I JUST KNEW THIS WAS GONNA BE A NEW FAV AND I WAS RIGHT!!! i love this for me. cat sebastian NEVER misses period and i'm so glad my faith in her paid off. this was just so jenrjfdhaerhfejrhfqeorfhoerjhf softness and pining and cuteness overload, and my heart is feeling so mushy right now. highly highly highly recommend!!

Thank you to Avon or Harper Voyage & Netgalley for this ARC.
This was my first book this author and i can definitely say i will be coming back for more.
as you can tell by the gorgeous cover, this is LGBT+ book. it follows Mark, a reporter, and Eddie, a baseball player. they get paired up for a PR assignment to make clean up Eddie's image. this is what called out to me and i put in my request for it.

reading this book had me on a constant state of panic because it is set on new yok in the 1960s, which as you might know was not the best for queer people. i kept waiting for the shoe to drop and have my heart stomped and bulldozed over at any turn of the page.

there were definitely some parts that made me feel angry and made me put the book down, i enjoyed it very much, hence the 5 star rating.

Absolutely a 5 Star Read! This book had more depth than I ever anticipated. The character development and writing is simply lovely. I found myself rooting for both Eddie and Mark in all the ways - in terms of their relationship, but also in terms of their own personal development and growth. This book was an absolute delight. Love the baseball component. This is my first Cat Sebastian book and won't be my last! Thank you NetGalley for an early copy.

You Should Be So Lucky by Cat Sebastian is a grumpy x sunshine queer romance between a baseball player who is in a hitting slump and is currently being looked down on by his city and team, and a reporter who normally doesn't cover sports but has been tapped to write about him. This book also delves into grief, life after loss, queer community, and the dangers and hope both of coming out.

I really loved this book, I fell in love with Eddie and Mark quickly and was rooting for both of them. There is also a case of side characters that are not the main focus of the story but are all quite lovable and also got me to invest in them. The one thing I didn't quite love in this book was the way that some of Eddie and Mark's arguments seemed to not really resolve. I was not wishing for a fight or a blow-up, but I was hoping for something more. However that is just a small blip in what was truly a lovely reading experiment, and I certainly recommend this book for anyone looking for a cute, bittersweet sports romance.

Do you ever love a book so much that you have no idea how to go about expressing your feelings for it? That is me in this moment with You Should Be So Lucky. Cat Sebastian has been on my radar for quite a while, but I hadn’t made the leap to pick up one of her books until now. I usually think long and hard before reading queer historical romance because my heart often can’t handle the heartache that accompanies it. Cat Sebastian changed that for me. She showed me that the genre can be bright, beautiful, and full of promise while also touching on the very real life challenges of living in a less accepting time. You Should Be So Lucky blew expectations out of the water to become my favorite read of the year so far.

The story begins with both Mark and Eddie at less than ideal points in their lives. Neither man is looking for anything special when they meet, but the pair slowly forms a friendship that gradually turns into more. Mark doesn’t go out of his way to try to hide his queerness, but he’s used to being a well-kept secret out of deference to his recently deceased long-term partner. Eddie is a mid-western boy, well-versed in hiding his queerness for a number of reasons. The two men couldn’t be more different.

“Mark thinks the danger he poses is that people will notice that Eddie’s queer, but the real danger is that Eddie finally noticed he’s queer - or at least noticed the implications.”

Eddie is full of sunshine and sparkles despite struggling with a slump threatening his baseball career after being traded and having an epic publicity screw up. Mark is a grump with a heart of gold who is still struggling with the loss of his partner, the ramifications of being a secret throughout their relationship, and the reality of dealing with his grief alone. Both men desperately need something to shake up their lives, rearrange the pieces, and put them back together in a way they can start living again, not just going through the motions.

“Sorry, I know I’m rambling. I know some things are just bad. I’m not saying things happen for a reason - I hate that. I'm saying that things happen. And it doesn’t have to mean anything except what it means to you. Nobody else gets to decide.”

