Cat Sebastian does it again. I adored this book, possibly more than the first. The grumpy-sunshine vibes were off the charts and she does such a beautiful job of writing about feelings and characters falling in love. A decent amount of spice without being over-the-top. Eddie is just the bee's knees to be honest.

Where to begin? I suppose I'll start by saying that in reading "You Should Be So Lucky" I was really struck by how true it is that we bring ourselves to every book we read. I have deep connections to and feelings about both baseball and journalism, and that was just under the surface for me the entire time. Plus, the historical NYC setting was a personal delight: I can picture, for example, exactly where the characters walk around the Village by Greenwich Ave and West 4th. Plus, "We Could Be So Good" was one of my favorites of last year and I would read a hundred more books about the staff of the fictional 1960's-era New York Chronicle if Cat Sebastian would write them.

All that said, I don't usually enjoy sports romances at all, so I was a tiny bit nervous about that. But this book is simultaneously <i>more</i> about the sport in question than others I've read and <i>less</i> about it, all for the better, for me.

The basic plot is that Eddie O'Leary is a highly talented player who has been traded to the expansion team the NY Robins, and is in a record-setting slump in the glare of the NY media spotlight. Mark Bailey (the Chronicle's book reviewer, whom readers of WCBSG will remember gave Nick the arc of "The Charioteer") is grieving, and lonely, and uninspired at work (he says he feels like "there's nothing left in the world worth writing about."). That's when he's assigned to cover Eddie O'Leary specifically for a column and also to report a magazine feature on the team.

The story follows the arc of the baseball season, and there's just so much to love about the attention to detail in terms of the game. The descriptions of the decrepit Polo Grounds, the dynamics of a team, the cheers and jeers of the fans, the elusiveness of a baseball swing ("Maybe if he could remember how to fall asleep, he'd remember how to hit the ball"). It's all beautifully drawn, and I just luxuriated in it, but it also really gets at the inherent emotion and wistfulness of the game.

<i>It's slow and often seems pointless. It's beautiful, when it isn't a mess. There's a vast ocean of mercy for mistakes: getting hits half the time is nothing short of a miracle, and even the best fielders are expected to have errors. The inevitability of failure is built into the game.</i>

Eddie's brush with that inevitability of failure is all interwoven with Mark's journey, which begins with a palpable, aching hollowness and isn't easy to read at times. It's at once a specific portrait of the gutting particularities of grief in the context of a queer relationship that's invisible to the wider world, and also gets at so many universalities of that grief. It's a depth of grief that shows the depth of love, though, and ultimately I found it to be hopeful and heartwarming.

The secondary characters are wonderful--I adored the grizzled old baseball beat reporter George "I Just Love This Dumb Fucking Game" Allen. All the descriptions of the reporters are pitch-perfect, in fact: "The press box is a sea of badly tailored suits in shiny wool and upsetting plaids." And it was lovely to see cameos from Nick and Andy, and Lilian and Maureen.

There is a thread throughout the book around what it would mean for Eddie to be outed as queer as a professional baseball player, though it's actually something Mark worries about more. I felt quite safe in Cat's hands around this issue, but it's worth noting, especially since that was mostly absent from WCBSG. YSBSL has the same feel and it's clear these books are in the same universe, but this one felt less like a big, warm, happy hug to me, which I thought was fitting. Baseball is in many ways a melancholy game and journalists aren't known for their sunny dispositions. They are known for thinking things like this, though:

<i>"I love you." He kisses Eddie then, because otherwise that phrase is going to linger in the air, true but somehow inadequate. He has a professional aversion to phrases that refuse to get the job done.</i>

I never know how to end reviews, but I feel I must end this one with an indulgently long quote from Roger Angell. As of this writing, it's six days until pitchers and catchers report.

