Well, this book was just so darn delightful. I'm always in for a book that involves baseball, and the way it intersected with romance was just absolutely perfection. In the 1960 season, Eddie has been traded from the Kansas City A's (and a KC connection, even a fictional one, always has my heart) to the New York Robins. Due to some comments and his general attitude, he's far from someone the fans love. Mark is a reporter who isn't writing much these days, and then he's assigned to be the ghostwriter for Eddie's diary of the season to turn fans' views of him around. Y'all, the relationship between these two, as well as these two as individual characters, was just absolutely wonderful. There was delightful banter, but also some really emotional "stuff" that they each had to work through that made me adore them. I also loved the supporting characters and what they added to the story, as well as how the realities of the time built the setting. I could say in so many different ways that I just loved this one y'all! Thanks to NetGalley for the early look at this May 2024 release!

Vibes: New Yooooork, romance so sweet you have to smile, love after loss, and like... I don't know how to put this... the feeling Bull Durham gives me but gay and less toxically masculine?

Heat Index: 5/10

Reporter Mark Bailey doesn't want to cover baseball, and he especially doesn't want to cover Eddie O'Leary, a former rising star who's been playing the worst ball of his life. But it may be better than staying at home and mourning the partner he never got to claim while he was alive. Eddie, on the other hand, is a bit perturbed about giving a personalized account of his current losses to an apparent snob. But as they travel around New York together, Mark finds himself giving some of his own story to Eddie... and falling in love in the process. It's impossible for Eddie to be out, and Mark doesn't want to be someone's secret again--what could their future possibly be?

I love Cat Sebastian, and this book gives me what I want from her: humor, swoony romance, and a richly described, fleshed out world. I've been really impressed by her ability to weave in a setting that really doesn't have a strong "background" in historical romance--midcentury NYC. The way she writes it feels both nostalgic and tangible; and it's not easy for historical romance authors to step out of the settings readers are more used to (Regency, Victorian).

There's something cozy and wry to the way Eddie and Mark fall in love, and I frankly adored their contrasting personalities. Young, somewhat bewildered Eddie, trying his fucking best all the time. Picky, somewhat pretentious, jaded Mark--just unable to stop himself from falling for Eddie's puppyish eagerness.

If you loved We Could Be So Good, you'll love this. If you're less familiar with Sebastian, I suspect you will, too.

Quick Takes:

--There's a rich history of baseball movies, right? Many of which are enjoyed by people who don't get baseball. As referenced above, I personally love Bull Durham (even if the stars are............................... hmm). I have no idea what goes on during baseball, but I do. This book works similarly. You can tell Sebastian knows what she's talking about, you don't have to understand baseball to get the book. It's portrayed in that kind of shorthand that's really about creating a vibe and a setting for the love story, which is so smart.

--I loved the way Mark's grief was depicted. It's arguably harder for him to move on with his life because so few people know that he is grieving, that he did lose his partner. And it's not treated as something that has to compete with his new love for Eddie, and it's not treated like something that's just going to magically go away. It's always going to be there; and it can exist beside his love for Eddie without invalidating it.

I find that a lot of romance novels involving widows and widowers downplay the previous spouse, and I get that. It's difficult to tell a love story that could be accidentally overshadowed by a previous one. However, that can be a little repetitive for me, and it was nice to read a book in which the romance was so tender and so REAL and so centered (there isn't much PLOT PLOT here--it's two people falling in love, there ya go) that also acknowledged that there was another tender and real love story beforehand. Plus, Eddie's understanding and lack of insecurity makes him even more lovable.

--In a lot of ways, this book is low stakes. It's mostly character, there isn't a lot of drama in the romance, they get along, and so forth. However, on the other hand... it does have very high stakes, right? Eddie cannot be a successful professional athlete while being out. Mark, who's kind of quietly out (and works at a newspaper that is pretty much aware of this and okay with it, through some stuff that has to do with WCBSG) understandably doesn't want to be hidden in the shadows. How do we address that?

Personally, I really liked how Sebastian did it. Balancing realism and romance is challenging, and I think she handled this without sacrificing either aspect.

--Ooooh I love people falling in love without realizing it, and damn, Mark does that. But you as the reader also kind of slip into them being in love, too. It feels totally natural. There's a real "that's the summer I fell in love" to this one, and I don't really know if that's going to make sense to a lot of people, but it does to ME.