Cat Sebastian does a remarkable job of weaving Eddie and Mark’s struggles together in a way that allows them to be there for each other in the exact way the other needs. They way they fall into a relationship is so natural and complimentary that neither man realizes it until they are so gone for the other that they can’t turn back. It’s as if they picked through the rubble of their lives, pulled out the best pieces, repaired the things that were broken but worth fixing, and combined them into something new. Something better than before, something they could be together.

I can’t say enough good things about this book. You Should Be So Lucky was a delight to read from start to finish, a beautiful slow burn that filled me with warmth and happiness like a cozy blanket I wanted to snuggle up in and never leave. Despite the story having the potential to tear me apart, I was left instead with joy and hope that's sure to stay nestled in my heart for a long time to come.

Thank you to Avon and Harper Voyager for providing me with an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

eddie and mark are everything to me. this book is so sweet and tender and not without its struggles,. eddie was a standout to me and he made my chest hurt. i just love their love so much. i love stories grounded in living in the present and fighting against fear and loss. i will definitely check out cat's writing in the future!

Thanks to Avon and Netgalley for the ARC!

Mark and, in particular, Eddie have my entire heart. I am not much of a baseball fan but this book got me invested in Eddie's hitting slump and the future of the Robins because Cat Sebastian made me care so much about the team itself. It was a powerful exploration of what it looks like to grieve someone when your relationship with them was secret, and how to live openly, yet safely, in a homophobic society. I loved seeing Mark and Eddie's relationship develop and as a big fan of We Could Be So Good, I loved getting little snippets of Andy and Nick and the other newspaper folks. If you're a fan of sports romances, characters you want to just put in your pocket and carry around, and emotion without total heartbreak, You Should Be So Lucky might just be for you.

Thank you to NetGalley, Avon, and Harper Voyager for an advanced copy of this ebook!

This book is an emotional powerhouse for so many reasons.

Not only is the love story so sweet and realistic, but the historic portrayal of queer love tears my heart apart.

I absolutely loved each page of this book and experiencing the realities of love in the 60’s.

4.5 / 5 stars -- rounded up to 5.

This is my second Cat Sebastian book (my first being We Could Be So Good, which was one of my top books of 2023). There is just something so special about her writing that you cannot find in any other author's work. The sweet, lighthearted moments that she describes in the book feel like a warm hug. She is adept at crafting narratives and scenes that focus on the tiniest (but so important) details as they relate to falling in love with someone (the cherries? a small gesture that meant so much to Nick and William). You have a front row seat to watch the character's feelings for one another unfold on the pages before you, and it just feels .... correct.

You Should Be So Lucky is a great exploration of grief -- especially how queer grief had to be hidden in the 1960's (and beyond) to avoid any disclosure of romantic involvement. And this exploration is absolutely heartbreaking -- knowing that Mark (who I sometimes became frustrated with, but loved nonetheless) was so lonely in processing his trauma. I loved seeing his character arc as he began to heal.

Eddie O'Leary? We must protect him at all costs! Watching his development over the course of these 400 pages was an incredible journey of witnessing someone become comfortable with their identity and feelings.

The book is a somewhat moderately-paced narrative that unfolds over several months / seasons, but it is by far a character-driven one. You care about what happens to Mark and Eddie. Their relationship is just such a beautiful story to follow.

I think at this point, I can read anything by Cat and I will love it. These last 2 novels have been absolute knockouts. I'm normally not even one for sports romances, but apparently, 1960's queer baseball romances are the way to my heart! I will recommend this book to others, along with We Could Be So Good. (And hey, loved those Nick and Andy cameos!)

Many thanks to NetGalley for a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review!

I loved this book so much. it's about loving freely and openly. eddie's joy and love for mark and the same for him in return made me want to cry. i loved this book so much.

You Should Be So Lucky is both melancholy and hopeful—the kind of book you hug to your chest after reading the final page.

I couldn't help but fall in love with Eddie, the rising baseball star who suddenly finds himself traded and in a major slump, and Mark, the heartbroken journalist who's lost interest in pretty much everything, as I watched their love story unfold in one of the loveliest, most patient slow-burn romances I can ever remember reading. Every moment of the narrative was a joy, which is impressive, considering how deeply the author examines grief and loss throughout the novel.