<i>“It is foolish and childish, on the face of it, to affiliate ourselves with anything so insignificant and patently contrived and commercially exploitative as a professional sports team, and the amused superiority and icy scorn that the non-fan directs at the sports nut (I know this look - I know it by heart) is understandable and almost unanswerable. Almost. What is left out of this calculation, it seems to me, is the business of caring - caring deeply and passionately, really caring - which is a capacity or an emotion that has almost gone out of our lives. And so it seems possible that we have come to a time when it no longer matters so much what the caring is about, how frail or foolish is the object of that concern, as long as the feeling itself can be saved.”

*Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the arc.

There truly is no depth to my love for Cat Sebastian. If she could keep writing queer, historical romance forever that would be great, thanks! I’ve made countless videos about how much I loved We Could Be So Good (easily my favorite 2023 romance!) so needless to say, the second my request was approved I dove straight in. And it definitely didn’t disappoint!

You Should Be So Lucky follows the story of uptight journalist Mark, still grieving the unexpected death of his boyfriend 18 months on, as he’s assigned to write a story of down-on-his luck baseball player Eddie. If I’m going to trope-ify their dynamic a la booktok, they are the quintessential black cat / golden retriever pairing. I absolutely adored the slow burn between these two and how (like all of Cat’s books!) the emotional core truly was the focus of the novel. Mark’s grief and Eddie’s desire to be seen and loved painted such a beautiful picture of two people meeting each other where they are, scars and all. I will forever adore how *real* Cat’s characters are. It’s so clear how much care, thought and attention she devotes into creating multifaceted characters the reader can root for. Eddie and Mark were certainly no exception.

Thank you so much for the ARC— I can’t wait to scream about YSBSL closer to release and eagerly await whatever Cat writes next!

Even though it is early in the year, I feel confident saying that You Should Be So Lucky will be one of my 2024 favorites. This amazing opposites attract queer romance is set during the 1960 baseball season, amid a world of secrecy and grief. I had sky-high expectations for this book, and somehow Cat Sebastian managed to exceed all of them.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Baseball star Eddie O’Leary can’t believe he’s been traded to New York’s newest team. Or that he’s stuck in a slump, and his new teammates hate him. And journalist Mark Bailey, who isn’t even an official sportswriter, is going to interview him for a series of weekly profiles? Mark has been mired in grief for more than a year, and is hardly writing much at all lately. There is something about Eddie that intrigues him, though, and he can’t say no to the assignment. As these two very different men are forced to spend time together during interviews, meals, and road trips, their mutual attraction grows too. Can closeted Eddie and cautious but open Mark figure out a way to be together?

The romance between grieving Mark and golden retriever Eddie is top notch. Eddie is a delight, and his sunny outlook is the perfect foil for Mark’s dark wit and bitter take on the world. Mark’s grief as he mourns the partner who never publicly acknowledged him is staggering. But as Eddie becomes more and more important to him, he’s finally able to visualize what comes next.

The found family in the book is great, from Mark’s friends Lillian, Maureen, and my favorites Andy and Nick, to Eddie’s manager and teammates. And, it’s like Cat Sebastian knows that the way to make these characters even more endearing to me is to give them a terrier named Lula to love. Everyone should have a terrier boss to plan their life around; I speak from experience on this one.

A book about grief and homophobia should be depressing, but You Should Be So Lucky is full of love, humor, hope and two people just being sweet for each other.
I love everything about this book. Cat Sebastian creates characters that readers want to hug and protect, while rooting for them to find a way to get their HEA.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advance copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Loved this book! Cat Sebastian hits it out of the park, as she so often does. I really enjoyed this books themes about grief, being yourself, and I, a confirmed sports hater, even enjoyed the baseball!

Sebastian really nails the time period and the book has an atmosphere that feels so authentic and tangible. It's also full of longing and pining, if you go for that sort of thing, which I do.

There is also big grumpy/sunshine energy here, though sunshine does kind of have an anger problem. Eddie is a darling and Mark is a very prickly darling.