The Sex:

The door isn't CLOSED, but it's kinda close to being there. You know exactly what's happening, and there are several scenes, but it's all sort of... implied. Even though you're there with them. It's all very romantic (and kind of titillating at points--it's so fun to see Eddie and Mark talk around sex and then get very blunt about it at points) but I would be lying if I said I didn't miss the heat level Sebastian wrote in The Queer Principles of Kit Webb. It's not ridiculous level of heat, it's just a bit more explicit.

Read this and get lulled into love--while also kind of wanting a hot dog? (Literally, not figuratively.) And to walk down a sidewalk in a sort of warm and nonexistent yet also very existent New York City? Talking to someone you're falling for, knowing that they're falling for you, while imagining kissing their mouth?

It's that sensibility.

Thanks to NetGalley and Avon for providing me with a copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I know we all remember Mark Bailey, he who thrust The Charioteer at Nick Russo in We Could Be So Good, he whom Nick saw talking with another man outside the Everard Baths one night.

That other man was William, Mark's longtime lover, and sometime shortly after the end of WCBSG (1958) and the opening of You Should Be So Lucky (1960), he has died. Suddenly, at 34, of a heart attack in his office, and because his work and political ambitions required him to be even deeper in the closet than most queer people, Mark wouldn't even have known where and when the funeral was if he hadn't seen an announcement in the paper. He has friends who love him -- we know them from WCBSG: Lilian and Maureen, Nick and Andy -- but a grief you can't publicly acknowledge is a grief beyond words, and Mark isn't doing so well. He's even, at least officially, quit his job at the Chronicle.

Thankfully, Andy has an assignment for him: ghostwrite the diary of Eddie O'Leary, the shortstop on NYC's new and catastrophically terrible baseball team, the Robins. Eddie's got a reputation as a grade-A [word for which "jerk" is a euphemism], on account of how when he was traded to the Robins from the Kansas City A's, he threw a public tantrum. Mark's research reveals that Eddie might have had his reasons, he manifests himself in the Robins' locker room to meet him, and we're off.

There's so much here about the sheer precariousness of gay lives in 1960: Mark's isolation in his grief. The things William did for him as some compensation for the fact that they lived even deeper in the closet than usual for queer people. Eddie's longing for the "privacy" he had back in KC, where he wasn't famous and could go out and get laid from time to time. Eddie's realization, as his relationship with Mark grows and as, in parallel, the Robins begin to cohere as a team, that he will always, fundamentally, be an outsider, and that he didn't feel that way in KC largely because he didn't have a partner and a queer community and thus could put his queerness in a tiny box and set it aside as needed. The habits of concealment Mark developed over his years with William, and which he struggles to set aside now that he can. Mark's decision that since he no longer has to act straight for William's sake, he can -- not formally come out to the world at large, but stop working to keep straight people from noticing that he's queer. And the conflict this presents with how Eddie, if he wants to keep playing baseball, is in essentially the same position as William.

The batting slump that Eddie's in at the book's outset, and how he emerges from it, runs parallel with Mark's grief and depression. Without giving away any spoilers about that or about the conflict between closetiness and authenticity, the process for both of them is about how you remake yourself in the aftermath of disaster, how you decide what risks are worth taking, and finding ways to community and connection while minimizing those risks.

There are glitches in YSBSL, because there's no such thing as perfection. Sometimes Eddie's voice sounds, to my ear, a little too much like Mark's. Occasionally there's a turn of phrase that someone as old as I am recognizes as of relatively recent vintage. But holy cats did I ever highlight a lot of passages, and that was almost always because they made me laugh or because I was pausing over the insight. (And, speaking of insights, one thing Cat Sebastian is really good at is framing them without hitting you over the head in that after-school-special manner that rots a reader's teeth.)

Also: my dad and I used to follow the Mets together. They were the Robins, only a couple of years after YSBSL is set, and everything Cat Sebastian has to say about rooting for a losing team is spot on. It was lovely and bittersweet to be reminded.

Thanks to NetGalley and Avon for the ARC.

Excuse me, who gave Cat Sebastian permission to write the softest and warmest and most tender queer historical romance specifically designed to make my heart ache with both sadness and happiness at the same time?? Oh wait, I did.

