I've been in a bit of a reading slump for the past few months and it turns out KT Hoffman's The Prospects was just what I needed to break out of it!

I'm giving this one a 4.5/5 stars, but for the sake of NetGalley and Goodreads, I'm rounding up to 5 stars, which I almost never do. Despite not knowing a thing about baseball, I fell completely in love with the world & the characters of this book!

Gene is the first openly trans professional baseball player in the country. Luis was a college teammate of his who has now been traded onto his team. And of course they've both been harboring massive crushes on each other for years! Need I say more??

Hoffman deftly handles the characters' neurodivergency, as well. I found Luis anxiety-fueled spiralling super relatable.

The format of the baseball season also helps to orient the reader in time and gives additional stakes to the story. The romance & the hope that the Beaverton Beavers would win the series made it nearly impossible for me to put the book down! Can't recommend this book enough!

Thanks to Random House and NetGalley for the ARC!

I don’t know which main character I love more. The indomitable Gene Ionescu or the steadfast Luis Estrada. The Prospects by KT Hoffman is a delightful mix of pining, enviable friendships, and baseball love. I loved watching Gene move through a season that had all of the ups and downs one can expect in any athletic endeavor. But for me, the best part, was how Gene navigated the challenges with grace, charm, and a bit of humor. Add this one to the TBR - it deserves all the love.

I loved this book! The inclusive world of baseball Hoffman created in this book was so hopeful and positive. I loved how much real baseball knowledge was included as well. Great much-needed representation for queer and trans athletes. The steaminess was also top notch. I’m usually not a romance reader but I really enjoyed this one!

Gene is an out, trans man in a minor league baseball club. He’s accepted there, with a gay older player who basically took him under his wing. His high school crush, Luis Estrada, gets traded to the team and it gets interesting - especially when Luis takes Gene’s position.

I think I really liked the idea of this one more than execution. There were some parts that just felt overly long and repetitive, but I did like the intermingling of Twitter commentary and commentary from sports announcers. It gave a little bit of variety in the chapters. Third person can be hard. But it was a sweet romance and nice to see quite a bit if rep here.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The actual joy and happiness this book brought me was unreal. I found my self laughing out loud on multiple occasions, crying, and having to set it down just take in different parts of the story. The characters felt well rounded and really relatable. I often hate romcoms because of how hard it is to understand the reasoning behind the third act break up and it often seems like an excuse to just make the book longer. This book executed it better than most others I have read. It felt real and painful but most importantly understandable. All round this was just such a fun read and something I would highly recommend.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest, spoiler-free review!

Themes: Sports, Chasing Dreams
Representation: Gay and Trans MC, Gay and Puerto Rican LI, Gay SCs, Lesbian SC, Mental Health
Content Warnings: Slight homophobia and transphobia

PERSONAL COMMENTS
So… it’s been a busy couple of weeks for me and even though I finished this book on September 24th, I haven’t been able to review it until today, October 13th, more than two weeks later!

Anyway, I won’t rant about IB in this book review. And even though it’s been a while, I could still remember how I felt while reading this book even if I might not remember all the nitty gritty details. And I felt pretty warm while reading this book. It’s a hopeful and generally lighthearted read. Like baseball with a Trans and Gay MC? Count me in!

Although, I would say that personally, this book did feel a bit long to me…. But overall, pretty enjoyable!

CHARACTERS
I think the author did an amazing job with the characters. Gene, I felt, was written pretty lovingly. And I could tell that KT Hoffman poured his soul into Gene while writing this. I think he mentioned that he used some of his experiences as a trans man to write Gene’s character. But apart from the great representation, Gene is also a loveable person. He is passionate and really cares about his friends and those he loves. And he grows and follows his dreams throughout the book!

As for Louis, I also loved him as well. I wished I got to know a bit more about him during some parts while reading this book. Especially his backstory and whatever happened with him and Gene in the past when they were “former teammates.” But yeah, overall, a great character. A loving and caring guy. And his mental health is also well-represented.

Oh, and by the way, if smut is something you care about, then this book is for you. There are lots of intense moments between Gene and Luis.

Finally, I also really liked the side characters. I loved Gene’s friendship with Vince and how badass Baker is!

PLOT
The plot of the book did its job, that’s all I have to say about it. There wasn’t anything particularly special about it, but it managed to keep me interested in the story. To be fair, I don’t recall anything specific about the plot other than the sweet sweet sweet and happy ending of the book.

OTHER
For formatting a POV, the book is told in the third person present tense. It is told from one perspective. If you prefer reading romance books told in the first person with dual perspectives, then this might be hard for you to get into. However, if you read a lot of fanfiction or don’t mind the third person, then you’ll find it easier to get into the book.

