This took me a while to finish mainly because I didn’t want it to end! I love baseball and I love romance books so the two being together was a delight. I enjoyed this book a lot there were a lot of cute moments.

You should be so lucky is multiple POV and follows both Nick and Eddie O’Leary in 1960. Nick is a reporter that isn’t doing much reporting, after a rough patch in his life he doesn’t find passion in writing a story anymore. However, Nick is convinced to write a story about Eddie after his boss/friend insists. Eddie is a baseball player who has been experiencing the worst slump of his fledgling career. After being a star rookie Eddie is traded to New York, Eddie didn’t react the best to this news insulting everyone in New York. The team refuses to acknowledge his existence.

If you like the relationship that Ted and Trent have in Ted Lasso but wish it were gay I feel like you’d like this book. It’s very reminiscent of their relationship with its own identity and differences. I especially love the later chapters of this book but do not want to spoil it.

This is a really cute m/m romance set in a time that is not very kind to the LGBT+ community. Despite this the book does everything it can to not only properly represent those in the community but also act as commentary on how gay people would’ve had to act back then. I think this whole book is really well done and will definitely be buying it when it comes out.

StoryGraph rating: 4.5

I was drawn in by the cover and the idea of historical fiction about queer baseball. I was not disappointed. This story truly captured my attention. Eddie and Mark grow immensely throughout the story and don’t manage to lose their essence in the process. So many stories involving romance show characters that change who they are when they’re in love. Eddie and Mark help one another to become the best version of themselves. The realness of having to hide in a world that isn’t kind to queer people but still finding love was beautiful.

The list of good things I have to say about this book is honestly endless. I loved the first book in this series and was really hoping to get an ARC of the second one, and could not have been more delighted to get it. I adored the main couple that this book was about. Cat Sebastian knows how to write funny characters; the way she wrote Mark and Eddie had them playing off each other really well. I was invested in their relationship and could not put this book down. The romance in this book had me kicking my feet in the air, giggling, the whole nine yards. t really hit everything I could ask for in a romance novel. If I could have read You Should Be So Lucky in one setting I absolutely would have. I'll for sure be recommending this book to my friends once it's released!

I don’t think I will ever get over this book. First you got Eddie professional sweetheart/baseball player that love who and how he loves, and Mark not quite cynic not quite sports writer. This love story is everything you could want from a baseball romance.

I love this book. It makes me feel hope. It has replenished my dopamine, serotonin, and oxytocin. It gives me hope.

"You Should Be So Lucky" by Cat Sebastian is a remarkable tale that seamlessly blends romance, identity, and societal expectations in 1960 New York. From the moment you dive into the pages, you're transported into the lives of Mark Bailey and Eddie O’Leary, two individuals grappling with their own inner turmoil and the complexities of love in a world where secrecy is the norm.

Sebastian's narrative is gripping from start to finish, drawing readers into the world of baseball, journalism, and the struggles of navigating one's true identity in a society that demands conformity. As Mark is tasked with ghostwriting Eddie's diary for a highbrow sports feature, the sparks between the two are undeniable. Eddie, the talented but troubled baseball player, and Mark, the writer haunted by his recent loss, embark on a journey of self-discovery and love that will leave readers breathless.

What sets "You Should Be So Lucky" apart is its poignant exploration of themes secrecy, acceptance, and the power of love to overcome adversity.

As Eddie and Mark navigate the complexities of their relationship, readers are taken on an emotional rollercoaster filled with heartwarming moments of connection and heart-wrenching decisions driven by fear and insecurity. But amidst the challenges they face, there is a sense of hope and resilience that shines through.

In the end, "You Should Be So Lucky" is a captivating and beautifully crafted novel that will leave you enchanted long after you've turned the last page. Whether you're a fan of historical romance or simply enjoy a captivating story filled with depth and emotion, this book is a must-read.

Eddie is understandably hot tempered when gets the news he’s being traded to a new baseball team during a public press conference. Uprooted and dumped on a new team that’s completely shut him out, he’s left tragically lonely and to top it all off he’s lost his swing.

Mark, who you’ll remember from We Could Be So Good, might as well be retired for as much work as he’s been putting in lately. His few friends worried about how much he’s shut himself away, mourning a partner in ways he can’t express to even a handful of people. Still, he gets talked into writing a season long sports feature as Eddie’s ‘diary’

The two have an undeniable draw, only getting stronger as the season progresses and they spend more and more time together. Late night phone calls to stolen kisses, quite swoony.