I am a fan of Sebastian's work, and I firmly believe that her writing sweet spot is in the soft, domestic, cozy kind of book. YOU SHOULD BE SO LUCKY is exactly that but, like, turned up to a zillion. It's for the readers who want, need, yearn to see historical queer love that isn't centered around trauma and fear. Don't get me wrong - there *is* pain in this story, but it's the grief of remembering the person you loved, and who loved you, tinged with the frustration, the anger of having to be kept a secret. I never thought I could be so emotional over a jar of cherries. And Eddie? UGH, EDDIE. The way he interacts with William's grief is so, so beautiful. Not a hint of jealousy in sight. I'm so glad Sebastian chose to write William's grief and, particularly, how Eddie deals with it the way she did.

This one's quite a bit heavier on the baseball than WE COULD BE SO GOOD. Readers who don't like, or perhaps don't care about, baseball may find that this bogs down the story. For this reader, however, who very much enjoys baseball in real life and in books, the deep and thoughtful incorporation of baseball and slumps and endings and second chances was nothing short of perfect.

I would read a million more of these books, and I will absolutely need a physical copy for myself to sigh and gush over and mark and scribble to keep forever.

Infinite thanks to Avon Books (an imprint of HarperCollins) for this eARC! All opinions expressed here are my own.

I loved every word of this book. Eddie and Mark are so lovely and sweet, though Mark would disagree that he is. The portrayal of Mark’s grief was raw and perfect. Eddie’s loneliness and despair when nothing is going right was so palpable. The dialogue was fantastic, sharp and funny.

Genre: historical romance
New York City, 1960

Shortstop Eddie O’Leary has some choice words to share with the press when he’s traded from Kansas City to the new baseball team in New York, the Robins. Likewise, Mark Bailey has some choice words for his boss at the newspaper The Chronicle, Andy, when he suggests that Mark write a feature on Eddie. Mark isn’t a sportswriter - he’s a semi-retired 28-year-old book critic - but Andy is looking for ways to resurrect print circulation and he knows Mark needs some direction. And then Mark meets Eddie. He’s a little coarse and a little naive, but Mark senses a familiar loneliness, and something else, behind the star player with the current league-worst batting slump.

Cat Sebastian. Wow.
I’m honestly not sure I possessed the empathetic capacity to encompass the emotions running roughshod over my heart while reading this book. For a reader like me who adores a love story filled with pining, that’s saying something. Eddie’s slump and Mark’s grief put them in unique positions as sad bois meant to be together, and yet the way Sebastian writes their story is gentle rather than depressing. For each of these men looking to rediscover themselves, their individual arcs could be enough. But they keep showing up for one another when they sense the other needs it most.

This is a love story between two men who both embrace their sexuality, but because it’s 1960 have both learned to hide parts of themselves from the world. For Mark, it’s because he had to outwardly remain the straight roommate of his last partner, and when William is gone, Mark knows he can never hide like that anymore. For Eddie, he’s a star baseball player in a league that barely accepts racial differences, much less a queer teammate. And yet, over and over, Eddie isn’t willing to give up on inviting Mark out with the team (to help write the articles, of course), or to stop calling him every night he’s on the road. And Mark can’t help but feel his heart melting for the sweetheart Eddie is.

This is also a love story for the sport of baseball. There are enough stats to keep a baseball nerd happy, and Cat Sebastian’s dedication to the beauty of America’s pastime, in an era when the country moved at the pace of baseball, is enthralling. She gives us George Allen, a reporter who has covered the game for so long that he can’t imagine doing anything else with his life. She gives us a manager, who shows up drunk and struggling with his own demons, but knows more about team building and sport than any other manager in the league, and a female team owner whose hands-on approach to the game is shocking to the sensibilities of 1960s sports standards.

You Should Be So Lucky is about the love of a game, the keen observation of the heart, abiding friendship, and fitting in.

First of all thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an advance copy in exchange for a fair and honest review.

You Should be So Lucky by Cat Sebastian might be my favorite read of this year. I can't describe how long it has been since a book made me laugh and cry and left me feeling comfortable and happy and loved.

