There is one word that comes to mind when I think of The Prospects: joyous! Gene Ionescu is the first openly trans player on his minor league team, the Beaverton Beavers of Oregon. He's looking positively on the new season until his former, estranged teammate, Luis Estrada, is traded into the beavers. Their rivalry simmers, becoming a passionate love affair, but expectations weigh on them as they learn to balance career and romance. Featuring a delightful supporting cast and baseball play-by-plays, this love story is written for the underdogs and the people who love them.

This was a cute queer romance. The representation here of various queer identities (particularly, but not exclusively the trans main character) is pretty special, and as someone who has been blessed by the presence of many Romanians in my life, I loved the Romanian representation too. I also grew up going to PCL baseball games so I have a soft spot for MiLB stories too. All this said, this didn't quite work for me as well as I'd have liked. Gene and Luis came across more like friends than love interests to me so, while I found it easy to root for them as individuals, I struggled to care for them as a couple. And, as we know a baseball season is long, this too felt long to me, with a big 'mushy middle' problem.

A slightly guarded but positive review will be posted this week.

The way this book has been all over my socials and thus made me have a massive FOMO moment, and I finally read it. Let me just say this: as a person who has been reading more sports romances this year, this one is one of the best. We have 2 characters who were childhood friends and meet back up later in life on the same team. Gene is trans and he is the purest man ever. The chemistry between him and Luis is on fire 🔥. And the intimacy they share is absolutely the most special thing I’ve ever read. We need more books that take this intimacy for transgender people because the stigma is already so high towards them and their gender so the intimacy is never really in question and the way KT Hoffman explores that and how imperfect but beautiful sex can be with someone you love is my favorite thing.

*thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy in exchange for an honest review*

I LOVED this. I knew going in I’d enjoy it because I love queer sports romances, and add trans rep?? You have me sold. This was everything I hoped it to be. I cried. I laughed. I squealed. This is most likely going to be my favourite romance of the YEAR

Just in time for baseball season, an LGBTQIA+ romance to fire you up!

Author K.T. Hoffman's The Prospects is a slow-burn romance with a true-to-details inside look at minor league baseball, featuring transgender baseball player Gene Ionescu blazing a trail as the shortstop of the Beaverton Beavers (<i>no, not kidding, that's the team name LOL</i>). That is, until top prospect Luis Estrada is traded to the Beavers, taking over Gene's position -- and his heart. I loved how realistic Hoffman portrayed life as a ballplayer, from what players do at the stadium before/after games to the stress of being traded or the dream of called up to the majors. This one takes some time before the chemistry starts to fire up the pages, but Gene and Luis are adorable together and the heavy drama one might expect from an LGBTQIA+ sports romance is relatively minor, making this a nice, light weekend read. If you're looking for a smooth ride that doesn't play with your emotions too much, Hoffman's The Prospects if for you!

**Thank you, NetGalley and publishers, for a DRC in exchange for an honest review.**

Thank you to Dial Press and NetGalley for the eArc of <i>The Prospects</i>. All opinions are my own.

When I say I am not a sports gay, I really mean it—I don't watch much sportsball (not even women's basketball! I know!), but baseball? Baseball is something that I've grown to love over the years, mostly because my son plays and my grandfathers both loved the game. Somehow, though, I've found myself enjoying several sports gays books about all sorts of balls: soccer, hockey (yeah, yeah, I know they use pucks, just go with it), and now, happily, baseball! <i>The Prospects</i> encapsulates everything we love about sports: the eternal hope of a win. In baseball, with its long seasons and storied teams and entrenched system and tradition of calling up players from minor to major leagues, this hope is an important part of the game. The plucky lead of <i>The Prospects</i>, Gene Ionescu, oozes that hope. And his hope has paid off. He's a trans man playing professional baseball in the starting lineup for his beloved minor league tea m Beaverton Beavers; he has a supportive family and team; and he has a coach who, for the most part, gets him. But then, as we all know how the rom-com trope happily goes, someone has to come and mess it all up and show us that maybe, just maybe, Gene has some growing to do, not just as a player, but as a human, too. Thanks to his sort-of on-field nemesis Luis Estrada, Gene learns how to be humble, how to work even harder than he thought possible and, most importantly, he learns that he deserves to want—and expect—great things for himself.

