I feel really similarly about this book as I did about the first one in this series--not surprising, since both of them have two things I don't generally enjoy--second-chance romance and a strong past/present split within the book. It actually made me nervous seeing this book had those same two qualities as the first, but I was hopeful it would work better here--I think it did, but only just.

The first... at least 30% of the book is entirely their past story, and while I did find that context necessary and helpful here, the 10-year gap between those events and the "main" story left me feeling a little untethered. Of course a lot can and should change in 10 years, but I literally felt like Jake was an entirely different character, which could also partially be a function of the fact that most of the early timeline was from Alex's POV. But Jake goes through so much, none of which we get to actually see on screen, that it made the difference between who he was and who he becomes so stark and I really needed to see that journey to understand him as the same person. It ended up feeling really disconnected for me.

As with other books in this series, there is a lot of baseball detail, to a degree that felt mostly distracting and unnecessary, though it certainly added to the realism, and wasn't bad by any means, just a little too much detail.

Some great Jewish representation, as well as general mental health issues and some OCD tendancies. As always, it felt like all of those aspects were respectfully handled and naturally incorporated into the book.

I enjoyed the characters a lot, but the smut and dynamic between them just wasn't my personal cup of tea. I <i>also</i> had this issue in the first book, where the dynamic we get here ended up being the opposite of what I wanted and what I felt like we were sort of initially building towards.

Overall, I liked this book, but I didn't love it, though I'm very much planning to keep an eye out for this author's future books, as I do think much of what didn't work for me here was a function of this specific story being told. Though I think I've got enough data now to know that these particular tropes tend to specifically not resonate for me from this author, so I'll probably give those books a pass in the future--but definitely a personal preference thing, and I do think this book was well written!

This book is part of a series but can be read as a standalone. I loved that this book had both Jewish and disability representation. I rated it 4 stars because I felt like I didn’t fully understand why the tension was such a big deal between the two MC. I also liked that we saw characters from previous books.

I was given an Advances Reader Copy by NetGalley for an honest review.

4.5/5 stars. This is my favorite KD Casey book yet. Their romance-writing skills have continued to improve and now match her baseball-writing skills. I really love how they use baseball dynamics to tease out different aspects of her pairings. It’s completely believable to me that a missed play in the World Series would lead to strife between the pitcher and catcher involved, and that for both it would come to represent every facet of their relationship. Romance writers are often criticized for having characters overreact to seemingly minor things, but books like this remind me that the issue is the execution, not the concept. People are driven apart all the time by small things that shine a spotlight on major issues they’ve been ignoring, and writers like Casey help us see why that happens.

I also loved how, once again, Casey’s baseball knowledge allowed her to give both characters career trajectories that are extremely common in real life but rarely make it into fiction because they don’t easily fit the normal tropes. I won’t go into more detail due to spoilers, but as a baseball fan I loved getting to explore what it might be like to have Jake’s career. And of course I continue to love all the minor baseball details (like those titanium necklaces!) that most authors wouldn’t know to include.

As with the other two books in this series, I highly recommend this to anyone who loves in-depth sports romance, and especially to any baseball fans longing for a baseball romance that feels realistic.

This M/M baseball novel is just so good, a second chance romance with two appealing heroes who have a lot of history and lost years between them. Life hasn't turned out exactly the way Jake and Alex imagined it would, but they find themselves back on the same team again with a chance to make things right. This time around, will they both be ready to act on their mutual attraction and finally find happiness? Highly recommended.

3.75 stars rounded up to 4 stars.

This was a good emotional read. Two baseball pros meet again and must confront their complicated history and possibly, hopefully, work their way to a HEA. In this book, one MC lives with the aftermath of career failure and disappointment, and experiences anxiety disorder, depression, and sexual dysfunction. The developing relationship and issues are handled with reassuring delicacy, nuance, and character growth.

[author:K.D. Casey|21310105] writes vulnerable characters so well (the earlier books in this series attest to this). This book, like the others in the series, can be read as standalones.