Eddie the baseball player who goofed it big on television finding out he's been traded to a mess of a team. Mark Bailey who is lost in grief for past lover, find comfort and meaning in one another. The book reminded me that life is short and love is what makes it feel full no matter how short.

Cat Sebastian has an incredible way of telling historical queer stories that do not flinch away from the reality of the era they are set, while being increadibly hopeful. In the world we live in I will always look for these stories. Like Mark and Eddie with The Haunting of Hill House, I look at these people on a page and know I'm not alone.

5 stars

No one writes queer pining like Cat Sebastian. I absolutely loved We Could Be So Good so was excited to read this one and it did not disappoint!! The characters are so lovable and complex and just feel like real people. The historic aspect adds depth and conflict without crossing over into Sad Gay Love Story. I liked that it showed that even in a time when being queer was a crime people still found love and got their happy ending.
I’m not the biggest baseball fan but I did really enjoy the sports aspect of this book. I loved Eddies comeback story and the complex relationship he had with his team.
I also enjoyed Marks struggle with grief and learning to let someone else into his life.
These characters and this story are so special and I absolutely adored this book

Read if you like:
-grumpy/sunshine
-sports
-queer and/or historical romance
-found family
-pining
-no third act breakup (life is hard enough for these characters they deserve to be happy)
-slow burn
-did I mention the pining???

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon for the ARC!!

'You Should Be So Lucky' is a story of grief, love, and letting yourself be loved against all odds. I devoured this book in under a day, as I do most Cat Sebastian books, and each one only makes me hunger for more. It's a delight to be able to delve more into the world of 'We Could Be So Good,' and I hope we get more out of this little family. I'm not quite ready to be done with this story.

I have read a lot of Cat Sebastian’s books and having We Could Be So Good as one of my top reads for last year I was really excited about this book and absolutely devoured it in one day. This book included delightful characters and a real lived in feeling historical setting. I was again impressed with how Sebastian managed to walk the fine line of not giving in to the homophobic angst of the period while not feeling like full historical fantasy. I also found myself giggling and highlighting passages in this book which is not common for me.

Personally I would recommend reading We Could Be So Good first as it provides context for this second entry in the series but mostly cause I love them both not cause it’s necessary to understand this book.

Overall an excellent historical MM grumpy sunshine romance.

A wonderful book about grief, love, and having to face life after bad things happen. Mark Bailey is grieving his partner and a life they had to hide; Eddiie O'Leary is grieving his trade to a new team and slump in his playing. Together they learn that even after the worst thing that happens, you still have to get up in the morning and face tomorrow.
I loved both Mark and Eddie, and somehow I even ended up loving baseball. I'd recommend this to anyone looking for a warm hug in book form!

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!

Cat Sebastian i will follow you to the ends of the earth.
This book has heart and growth and communication and every single character is lovely. It shows people with problems and how those they keep around them can help.

I was only slightly thrown by the call with the accountant i know it was to comeback to a comment made earlier but i spent the rest of the book worried he was going to lose his money and his home. he does not. nothing comes from the accountant call.

This book was multiple things I love, wrapped up in one. I love a good queer book, I love a good period piece, I love a good baseball book, and I love the topic of grief. And boy can Cat Sebastian write all those things, and write them well. You really truly can feel the time period, can feel the all encompassing grief that wraps around mark like a cord of too tight rope. It's incredibly detailed and you feel. you feel for him. you feel that grief squeezing tight like a snake catching it's prey, and then you feel the snake release, and you feel the love he has for eddie seep in slowly, carefully.

you can see marks walls come down not only with eddie, but with others too. the more he lets people in, the more he realizes he and eddie aren't the only ones hiding things. tony is hiding something, george is hiding something. and it's not because they're hiding bad secrets. they're hiding things because of preconceived notions others have already made about them, that make them go, "well this is already known about me, why would anyone believe any different? why should I show them different when their minds aren't going to change about who i am?", and it's really beautiful to see mark interact with these people, and knowing them for themselves, looking past the secrets and still being interested in them for their true selves, not the preconceived notions, because he knows he'd want someone to see him as more than just the queer reporter, too.

