Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I thought it was a cute, fun, wholesome high school romance. I enjoyed the character development of the two main characters, ivy and june. They both had to deal with their parents expectations of going to college and with the college application cycle. I found the characters to be loveable and loved watching their growth!

This was a very sweet, sapphic, sports romcom. I thought the characters were well developed and their actions made sense for people their age. Sure they didn’t always make the best decisions and everything seemed like the end of the world but… they were teenagers and that’s how things feel at that age.
I also thought that the conflict fit with the story, it wasn’t too high or too low stakes but felt like just the right amount of tension and was wrapped up really nicely.
I’m always an advocate for more queer YA books so this has a special place in my heart.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin for the ARC!!

Overall, while I didn't initially connect with this book due to its YA genre, I found myself pleasantly surprised by its charm and depth. "Playing for Keeps" by Jennifer Dugan delivers a heartfelt sapphic romance set against the backdrop of High school sports, featuring June, a star pitcher, and Ivy, a determined student umpire. Despite my reservations about the genre, I couldn't help but appreciate the intricate dynamics between the characters and their self-discovery.

Jennifer Dugan's skillful storytelling and relatable characters make this a delightful read, even for those who may not typically gravitate towards YA romance.

Sports romances are actually not my usual MO, however this was so cute and fun! I enjoyed it a lot! I also just especially liked that it was a queer romance. Very well done!

Playing for Keeps was a fun way to kick off Women's History Month. This was a super unique sports romance as it challenges a lot of stereotypes within the athletic industry. Baseball player June and umpire Ivy find their developing feelings for one another in a battle against the club leagues no fraternization policy between players and officials. As an adult reading this, I can imagine the positive impact a story like this could make on girls who have aspirations of working in the sports field or playing a historically male only sport. I think it was also really positive to see both character's fully confident in their sexuality, and the story with that and their romance staying on the uplifting side of things instead of touching on how being a lesbian or bisexual could create even more challenges in such a male dominated industry.

One thing I wish is that there be some sort of content warning given as loss /grief from cancer is a major component in the storyline (mentioned in each of the character's first chapter) and that is not hinted to or directly mentioned in the book description. Because despite their differences, that unfortunate circumstance is one they are both familiar in. The fear of disappointing her mom who passed away from breast cancer, and in turn her father who is lost in his own grief, is June's main motivator for pushing through her shoulder injury. Meanwhile Ivy is trying to make her parents realize her post high school plan's aren't the same as her older brother who passed away from leukemia and was not able to attend college.

Overall, I found this to be relatively light hearted even with heavier topics being discussed at times. Thank you NetGalley and Penguin young readers group for an ARC of this book!

This YA romance between a pitcher and an umpire is by far my favorite Jennifer Dugan book yet. I didn’t want to put it down and lost sleep binge-reading it. Ivy and June were relatable, compelling, and inspiring, but realistically flawed. I loved that they were both trying to break glass ceilings with their aspirations. The two of them had excellent chemistry, and I was cheering them on to get together from the moment they met. They’re so perfect for each other too, and the losses they experienced early in life made them better able to understand each other’s grief, even though they each processed that grief differently. The reason why their dating was forbidden (ethics violation) also made sense, but I appreciated that Ivy made ever effort to keep from officiating her girlfriend’s games. While I did occasionally get frustrated with June, I bought her choices since she was a teen under an enormous amount of pressure who wasn’t considering the bigger picture. I was happy with the ending.

I’d recommend this to anyone who enjoyed Home Field Advantage by Dahlia Adler, You Don't Have a Shot by Raquel Marie, and She Drives Me Crazy by Kelly Quindlen or Jennifer Dugan’s other YA sapphic romances.

I received an advanced copy from the publisher and am voluntarily leaving this review.

If you're going to get me for something it's definitely going to be queer sport romances. I am obsessed! I've devoured a lot of different sports romances as of late and this one was just so cute and fuzzy I couldn't put it down. I loved reading it - my high school self would have been red as a beet (she wasn't out yet) but it was so so soooo cute. It was definitely cheesy in that cringey sort of I'm-In-Highschool way but it was something much needed after a darker read.