I can already tell that, like its predecessor, We Could Be So Good, You Should Be So Lucky will become a touchstone title for me, one that I will wholeheartedly recommend to romance and historical fiction readers alike.

I love Cat Sebastian's historical queer romance books. Each and every one! This one did not disappoint. I really enjoyed We Could Be So Good, which is set in the same world and which some character's from appear in this book. I did not live in the 1950s in NYC so I can't really saw how accurate the queer experience is, but I think it is a really great portrayl of what it might have been like to be queer in that era. Both Mark and Eddie's character's felt really fully developed and had growth and change throughout the book which is something I enjoy in a story. I have been reading romance for years now and have gotten really picky about what I look for in a story and this avoided all the overdone tropes I don't enjoy. The portrayl of Mark's grief was very poignant and heartbreaking as well. Overall I really enjoyed this book and will continue to read anything Cat Sebastian writes!

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the e-arc. All opinions are my own!

I have been wanting to read a Cat Sebastian book since I saw the ARC for We Could Be So Good last year. Something about it caught my attention- so needless to say I was THRILLED when I got approved for this arc. And it did NOT disappoint. This is hands down one of the top books I have read of the year. This is probably the slowest of slow burns I have read, and I legit loved every second of it. This book made me FEEL. I loved the dual POVs. I loved the characters and this world and the growth that they both had because of each other.

Eddie O'Leary thought he was doing great. He was on a team that he loved with players he enjoyed hanging out with. He still had to hide part of himself, but he knew where it was safe to do so. Then everything got ripped out from underneath him- he was being traded to the New York Robins. He was NOT happy about it and made that clear on national TV when he blasted everyone on the team. Now he is in a city where he knows nothing about what is safe. He is on a team that is giving him the silent treatment. Reporters are literally lounging in the locker room to ask him questions about his slump. Oh yeah now he is also in a hitting slump since the trade. He wonders when he will get moved down to the minors, but instead of that happening, he is told that a reporter is going to be doing a weekly diary piece on him. A not sportswriter reporter named Mark Bailey. This is when everything changes.

Mark Bailey is adrift. He goes to his office but has officially been retired from writing for months. He has a routine that helps him now drown in his grief. The grief of his partner of 7 years. The grief of a relationship that he had to keep under wraps because of what they meant to each other. The grief of being a secret to someone despite loving them wholeheartedly. Well no more. His "boss" gives him a new assignment. He is going to write a diary piece on the new infielder for the Robins. Yes the one in the hitting slump that everyone is trying to get their hands on. Yes the really cute one that makes Mark start to feel things again. Yes the man who smiles so brilliantly when Mark walks into a room. The man who has slowly but surely started to bring Mark's walls down. The same one who doesn't want to keep him a secret though he can't shout it from the mountaintops. The one who makes him want to change up his routine. The one who makes him question what's next?

Watching Eddie help mark come out of his shell was soo beautiful. The patience Eddie showed him in becoming comfortable and how much he wanted to be Mark's person. Mark was the perfect grump. I think that the grief portrayed in this was spot on. The harder things are the little things. The routines you build around each other that either have to keep going without the other or change completely when one of you is gone. I liked the pace of this book and felt that once I started I could not put it down.

Favorite things:
- Lula taking Eddie to the bakery
- First kiss
- Eddie's smiles and how he shows Mark he cares
- Eddie telling his mom about Mark
- Mark tagging along for a midnight hit session with Eddie's teammates

I hope you enjoy this one as much as I did!! Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I already have We Could Be So Good on hold from the library LOL. Are there any other books like this you would recommend??

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon and Harper Voyager for this ARC e-copy of You Should Be So Lucky by Cat Sebastian.

