The Prospects by KT Hoffman is a queer sports romance. This is the story of Gene and Luis.
 
I absolutely love sports romances and I haven’t read any queer ones and therefore I was really excited to read this one. Gene is the first openly trans man in this baseball world. Such a topic can be quite polarizing, but I think it’s important that this representation exists in books and in real life and Gene provided a very unique perspective. And it also shows that everyone can follow their dreams and deserves happiness and love and that’s such an important message.
 
Luis is a longtime rival of Gene, and he ends up being traded to the same team and that causes quite the tension between them and the team as a whole. Slowly Luis and Gene realize that they have a lot in common and they spend more time together off the pitch as well. Their romance was absolutely wholesome and cute. One of my favorite aspects was also the found family trope in this book. The author provided a different approach to baseball romances I normally read, and I really liked it.
 
Overall, The Prospects is such a cozy romance with very important representation. 4 stars.
 
(ARC kindly provided in exchange for a review.)

Gene is one of my new favorite queer MCs! I loved him so much and thought he was so well developed and thought out. He seemed SO REAL and I'm almost upset he's fictional.

Luis was written with such love and care, I thought he was so vulnerable and sweet.

My only complaint is that the first 1/3 was very hard to get into. It was very baseball-jargon forward and I was concerned I wasn't going to be able to follow along.

Gene Ionescu has always loved baseball and the fact that he's the first openly trans player in professional baseball only makes him love his life more. It's comfortable and everything he's ever let himself want, but the return of a former teammate upends everything he thought he wanted because Luis Estrada was supposed to be in his past and nothing more than the rival he could hate from afar. Luis's trade into Gene's minor league team starts off rocky, but there's undeniable chemistry between them and it's not just on the field.
It's an incredibly optimistic read that feels both like a fantasy and something that is totally achievable. I'm amazed at how much Hoffman made me believe that professional baseball would be even remotely accepting of a transgender player and that's a big reason why I like the book. Gene does face challenges and microaggressions, but his view on life and how he handles things is commendable. Even when he has doubts and makes a dubious decision, he eventually finds the strength to go after what he really wants and let other things fall where they may. It's a story full of great moments and touching scenes and I would recommend it even if it didn't have the super sweet (and hot) romance.
Extra props to Hoffman for the realistic without being triggering representation of panic attacks and all that they entail.

Very happy thanks to NetGalley and Dial Press Trade Paperback for the uplifting read.

K.T. Hoffman's debut is a heartwarming, sweet story full of representation and baseball drama. Gene, a transgender baseball player in the minor leagues, is forced to play with his former rival from his college team, Luis, when he is traded to his team. These two go from former friends/ teammates to enemies/teammates, to friends, to lovers. It's a long process!

I loved the representation of queer characters, a character hard of hearing, and characters with ADHD and anxiety. Luis even has a service dog, Dodger. All the characters slowly become more developed and fleshed out, especially Gene and Luis. Everyone had something to do, and I appreciated seeing the guys worth their families. It was also fun to see baseball as the backdrop, even though sometimes I got totally lost in the stats and jargon.

I have to admit, though, in the beginning, the story was progressing slowly and took me quite a while to get into and feel invested. But honestly, I loved the MCs so much that I wanted to eventually see them happy, so I kept going. And I have to say I'm glad I did! After the romance started and we could finally feel the chemistry between Gene and Luis, I was all in. There were happy tears as well that made me so glad that I read until the end.
If you enjoy sports drama, romance full of queer joy, and nuanced characters you love, then I totally recommend this one.
Thank you to Dial Publishing and Netgalley for this ARC.

The Prospects by KT Hoffman was such a fantastic queer sports romance and a cute debut.
A well crafted story with the most wonderfully written characters ever!
The characters were authentic and flawed, funny and vulnerable.
I thought the writing was done very well and I’m looking forward to reading more from Hoffman in the future!