This was my first YA sapphic romance, and I did enjoy it at times! It was sweet, endearing and such a cute dynamic between Ivy and June! I found it to be a little difficult for me to get fully into the story & Ivy and June’s romance at times, but overall I enjoyed my time reading it. I enjoy Jennifer Duggan’s writing style and am happy to have been able to receive an advanced copy! Thank you!

this book was a very quick interesting and great read!! i really liked it!! it was very interesting and i loved the characters

What happens when you fall for the one person you aren't supposed to and realize you have more in common that you ever imagined? Ivy & June are two girls chasing dreams and trying to make it big in their fields while also having suffered some pretty big losses. Watching them fall for each other brought so much joy to my heart, and this is exactly the kind of sapphic romcom I was looking for. I hadn't read anything by Jennifer Dugan before, but as a softball girly, I knew this was right up my alley. I really enjoyed this and couldn't stop smiling and laughing (except during the moments that just grabbed you by the heart but even those were filled with sweetness).

I was worried I wouldn't understand a lot of what was happening due to a lack of knowledge about baseball but I was thankfully so wrong. All you need to know about it forbidden love and how hard it is to be a woman in a man dominated world! This is a great book full of miscommunication&struggles&grief but ends happily ever after! I loved every second of it.

I LOVE queer sports romances and I LOVE Jennifer Dugan so Playing For Keeps was the perfect book for me. The characters felt natural and real. The conflict didn't feel forced like so many others do. I loved getting to experience Ivy and June's relationship and growth as people. All in all, I truly loved this book!

I’ve read Some Girls Do by this author, so I jumped on a chance to read this one as an ARC. The characters are engaging and relatable, as well as the plot is easy and fun to read. Overall, it was just okay for me, but I definitely enjoyed my time reading it.

Okay, I tried, I really tried. But I’m DNFing this around 25%. I think the premise of this book had so much promise but the execution is falling so short for me.

Now I did adore Ivy’s drive and dedication to following her dreams to be an referee/official despite her family’s objections but that’s really the only personality trait it felt like she had. I couldn’t tell you a single other thing about her other than that and maybe that she’s a pretty good friend. June? Yeah her personality is also really underdeveloped, there were times I had to double check whose POV I was in because I couldn’t tell.

Another issue I had was with the dialogue, which is something I’ve complained about with other works by this author. The conversations just jump all over the place and there’s no real flow. They just didn’t make sense and it was so frustrating for me.

I’m still gonna give this book 1.5 stars (rounded to 2) because maybe this is just a me problem. But anyways thanks to Penguin Teen for the sending me a copy of this book.

I had a hard time getting into this one. I love sapphic romances, but find it to be a struggle to have good romances land in my hands. It was cute, but I kept getting lost in the story. I was really more in it for the cute fluffy quotes, but that's not really enough to keep me satisfied, or wanting to read it again.

This a very cute sapphic baseball romance. I liked it because I’m really a sucker for a lesbian romance, but my biggest issue was the fact that both girls sounded exactly the same. Their personalities seemed literally identical, and often times I forgot whose internal monologue I was reading.

I found a few consistency issues, one of the worst ones being that there was one moment when it was supposed to be in one character's perspective, but the sentence implied the opposite. (Seen on page 53/231 23% in "And probably would have if June hadn't invited me to go get wasted and forget instead" But this was supposed to be June's perspective)

I also felt like this book was underdeveloped with a really rushed ending, but this was an ARC so I am interested to see if anything changes when the book officially comes out! Regardless, it is a book worth reading if you love lesbians and/or baseball.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!!

It was very hard for me to get too invested in the fabricated desire for a high school student to be a top notch umpire. So with the stakes being low in that regard, I do enjoy the characters and the depth they have. This is top notch YA, and specifically for that audience I think it's valuable to have interesting descriptions of grief and life. While it wasn't for me, the talent and the style were perfect and made it incredibly readable.

I love a good sports sapphic romance, especially to read a YA romance every now and then and was so excited to get this ARC. Extremely fluffy and cute, extremely predictable, but decent character development for such a quick read. Extremely relatable themes of loss, overachieving and societal expectations. Hoping to see more and more sporty sapphic reads published in the future! Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC of Playing for Keeps. This YA sapphic romance follows Ivy and June, an ump and a player who go from enemies to (kind of forbidden) lovers.

This novel has good commentary on grief, finding your path, and dealing with parental expectations. I’ve been out of high school for….awhile but I still remember feeling the way Ivy does and it is very relatable. The only thing I wasn’t a fan of (and this is purely a personal opinion) is all the popular culture references. Even though they’re mostly current, I felt it made the book feel dated.

This book is really cute. It’s a cuddle, in some way, but there is a lack of emotional deep. It’s like all remains superficial and it’s a pity. The story had the premesis to become a really deep and important novel, but it’s remains a cute story and nothing more. The issues have really little development and the characters are yes well depicted but they doesn’t feel that real.
I really enjoyed the story, I really did. It was fun and cute, I just hoped for a little more.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for the arc.