Anyhow, another cool thing that the author does with the book is that he includes a bunch of extras at the end of the book. I won’t tell you what the extras are but they make this book 1000x better!

RATINGS
Personal Rating: 4/5
Characters: 4.8/5
Plot: 4/5
Formatting: 5/5
Final Rating: 4.5/5 (round to 5 stars)

I learned while reading this book that baseball can be made enjoyable when paired with queer joy, trans joy & two idiot boys learning how to have a little hope, who knew.

An incredible debut novel that had me actively rooting for men with bats who run in circles all day.

The found family, discussion of identity and dreams really was an superb and I cannot wait to read what Hoffman comes up with next.

"He doesn't fully believe yet that a life this big is available to him. But he knows, now, that it's out there. That this feeling exists, and he is capable of feeling it."

I'm not sure that I have adequate words to review this book. But alas, I will try.

THE PROSPECTS is a story about Gene (Nes) and Luis (Nada) who reconnect and ultimately fall in love when Luis is traded to the Beaverton Beavers. But more than that, it's a story of queer hope, of trans joy, and the permission to want. And BASEBALL!

Hoffman gives us a beautiful, tender, and significantly important story, with masterful writing and characters with engaging depth. Also, it's sexy and smartly hilarious. I adored this book.

Read for:

-life-ruining qualities of dimples
-"that's exactly what a person who has a crush on a muppet would say."
-separating out the Sour Patch kids (as a love language)
-reveling in another's noise and joy and differences
-diabolical eyelashes and crooked smiles
-midnight trips to Denny's
-units of flirtation
-caring enough to notice
-world class mutual pining
-alphabet roasts
-finding your people
-"just stupid enough to be sexy"
-an identity that YOU choose, whatever it looks like
-hope as a favorite, familiar feeling
-the joy of being included and remembered
-little gay rebellions
-SOFTNESS
-giving in to wanting, to dreaming
-bodies we've chosen to love
-"Let yourself be happy. ... Let yourself be special."
-being completely, face-split-in-two happy

I really want everyone to know about this book, and love it as much as I do. Thank you so much for this, KT.

A thank you to Dial Press and NetGalley for the e-ARC in exchange for my honest, unbiased review. THE PROSPECTS is out 4/9/24.

Okay so I am definitely obsessed with this book I finished it last night and I can’t stop thinking about it. The representation in it is phenomenal! The characters are so freaking lovable! I just want to keep reading this book and have it never end! This was such an amazing story and I’m so glad I got the opportunity to read it. I am definitely going to be watching this author and reading anything else he writes.

I'm not quite sure how to write a coherent review because I loved this book so much. From start to finish, this is an absolute joy to read and is full of genuine hope, optimism, and a true love of baseball. (Basically, this was a perfect book to read during the postseason).

The Prospects follows Gene, the first openly transgender player in the minor leagues, and his past and present teammate Luis. They are reunited on the Beaverton Beavers and slowly figure out how to both work together on the field and repair their past friendship. In terms of the tropes, I feel like it's kind of a second chance and an enemies-to-friends-to-lovers romance all rolled into one? Whatever it is, is great. I loved both characters and the respective journeys they took throughout the baseball season covered in the book. The plot genuinely surprised me and was well structured in a way that provided realistic relationship tension. I fully happy cried through the entire end and was so sad to say goodbye to both MCs as well as the great side characters.

Can't recommend this one enough! Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I absolutely loved this book! The representation of not only queer and LGBTQ+ but also of mental health made me fall in love with the characters even more through the book. At times the story did go a bit slow but I think it did help in the long run to help the plot and the dynamic of the characters.

I received an ARC through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. 4.5/5 stars. Really really cute and well-written. Everything I wanted it to be. A little predictable in the way romance novels are. I liked the characters and thought everything baseball was well-explained, so even if you’re not a sports person, don’t let it deter you from picking this up. Definitely an optimistic view of how the baseball/sports world would handle an openly trans player, which I’m not mad about, but some people might find too unrealistic. As a transmasculine person, I thought the MC was really well done and while the book wasn’t at all about him being trans, I thought the places where his transness and the way he navigates it were brought up felt natural and true to the transmasc experience. I’ll definitely be picking up anything this author writes next and adding this book to my shelves when it comes out in hard copy.

Things I loved:: Sports! Queerness! Mental health normalization! Enemies to Lovers! Lovable characters! Ties to Oregon!