Alex Angelides is a generous, compassionate lover, and Jake Fischer is a driven and passionate man. There were times, though, that I wished Jake managed his feelings better and stepped up more towards Alex. I also wished there were a bit more of Alex’s lesbian aunt, especially in terms of on-page fun + positive interaction with Jake and Alex. Like other Casey baseball romance, I felt that there’s just a bit too much baseball in the story for me. These notwithstanding, this book is a solid and enjoyable read.

Many thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for a free ARC in return for an honest review.

I love KD’s writing, her stories and her characters, a little bit flawed in the best possible way. Both Jake and Alex have their issues, both personal and professional, both mental and physical. When they part ways early in their careers following a not so impressive season with the Oakland Elephants, Jake pitching and Alex catching, it’s not on good terms. A solid friendship that I thought would last a lifetime broke, until 10 years later when they both find themselves playing for the Elephants again. After a rocky start a friendship is once again formed. This time though they actually start talking through their woes. Truly wonderful characters throughout, I loved how kind and caring Alex was, and how he accepted and helped Jake with his issues (when Jake and his stubborn ways allowed it), which endeared me to both of them all the more. Another winner in the Unwritten Rules series. I received an advanced copy from the publisher via NetGalley. This is my honest review.

KD Casey is one of my favorite authors and writers, and asking me to pick a favorite in the Unwritten Rules series is like asking me to pick my favorite Seager brother. But as much as I love all of my baseball-playing North Carolinian infielders, Diamond Ring is my favorite Seager brother (it's Kyle.) (No book in the series is Justin, no shade to Justin, you're the Cooper Manning of the Seager family and that's OK!)

Each one of KD Casey's books shows an incredibly deft handling of both romantic tropes and in-depth depiction of baseball experiences, tropes, if you will. Diamond Ring has an exquisite trajectory of enemies-to-friends-to-lovers-to-enemies-to-friends-to-lovers that I could not get enough of. Love, between teammates, of the game, for oneself, in its many forms, is rendered in truly spectacular fashion! In fact, the process of writing this review makes me want to reread the book to properly savor all the moments in Jake and Alex's years of knowing each other, whether they wanted to or not (and Casey's excellent command [and control] of their timeline).

A massive thank you to NetGalley and Carina Press for an ARC in exchange for this absolutely honest review!!!!

Overall I really enjoyed this book. It's a great sports romance that is part of a series but can be read alone - although I would highly recommend reading it as a series so you get the full picture of the team and the appearances from other characters make more sense.

The mental health rep in this is really great and there are honest conversations between the characters about medication and medication side effects which isn't something you often see in a romance book. I do wish there was a little more discussion on Jake's OCD and if it was being managed by his medication and maybe some on page therapy conversations about that as well.

The middle third of the book moved a little slowly for me as the relationship and dynamic between Jake and Alex was being established again after 10 years. The last third of the book was fantastic and brought together characters from the previous two books in the series which is always something that I enjoy. I loved getting an update on the other couples but also a glimpse at what the future held for Alex and Jake and how they were going to navigate a lot of big changes in their lives.

Overall I highly recommend this series, and this newest installment is probably my favorite so far. I loved the dynamic between Jake and Alex and their love story, the injury recovery, inside look at the connection between pitcher and catcher on a baseball team, and the mental health rep.

Diamond Ring might actually be perfect. Jake and Alex’s love story is hard-fought. In athletics, people often say you have to grind out wins or grind out losing streaks when things don’t go your way. Alex and Jake had the same experience to be together. Told over 10 years, this story explores the pressure of competitive athletics, the wear and tear athletes face both physically and mentally, and includes a glorious redemption arc. I loved it.

Casey undeniably hit it out of the park with this book. I laughed and cried. Got giddy. Got goosebumps. Got nostalgic. Name it, I felt it.

I fell in love with these boys so hard. Alex, who seems tough, until you get to know him, and then he just seems strong. Jake, equally strong in his vulnerability. Both inspiring in their tenacity.

They are both called up to the big leagues at the same time, their different paths coming together for the first time. As a pitcher and catcher, they get close. Teammates, now. Then best friends. More, too, if they were being honest with each other.

