This was a little book filled with a lot of heart, and once I got into the swing of reading it (pun delightfully intended), I found I couldn't put it down. It was a comforting read with the right amount of dry humor for me, where bittersweet moments and the messiness of hard truths felt thoughtfully done. The dialogue progressed nicely from the beginning chapters. I enjoyed Tanner, and I think I'll enjoy reading the next book in the series!

A kind thank you to Netgalley and the author for this ARC!

I realized pretty early on that as a non-sports fan, I'm not exactly the target audience. Although, as I kept reading I got pulled into the characters lives and didn't want to put the book down. I liked Tanner okay, although the book (and the excerpt for the next one) really left me more intrigued about Easton and his background. Since it took several chapters to win me over, I started off thinking I'd finish the book, write my review, and likely not read the sequels, but now that I've finished it I'm definitely interested in reading the next one.

It was very focused on baseball. There's nothing wrong with that. However, as someone who knows next to nothing about baseball, a couple scenes went completely over my head and there were scattered references that I'm sure meant something to baseball fans, but may as well have been a foreign language to me. The cover is really pretty, drew my eyes to the book, and I clocked what scenes it's referencing, but for a book so focused on baseball I think it would have been more appropriate to reflect that on the cover. (I think baseball fans would be able to get even more out of the book than I could, but I'm not sure that the cover would have drawn them to the book as it did for me.)

I think it really is a perfect book for queer teenage sports fans (which I would suspect is the target audience). It's giving Heartstopper vibes (but with a heavier baseball focus than Heartstopper had for rugby).

(Potential spoiler: I was disappointed that Tanner didn't talk out his feelings with Bella. Maybe it wouldn't be the realistic choice (teenage boys aren't exactly known for their emotional maturity), or the best choice from a story building perspective, but I just wanted to yell at him that he didn't have to bottle it all up, that there's a queer kid right in front of him who'd be willing to listen and keep his secrets. I would love if she played a larger role in the later books! )

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for sending me a copy of the eARC!