I received an ARC of this book via Netgalley in April 2024. The book is set to release later this year; however, this honest review is being posted on 04/18/24. Formatting wise, the book seems

3.5/4: Jennifer Dugan's "Playing for Keeps" explores topics including family death/grieving, first love, and women's strife. This enemies to lovers romance is about an aspiring umpire, Ivy, and a female pitcher named June. Though they start off on the wrong foot, they bond over trauma and fall in (and out) of love.

Overall, I feel that Dugan always does a great job or writing realistic characters, which I found June and Ivy to be. This may bother some readers; however, I think Dugan's ability to craft these characters is an important writing tool, especially in the YA genre where kids most likely will not read a book if they cannot relate to the characters, storyline, etc. I think Dugan funadmentally understands her audience and continues to pump out novels with appeal. Again, others may criticize the characters and stop reading because some of their actions, but they are realistic above anything else. A lot of high school seniors act exactly how these two did, but will never receive criticism because they aren't characters in a book. If there is one thing Dugan can do, it's write characters that I grow to completely despise. In "Playing for Keeps," I found myself dislking both June and Ivy's parents, respectively. In some of Dugan's other novels, unlikeable characters have ruined the storyline for me, but the parents in this novel add to the storyline and drive it forward. June also got to an unlikable point for me, but has her redemption right after this feeling peaked. In the end, I did find myself rooting for the romance. If you like to be mildly annoyed by characters, but see them come around and realize/fix their mistakes, this one is for you.

While this is technically a sports romance, I don't think readers need to enjoy baseball, reffing, or soccer to enjoy this novel. There is enough of the game for those interested, but the sports-related scenes are more about the character's inner-monologues and feelings than they are about the sports themselves. I feel like this novel will be hit or miss for some. For me, it hit. If you start reading, I suggest seeing things through and not giving up in the middle of this one.

I am becoming such a big fan of Jennifer Dugans writing, and this book didn’t disappoint! Yes, it’s YA so go in expecting the pov’s form that lense. I think this tackled so many topics well, including grief. I thought it was a lovely story and I would recommend to any YA fan.

sports romance but make it sapphic?!?! IM IN!! i absolutely adored this story so much!! i am so excited to pick up my own copy when it releases!

This book was engaging from the start and tackles issues many teens will relate to. The LGBTQ+ issues are incidental, not the focus of the book. The focus is more on elite sports pressure, parental pressure as teens approach college decisions, deaths in the family and first relationships and the healthy balance of those romantic relationships. These are such important issues for teens to think about and, indeed, have spaces to talk about. IF I worked at the high school level, this would be a book I would use with our kids... and encourage for book club use.

Thank you NetGalley and the publishers for an ARC in return for an honest review!

i really wanted to like this one. the introduction started off well, two girls trying to break the barriers of women’s sports. i loved that!

but as the story progressed, the characters and plot were very frustrating. i have not read a YA book recently, so i feel as though i’m very picky about them. the two main characters had moments that made them very unlikeable, blaming the other or one of them blaming their mother who passed away for their hardships. that left quite a bad taste in my mouth.

along with that, the characters honestly were a little too similar in their povs that i had a hard time keeping track of which pov i was reading. they were almost too alike. the miscommunication was quite insufferable as it was the focal point of the climax of the story. i think a lot of the issues could be easily solved.

the issues june was having with her shoulder and all of the adults continuing to push her honestly felt like child abuse. i was not a fan of that especially her father being the front runner forcing her to play despite knowing she was hurting.

i think a lot of this story needs to be fleshed out with character development and a stronger climax rather than solely miscommunication and angst.

DNF at 38%. I was honestly just bored. Both MCs annoyed me. And there was so much telling instead of showing. I feel like I can already predict the big drama / third act breakup, and I'm just not invested enough in the MCs to want to keep reading.

i really wanted to love this book but this missed the mark a little bit.

i just didn't believe they really liked each other all that much and if they did i didn't think they'd last at all </3 i also think that the only thing that kept them together was their trauma which was handled well but didn't give them the depth that it should. it was fun, but i don't think i'd pick this up again.