As I said, not normally a sports fan, but this one made me care about baseball a bit! Plus we had a nice Jewish side character, which always is a bonus for me. I think the thing I like most about this story is that it feels so layered, like it has proper texture. It feels very much like someone painstakingly crafted a world for these characters. We don't really talk about worldbuilding for realistic fiction, but this book is an excellent example of that done right.

Highly recommend!

Starting this while my phone's on 2%, so we'll see how far I get. I think that the thing about historical fiction, maybe especially historical romance, and maybe most especially gay historical romance is that there will be a lot of anachronism mixed in with all the details and for the sake of the overarching plot and for believing in it you just have to go along. A lot of this feels very strange for a book set in the '60s following two gay men, but the reader isn't getting this before 2024, probably didn't exist when all this was happening, and nows this is meant to be more of a sweet fantasy than a true tale. So all the baseball men really are pretty nice, as are the news men. Well, 1% now so I'll say I had a good time, read the whole thing pretty quick, and as a Cary Grant and Rock Hudson lover would compare this most closely to Netflix's Hollywood. Do with that what you please :)

Romance can be pretty hit or miss for me, but as my 5 star review likely indicates, this was a HIT! No pun intended. The book follows two young men, one a reporter, one a baseball player, as they fall in love in 1960. Obviously, because of the 1960 of it all, queer men, especially famous athletes (I mean, shoot, they aren't even out NOW) had to be very closeted. The book manages to thread that tricky cathartic needle of being simultaneously heartwarming and heartbreaking. The romance itself was very sweet, and there was not a shortage of spice (but even the spice read as sweet to me due to the nature of the relationship), and I even liked the baseball bits. The setting and trappings added to what would've already been a great character development tale. Anway. I loved it. Would definitely recommend to fans of romance. 5 stars.

Cat Sebastian is one of my favorite authors and my go-to comfort read author. When I'm feeling down, I know a Cat Sebastian romance, with all its clever, infinitely quotable phrasing, prickly characters, endearing earnestness, and dedication to queer joy will pick me up again. So when I got the email that I'd been approved to read the advance copy of her latest, I squealed and then dropped everything to immediately begin reading. My mom asked me if I was going to take it slow and savor it and I was like, "no? Honestly the only way for me to really enjoy a book I love is to devour it and then reread it again and again and again. If I'm reading a book slowly, I have mixed feelings about it at best."

True to form, I finished this the next day, after being unable to concentrate on anything else. And, as I knew it would be, it was delightful and charming and full of heart. I cried softly for the last little bit of it. Not the wrenching sadness of the third act breakup, because her books don't really have that. Not that there's anything wrong with that - I enjoy it in other books. But I think the tears come most often when I'm reading her books in the quiet moments of being seen and understood. The little realizations that cut deep because you recognize them in yourself, and then you come away seeing yourself a little more clearly, too.

I loved the flavor of 1960 New York that colored everything, pinning the story so firmly in time and place. I loved the way an angry baseball player in a slump and a grieving and barely-employed newspaper reporter and a dead-last team of misfits and has-beens came together to create baseball magic and gain a new lease on life. I loved the inherent decency of the characters, their charm and heart and courage. I loved the way they grew together and compromised and lived. They felt real, like people you might meet on the street one day, like people I would like to be friends with.

As is always the case when I read a Cat Sebastian book, I highlighted about three dozen quotes that will be nearly impossible to pare down into a few favorites for my blog post. I also preordered the audiobook so I can listen to the story again when I need to. Actually that's a lie - I would have, if I hadn't already preordered it the second it showed up as available for preorder.

*Thanks to NetGalley and Avon for providing an early copy for review.

I enjoyed this one but I found the characters to border on insufferable. There were times when the dialogue felt very cringe and needed a bit of thinking put behind it.

Honestly, Cat Sebastian can write anything and I would read it. This is a beautiful look at grief and hope, and somehow baseball is a perfect metaphor for it all. I think I enjoyed We Could Be So Good just a little bit more, but A+ for Cat Sebastian not going with the typical third act breakup and for writing a story that is sweet, sad, and lovely.

