye-to-eye on June's pitching, they bond over their shared loss of loved ones (June's mom and Ivy's brother) and soon find themselves falling for more than sports.

I've really enjoyed everything I've read from Jennifer Dugan, and this is no exception. As a girl who played baseball until I was no longer allowed, I loved that June got to keep playing in high school. I loved all the side stories to this romance like the pressure of living up to expectations and taking care of yourself. The best friends were fantastic, and everything wrapped up really nicely.

Tropes: Forbidden Romance, Enemies to Lovers, Sports Romance, Loss in the Family, Forced Proximity, Miscommunication
CW: sibling death, parent death

This was a story that was cute but had some very serious concepts on dealing with grief and moving on from the death of people that are close to you. June is a pitcher for a baseball team and wants to follow her parents dreams for her- playing baseball in college.
Ivy loves refereeing and wants to be a female ump after she finishes high school. When she gets moved to umping the baseball games at her job, she runs into June. The female pitcher with an attitude problem and a killer arm. When Ivy learns that June uses the umps changing room after games, and starts getting to know her- she notices that her tough exterior is just that- a tough exterior.
June pushes herself because of the dreams that her parents have laid out for her- so much so that she has an injury and has let it get to the point where she can't play without being in pain.
When Ivy invites June to a party after a game, their relationship starts to develop when they both realize that they have lost someone close to them, and are having to determine what they want to do after high school- and if it is really their dream.

Their relationship has miscommunication which I think is understanding- they're in high school and both have trauma that they haven't dealt with. I enjoyed the sports aspect and that they were both kind of "breaking the glass ceiling" and blazing a path.

I liked that both the girls had to work through their relationships with their parents and come to terms with how they wanted to live their lives. This is a big thing that a lot of high school kids have to learn and do. Coming of age stories are one of my favorites.

I had one issue with the book- 75 mph fast balls would not cut it in college for a baseball pitcher. So the entire concept that June was able to play in the major leagues would never be plausible.

2.5/5

This was such a change to what I've been reading recently, that it was refreshing yet frustrating. I personally am someone who enjoys reading YA. I love when authors are able to really capture the trials and tribulations of growing up while creating a sense of joy and nostalgia.

I have to say that this was way heavier than I was anticipating. While there were moments of queer joy in this sapphic story, I felt overwhelmingly sad and frustrated for these MCs the entire time. The plot did feel incredibly realistic as someone who grew up playing competitive sports; however, it felt overshadowed by the toxicity of the MCs parents and their respective grief.

When looking at reviews for this book, there were a lot of people saying that this is fun and lighthearted when that couldn't be further from the truth. A good amount of the story leans on June pushing through an extremely dangerous injury while also combating the unrealistic expectations that her father has on her professional career. Not to mention, both are dealing with the loss of a loved one from cancer. On the other hand, you have Ivy who is struggling with getting her mother to understand her true passion in her life while feeling like the secondary character. Their family is also grieving the loss of Ivy's brother from cancer as well, which causes her mother to become overbearing.

Grief isn't linear and we all grieve in different ways; however, it truly overshadowed the main plot and the relationship between Ivy and June.

I really think if Jennifer focused on Ivy and June's growing relationship rather than the grief, miscommunication, and unhealthy expectations from their respective parents, this would have been so much better.

Thank you Jennifer Dugan, Putnam and Netgalley for this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

I really enjoy Jennifer Dugan's writing style. It's easy to fly through and enjoy in one sitting. This book is about two girls falling in love and what that entails when both of them are in the same male dominated sports realm, Ivy being a referee and June being a pitcher. I do have to say I see a pattern with Sapphic stories where the girls always get together really fast, which isn't a huge problem but I with their was more angst. But you see the problems that arise with their developing relationship as they keep it a secret and have to navigate new feelings while also dealing with pressure from parents and friends alike. Was pretty predictable but tge journey is always enjoyable to read.

Thank you Netgalley and Penguin Group for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for my honest thoughts.

Add Playing for Keeps to the list of books that made me cry. It was such a beautiful and heart wrenching portrayal of grief and how grief affects our relationships with everyone around us. I was particularly drawn to June, our star baseball player, because of just how pressured she felt by everyone around her to be the best.

June and Ivy’s romance was so sweet and heartfelt. I genuinely felt their connection and how much they cared for each other. I felt like I was back in high school crushing on jocks and stressing over the future. It was truly the most adorable YA romance I’ve read in a very long time.

A queer baseball story sounded like a story tailored just for me, but unfortunately "Playing for Keeps" failed to deliver.

The main characters, June and Ivy, felt two-dimensional and each had one personality trait and that's all we got from them. I wanted to know more about the girls to understand them better, but the story never fleshed them out. The romance suffered from the same issues. They immediately dislike each other when they meet, but almost by the next time they hang out, they're dating. It's too quick and the readers have no idea what they actually see in each other as their encounters are almost always being frustrated with one another or being resentful.

I almost DNF'd the book around the 40% mark but finished it because I kept hoping it would improve and live up to the expectations the premise set.