<i>The Prospects</i> is the perfect book for baseball season or as a fun summer read. Hoffman lovingly describes the best aspects of the game, so much so that I truly found myself out there on the field with the Beavers. He also shows trans love and bodies and sex in the most tender, respectful, and loving way possible. Go root, root, root for the home team and read <i>The Prospects</i>!

This is a great read which is an LGBTQ sports romance that follows Gene who has a former teammate rival, Luis, but there’s tension between them and chemistry is brewing. I haven’t read a LGBTQ+ sports romance book and was excited to find out this was releasing. Hoffman is a fantastic writer and I liked how much sport was involved in this book. The overall storyline was good and exactly what was promised but I do have to say there weren’t any big conflicts. This story is only told from Gene’s pov but I really wanted Luis’s perspective as that would have been amazing.

Gene is the MC of this story and I really enjoyed his story. He’s a trans man and his story is written so well. He had a great character development and you can tell the author really devoted themselves in their MC. There were many side characters, the main one being Luis of course but there were so many others that were amazing. The romance is enemies to lovers and sports romance which was well done as the chemistry was well done. There were steamy scenes that were in this book.

The ending was well done and overall this was a great story. I really enjoyed this story and thought it was well done. I do wish there were more conflicts in the story to keep it entertaining but the romance was still great. Overall, I recommend checking this book because you won’t be disappointed.

*this arc was sent to me by the publisher to give an honest review in return*

I adored this book, it was the perfect spring time pub to kick off baseball season with dreams of a more inclusive sport! If you are a fan of sports romance and the little guy getting his big break, this will be the perfect book for you! I loved Gene & Luis so much as they both had good depth in their backstories. Gene was a great representative of how hard it is to be a male trans athlete in the professional scope and Luis & Vince were on both sides of a career as closeted gay men and how that affects your career in sports.

The mental health rep was done with a lot of care and I felt like the author really related to Luis & Gene and how anxiety manifested for both of them.

Heat Factor: Once they get together, they enjoy each other frequently, but it’s not thoroughly descriptive.

Character Chemistry: I want what I can’t haaaaaaaaave.

Plot: Gene’s best friend is going to retire, and all he wants to do is make sure that their team makes it to the playoffs first. Then his college friend who ghosted him after being drafted gets traded to their team. Then he starts wanting things he never dared to let himself want before.

Overall: If you like K.D. Casey’s baseball romances, you’ll like this book. I certainly enjoyed it.

The short story here is: if you like character-driven stories of personal growth and change, especially featuring people who are often underrepresented in romance, this is that. Gene is the sole POV character, and the narrative is written in 3rd person present. (I once saw K.D. Casey commenting (after getting some hate for it) that baseball is reported (called? IDEK) in the present tense, so it felt like writing baseball romance in present tense was the way to go. Which makes that choice a little more interesting than I’d find it in a non-baseball romance.) We follow Gene through his season as it goes from normal to horrible (he and his former friend need to resolve some things before the on-field dynamics improve), to amazing (nobody expected the token trans baseball player ever to be taken seriously by the MLB), to… Well, you know how a romance goes.

I’d like to note that I really enjoyed reading this book; I wasn’t constantly glued to it, and I didn’t Bad Decisions Book Club it, but I didn’t get bored and always wanted to know what was going to happen next (in a variety of directions—Gene might be the POV character, but there are a lot of people in his life who have stuff going on). That said, here are some things that might help prospective readers:

This book is marketed as “A joyful, heartfelt debut rom-com revealing what’s possible when we allow ourselves to want something enough to swing for the fences.” While I can agree that the entire story is rooted in the joy of accepting oneself for oneself and chasing one’s dreams, I cannot agree that this book is in any way a comedy. It’s simply not funny or even absurd (not a drag, just honestly not written with an eye to humor). While there are playful and joyful moments, it’s also pretty angsty in several ways. Gene doesn’t let himself want (most) things (including, to a reasonably large extent, Luis). Luis has debilitating anxiety and a panic disorder and spends most of the book really struggling. Gene’s best friend is mourning the end of his career and ends up in a fight with Gene for, like, half the book. Joyful, yes. Heartfelt, yes. Not a rom-com.