All shouting aside, this book was incredibly sweet. Luis and Gene are such lovable and relatable characters I never wanted to put the book down. KT creates a world that pulls you in and keeps you there—continually cheering on all of the characters. Coming out can be such a traumatic experience for queer and trans folks and it’s really nice to read a book that addresses the stress of it but the outcome isn’t traumatizing; that it holds an important place in the character’s lives and story line but isn’t the whole point of the book.

I also really enjoyed the layout of the book chapters with the month+the team’s wins-losses as a way to mark time.

I can’t wait to see what KT comes up with next—I’ll be sure to read it! I adored this book! I even made the bagels at the end of the book and they turned out great! 😍

This was a sloid romance with great character depth. Not to mention it was actually funny. More stories like this please!

Overall, I loved the idea but the execution didn’t quite work for me. I loved Baker, found Gene endearing most of the time and a bit annoying at points, and was neutral on Luis. I think it’s a good book, just not one personally for me. I will give credit for the focus it puts on sports and the actual game of baseball. It just never clicked enough for me to get into it and took me a long time to get through. It's a book that I am glad exists and hope to give it another shot when it's released.

I am loving this new trend of queer romances with transmasc leads, and I was especially excited to see it within the sports romance trend. I've said it before and I'll say it again, but seeing a lead with a similar experience to myself means so much to me, and for that reason, books like these are already getting a higher rating, as I'm able to relate on a deeper level. This book as a whole was quite strong, but it felt like it just needed some tuneups and more detail in a variety of places. I had a really hard time getting invested in the plot and the characters, which really hurt my enjoyment of this book. There were some funny, sweet, and emotional moments to be sure, but on the whole, it lacked immersion for me. I was so excited when I received an ARC for this book. which I think was just an extra kicker when I found myself not enjoying it.
The biggest aspect that hurt my enjoyment was backstory. Gene and Luis' past is mentioned on a number of occasions, and there are a couple of sentences sprinkled in within describing the context and what sort of thing they got up to, but the way it was mentioned and described felt like this was a sequel in a series and we were supposed to already know. I totally respect that when they knew each other previously Gene wasn't out yet and that this separation could be to further solidify that Gene is Gene, but it really hurt the chemistry and relationship I found. A flashback isn't necessary, but I felt as a whole Luis felt like a vague character, not even flat - he had depth to be certain - but it was murky in a way that's hard to describe. I just needed more basically. It's unfortunate as well because I too struggle with panic and anxiety as a whole, so I know if there was more time spent getting to know him I would have related for sure.
My other gripe was the baseball itself. To be upfront, I don't know a thing about baseball other than vague memories of playing a bit in high school. I don't know any terms (it took me way too long to figure out what a dugout was), nor even how the plays work, which is fine, because let's be real I'm not here for the baseball, I'm here for the trans rep and the queer love. That being said, there was so much terminology used rather than descriptors, 90% of the time I had no idea what was happening, or if the plays they were doing were helping or hindering their score. In a sports romance, it makes sense that there's going to be sports-related lingo, but I think there could have been a better happy medium with things that baseball fans would get and also providing more clarity for those folks like myself who don't know the first thing about the sport. Overall, this is a pretty minor thing, but because I already felt like other areas of the book needed more detail, this just compiled with my frustration.

Gosh i love a sports romance. This book was funny, heartwarming, and oh so romantic. I loved these characters and the love they shared! The relationship progressed nicely and I felt so immersed in this story. Such a great novel!

A homer of a book! KT Hoffman really hit this one out of the park. Gene will steal your heart as well as he steals bases, Luis is the perfect catch, and you'll root for both of them throughout all nine innings.

Okay, baseball puns aside, this was a heartwarming, intimate, romantic baseball book with the queer and disability rep we all wish we could see represented more often in major sports. There was so much heart that the author put into this story and I really enjoyed it.

My only critique is I think it needs a good edit. There were so many run-on sentences that made it tiring to read (please delete 90% of those em-dashes and commas, readers need to breathe!). But still pretty decent for a debut novel and I'm just endlessly excited for a mainstream queer baseball book.

This book was an absolute delight. Truly amazing. The LGBTQIA+ rep in this was so well written and just very true to the core. While I would've LOVED this even more if it was dual POV, this book didn't leave me feeling like I missed out on something. FINALLY a fucking trans MC, FINAAAALLY. AND it's done right, it's just *chef's kiss*

I finished Cleat Cute before this and it gave me the same vibes. This was just an amazing read and I plan on recommending it to everyone who'll listen.

THIS BOOK IS SO GOOD. MY FAVORITE BOOK OF THE YEAR! CMQ’S BLURB IS ABSOLUTELY CORRECT. The writing was so fresh, so smart, so craft-oriented.