Eddie O’Leary, shortstop, just got traded to the New York Robins, and if the locker room interview insulting his new teammates doesn’t prove he isn’t pleased, then maybe his historically bad batting slump does. Mark Bailey, reporter, is still grieving the loss of his former partner over a year after his death, and now he’s been tasked by The Chronicle with following around a bratty baseball player that he wants nothing to do with. But Eddie and Mark have more in common than they think, and there’s an attraction between them that could spell out trouble for a professional athlete if they’re found out…

Not to be dramatic, but I have been waiting to read this book all year (I literally requested it on January 1). I love baseball. I love queer love stories. I really enjoyed We Could Be So Good. Before even reading it, I knew I would love this book… and I was not disappointed. It’s full of just the right mixture of baseball and gay yearning. I am, however, disappointed that it’s over. When can I read the next one?

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ - EXCELLENT

Holy crap I don't have the world to describe how much this book means to me. As always, Cat Sebastian's mastery of character crafting is evident. She created such loveable characters that I was invested from the get-go. The strength of this book is in all its feeling. Eddie and Mark spend so much of the book yearning - for each other absolutely, but also for queer joy and belonging. I felt so seen by their journey. Unfortunately the differences aren't so great between today's attitude towards queerness and the 1960s attitude and I felt the ache of every rejection the characters felt, every instinct to hide or downplay the queer parts of themselves. Rather than being clouded by homophobia, this book is unfailingly optimistic and defiant in its insistence that queer joy is still possible despite the parts of society that do their best to squash it. My heart was so full of feelings the whole time I was reading. I cried, I swooned and I laughed all the way through this absolute delight of a book. This is 100% going to be one of my favorites of the year (if not my favorite)!

Thanks so much to NetGalley and Avon for giving me an ARC for one of my most anticipated books of the year 🥰

You may feel like you've read a billion grumpy/sunshine stories, but do not sleep on this one because it's definitely the best of the trope! I can always tell I especially love a book if I'm highlighting passages since I am not one to usually do that, but here I couldn't help myself!

Our Sunshine MC Eddie was just a character I loved from truly the first page. He's going through <i>a lot</i>, but he doesn't let it keep him down. He's truly a golden retriever bouncing around just wanting to play good baseball, make friends, and be loved.

"Eddie has to be careful, otherwise he's going to open his mouth and give this man five paragraphs of lunacy, starting with "You're pretty" and ending with "Are you always this bad at your job?" with maybe some "Can I touch your suit?" thrown in their to maximize the horror"

And grumpy Mark. He's truly been through the ringer, and is just coming out the other side of grief. A lot of times the grumpy MC doesn't seem to actually have a grumpy personality, but Sebastian completely nailed it with Mark. You just want to hug him (even though he'd hate it), and I loved the way his true personality unfolded as he finds his spark for life again.

"'It's completely adorable how you get like this.' One of Eddie's arms has snaked around Mark's waist. 'My mom has this cat who likes to be pet, but he hisses on the way to my mom's lap every goddamn time.'"

Set against the backdrop of 1960's baseball, this is a book that you want to savour. Every word, setting, and character feels intentional. It's cozy and comfortable and will definitely be in my top reads of 2024, if not the very favorite. Highly, highly recommend.

This romance was not quite up my alley because it revolves around sports but I still greatly enjoyed it and would definitely read other novels by this author.

I loved We Could Be So Lucky so my hopes and expectations for this book were very high.

And it’s safe to say it surpassed all of them. The writing is absolutely beautiful, and I may or may not have a million highlights.

For a book that deals with grief and the difficulty of being not just a gay athlete but one in the 60s; it manages to be incredible sweet and full of hope.

I greatly enjoyed Cat Sebastian's We Could Be So Good last year and this book, set in the same universe, was one of my most anticipated books of this year. To say it did not disappoint would be a vast understatement: I did not think it was possible to love it more than WCBSG but here we are. I am not one to typically seek out sports romances but I knew I could trust Sebastian with this one. It is definitely one of my favorite books of the year. Sebastian has hit a home run with this book in every sense of the word.

This is the story of Eddie O'Leary, a young and supremely talented baseball player, who has--to his shock and dismay--been traded to a new expansion team in NYC. He arrives under a media cloud, having made his intense dislike for this trade abundantly clear, and the media scrutiny remains focused on him as he sinks in
to a record breaking slump that nearly breaks his heart.