The book starts as a kind of enemies to lovers based on the whole Luis Ghosted Gene After Getting Drafted situation, but Gene has that “aha!” moment that makes Luis more sympathetic pretty early. Like, at the 16% mark. Then the Crush From Before changes from resentment back into a crush and a will-they-won’t-they until about 50%. Normally if an enemies to lovers resolves that fast, I get annoyed and bored because bye bye conflict, but there are still issues related to their having a relationship at all, and there was enough background tension happening that, while it would have been nice to extend that initial tension a bit more, it probably would have gotten repetitive, and not having it didn’t actually detract from the narrative.

Gene and Luis don’t address Luis’s ghosting for a loooooooooong time. Long time. It felt a little strange that they didn’t have even a brief conversation about it before entering an exclusive relationship considering how much Gene dwelt on it before that 16% mark, but Gene is Jewish, and I have read comments from Jewish authors discussing how the Jewish cultural approach to conflict resolution, atonement, and forgiveness is not what people from Christian backgrounds often expect, so I chalked it up to that.

Gene is unlike any trans character I have read thus far, and while I have not read so much trans romance that I feel I can make sweeping statements, I have read a fair amount, so I thought this was worth a note. Gene refers to his genitals using the words “clit” and “pussy” (and the like). We never know his deadname, but he notes when he has to fly that he never legally changed his name, and he’s not upset about using it in that context (though he does note it’s a bit awkward going through security). He is completely unbothered to see photos of himself before his transition because that was part of his life, too. This low level of trauma/dysphoria/body dysmorphia in all these different places wasn’t something I’d seen before, and an inclusion of different experiences of being trans in the literature to account for a variety of lived experiences is a good thing.

In the realm of “I have an ARC, so is this going to be changed or not?”: The text messages (which are not abundant, but are definitely enough for this quibble to be relevant) are not removed from the rest of the text in any clear way. Not even like dialogue with no quotation marks but on a new line. Like. No differentiation at all. Thanks, I hate it. It’s unclear until you’re halfway through the sentence and makes the reading harder. But fingers crossed it got changed in the final version for all y’all.
Overall, I found this book engaging and uplifting. The moment that resonated the most with me, that summed up both the struggle Gene needed to overcome and also a very human struggle, that clinched the “yes!” of this book for me, was:

"And maybe this is what it feels like—to let yourself be unremarkable, and to try your best anyway."

And while Gene is in no way truly unremarkable—he’s the first out professional trans baseball player, and he’s a professional baseball player—he still gets to have these human feelings of inadequacy just like the rest of us because he secretly wants to be on a MLB roster, and that might never happen for him. (Or might it? I guess you’ll have to read to find out!) So, this is a sweet romance that creates so much space for people to be who they are and to want what they want, and I’m going to have to recommend that y’all read it.

I voluntarily read and reviewed a complimentary copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. We disclose this in accordance with 16 CFR §255.

I do love a baseball romance written by someone who clearly knows and loves baseball, so I was on board with The Prospects as soon as I read this line: “…baseball rewards the patient, the crafty, and, most of all, the optimistic.”

Our hero, Gene, is a trans man playing pro baseball, which makes him the optimist to beat all optimists except for his creator, KT Hoffman, who’s given us a pro baseball team whose captain is gay and whose shortstop is Gene. I’m not complaining! This is a better world than ours. There’s plenty of transphobia in Gene’s world, but he stays off Twitter so it’s mostly background noise—except, of course, for how although Gene’s a brilliant player he has no real hope of making it into the majors.

