Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me free access to the advanced copy of this book.

The Only Game In Town feels like a television show. Geonn Cannon gives us a full cast of characters with their baseball team. There is drama, romance, fists flying, and of course baseball.

I’m trying to think if I have a favorite character and I’m not sure I do. But the more I think about it, it is probably the coke-bottle glasses late blooming Moxie. I relate to the glasses aspect, but that is about all we have in common as Moxie is the awesome catcher on this team. She is kind, smart, and is finally learning to put her needs and wants first. I love her journey.

Rosalind is the funny-bone for me. Quick-witted as well as footed, she is set in her life but decides to take a chance on a dream. I think her story is the saddest one for me.

We also have Rainy and Marcy. I pair them together because they have been friends since they were about five-years-old. They have been through everything together and it shows. This is not to say that Cannon doesn’t put them through their paces.

Cannon gives the story a real historical feel. At times I felt like I was sitting at a radio listening to the game. The tale just has that old-fashioned feel to it. I’m not sure if I am explaining it right, but it just feels more than nostalgic.

The Only Game In Town is a great salute on this day of the new baseball season to the women of baseball. Thank you to all the women who braved the harassment and alienation to play the game they love and to inspire others to follow in their cleats.

I really like historical novels, and this take on women's baseball during WWI fits the bill. The cast is pretty big, and the author does a good job of getting the reader to be invested in the downfall of the antagonist. He also does a good job of showing how relationships, even the good ones, are messy. He also shows the struggle to accept who you are in a way that I think many LGBT+ people will find familiar. Given the period it is set in, many of the social dynamics differ from what we see today, but it still feels familiar.

Special thanks to Supposed Crimes and Netgalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed this book, especially since I read it around the same time as the new League of their own reboot. I did find myself getting bored throughout the book and this led to me getting the characters confused.

I liked this book, but I wish the writing had been a little bit more engaging.

I was looking forward to reading this and thought it would be along the lines of "A League Of Her Own." It wasn't really marketed as a romance, and it had more graphic sexual stuff than I normally like to read, my readers are also a rather PG audience, so I don't think I will be sharing with them at this point. It was well written. I would recommend some editing at Location 3763 and Location 3869 and 3870 for grammar/ word-choice.

The Only Game in Town by Geonn Cannon

Reminiscent of the movie A League of Their Own but set during the first world war this book had baseball, romance, a sleazy man to deal with, and a lot of baseball. It was an enjoyable easy read and a fun way to spend the day.

What I liked:
* The baseball games and how they were played
* That the women were portrayed as strong and capable
* The athletic skills of the women
* The locations traveled to
* Thinking about what train trips cross country to get to games must have been like
* That the women stood together and were able to thwart the sleazy man causing trouble
* The Waldron mother and daughter that stepped in when the Shrikes were in trouble
* The three romances although it was a surprise that all three couples that had romances were women and none of the romances were between a man and a woman (that said…the book was marked LGBTQIA)
* Looking up women’s baseball to see if this could have happened in the time period
* The hopeful ending to the story

What I didn’t like:
* Who and what I was meant not to like
* Knowing that Baseball is still predominately a male sport although some countries outside of the USA are cultivating women’s baseball teams

Did I enjoy this book? Yes
Would I read more by this author? I believe I would

Thank you to NetGalley and Supposed Crimes for the ARC – This is my honest review.

3-4 Stars

Geonn cannon as wrote some good books, but without a doubt ‘The only game in Town’ is by far one of my favourites to date. If you're a fan of baseball or enjoyed the 1990s classic film with Geena Davis, Madonna, and Tom hanks, ‘A league of there own, I think you may enjoy this new novel.

I've given The only game in town a 4.2/5

I loved this book. The characters are loveable, the plot is well paced and fun, and the romance is adorable.

Marcy is my absolute dream girl, and her on again off again, childhood best friends to lovers relationship with Rainy is just perfect. Rosalind's hardcore nature fits so well into their little group. I was hooked from the first chapter when Marcy started getting the team together. Some may cry historical inaccuracy with 5 queer women on one team in 1916 but I am willing to suspend disbelief to enjoy it.

The women taking over the men's jobs, including professional sports, is not something that we hear about often when talking about The Great War a.k.a. WWI. I am by no means a history expert, but the story seemed fairly true to the time period. Or, at least enough for a queer historical fiction novel.

I would absolutely recommend this book. Be sure to check trigger warnings for period typical homophobia.