Due to the historical setting it shares with the first book, there’s the continuing struggles of trying to balance a need to live their lives authentically but still protect themselves from legit dangers of living their lives as queer men in that time. The high public profile that Eddie’s career brings and the grief that Mark still feels but can’t freely talk about drive this home even more.

As far as the sports aspect, I know nothing about baseball. But if you follow any sport at all there’s the universal constants like the anxious depression of a slump, the hell of unexpected trades, management issues etc

I love this book. So freaking much. It is easily as good as the first in the series. I’m into this story 100+ percent, rooting for the underdogs and living for the domestic moments.
If this doesn’t end up one of my top books for this year, then I greatly look forward to seeing what could possibly top it.

If you liked We Could Be So Good, then this book should absolutely be on your radar. And if you haven’t read that yet, what are you waiting for??

Thanks to NetGalley and Avon for the ARC!

i'm so in love with this world cat sebastian has built. i went into this book skeptical that i could love its main characters as much as I do nick and andy, but of course i needn't have worried. i should've trusted in sebastian's exceptional ability to create lovable characters. these four (eddie, mark, nick, and andy) are so real to me now, and i'm so glad for it. i'm so glad they exist. queer historical fiction is so powerful.

4.5 stars rounded up. Unsurprising that I loved this— it’s so similar in humor and tone to We Could Be So Good, which I adored (every Nick and Andy sighting made me so very happy.) I love that Eddie and Mark feel so different from them while still encountering some of the same problems, and I like even more that this book does what We Could Be So Good doesn’t, which is capture a realistic approach to a period-accurate happily ever after while still giving the reader the warm fuzzies. There are some truly gorgeous pieces of writing in this book as well— the humor and banter is top notch (even if occasionally feels a little 2020s) but there are also a lot of moving musings on grief and failure that I truly appreciated.

Truly the grumpiest of grumpy reporters reluctantly falling in love with an actual literal ray of sunshine. There is an aggressive amount of baseball and Italian food. Also a cute dog.

Cat Sebastian truly casts a spell when she writes queer historical romance. Mark and Eddie are my new favorite couple she’s written and seeing their love bloom for each other was such a joy! Eddie is a baseball player who isn’t having a great season and Mark is the writer for the chronicle tasked with writing about him. They are a bit standoffish at first, then a friendship blooms and they, love. Sebastian writes some incredible domestic scenes and sometimes deep emotions and proclamations come out when her characters are doing mundane activities like washing dishes. I also love when Sebastian has her characters reading queer novels, in this book, it’s The Haunting of Hill House. The convo these two have about the book is just spectacular! Also there’s no third act breakup so if you’re a reader who feels like the breakups are thrown in for no reason, no worries here! Loved it and highly recommend!

this is the most beautiful love story i’ve ever read… and i’ve read a fuckton of love stories. the love between Mark and Eddie is my roman empire.

** spoiler alert ** An absolutely precious, so cute it hurts romance from the author of We Could Be So Good (set just a couple years later, with a different pair of lovers, and some of the previous cast popping in here and there to say hi).

This was fine, and very, very cute, but not my favorite Cat Sebastian so far. I generally prefer the Victorian romances (Seducing the Sedgwicks in particular) and this was kind of long on baseball and short on plot for me to really love it.

The romance was believable and all the characters were about as likeable as possible, even the supposed "bad boy of baseball," Eddie who could not have been more charming or vulnerable. I really loved crabby journalist Mark's journey of figuring out how to write with love and kindness instead of pure snark, and the characterization of George Allen (an elderly sportswriter for the Chronicle) was unexpectedly beautiful.

This is definitely a book that relies more on the journey of personal development than any exterior plot. I enjoyed it, but the lowest of low stakes (sorry, I guess the baseball stuff as the central stakes just missed me, and the constant fear of homophobia, while realistic, never actually manifested at all, and everyone who figured out the characters were gay were lovely and accepting) didn't really work for me in this.

Thanks, Avon and Harper Voyages and Netgalley for this ARC and the opportunity to get my grabbers on this early. I am a HUGE Cat Sebastian fan and even though this didn't really make my top favorites ever rank I still really enjoyed it and will read everything Sebastian ever writes, probably twice.

I’m not the biggest fan of historical romance unless it’s queer and bonus if it is written by Cat Sebastian. I absolutely loved this book. While it is connected to We Could Be So Good, you don’t miss anything if you haven’t read that one yet. This book was a tender love story in the midst of loss and grief along with the fear of being discovered as queer in 1960. I really felt for Eddie’s struggle in losing his instincts in baseball and for Mark dealing with his grief and some anger about having been such a secret with his late partner. Eddie is such a sweetheart in handling Mark’s grief and fears, I wanted to hug them both throughout.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!