He soon makes the acquaintance of Mark Bailey, the brilliant and incisive book and culture columnist for The Chronicle, who has fallen into a slump of his own--one forged from deep grief and loss. A loss he isn't able to publicly own or express. Andy, the owner of The Chronicle (and one of the protagonists of WCBSG) has assigned Mark to write a series of columns about Eddie and an in-depth cover story about the expansion team itself.

Eddie and Mark come together under these awkward circumstances, both of them resistant and hesitant about the whole idea. Slowly, as the enforced proximity of this interviewer/interviewee relationship progresses, they learn more about each other, about themselves, and find commonality, understanding and trust in each other.

The progression of their relationship is simultaneously hilarious, deeply vulnerable, and emotionally complicated. Eddie's sunny but often unvarnished and uncensored personality meets Mark biting and grumpy self and somehow they find their way to not only understanding but a way of seeing what is under the surface, a way of comprehending the depths of each other in such a caring and deeply kind way.

Their banter is epic--funny and laugh out loud hilarious at times. Their vulnerability made my heart ache. The depth of their personal loss, their hidden lives and love, the way they want to fully be who they are was written so deftly.

Grief was handled in such a tender fashion. Mark is grieving when we meet him and his grief comes in waves and tsunamis as the story progresses. His past relationship and lost love felt palpable and immediate. The way the story wove his loss and grief in and allowed him to process it as his relationship with Eddie progressed was also nuanced and caring in its exposition. There were moments I was brought to tears.

It was impossible to put this book down. I became so invested in Eddie's slump, in how he was going to find his way in this new city, with this new team, this new relationship, the new realizations of what he wanted from his life. And much the same with Mark, with seeing him slowly climb out of the depths of his grief and with the conviction that he would not compromise in the future as he had in the past.

The secondary characters are brilliant--three dimensional and interesting, vital and engaging in their own ways. Sebastian gave them personalities and struggles, lives and qualities that made them compelling even if their presence on the page is infrequent and brief. Found family is apparent and the circle around Eddie and Mark expands as this book progresses.

Baseball and life are woven through the story and the metaphor of baseball as life is carried through and felt so natural and thought provoking at the same time. Deftly written and emotionally satisfying.

The book intensely touches on the topics of homophobia and risk of outing in the late 1950s and early 60s. It captures a glimpse of this time when a shift is coming. It also touches on the racism and bigotry that existed at the time and that echo to this day.

The idea of Eddie being outed as a queer athlete and what that would mean is an undercurrent throughout the book. It is something that occupies Mark's concern even more than Eddie's, and it is something they return to multiple times in the book but I felt the topic was safe in Sebastian's hands--I still found myself waiting for the other shoe to drop, for something untoward to happen, much as I did when I was reading WCBSG, but Sebastian has my trust and has earned it. The other shoe doesn't drop, the anxiety of my expectation was unfounded and I am deeply grateful for that, for the characters and for myself as a reader. Sebastian's care for us both is evident.

This book, like WCBSG, is an emotional, warm, comforting read. Even though I had read WCBSG and knew that I shouldn't expect to brace myself for something hurtful to happen to these characters, I still found myself almost holding my breath for something that never came (and I knew in my heart would never come, because I trust this author with said heart). I did finally let myself relax when I had 30 pages left in the book and appreciated once more that Sebastian wouldn't do that to the characters or the readers. What a satisfying feeling--the contentment of a beautiful story told gently and kindly and with such heart and love and empathetic kindness. I finished the book with a smile on my face and such an immense well of joy for Eddie and Mark and their HEA.

Highly recommended. Five stars. My favorite book of this year. Another splendid Cat Sebastian book. I would gladly read more in this universe.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC. This is my personal opinion.

This book is truly excellent. I laughed, cried, felt nervous and elated. I am forever a Cat Sebastian fan, and have loved all of her work so far, but this book felt like something truly especially even among her excellent books. The writing is precise, the pace is smart, and the characters are full. The book is intimate and startling funny. I loved it.