From the start, I found the writing style of this author difficult. The subject had a lot of promise, but I struggled to stay attentive to the story. For another reader, and as some of the reviews here have stated, this was an interesting book with compelling characters.

I recommend this book to others, based on the subject and the characters.

Thank you to Netgalley for this ARC.

The Only Game in Town follows a group of women who just want to play baseball. This book is set in 1916 during the war. While the men are fighting in the war a women's baseball league is formed. This book follows one of the teams and how they want to win the World Series. It also follows some of the women on the team and what it is like being a female player. At first people are not accepting of the women playing baseball but soon they come around. 

If you are a fan of the movie A League of Their Own then you will like this book. One of the things most people don't know about me is that I am a huge baseball fan ( Go Nationals!). I also studied women's studies in college so this book was right up my alley. I really enjoyed the overall story. I also really liked the characters. What I did not like about this book is that it was way too similar to A League of Their Own. Since I love A League of Their Own I did not like this as much as I should have. I know I should not have compared that movie to this book but, it is just very hard not to. But I loved how this book showed off strong women and women in sports. Another thing that bothered me was that this book was written by a male author. Now this is just me being super picky but I think I would have liked this more if this was written by a female author. I think because it was written by a male author, it did not represent the women well enough because, well the author does not know the female experience.  I feel like a female author could have given a better voice to these characters. But overall I did like this one and would suggest it.

The rise of women‘s baseball with a sapphic twist
One of the best quotes I took from this book is that you sometimes have to settle being one of the steps of a staircase to get anywhere worth going. This is true for female sports and female liberation. Both world wars served as steps for women‘s liberation (think: Rosy the rivetter) and toward women‘s sports. This sports romance focuses on the first WW and how women had a chance to professionally play ball because all the men were fighting overseas. It gave those pioneers a chance to show what they could do and was one of the many steps to our modern times.
I loved the sports narration, the fight, the camaraderie, there was a metoo-theme as well and lesbians and a lot of „hanky-panky“. The pace of the novel is slower than some of Cannon‘s adventure books - fitting in my opinion for the times where life moved more slowly: no social media, going by train, no mobile phones. Unfortunately the proofreading could have been better and as a history geek I looked into the actual history: WW II was the true breakthrough for female baseball - of course artistic licence gives a lot of leeway, but the story „feels“ more like WW II than WW I where the mores and times were even more strict.
To sum it up: enjoyable, giving a likely glimpse into different times and the steps it took to bring us into our modern world.

Geonn Cannon creates strong female characters in his books and this one is no exception.

A story about female ball teams during WWII explores the disparity of opportunities available to female athletes while following the tumultuous relationships of several lesbian couples.

I think for the right reader this'll be a great time. For me it's too many POVs, too many similar characters, and too many epithets to keep my attention 'til the end, so I'm DNFing at 52%. It's nice to read so many queer women characters navigating this particular time and scenario, but it also felt very much like a pastiche of familiar images.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

Loosely based on real events (although this book was set during World War I), the novel follows the Chicago Shrikes, an all-women baseball team, as they work towards the World Series. The dynamic between the players, the lack of support as the team starts the season, and the effort the players put into each game all build a solid narrative that kept things interesting. The characters, other than Rainy and Marcy, are a bit less developed, but overall the book is a fun look into the history of women's baseball.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC.

I knew that women played professional baseball during WWII because of the movie A League of their own. But I didn't know that it also happened during the first world war. Hey you something new everyday. I really enjoyed learning about Marcy Neal and the rest of the girls and women. I also can't wait to learn more.

If you loved the movie A League of Our Own then you will definitely want to read Cannon’s newest novel, The Only Game in Town. The novel mimics the history the movie was based on but changes the time frame from WW II to World War I. The best difference between the two is the lesbian drama which is not fact based but come on, all those amazing female athletes and not a lesbian to be found in the film. I think not!
The story revolves around the Chicago Shrikes (songbirds which impale smaller birds by their beaks) and the formation of the women’s baseball league to fill the void when the men went off to war in 1916.
The baseball drama is very well written and exciting to read. My shoulder ached for Rainey as she pitched game after game in their brutal schedule. The lesbian drama is interesting and will keep your attention keeping in mind the era and stigmatization of being a homosexual. There is an over use of sexual encounters which made them emotionless and perfunctory. But hey, I was here for the baseball.
Overall, I looked forward to reading this novel because of baseball being a key component. The Only Game in Town definitely matched my enthusiasm.

I received an advance review copy through NetGalley and I am leaving this review voluntarily.