This book is so adorable. The way the romance is shown between the two main characters is so accurate for teenagers, and you find yourself rooting for them even as they make the silly mistakes you remember making in high school. The parents are also pretty accurate depictions of teenage-hood. My only complaint is that the book seemed to wrap up too quickly, the parents apologized and the characters got together so fast after the strife they went through. Overall, though, really cute. Really captivating.

A baseball pitcher and an umpire fall for each other despite their differences and the fact that they are forbidden from dating. June is the star pitcher of her club baseball team and she's got the ego to match. She's readily on her way to being recruited at the college level. The only thing stopping her? Her little secret... her shoulder is injured and its only getting worse with every practice and game she plays. Ivy dreams about being an umpire for a soccer team, yet her reffing isn't going to pay for her athletic fees, so when she gets offered a job as a reff for a baseball team she takes the job. When Ivy and June's path's cross during a match, they have a pretty bad start (with June throwing a baseball at Ivy's head after Ivy calls her out, and then Ivy kicks her out of the game). Ivy and June start off as enemies but becoming begrudging friends... something more as they begin falling for each other. It's forbidden for them to be dating but they can't resist... and when a rival discovers their secret relationship and threatens to expose them, things only get more complicated. Can their relationship last or will it cost them everything they've ever worked for? This was an okay read for me. I wanted to like the romance more but I just felt that it was kinda meh and I just didn't really care for either of the characters all that much. The characters just felt a bit underdeveloped and i just wasn't all that attached to the story by the end. I do think that young adult readers will have fun with the sapphic sports romance though so I think you should check it out.

*Thanks Netgalley and PENGUIN GROUP Penguin Young Readers Group | G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

🦇 Playing for Keeps Book Review 🦇

❓ #QOTD Soccer or baseball? ❓

🦇 A baseball pitcher and umpire definitely aren't supposed to fall for each other, right? Especially not when star pitcher June and officiate-to-be Ivy are trying to go pro. Sometimes, life throws you a curveball, though. When Ivy is assigned as an umpire for June's elite club baseball team, they instantly clash on the field, only to find they have something in common: grief. Soon, they become enemies to friends to far more, despite the rules that prohibit them from dating each other. Will romance get in the way of them following their dreams?

💜 On the surface, Playing for Keeps seems like a fun, sweet young adult sapphic romance. The initial set-up gives us sharp, bittersweet enemies to lovers potential between a pitch and an umpire. Seems cute and fluffy, right? No one is that one-dimensional, though. Both Ivy and June are struggling with the loss of a loved one, balancing that on top of unrealistic expectations from their parents and the pressures they put on themselves to succeed. Add in the pressure you get from sports alone and it's enough to make anyone crumble. Ivy and June find happiness in each other, through stolen moments as they date in secret, wary that the conflict of interest between them will tear them apart. There's a potential for them to heal through one another, alongside one another, while learning how to navigate the external forces of loss while growing up.

💜 I loved that both Ivy and June were pursuing career paths that don't often make space for women. I would have liked to see more focus on that, though. It was sweet to see how the male players on the baseball team were quick to support June, but I expected to see more kickback (either from her team or other teams) to show (not tell us) how she struggled and still persevered.

💙 Unfortunately, the story is so rushed, so many scenes time-jumped, emotions mentioned but not illustrated, that you don't FEEL anything while reading this story. With the topic of grief, whether a character is processing it or trying to avoid it, readers should have an easy time sympathizing with the characters. Instead, the grief feels like a plot point, a reason for potential enemies to connect and eventually become more.

💙 Even with little jumps, the story lagged. Dugan has a tendency to pair selfless characters with less reasonable counterparts, which we certainly see between Ivy and June. Given that, it's difficult to root for both girls. Yes, they're both grieving, and yes, they both deserve happiness, but their actions are exhausting and (yes, I know it's YA) juvenile at times. Though the two girls had so much in common, the miscommunication trope constantly tugged them in opposite directions.

🦇 Recommended for fans of Some Girls Do, Home Field Advantage, and Cool for the Summer.