As a lifelong fan of the Golden Age of Hollywood, this book gave me a mental movie starring young Christopher Plummer and Burt Lancaster. The quiet desperation of grief paired with the endlessly talkative smiles make this a wonderful grumpy/sunshine story that also demands we pay attention to the closeted culture of queerness in the 1960s. The lack of graphic spicy scenes makes one immerse more deeply in the developing love story between Eddie and Mark. This story is as cozy as one of Mark's sleek cashmere sweaters.

You Should Be So Lucky is the latest in Cat Sebastian's midcentury romances and the second one set in New York. Mark Bailey, who had a small role in We Could Be So Good, is at the center of this novel. He's been grieving the loss of his long-time partner, isolating himself from his friends and going to work only to have something to structure his time. His boss, Nick, who found love in We Could Be So Good, shakes him up by assigning Mark something entirely out of his comfort zone: ghostwrite some fluffy "diaries" for Eddie O'Leary.

Eddie is a former baseball wunderkind, unexpectedly and unwillingly traded to a new New York team (the hapless Robins). He's loathed by his teammates and hated by the city for not only badmouthing the Robins when he found out about the trade, but also for being entirely unable to hit the ball once he arrives.

Mark is coping (poorly) with loss, as well as his complicated feelings about how, when his partner was alive, their love had to be entirely secret. Eddie is coping (poorly) with loneliness, and is aware that if anyone found out he is queer, his career is over. Yet it seems inevitable that their friendship will transform into something more than either of them expected.

Like We Could Be So Good, You Should Be So Lucky is funny and heartfelt, sad and hopeful, and beautifully written. Cat Sebastian does it again.

Ok… I’m about to say something that might make some of you do a double take.

There will be gasps. There will be a slew of “no ways”. I know what’s in store for me, but I was raised to speak my truth. I suggest you get yourself in the seated position for this next sentence:

I think this book is tied with RWRB as my all time favorite book 😳

If you haven’t fainted after that declaration, read on.

You Should Be So Lucky was absolute perfection. The witty dialogue, the compelling characters, the engaging plot, the pacing… ✔️✔️✔️✔️

You know those books that immediately grab hold of you and don’t let go? The ones where after each chapter you’re like, “Oh, this next chapter is only 10 minutes long, I’ll just read one more”, until you’ve done that 12 times and it’s 3am? This book was that for me. I couldn’t put it down.

So first and foremost, this book is FUNNY. I know that sounds like a weird way to describe a book centered around coping with grief and loss. And yes, there is active mourning, tough conversations, and I teared up more than once. But above all, it’s so hopeful. Mark and Eddie play off one another’s personalities so well and are snarky, sassy, yet so gentle and compassionate with one another. And Lula? Lula is a dog, but she is the absolute star of this book. Period.

The side characters are also the absolute best and yes, we saw several Nick and Andy cameos 🥳 The other thing that was a home-run for me (lol I’m such a loser) is that it centers around the best sport in the entire world 🙌🏼 I am a DIEHARD baseball fan and there is such a lack of this setting in the bookish world of sports romance! I felt like I got a nice taste of it when I read Luke & Billy, and then Cat said, “I’m going to bless the world with a whole 4-course meal by writing YSBSL”. And the world became a better place because of it.

I know this isn’t my normal review style but I am truly unhinged. I’ve been tilted off my literary axis and couldn’t be happier about it. You really don’t want to miss this one!

Thank you SOOOO much to DJ, Avon, and NetGalley for the eARC ❤️

I had a blast reading about these vibrant characters and going along for the ride of this story. The research and care put into it was apparent on every page. It’s exactly the kind of fun, happy story I was hoping it would be.

A lot of sports romances use SPORT, broadly speaking, as a metaphor, but Sebastian brilliantly looks at what is specific to baseball--the fascination with statistics in a game where those numbers reveal baseball's unlikeliness--and parallels it to grief, love after loss, and the vagaries of life. The result is one of the smartest sports romances I've ever read, one that cares about history as much as its characters, that allows space for prickliness and hard feelings. Sebastian is brilliant; her career is one to watch.