I won’t recap the whole plot; let’s just say that even angsty romance is ultimately a feel-good genre, and both Gene and his love interest, Luis, resolve their professional and emotional issues in the best ways possible.

I’m dinging a star because the reasons for the 80% breakup could just as well — and maybe more easily!—have been resolved if Luis and Gene had worked on them together, and because the epilogue falls into the usual epilogue trap of tying up everything neatly with a bow. An ending needn’t be perfect to be perfectly happy.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Sports, & spice, & everything nice?! I loved this queer little romance! It was surprisingly touching and I laughed more than I've laughed at any book ever. It was well rounded with sentimental moments meeting the spice and rounding off with wholesome again. I want to live in this hopeful world where you get to want things, seemingly impossible things, and you get them. So much love for Ness & Nada.

Teammates to lovers remains the best trope in the sports romance world. There just is no better excuse for forced proximity and lusting than when they are teammates!! ESP in a baseball romance. THE BUTT SLAPS?! I mean it's built in. The trans gay rep was beautifully done. The consent and respect had my heart squeezing. Just so much love in this book.

I'm so bummed because I really thought this was going to be a five star read for me, but I simply cannot ignore the third person POV. It made this book really difficult for me to get through. Truly drove me insane. I CONSTANTLY felt like I was being taken out of the story.

What to expect in this book:
- trans gay rep
- adhd rep
- main characters are Jewish Romanian American trans gay & Mexican American gay
- teammates to lovers
- rivals (kinda) to lovers
- baseball romance
- found family
- open door scenes

CW: sexually explicit content, anxiety, transphobia, panic attacks, homophobia, misogyny

5 STARS!!!

"The Prospects" by KT Hoffman is one of the best books of the year! It's a trans sports romance with fantastic characters, incredible dialogue, witty banter, and terrific commentary on found family, finding your place, representation, and being yourself. Gene and Luis will have my whole heart for years to come. God, did I love this book. It is immensely joyful and hopeful, wholly engaging, and properly cares for and cultivates its characters and subject matter. I am not a baseball fan but Hoffman's marvelous writing made me care about it and get immersed in it. I enjoyed every single part of this book. Heck, I even liked the third-act break-up! it made me laugh, it made me yearn, it made me pine, it made me cry, it made me believe in the healing power of love. I am typically not a fan of "second chance"-adjacent stories, but this one managed to be so tender, so special, that it was right up my alley. I am so shocked that this is Hoffman's debut novel because it seems like something a seasoned veteran writer would create. I cannot wait to see what else is up Hoffman's sleeve because he is an incredible talent! This is a must-read queer story that I hope will be discovered by readers for years and decades to come. Simply moving, wonderful work here.

Thank you to NetGalley, KT Hoffman, Random House Publishing Grup, and Dial Press Trade Paperback for the complimentary ARC of this book. All opinions are my own. I was not compensated for this review.

Gene Ionescu is the first openly transgender and gay player in minor league baseball. He loves his team, the Beaverton Beavers, and his career - until his former college teammate turned rival Luis Estrada is traded to the Beavers. They have to re-learn how to work together on the field and how to navigate their now-awkward relationship.

This book was really just so sweet and hopeful. I loved Gene and Luis together, and I felt like the progression of their relationship was very realistic and it was nice seeing them gradually open up to each other with every conversation. I was also really appreciative that the typical 3/4 breakup made sense with their character arcs and wasn’t just forced miscommunication (like so many other romance novels I read…).

I couldn’t care less about sports, and I have never read a sports romance before. This book did the impossible and made me care a little about baseball! I was really rooting for the team and felt every win and loss alongside them.

Now as you can guess, one of my issues is… I know nothing about baseball. I had to let my mind kind of skip over any technical terms or concepts (I don’t know what a keystone is and I probably never will). But also I guess I shouldn’t expect sports romances to have to explain the sport to me, so that may be just my bad! I also wish there had been a little more depth or exploration of some of the emotional issues.