Thank You NetGalley and Random House | Dial Press Trade Paperback for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

*Received an ARC for an honest review* I have to admit that I almost DNF’d this book. I had a really hard time with the writing style. It didn’t feel smooth. It felt kind of choppy and disconnected. Especially given all the themes in this story really wanted to feel connected to the main character and the rest of the characters. I continued with it because curiosity mainly wanted to see how it played out. I got the sense of found family with this story which is one of my favorite themes. But at the end of it all, I just didn’t connect with the book like I hoped.

DNF at 17%.

This book sounded so fun but I really struggled to connect with the characters. I don’t know what it was about the writing style but it made it difficult for me to engage with the story and made me DNF.

Thank you to NetGalley and Dial Press Trade Paperback for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Note: I do not review books on socials that I DNF.

Ugh. I just loved this so much.

I love the man characters of Gene and Luis. They are just too stinking cute, I can't even deal. But not even just them, all of the secondary characters are just all great.

I like baseball anyway, but you definitely don't have to be a fan of the sport to still enjoy the book. You will be rooting not only for our main couple, but also for the Beaverton Beavers.

Plus, anytime you throw in a dog, I'm in. Dodger <3

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Books about trans athletes are literally the light of my life, and I don’t know if I can put into words how much THE PROSPECTS means to me. This book will be in my heart forever, I’m so serious. I reread the first chapter multiple times over before I could move on—unusual, I’m aware—because I was too excited for what I was about to read. If I could make a checklist of my ideal book, it checks every line. I can’t wait to see what KT Hoffman will do next, whenever it may be, I’ll be ready.

Thank you so so much to Katy Nishimoto at The Dial Press for providing an advanced copy.

The Prospects was a cute romance against a baseball backdrop. The representation was good, with trans main character and his male love interest, as well as other queer supporting characters and a deaf character. The romance was believable and had me rooting for them. The issues with the book were more pacing related - it dragged in the middle, and had so much sports jargon that a regular reader who isn’t familiar with the sport would have an extremely hard time following it.

I absolutely loved this book. This is the first book I've read with a trans character, and I loved the representation and how it was handled. Gene's character isn't defined by his trans or sexual identities -his story is about so much more than that.

I loved the mental health representation as well, covering anxiety and ADHD.

I loved that the characters seem pretty simple at the beginning but slowly unravel into real multidimensional people as their faced with real-world challenges and disappointments.

The banter had me laughing out loud and some of the plot had be tearing up.

My one small issue with the story was all the baseball "lingo" - though I'm familiar with the general rules, it went into very specific and niche terms that I felt a little lost at times. It doesn't really detract from the story as a whole though.

Did not finish at 20%.
I was so excited about this, But I couldn't connect with the characters.
The writing style and 3rd person POV were obstacles to fully immersed in the story.


I would like to thank NetGalley, Random House Publishing for the early access ARC in exchange for an honest review.

4.5⭐️
Despite it being outside my usual rotation of fantasy and sci-fi, I thoroughly enjoyed this romance. Our main character, Gene, was well rounded and deeply lovable, and had me rooting for him the whole time. I’m someone who’s found a lot of joy in watching an occasional baseball game in the last few years and as an Oregonian DREAM of the world KT Hoffman has written (a Portland team? Yes please!). On a technical level, this was very easy to process, minus a few small moments of confusion on who was speaking (though this could very well be corrected in the final version, as I read an ARC). I would have loved a little more clarity on Dodger, Luis’s dog- I felt like the lines got a bit blurred here between therapy dog, emotional support animal, and Service animal, which are all very different and often get mixed up, which can cause access issues for those with service animals. Beyond this however, I think the book was a wonderful world to dive into, and I hope someday to see reality come closer to Gene’s (and Luis’s) story.

Thank you to NetGalley and the Random House Publishing Group for this eARC in exchange for my honest review

I knew I was going to love this book just from reading the description, but I was not ready for how much I would LOVE Gene and Luis! Or minor league baseball! Who even am I (not a sports girly, and yet, I want an Ionescu jersey now 🥺)?!

This is a sports romance, yes, but it is a book championing queer/trans joy, and wow, does it deliver! I cried tears of joy for these characters, I laughed out loud, and I swooned at the absolute perfection that is the connection between Gene and Luis.