Their paths diverge again, however, when Jake suffers an injury (Tommy John, iykyk). A fall-out happens. Then rehab, trades, distance separate them even further from each other. Ten long years.

Until one day, they both get a call and end up, yet again, on the same team. And maybe, just maybe, the magic of baseball will heal them.

This story is filled with so much heart, and love, and hope. And heat! And of course, all the tension and angst that comes with a second chance romance. All the heavy topics are handled with so much care. Loved every second.

Apparently sports romance, contrary to my original self-understanding, can be very much my thing if the sport is baseball, the writer knows the sport inside and out, and that writer is K.D. Casey.

"People are easy to love when they're winning. This game is easy to love when it's going well," says one of the MCs very late in the book. "When I first got called up, I thought that's how my life was going to be. It wasn't."

The speaker is Jake, a pitcher whose career in the majors went down the tubes after a poor recovery from surgery for an elbow injury and who has spent a decade bouncing around minor league teams. Not coincidentally, Jake drove away his lover (and catcher), Alex, in the aftermath of his elbow surgery, so when he's called back up to his old major-league team, the Elephants*, at the same time Alex is traded back to it, their relationship has a certain adversarial quality.

This being a romance, of course they slowly find their way back to each other. Casey's so good at this. Paired as pitcher and catcher again, Jake and Alex -- who are, after all, professionals in a demanding field -- have to learn to talk to each other. It just occurs to me now what a good analogy those two positions make for any relationship, and I'm not thinking here of the colloquial meanings of "pitch" and "catch": the pitcher and catcher in baseball are constantly communicating -- agreeing, arguing, consulting -- and when the communication breaks down, the beautiful back-and-forth of pitch, catch, return -- the relationship -- is disrupted. Casey conveys this disruption so well, as she does the harmony when the relationship is going well.

And speaking of communication. During a game, pitcher and catcher mostly communicate wordlessly, though they may confer on the pitcher's mound when things aren't flowing smoothly. On and off the field, Jake and Alex are always communicating, but often in small, quiet ways that get easier and easier as they recover their love. The "official relationship talks" come later in the process, which feels right for people who -- pitcher and catcher -- have well-honed skills in silent, private communication.

Something I really appreciate about Casey: her humor.

... ballplayers have two primary emotions: hungry and nosy.

"Did you want to go out?" Alex says, with the skepticism of someone over thirty being asked if they want to do shots.

... toggling through the [prostate stimulator's] various features like Jake might reject it for not having enough vibration patterns.

And her gift for tiny, revealing touches of characterization: Jake's frankly tacky diamond-studded Mogen David pendant; Alex's hyper-careful driving (because his father was killed in a car accident when Alex was six, and God bless her, Casey has the good sense never to make the connection explicit); the way Jake deliberately leaves or creates a bit of disorder in his space, as part of his treatment for his obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Diamond Ring is flat-out wonderful, with a joyful ending that ties together all her queer players and their friends and supporters. At this point I think I'd be happy to read K.D. Casey's grocery lists, that's how much I love her books.


*A particular pleasure of the Unwritten Rules series is the names Casey gives her fictional teams: the Oakland Elephants, the Maryland Rockfish, the NY Union, and so on. Much better, frankly, than most of the team names in our regrettably nonfictional world.

These two were mentioned in an earlier book as getting into a fight that broke up an entire clubhouse and I have been dying to read it since then.

Not gonna lie, this book hurt me. They were so cute when they first got to their rookie seasons. Jake was set up to be the superstar and no one would even get Alex's name right. These idiots were clearly in love and then it all goes wrong. Then on top of it, Jake's status just plummets and never really recovers fully.

They felt like endgame and blessedly learned a few things when they were apart about communication and graciously sharing the spotlight and blame.

Does Gordon get a book? He's basically the guardian angel of all of these disasters in this series and if anyone deserves the happiest of happy endings, it's that guy.

Thank you to Netgalley and KD Casey for a copy in exchange for an honest review. My opinions are my own.

You know how some authors just click for you? Like reading their writing feels like coming home, even if home is sometimes frustrating and uncomfortable and heartbreaking (but also joyous and triumphant and embracing and right)? Like it just resonates somewhere inside, and you can’t put your finger on why, but what does it matter because resistance is futile, and why would you want to resist anyway?

