Name: You Should Be So Lucky
Rating: 3.5 (3 reviews)
ISBN: 9780063272804

Cat Sebastian

A Novel

You Should Be So Lucky

Liv Markle

I don’t think I could have a single feeling about you that’s wasted. 

An emotional, slow-burn, grumpy/sunshine, queer mid-century romance for fans of Evvie Drake Starts Over, about grief and found family, between the new star shortstop stuck in a batting slump and the reporter assigned to (reluctantly) cover his first season—set in the same universe as We Could Be So Good. The 1960 baseball season is shaping up to be the worst year of Eddie O’Leary’s life. He can’t manage to hit the ball, his new teammates hate him, he’s living out of a suitcase, and he’s homesick. When the team’s owner orders him to give a bunch of interviews to some snobby reporter, he’s ready to call it quits. He can barely manage to behave himself for the length of a game, let alone an entire season. But he’s already on thin ice, so he has no choice but to agree. Mark Bailey is not a sports reporter. He writes for the arts page, and these days he’s barely even managing to do that much. He’s had a rough year and just wants to be left alone in his too-empty apartment, mourning a partner he’d never been able to be public about. The last thing he needs is to spend a season writing about New York’s obnoxious new shortstop in a stunt to get the struggling newspaper more readers. Isolated together within the crush of an anonymous city, these two lonely souls orbit each other as they slowly give in to the inevitable gravity of their attraction. But Mark has vowed that he’ll never be someone’s secret ever again, and Eddie can’t be out as a professional athlete. It’s just them against the world, and they’ll both have to decide if that’s enough.

Cameron Voytko

3.5<br /><br />I thought dynamic between the leads was really sweet, and I liked their back-and-forth quite a bit. I wish Cat Sebastian held onto that initial tension between them for a little longer before the payoff- I like my slow burns to be borderline painful to read, and this one was only just. I was glad to see an absence of any overdone miscommunication tropes, cartoonishly homophobic "villain" characters, or the dreaded third act breakup (they spend some time apart, but it's not really a breakup), all of which could have easily slotted into this narrative. It had all the elements of what I enjoy in a romance, I just needed the dial turned up to ten. 

erin

"It's not pity," Eddie says. "And I don't think I could have a single feeling about you that's wasted."

the last 20-25% felt a bit messy, but this was still a solid romance, and that's a big compliment from me because i cannot get through romance, even if i really really do want to. the slow burn was probably the best part. i loved these characters, both mark and eddie and everyone around them. and lula!!!! lula we love you.

It's a shame I started with the audiobook because the accents sent me in a bad way. I’m glad I grabbed a physical copy because I got so much more into it. Cute ending. Happy go lucky fluff. What more could you ask for in a cottage read?

bucky

GUYS. I’m giggling. I have not stopped giggling since I started this book.
I was super nervous to read this because it was my first experience with any of Cat Sebastian’s writing, but my best friend assured me that I would adore Sebastian’s writing style, and BOY, was she right.
When Fellow Travelers was released on Netflix, I binge-watched it, and following the final episode, all I wanted out of media was something as genuinely beautiful as a story told in that part of America’s history where people were more inclined to hide their sexualities due to the state of our government and its beliefs. I have yet to read My Policeman, but I watched the movie and honestly? This queer historical romance, set in a period of time in which the United States was chronically homophobic (not that it isn’t now, but, you know)... I don’t know. I love stories that find snippets of beauty hidden in plain sight, like knowing glances and secret smiles.
Cat Sebastian’s If You Should Be So Lucky did exactly what I needed it to do. Not just wanted I wanted it to do, but exactly what I needed. It reminded me that, even if I don’t get to see it, there have always been queer people begging to let their light burst through the cracks of a society that wants to see them fall. This was fiction, yes, but it was something that warmed me to my very core and made me genuinely giddy.
Eddie and Mark made my heart so unbelievably warm and I think I would give my entire life for Eddie if he needed it, honestly. I have nothing but amazing things to say about this novel. Sebastian is an incredibly talented author. Eddie & Mark are my dads now. And… I can’t wait to read more of Cat’s work. 
Thank you to NetGalley & Avon and Harper Voyager for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

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. thanks to netgalley and avon for the advanced copy. "you should be so lucky" comes out may 7th!

You Should Be So Lucky A Novel

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