✨ The Vibes ✨
⚾ Enemies to Lovers
⚾ Young Adult Romance
⚾ Sapphic Romance
⚾ Forbidden Love
⚾ Lesbian & Bi FMCs
⚾ Sports Romance
⚾ Grief
⚾ Pressure From Parents
⚾ Miscommunication

🦇 Major thanks to the author and publisher for providing an ARC of this book via Netgalley. 🥰 This does not affect my opinion regarding the book. #PlayingforKeeps

💬 Quotes
❝ Expecting it means I can prepare for it, plan for it, and figure out a way to keep my cool in its face. What I didn’t expect, though, was for there to be an extremely attractive girl throwing balls at about seventy-five billion miles per hour, striking out dumb boys left and right, like some kind of varsity, all-star Black Widow. ❞
❝ There’s a lot of pressure on girls to conform, to become nice women, to do what’s expected. Smile more, whiten your teeth, lose the weight, don’t be too loud or too funny or too much. Make yourself less so the boys can feel like more. Don’t wear spaghetti straps or you might tempt them. Hold yourself accountable for the both of you, so they don’t have to. ❞

*Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an arc copy in exchange for an honest review.*

3.75⭐ rounded up.

The cover of this book is honestly so cute and it was what initially drew me in, but it's not hard to get me on board for a sapphic romance.

There were times where this book was incredibly YA and juvenile and I felt like I was too old to be reading it, but it was still a super fun and fluffy read. I probably wouldn't read this again, but I would recommend it to others looking for a good sapphic read.

I did really like the characters in this book. The two main characters both have a tragic backstory about losing someone they loved and I think it's beautiful that that brought them together.

There were characters in this book that I really did not like (the main characters' parents) because they were toxic and controlling and overall just unwilling to change or listen.

This book could feel kind of heavy at times when the girls and their families are both dealing with grief, but I think it was all a pretty realistic representation of being a teen.

I loved the idea of a baseball player and an ump having a secret, forbidden romance. I don't usually read a lot of sports romance, and this made me think that maybe I should try more.

⚾ Forbidden Romance
⚾ Rivals to Lovers
⚾ Grief representation
⚾ Loss of a parent
⚾ Loss of a sibling
⚾ Ump/Pitcher
⚾ Coming of age
⚾ Sapphic

I will be recommending this book and I am excited to see what else the author has written.

LGBTQ & female in male dominated fields
Good for YA, but lacked character development
would recommend for young teens

If you like other Jennifer Dugan books, you’ll probably like this one too. The plot wasn’t personally my favorite and the characters felt a little underdeveloped at times. By the end, I did like them, but I didn’t feel any attachment to them until I finished the novel. The pacing was just a bit off. But it’s a sweet book with some good lessons.

This was a great YA sports romance. Touched on a lot of important subjects. I connected with Ivy quite a bit, I found it hard to root for June at times. I really enjoyed the baseball aspects of this book and I only slightly like baseball so that’s a good sign 🤣 (Slight spoiler) I had a bit of a problem with Junes dad and a sort of lack of repercussions he had at the end. Overall, I enjoyed this book though and I would recommend it!

Jennifer Dugan hits it out of the ball park with her latest sapphic YA effort. What I thought was a sports romance was in actuality a wonderful treatise on grief and trauma. in other words, the best of intentions can always go sideways. June and Ivy have big dreams, but both are dealing with parental expectations that hang heavy over their hearts and minds. They also have to contend with a sadness that was never addressed in a timely or proper way. Dugan is so able to channel the voice of teenagers that it sometimes overshadows the overall storytelling apparatus. I will forgive her here though since I've never read a book where the MC wants to be a professional umpire of all things. Overwhelming enjoyed.

Thank you to PENGUIN GROUP Penguin Young Readers Group | G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers and NetGalley for providing an eARC for an honest review.

This is the Sapphic baseball YA romance I absolutely needed!

Ivy's loves sports, but her dream is to officiate a pro game. For now, she'll have to settle as an ref/umpire for her local teams. June is a start baseball pitcher with a temper and an increasingly painful shoulder. Even though the two girls don't see eye-to-eye on June's pitching, they bond over their shared loss of loved ones (June's mom and Ivy's brother) and soon find themselves falling for more than sports.