Yeah. KD Casey is one of those authors for me.

I adored Unwritten Rules and Fire Season, the two other books in this (loosely connected) series. So this was one of my most anticipated releases for 2023, and damn, did it deliver. This book is exhilarating, emotional, draining, wry, empathetic, hopeful, unputdownable, and so, so good. And while Diamond Ring hits many of the same beats and themes as both of its predecessors – reconciling your private and public selves or, more saliently, who you love with what you love; estrangement and second chances and trying (and failing, and trying again) to do better; being ground down and defeated and clawing your way back because what choice do you have; the chronic, gnawing uncertainty of always waiting for the ax to fall in a sport where most people are disposable; managing mental health in a system that values only bodies – it is also entirely, uniquely itself.

One of my all-time favorite tropes is “soulmates, but the author would rather rip their own face off than commit that word to paper.” KJ Charles is master of this; here is an illustrative example:

"Why?"
"Why what?" Jonah asked. "Why do I love you?"
"Well. Yes."
Jonah gave him a look of some confusion, more amusement. "But why would I not? Of course I love you." He spoke as though it were axiomatic. <i>I am Jonah, therefore I love Ben.</i> And the converse would be true, Ben recalled from distant memories of arithmetical logic. <i>I am Ben, therefore I love Jonah.

The point of this example is not to pit these two excellent authors against each other; we readers are richer for having both of them. The point is that KD Casey goes HARD in the “soulmates-no-ripped-face” category.

"Jake takes out his journal, inscribes a horizontal line under his earlier entry for the day. Hotel room is great: good view, good bed. Nervous about my start. Better now that . . . Be honest. Erase nothing . . . now that Alex held my hand. A strangely vulnerable thing to write, even in a book full of his deepest anxieties. That he was calmed by the simple contact of their palms and Alex’s slight smile as he pointed something out on screen and his unwavering assurance that they could actually do this. Jake feels coated in that assurance now, like a thin but unmistakable armor against the world that he can’t quite bring himself to name."

And:

“Not a big deal.”
“It kind of is.”
“Anyone would have done it.”
“No, they wouldn’t.” Jake lets out an audible breath. “This is how it’s gonna be for the rest of my life. That’s the hardest part – that it might not get fixed.”
A strand of Jake’s hair has spilled onto his forehead. Lines of tension radiate around his eyes, like he’s bracing for Alex to kiss him on the cheek, to tell him that this isn’t going to work, to leave.
Alex brushes his hair away, kisses the skin at his temple. Doesn’t move. “Okay.”
Jake’s lips curve slightly. “Okay?”
Alex tries to think of what to say, though it’s hard to articulate. That Jake is how he is. That Alex has loved him for so long that he’s forgotten what not loving him is like."

In genre terms, this is second-chance romance. In sports terms, this is a comeback story. And obviously, it is both those things. But it is so much more. It is about failure and regret and inflection points that you don’t realize are inflection points, because sometimes the things that set our life on a different course are only recognizable in retrospect. It’s about attraction and friendship and love and knowing and how that knowing makes forgetting impossible and hating more painful, like hating yourself, but the best part of you, the part almost no one else can touch. It’s about loss and acceptance and tenacity and faith – in yourself and another, yes, but also strongly influenced (as were Unwritten Rules and Fire Season) by Jewish faith and practices. It’s about how people who love each other can hurt each other, even without intending to. It’s about stepping out of the shadows and finding a way forward, together, in the light, and finally seeing all the stuff you missed in the darkness.

"At his apartment, he grabs his journal when he’s in bed and flips to a blank page. Didn’t give up any runs today. A technical truth. The photo thing with Alex was funny. Especially to the bullpen, though guys who sit around for all but one inning of a game tend to be easy to amuse.
Alex loves me, and I love him.
There is it, in plain letters, ones he can’t – <i>won’t</i> – erase, the simple fact of his adult life condensed to two phrases."