Overall, this was a lovely debut, and I'm looking forward to reading whatever KT Hoffman writes next. It’s also always fun to read a book set where you live! There’s no real-life Beaverton Beavers, so I guess I’ll have to catch a Hillsboro Hops or Portland Pickles game sometime. 😄

Thank you to Dial Press and NetGalley for providing me with the ARC!

Thank you for the opportunity to read this book early. I'm not the biggest sports fan but this was fun.

I requested the ARC of this book because once I saw the premise, I just couldn’t wait. And it did not disappoint. Like at all.

I still could not tell you what half the baseball stuff in this mean, but this is definitely one of my favorite romance books of all time, one of my favorite BOOKS of all time, period. I love these characters (from Vince to Baker [Baker on a good day]), I loved changing and realizing with them. I related so much to Gene—as in, quite directly related to multiple aspects of his journey. And then Luis and Gene’s communication, the grace they gave each other beyond it…was comfort. Somewhere in this book I had a quasi-epiphany. I understood this was how relationships and sex and romance and love actually worked. It was supposed to be comfortable, all of it. Natural and normal and comfortable, and it’s actually hilarious that of course it was a queer, trans romance that bumped up my belief in love by like 50 notches.

Oh, and needless to say, I was laughing out loud, a completely normal amount of non-irritating laughter, mind you—dialogue and jokes and personalities flowed so naturally in this book. Like, there are romances I read where I’m aware it’s fiction, but I go along for the ride. Doesn’t apply here, obviously, ‘cause all these people are real. Yes, they’re in the room with me.

This is simply one of the most hopeful and heartwarming and LOVELY books I have read in a long time. Gene and Luis deserve every good thing and I love them endlessly.

I am so glad that this book exists and that I got to read it. KT’s words mean so much to me and stories of trans joy are needed now more than ever.

I LOVED it and cannot believe it was a debut! I look forward to reading more of KT’s work in the future.

Trans people!!! In sports!!! Being all cool and shit!!!

We have a cute found family and the couple is also amazing together. I'm not that interested in the specifics of sports in general, but it was clear in this book that the author has a deep love for baseball and that was amazing to read.

The only problem I had with it was the pacing, I think. The story happens in the spans of a several months (seven, if I remember correctly), and while the time passes quickly, the story is still pretty slow, which in the end makes sense because it needed to show the entire game season. But because of that, sometimes the book felt a bit too long, and the fact that it skipped time to be able to show the whole sport season meant that some conflicts (like the fight between Gene and Vince) went on for months without the people involved talking to each other, which didn't really make much sense to me.

Actual rating: 4.75 stars

I really enjoyed this book - it was the equivalent of a warm hug. Luis and Gene were amazing - so well developed and so human. I loved the representation, especially seeing how that was handled in a semi-professional sports environment. I absolutely recommend this if you love sports romance, and if you want that with queer representation.

Thank you to The Dial Press and NetGalley for an advanced e-copy of this book in exchange for an honest and unbiased review!

This book made me give a flying crap about baseball (which is saying something). It is also deeply moving, beautiful, and a wonderful depiction of trans joy. It is easily the best romance I have read so far in 2024 and I just want to press it into the hands of every human I know so that they can read it too.

It feels difficult to put into words how wonderful this story is. I love it when any story has strong secondary characters whom I can root for right alongside our MCs, and this one has that in spades. I’d gladly read sequels and/or prequels about any member of this team. And as someone who does not watch/follow/participate in any way of any sporting endeavor: you don’t need to in order to enjoy this story. It is clear the Hoffman LOVES baseball, and watching someone passionate about something write about that something is delightful. There are very few times where vernacular made me stumble through the text and not *fully* understand what was happening in a scene, but obviously: this did not hinder my enjoyment or final rating of the book as a whole.

I have the wonderful added benefit of living in the same city where this minor league team is from, so the landmarks and little Easter Eggs for locals was just the cherry on top of this delicious story sundae.