I've really enjoyed everything I've read from Jennifer Dugan, and this is no exception. As a girl who played baseball until I was no longer allowed, I loved that June got to keep playing in high school. I loved all the side stories to this romance like the pressure of living up to expectations and taking care of yourself. The best friends were fantastic, and everything wrapped up really nicely.

Tropes: Forbidden Romance, Enemies to Lovers, Sports Romance, Loss in the Family, Forced Proximity, Miscommunication
CW: sibling death, parent death

This was a story that was cute but had some very serious concepts on dealing with grief and moving on from the death of people that are close to you. June is a pitcher for a baseball team and wants to follow her parents dreams for her- playing baseball in college.
Ivy loves refereeing and wants to be a female ump after she finishes high school. When she gets moved to umping the baseball games at her job, she runs into June. The female pitcher with an attitude problem and a killer arm. When Ivy learns that June uses the umps changing room after games, and starts getting to know her- she notices that her tough exterior is just that- a tough exterior.
June pushes herself because of the dreams that her parents have laid out for her- so much so that she has an injury and has let it get to the point where she can't play without being in pain.
When Ivy invites June to a party after a game, their relationship starts to develop when they both realize that they have lost someone close to them, and are having to determine what they want to do after high school- and if it is really their dream.

Their relationship has miscommunication which I think is understanding- they're in high school and both have trauma that they haven't dealt with. I enjoyed the sports aspect and that they were both kind of "breaking the glass ceiling" and blazing a path.

I liked that both the girls had to work through their relationships with their parents and come to terms with how they wanted to live their lives. This is a big thing that a lot of high school kids have to learn and do. Coming of age stories are one of my favorites.

I had one issue with the book- 75 mph fast balls would not cut it in college for a baseball pitcher. So the entire concept that June was able to play in the major leagues would never be plausible.

2.5/5

This was such a change to what I've been reading recently, that it was refreshing yet frustrating. I personally am someone who enjoys reading YA. I love when authors are able to really capture the trials and tribulations of growing up while creating a sense of joy and nostalgia.

I have to say that this was way heavier than I was anticipating. While there were moments of queer joy in this sapphic story, I felt overwhelmingly sad and frustrated for these MCs the entire time. The plot did feel incredibly realistic as someone who grew up playing competitive sports; however, it felt overshadowed by the toxicity of the MCs parents and their respective grief.

When looking at reviews for this book, there were a lot of people saying that this is fun and lighthearted when that couldn't be further from the truth. A good amount of the story leans on June pushing through an extremely dangerous injury while also combating the unrealistic expectations that her father has on her professional career. Not to mention, both are dealing with the loss of a loved one from cancer. On the other hand, you have Ivy who is struggling with getting her mother to understand her true passion in her life while feeling like the secondary character. Their family is also grieving the loss of Ivy's brother from cancer as well, which causes her mother to become overbearing.

Grief isn't linear and we all grieve in different ways; however, it truly overshadowed the main plot and the relationship between Ivy and June.

I really think if Jennifer focused on Ivy and June's growing relationship rather than the grief, miscommunication, and unhealthy expectations from their respective parents, this would have been so much better.

Thank you Jennifer Dugan, Putnam and Netgalley for this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

I really enjoy Jennifer Dugan's writing style. It's easy to fly through and enjoy in one sitting. This book is about two girls falling in love and what that entails when both of them are in the same male dominated sports realm, Ivy being a referee and June being a pitcher. I do have to say I see a pattern with Sapphic stories where the girls always get together really fast, which isn't a huge problem but I with their was more angst. But you see the problems that arise with their developing relationship as they keep it a secret and have to navigate new feelings while also dealing with pressure from parents and friends alike. Was pretty predictable but tge journey is always enjoyable to read.

Thank you Netgalley and Penguin Group for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for my honest thoughts.

Add Playing for Keeps to the list of books that made me cry. It was such a beautiful and heart wrenching portrayal of grief and how grief affects our relationships with everyone around us. I was particularly drawn to June, our star baseball player, because of just how pressured she felt by everyone around her to be the best.

June and Ivy’s romance was so sweet and heartfelt. I genuinely felt their connection and how much they cared for each other. I felt like I was back in high school crushing on jocks and stressing over the future. It was truly the most adorable YA romance I’ve read in a very long time.