and eddie, sweet eddie, mamas boy who has a soft spot about being called dumb, who thinks low of himself but isn't afraid to risk everything in his career because he knows mark hated hiding his relationship with william, I was worried maybe he was interested in mark for all the wrong reasons. mark was one of the only people to speak to him when the rest of his teammates iced him out. he had no friends, he was far away from his family and old friends and teammates, but mark talked to him. I thought maybe for sure his interest would be misguided, I mean, so did mark, but as things progressed, I fell in love with their relationship dynamic, how well they complemented each other, how they were home for one another.

this book also clearly juxtaposes the inherent struggle of being queer in a time where it's not really seen as okay to be queer, and just the inner struggle that mark has with himself and not wanting to ruin eddies life despite eddie being all for indiscretion, even at the risk of his job, really seals the deal on their relationship for me. the tired of living life a lie, the wanting to be out and proud, it's a really good connector to modern queer lives these days.

Wow, just wow. I love baseball and I loved this book.

The story is set in 1960s New York. Eddie, a baseball player in his second season is traded unexpectedly and it goes terribly. He's told by reporters, doesn't realize he's being broadcast on television and says horrible things about his new team. Mark, a reporter who normally does not write about sports, is brought into write a series of columns about Eddie. The romance is a slow burn, developing through late night phone calls and a queer book club. Getting to watch them fall in love and learn how to live their lives while needing to keep their relationship a secret was excellent.

So much was covered and it all felt so authentic to both the sport and the history of baseball. I have often felt baseball is extremely overlooked in the sports romance genre. I mean, there's a very famous quote, very common among baseball fans, that comes from the movie Moneyball. "How can you not be romantic about baseball?". I am also particular about baseball novels because of my love for the sport. Cat Sebastian captured the feel of baseball, the feel of the sport so well in this lovely historical romance novel that rarely talks about an actual baseball game but know so much of its ins and outs.

"it can be a beautiful game... when the sun is shining and the stadium smells like freshly cut grass, when every play seems like a coalescence of talent and luck. The thing about baseball is that it's slow and that each game is essentially meaningless. That's enough to make plenty of people stay away from it. But the glacial pace and the low stakes give you time to look at each individual component of the game and properly appreciate it."

I mean, how can you not be romantic about baseball?

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!

Cat Sebastian does it again, to no one’s surprise!
Loved this book, and I don’t even care about sports in the slightest so I was a tad worried the setting would throw me off. But nope. Still the same quality characters and emotions and writing I expect from the author. An excellent read.

You Should Be So Lucky is another home run (pun intended) from Cat Sebastian. In the same universe as the wonderful We Could Be So Good, we catch up with Mark Bailey, a writer for the Chronicle, as he's tasked to write about the infamous shortstop Eddie O'Leary. Mark Bailey's backstory unfolds before us as we discover he is in the throws of grief over his longtime partner William, whom we got only a glimpse of in WCBSG. Despite that, Mark following Eddie around brings him out of hiding and back into the world. Between long distance calls and in depth book discussions, their bond grows as they traverse what it means to hide/live freely as queer people in 1960. The world Sebastian has built is full of love, and her strength lies in building characters, and You Should Be So Lucky is a testament to that. The layers of loss and hope run deep throughout this story, and I loved every page, especially the glimpses of Nick and Andy from We Could Be So Good. I look forward to what Sebastian has up her sleeve next! Thanks to NetGalley, Avon and Harper Voyager for the eGalley in trade for my honest review.

Anything Cat Sebastian writes, I will read and I will absolutely love. Her writing style conveys such a sense of emotion and weight in a unique voice that makes each reader relate to the characters. This book is no different.

You Should Be So Lucky is a story filled with grief, love, loss, and companionship. Both Mark and Eddie have their own personal journeys through the emotions. Mark's grief makes him disconnect from others, while Eddie's grief causes him to lash out in anger alienating himself from his new team. The book is a story about finding one another and healing. I absolutely loved it.

While it took me longer than I would have liked to finish this book due to life happening, I highly recommend it to anyone who wants an emotional but lighthearted novel.

if you ask me, 2024 is the year of the baseball romances, and "you should be so lucky" is one of my top contenders for the category. this is a queer mid-century romance with a happy ever after, which i would say is cat sebastian's specialty, and let me tell you, she never misses. mark bailey is the furthest thing from a sports reporter that he could be, but when he's assigned to write about eddie o'leary, the new shortstop who's struggling to hit the ball, an unexpected connection forms between them. i absolutely loved mark and eddie's dynamic (grumpy/sunshine!!!) and the way their relationship develops. it's not easy to pull off queer historical romances, but sebastian always manages to do so in a way that feels realistic but still satisfying. i would recommend this book for anyone who loves sports romances (whether you know baseball or not, because god knows i do not) and queer historicals with a happy ever after.