This is simply structured – dual POV with two timelines, 10 years apart, that are told in separate sections rather than toggling back and forth like in Unwritten Rules – but it is so cleverly done. It was only on my second read (yes, I’ve already done a re-read) that I noticed how Casey is seeding small moments, actions, and exchanges throughout that are picked up again later, sometimes to melancholic effect, sometimes triumphantly, sometimes bittersweet. This is a book that rewards close attention and care, even as it sweeps you along towards a finale that can only be described as grand.

And of course, when all is said and done, this is a baseball story. You don’t have to know much about baseball – my familiarity with the sport is glancing, at best – but you do have to give over to its peculiarities and imperatives. Because baseball – two seasons, a decade apart – is not just the framework and context for the story. It also infuses its pacing and rhythm. This book reads like baseball is supposed to feel: a languid, summer day, endlessly unfurling time and space and little decisions and critical moments that end up being more than the sum of their parts. It breathes baseball and wallows in all its dimensions – the grind, the demands, the pleasure, the simplicity, the hardness, the glory.

And it culminates in a final few chapters that kept me on the edge of my seat, with a grin that just got bigger and bigger and bigger until my cheeks hurt and, ok, there were tears. The ending could not have been more satisfying, not just for Alex and Jake, but also in the resolution it provides for Charlie and Reid, Eugenio and Zach (with stalwart support from sweet, steady Johnson). It’s a perfect ending, one that feels like a new beginning.

“I guess at some point in my career, stuff started to feel finite. The number of late-night flights I want to take, the number of times I can get hit in the balls and still field the next inning. The number of games I have left in me to play.
“I think, if you love something, you learn to set all that stuff aside. That’s the thing I didn’t know the last time. How to love something like that. How much work that kind of love takes. What you’ll do to keep it.”

4.5 stars


I enjoyed this one so much! I'm not big on second-chance-romance, but I absolutely trust KD Casey to take me there. I felt like this was her best book yet, particularly in this series of strong novels. Her characters and their dynamics are clearly so carefully crafted, and even though we know there's gonna be a HEA, the "how?" of it all kept me reading & savoring. Thoroughly recommend, even to those who don't love sports romance. I'll be pre-ordering my own copy.

Harper Collins union ratified their contract, which means we can share our reviews of their imprints! Carina press being one of them. AND Y’ALL, I CAN FNALLY YELL MY FEELINGS ABOUT THIS ABSOLUTE STUNNER OF A ROMANCE. Ahem. Being cool. I’m thrilled to be sharing this advance review from one of my all time favourites: KD Casey.

I’d like to thank NetGalley and Carina Press for the advance copy, thoughts before are my own, enjoy!

There’s a deep comfort to the way KD Casey’s words snuggle their way into my heart. Their romances are some of the most resonant. most moving, most authentic I’ve read. But their love of the genre may only slightly be outpaced by their depth of love for the game of baseball. Their craft married with the love and respect they have for the game come together (pun very much intended) to create some legitimate magic.

This one, follows a jewish pitcher (Jake) and a catcher (Alex) on their EPIC 10 year journey in the league and to each others hearts. I’m already getting weepy, so I’m gonna try to make this whole thing make sense.

Jake being the golden retriever top prospect, and Alex being the ‘I already may have a chip on my shoulder’ recently called up catcher, play so so so delightfully off each other. There’s these small interactions in each of Casey’s romances where the two MCs have the softest moments of brushed shoulders or subtle humor with each other that just DO THINGS TO ME. And this book, DID THINGS TO ME in big and little ways.

There is a lot of heart ache in this one. For dreams not quite realized, for relationships found and lost, for friends and loved ones lost to tragedy. But there is also so much triumph. So much joy and growth and genuine happiness. And bravery. And wit. Casey’s writing has equally as much wit as heart, and if you’ve read any of their books you’ll know that means it’s there in spades.

The themes in the book can be heavy and I encourage you to read with care (that said, there are really great content warnings provided and support resources shared as well). These themes are handled with immense grace and respect and add to a manner of storytelling that is so visceral I always feel like I am living it along side their characters.