I will not recover from this beautiful, beautiful book, and now I’m looking forward to listening to it on audio!

Five giant stars! 5⭐️

Thank you to NetGalley for the arc in exchange for my honest opinions.

After finishing The Prospects, I was shocked to find out that KT Hoffman is a debut author. We follow Gene, the first trans man playing professional baseball in the minor leagues, and his determination to get his team to the playoffs. He’s suddenly confronted by his former college teammate, Luis Estrada after he’s traded to the Beavers. As they stumble through learning how to play with each other again, Luis begins to become more vulnerable with Gene and we witness a spirited relationship. KT has a very digestible writing style and approaches baseball information at a base level, which makes it very approachable. I would definitely recommend this story to anyone and I’m looking forward to KT’s future works. He crafted a beautiful and celebratory queer baseball romance.

Thank you to Dial Press Publishing and NetGalley for a copy of the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Prospects is a charming and delightful story that I loved every minute of! Full of nuanced characters, big dreams, and plenty of queer joy, this book is an absolute delight that I firmly recommend!

KT Hoffman's The Prospects walks a fine line between the unlikely and the chance of Good Things Happening, and nails it perfectly. The love affair between a transman AAA baseball player and his long time nemesis - and the paths they take to success - is not so removed from the present day that there are no obstacles in their way, but the world is open enough that hard work can lead to Good Things. The characters feel thoroughly believable, and you can't help rooting for them!

✨ Review ✨ The Prospects by KT Hoffman; Narrated by Shaan Dasani

Thanks to Dial Press Trade Paperback, PRHA Audio and #netgalley for the gifted advanced copy/ies of this book!

An emotionally-charged debut from KT Hoffman with AAA baseball players Gene and Luis. Gene's been out as a trans man since college and is the first rising through the minor leagues. Luis, who got drafted and left their Stanford team without even saying goodbye, appears back on the Beaverton Beavers alongside Gene and they need to come to term with the way they left off in the past.

What follows is a tender, emotional sports romance where Gene and Luis rise up to play better because they're playing together. The book grapples with a range of queer and trans identities and how the characters connect with each other through and around and because of these identities.

It's also a story of hope and possibility where trans players can achieve new things but also considers the pressure of being "the first." I also loved the inclusion of things like ADHD, anxiety, and panic attacks in the story.

The audio narration by Dasani really makes this book, bringing us the story through Gene's perspective in a really impactful way.

I loved so much about this book and can't wait for what Hoffman brings next! (Note: this pairs well with Cat Sebastian's new baseball romance You Should Be So Lucky).

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 (4.5)
Genre: m/m contemporary romance w/ trans rep
Length: 11 hrs and 35 mins
Setting: Beaverton, Oregon
Reminds me of: Cat Sebastian's You Should Be So Lucky
Pub Date: April 9, 2024

Read this if you like:
⭕️ baseball romances
⭕️ trans and queer characters
⭕️ mental health representation
⭕️ bagels and playlists

I received a review copy from NetGalley

So I'm DNFing at 22%. Not because the story is bad, or the romance won't be like super cute eventually when it gets there, but because I'm not vibing. I really thought I was going to enjoy this a lot more than I am and maybe one day I'll go back to it, but for now it's just not my jam. I like Gene, but I'm struggling with Luis being the romantic interest. I don't find there to be the chemistry outside of teammates.

I do think that there is an audience to love this story though. Especially baseball fans. I think they'll really enjoy this romance.

This was sweet and hopeful! A cute queer+trans sports romance! An easy read! If you're looking for these things, you should read this!

The romance part of the relationship between Gene (Nes) and Luis (Nada) was lovely and nice to read, but I wish there had been more tension and development in their rapport before they get together, because it didn't really feel like they were rivals as much as they were two teammates who didn't communicate well and then learned to communicate well. Overall, I think I wanted there to be more dramatic tension and character development in the book because I wanted to be more invested in the stakes, especially in a sports-focused story. I had a breezy time reading it, but I wanted to like it more than I did!

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for the e-ARC!