I really liked revisiting the setting of Cat Sebastian's previous book, We Could Be So Good. This time the story focused on Mark Bailey, a reporter who experienced a devastating loss few people know about and Eddie O'Leary, a baseball player recently traded to a newly formed New York baseball team. Pretty much everyone hates Eddie after he melted down publicly over the trade and insulted his teammates, and Mark is assigned to write a series of diaries in the paper from Eddie's perspective.

Once again, there's not a ton of plot here; it's mostly just a soft relationship development story. I loved the way Eddie and Mark worked as a couple and how they helped each other work through their issues. It was very sweet and the historical setting was really interesting to read about.

Overall, I really liked this and hope we get even more from this 'verse in the future.

If there's ever a time when I don't give five stars to a Cat Sebastian novel, know that it's not truly me writing the review.

Mark is grieving the loss of his partner and Eddie is grieving the loss of his home and life back in Kansas. Together, they stitch themselves back together and learn to let that grief exist without letting it bury them.

This is a book about knowing the risks, knowing the damage your choices could cause, and saying "lol ok" and making those choices anyway. I loved Eddie most of all. A big, lumbering, golden retriever of a man. He was always so sure of himself and what he wanted and I loved that. So many times we have both main characters terrified to take that next step and terrified to go forward. Eddie was all in from the jump.

Cat Sebastian does it again! This was such a sweet follow up to We Could Be So Good. To be fair, I'm a HUGE baseball fan so I was going to be partial to this book from the start. Sebastian really captured the strange, infuriating, and beautiful elements of the game and, as always, developed full, lovable characters. A fun, lovely read that I'll be recommending to any romance or romance-curious reader.

I adored this book! After being more lukewarm than usual for a Cat Sebastian novel on her last Georgian era one, I've been loving her 20th century queer stories (including last year's We Could Be So Good and the self-published Cabots series), and am happy to say You Should Be So Lucky continues that trend with the added bonus of being a baseball romance. I didn't even know I liked baseball romance--I'm not a huge sportsball fan, and while I don't mind hockey romance, I'm sports-neutral as far as my romance taste unless it's from a really good writer--but lately I've read a few I really liked, and if nothing else it's nice to see something different in a more hockey-saturated market. Personally I'd recommend this title for fans of K.D. Casey's recent contemporary Jewish m/m series or Alicia Thompson's forthcoming The Art of Catching Feelings sooner than Evvie Drake Starts Over to readers looking for more baseball romances, as well as to those who enjoy mid-century queer romance like Fellow Travelers (the 1950s-1970s period in particular is another relatively unexplored romance genre market niche that I'd love to see more of).

Cat Sebastian can do no wrong. This book is a gem - if you loved "We could be so good" do yourself a favor and get this one too. Same cast of characters but this time focused on Mark and a ballplayer new to town who is in the biggest of all slumps.

As the author fully acknowledges, there's about 2% plot, it's just a beautiful journey of two characters. Sometimes their internal musings "maybe this, maybe that...' and the repetative course of sports - ball game, practice, things don't go quite right, travel, another ball game make parts a litle bit slow. But slow is this book's middle name. You can't help but love Mark and Eddie, and particularly Mark's journey as he emerges from his all-consuming grief to have windows of time where he is in the world again -- the descriptions of grief -- or rather, the way the author SHOWS a person going throguh grief - is exquisitely done. The scene with the jars of cherries is just ughghhg heart-wrenchingly beautiful/sad/happy/comforting all at once.

The main threads of the story -- just getting throguh the bad stuff (because it happens to every one / there's not a 'Reason' for it / there's not a magic switch to make it better); grief & loving all of someone, and the DOG -- are all just a beautiful hug of a book. It doesn't get too sad or too sacharine, it just walks a perfect line of living through the good & bad and being brave enough to carve out a space for love and found family, in the face of life's obstacles.