Jake and Alex are adorable idiots (affectionate) who I now love very much and will be thinking about every 1-3 days for the rest of my life. I laughed, I cried, I cried a little more, I definitely checked to see how many days were left until opening day, I wanted to hug Jake and then Alex and then Jake (again). By the end of any of Casey’s books I always feel like I’ve become friends with the MCs, and then I end up genuinely missing the them a lot after I’ve turned the last page.

Also I absolutely lost my marbles at the “just how gay is this baseball club”, chef’s kiss.

I loved it and I hope you’ll pick it up when it hits retailers April 11th 2023. It’s dreamy, heartachey, funny, poignant, and a clear love letter to both the genre and to professional baseball. I am so lucky to have found Casey’s books, they are really really special. You need them in your life, for real.

xo Kels

I'm so excited to be able to review HarperCollins books again!

This book was a treat. I wish I'd had time to reread the other books in this world before reading it, but it stands squarely on its own. KD Casey always brings the emotion and the rich baseball detail. And omg, that final paragraph!

My thanks to NetGalley for a complimentary advance copy of this book.

5 stars

KD absolutely nailed it with this one. Or, since it's a baseball book, knocked it out of the park? Whichever metaphor you choose this book was amazing, perfect, 10 out of 10, no notes. Like, how dare this book.

It's amazing to see an already great writer improve upon their craft. All the things that bugged me from the first two books in this series were fixed and all the things I loved were still there. The writing struck the perfect balance of melancholy, baseball, romance, and character development which the dense and poetic writing style complements well.

The other things I loved about the book: the two main characters, Jake and Alex; the baseball; the mental health rep; the linear storytelling; the more conclusive ending; less of the book dedicated to the first chance romance; the build up of the second chance romance; the baseball as a rebellion rep; the proper name pronunciation rep; the epistolary interlude; the whole thing, really.

In conclusion, the best KD Casey baseball book yet.

In Diamond Ring KD Casey delivers a beautiful, poignant second-chance romance with heart, family, and delicious angsty lost-love feels. Jake and Alex are both compelling, sweet characters you’ll root for from start to finish. Don’t sleep on this series.

Diamond Ring is the third book in the Unwritten Rules series by KD Casey. It’s a MM romance set within the world of baseball, and a team called the Oakland Elephants. The previous two books whilst related can easily be read as standalones, as can Diamond Ring.

The book centres in Jake (a pitcher) and Alex (a catcher) who, now in their early 30s have forged very different paths to be where they are with the Elephants. Alex is the starting catcher, Jake a (very) late innings pitcher. Jake and Alex have a history, a thing that could have been but for many variables, not least of all a near career ending injury after their first season playing together. The injury and harsh words were left 10 years without reconciliation. Until now.

I profess to loving all the books in this series, but each time I say, this book is better. Again, most definitely true in this case. Both characters are complex - Jake with his injury history, and his anxious and obsessive tendencies. Alex with his family life story, his giving nature and motivation for playing, and his openness to understand Jake’s experience.

KD Casey writes with such depth, you do feel as the layers are peeled away from these characters, the further you read. The angst and emotion is there though from the early chapters, as Jake and Alex grappled initially meeting as younger men with their careers in front of them, to them reconnecting when they are more worldly and more jaded.

Particularly sensitive is Casey’s depiction of Jake’s mental health - the reader is a bystander to his thought processes and internal monologue, how potentially debilitating these can be, and Jake’s insights and how he has learned to manage and make sense of his own experience. It becomes apparent to Alex as well, and the point at which he understood Jake’s situation better was so poignant - ‘something that hadn’t occurred to Alex: how long each day Jake spent on this stuff, like inescapable chores’.

There is the usual baseball discussion as the reader tracks the team’s performance across the season, and Jake and Alex’s role within it. There are some cameos from our characters in books one and two.

This book has LGBTQIA+ representation, parental loss and grief, adoption, mental health, and religious representation. Thanks to Carina Press and Netgalley for the digital copy.

It gets all the stars from me!

Thank you, Carina Press & Carina Adores (Harlequin), for allowing me to read Diamond Ring early.

Loved this book the most in this series! Jake and Alex were a wonderful couple and I adored the ending.