Wow, this is a must read for any fan of MM sports romance. This was such a heartfelt and touching story that made me a little teary, full of swoony feelings, and laugh at all the sweet moments with Lula the dog. You Should Be So Lucky by Cat Sebastian takes place in the same universe as We Could Be So Good, and the storyline and character development in YSBSL is very similar to that in WCBSG but is still different enough that it doesn't feel repetitive.

Writer Mark Bailey had been secretly dating his former boyfriend for seven years and has spent the last year silently morning his passing. Because of this, he's determined to lis his life as out as possible in 1960's NYC and does not want to be anyone's secret ever again. His writing in the art's section of the Chronicle has also fallen off following his boyfriends death, so he agrees to write a recurring diary entries and a magazine article about the Robin's most recent trade and least liked player Eddie O'Leary. Eddie is dealing with a batting slump, teammates who won't talk to him, and having to hide a critical aspect of himself when he gets traded to the New York Robin's baseball team. He never imagined to be making a friend in the reporter writing journal entries about him. But as the two spend more time together they realize they have more in common than one would expect and chemistry that they can't ignore.

This is such a beautiful story of two lonely people finding love together. It was really sweet the way Eddie validated Mark's desire to not be a secret again, and how he comforted and protected him from his internalized fears of being left. Eddie is able to bring out a softer side of Mark that he didn't even realize he had. Eddie reminded me of Andy with his sunny disposition on the outside all while battling internal feelings of inadequacy and loneliness. I loved the bar conversation between Mark and Nick because it also stuck out how similar they are: Mark has let himself become closed off due to his fears until he falls for someone who is able to coax himself out of his shell and be soft towards. I feel like Sebastian does such a good job in writing slow burn romances because you can read the tension building but she fully delivers before it reaches a point of "can they get on with it already". She also does such a good job in creating intimacy between the characters that the hotter moments make me blush even though what is on the page is not particularly graphic.

Thank you Harper Voyager, Avon, and NetGalley for an ARC of You Should Be So Lucky. I see myself building an emotional attachment and relationship to this book the same way Mark had with Hill House.

✨ Review ✨ You Should Be So Lucky by Cat Sebastian

Thanks to Avon and #netgalley for the gifted advanced copy/ies of this book!

First: this isn't listed as a series but it's in the same world as We Could Be So Good, and both Nick and Andy play an important role here.

We Could Be So Good was one of my favorite books last year and so I was thrilled to pick this one up. It's hard to beat We Could in my mind but this comes in a very close second!

Mark Bailey, a cultural/arts reporter on leave while grieving, gets assigned to write a series of stories from the perspective of Eddie O'Leary, a New York Robins baseball player in the middle of a HUGE slump (he hasn't hit a ball for all of June). Mark's not only a bit of a (lovable) grump, but he's a grieving grump after the loss of his partner the year before. Eddie's a ball of sunshine, but one who's lonely and frustrated at his game, being ignored by his teammates, and being far away from his mom. The two build a quick rapport and friendship and I was just living for their connection.

This also brings in another aging sports reporter at the end of his career, and he sees Mark and his loss for what it was. The relationship between George and Mark is also really lovely.

The book is tender and soft, but also gruff and sad in places as Eddie and Mark work through challenges in their heads and in their lives.

Like We Could, these characters grapple with the challenges of keeping their relationship and sexuality private while finding places they can be known for who they are. It's a story of found family in queer spaces and in super masculine spaces like a baseball team.

I'm living for these mid-century romances Cat is writing and want more more more!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 (4.5 stars)
Genre: M/M historical romance, grumpy-sunshine, sports
Setting: 1960s NYC
Reminds me of: We Could Be So Good
Pub Date: 07 May 2024

Read this if you like:
⭕️ tender, deep queer romances
⭕️ mid-century NYC
⭕️ journalism + sports
⭕️ found family