“Playing for Keeps” is an enjoyable YA romance. Set in the world of sports, two young women battle adversity trying to succeed in male-dominated fields and end up falling for each other while also dealing with grief. Jennifer Dugan really has a knack for writing characters that have no business being together, but you really want to root for them anyway. Both of the main characters were really well developed outside of their romance, but I do wish there was more pining and slow-burn vibe because they got into a relationship really quickly. This book also showcases grief in its rawest form, the way that it hits you so long after a person has passed. It also shows numerous ways of dealing with grief, from June's outbursts to her father's mood-swings to Ivy's mother's pressure. and I think that this is important, because grief isn't linear and doesn’t look the same for everyone. It doesn't just happen for a few days after someone dies and then goes away, and I think Dugan did an amazing job at showcasing that through this book. I enjoyed that this was dual POV. It was great to be able to get inside both June and Ivy’s heads to read their thoughts and it made it easy to see why they fell for each other. I really enjoyed the side characters, Mia and Javonte, who are great examples of best friends that are loyal and supportive. This was a fun read but I wish it was a bit longer so we could see more of Ivy and June together. Thanks to Jennifer Dugan, Netgalley and Penguin for an e-arc in exchange for my thoughts. I look forward to reading Jennifer’s next book!

Unfortunately while this had a lot of promise in the first 3-4 chapters, it quickly went downhill for me.

The insta-dating felt really strange given how these characters interact and while there were some heavy family themes introduced, it never felt like the story committed to exploring them fully. They were more like passing vignettes used to explain each of their poor behavior or coping skills.

The romance itself didn’t really sell me and felt very confusing. I couldn’t understand or pinpoint how or why things changed so abruptly for June, and Ivy felt like she was too accommodating. Then we just fast forward past their early days which felt like a missed opportunity to see how they begin to settle in with each other and their new feelings for each other.

I struggled to feel engaged or committed given they got together so early in and with so little resistance or consideration for the consequences of their coupling, given how committed each of them supposedly is to the sport and code of conduct. Overall I think this just lacked clarity in bring big a cohesive and well thought out and paced plot.

Rating: 2.5 stars, rounding up to 3.

While I was really invested in this book, I found that the main character, June, was one of the most insufferable characters I’ve ever read. While I understand her backstory and a lot of the time felt bad for her I couldn’t get past most of her decisions and how she tended to whine about everything that happened to her.

On the other hand, Ivy, was the exact opposite to how I felt about June. She was adorable, sweet, and absolutely someone I was excited to see whenever her name came up in the book.

I loved June and Ivy’s relationship and the overall storyline even if at times I debated putting it down. I’m glad I didn’t though, but this wouldn’t be a book I would read again.

i thought this was a pretty good book. i liked the start of their romance, and i was especially invested in the second half. i just did not like june as much as i wanted to. i found her to be really selfish, and while she did grow, i just didnt feel like she adequately apologized for or acknowledged the pain she caused. some of the references and phrases that were very modern weren’t my favorite either, because i think they will put too much of a timestamp on the book and make less accessible to readers years in the future.

4 stars

This was a super cute romance. June and Ivy both were flawed, and I love how the author explored that and it helped with the plot. I wish that both of their dreams came true and would play out, but other than that it was a fun read.

Thank you to NetGalley for sending me an e-ARC of this book!

“She told me not to plan for our breakup, but I wonder how she’d feel about me planning for our forever.”
I thought this one was super cute, I’m so glad I had the opportunity to read it early! I feel like this book definitely fit in the category of a sapphic sports YA contemporary romance, I can definitely see high schoolers really enjoying and connecting with this book!
One thing I will say about this book is June, as a character was, honestly, infuriating. She was annoying, at times whiny and just all around unbearable at times but honestly, I still found myself rooting for her. Similar to Ivy, other main character who I’ll get to, June has been through a lot in her life. More than anyone, let alone a child deserves to deal with, but June certainly does not handle or mange her trauma in a health way. I think that’s what makes June so easy to root for, while kind’ve still disliking her, because she’s real. She emotions are raw and at times reckless but also, I know June is going to get a lot of haters when this book comes out but I see her. I feel for her, not everyone’s emotions and trauma are dealt with in a healthy way, but I think June overall had a lot of character growth and that’s a main thing to take away.
Ivy on the complete other hand is easily very lovable and I can see her grabbing everyone’s heart. She was selfless and gave so many to others, chronic people pleaser perhaps- but genuinely just had a heart of gold. I can see a lot of people relating to Ivy’s story and her struggles.
I also thought the aspect of her wanting to be a sports referee and the discussions of mental health among athletes and the harm that spectators can cause was really important and well written. Too often referees get overlooked as humans and I think Ivy, being a teenage female referee, discussing the harassment she endured from parents and crowd members is a very serious issue in the sports world and was brought to light very well in this book.
This book is also heavy in the discuss of grief, it’s definitely not a light fluffy romcom. I really appreciated how this book demonstrates that grief is not linear, it’s different for everyone and just because things look a certain way that doesn’t mean that’s how they actually are. My heart aches for June and Ivy throughout this story.
Overall I really enjoyed this book! While I can see this not being the book for everyone I think it’s a fun ride! If you’re looking for a fast pace YA that is certain to piss you off (because June will) but also make you laugh and tug at your heart strings I would definitely recommend this read!

*Thank you PenguinTeen and author for a e-arc of this book! All opinions above are 100% my own!*

3.25 stars

Thank you Netgalley and Penguin Group for an advanced copy review of this book in exchange for my unbiased, honest review.

This book was so fun and lighthearted. I needed a fluffy read and this book was just what I needed! I've been into sports/romance type books lately and this book delivered:)

It was a bit slow at times for me personally, but I still enjoyed it and recommend it if you're into sapphic romances and need a light, fluffy read<3