I loved this book from first page to last — in fact, I loved it so much I started advertising it to my friends as “I thought nothing can top Hither Page on my personal list of favourites, but Cat Sebastian went and wrote a book so wholly for me that I am helpless”. It has gay baseball! Queer bookclub! A gentle and accepting take on what it means to struggle - with grief, loneliness, setbacks, lack of a space to be yourself. It made it so so easy to cheer for its leads - actually, scratch that, for everyone in the book - and the way tension and release was handled in the narrative made me feel so grateful, because it’s very true to what kind of story this is. Needless to say, I bawled my eyes out in everything that touched on grief. Cat Sebastian gets it. She got us.

10/5 stars, no comments, will absolutelh read again and buy fifteen copies for friends.

Thank you to Netgalley and publisher for the ARC.

I ATE THIS UP. This is my first of Cat’s books, and only the second historically-set queer romance I have read. I absolutely loved it!

The characters were realistic, relatable, and oh so good together. Mark and Eddie had such a great story, and it encompassed so much more than just a linear romance.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and will definitely be checking out more of Cat’s work in the future!

Cat Sebastian could write in this universe forever and I would never get sick of it! Set in 1960 New York City, this story follows Mark Bailey (who you might recognize if you read We Could Be So Good), a journalist struggling with grief after his partner died about a year and a half before the book starts, and Eddie O'Leary, a baseball player who has managed to piss off his new team and basically every single fan before even arriving in the city. To improve Eddie's image, he agrees to work with Mark, who will write a weekly "diary" in the newspaper as Eddie, and the two become friends. As their connection develops and attraction sparks, they must consider what their feelings mean for Eddie's career, and Mark is reckoning with his grief and loneliness and he lets Eddie into his life.

Beautifully tender, You Should Be So Lucky is a book about falling in love, grief, and being who you are despite the world not wanting to let you. This is a book about wanting things you haven't allowed yourself to have, trading books as a form of flirting, slumps, homophobia in sports and a dog that waits by the door.

After reading We Could Be So Good - my first foray into Cat Sebastian’s work - last September, I was so excited to see that her next novel was going to be in the same vein of historical romance set in more recent history. Even more excited that baseball was involved (I’ve always found baseball to be a romantic sport to watch and read about. Fever Pitch anyone?).

I am so happy to report that this did not disappoint. Much like We Could Be So Good, You Should Be So Lucky is a warm, heartfelt, cozy romance set in a time period where queer relationships would’ve been kept largely under wraps.

Set throughout 1960, You Should Be So Lucky follows Eddie O’Leary, a young baseball player going through a slump following his trade to a new team and Mark Bailey, a writer - not a sports writer! - who is a year and a some months out from having lost his longtime partner. There is a near immediate fondness that these characters have for each other despite their differences in not only profession but just about every aspect of their lives.

There is not a lot of plot (if any) here so if you are looking for dramatics this is not for you! There are historical accuracies but there are also a lot of anachronisms as far as the way it is written, behaviors of certain characters and maybe even the lack of aforementioned dramatics. If you’re coming here for romance and expecting a history lesson alongside - turn away! Or don’t, the romance is worth staying for.

You Should Be So Lucky was a page turner despite its lack of plot and intensity if only because Eddie and Mark are impossible not to root for. You want to see Eddie’s career through whether he’s able to turn his slump around or not. You want to see Mark fall in love with writing again after experiencing such loss.

You want to read about these characters finding love in each other despite the odds!

Read We Could Be So Good and follow it up with You Should be So Lucky. They can be read alone but are quite the treat together. Like a piece of to-go cake (wink wink).



Thank you to NetGalley and Avon for the eARC!

You Should Be So Lucky by Cat Sebastian
Pub Date: May 7, 2024
Rating: 5/5 stars

THIS BOOK IS SO GOOD.

First and foremost, while this book is definitely a stand-alone, if you haven't read "We Could Be So Good," which establishes the universe this book takes place in, READ THAT BOOK, TOO. I loved We Could Be So Good, so when I found out Cat Sebastian had written another book in the same world, I was so excited. You Should Be So Lucky lived up to every expectation I had. I don't know what other characters could possibly have their own book in this world, but I desperately want more of these characters.

As with the other book, this one had me all torn up over the world these characters, Eddie and Mark, inhabit. I wanted so much more for them, and for the real people living in the 1950s and 1960s in the lgbtq community. I loved the places these characters found support and acceptance and love from members of their community. But Cat Sebastian's books, rightly, don't shy away from the realities people faced in the times in which these books are set. This makes the story so compelling and heart-wrenching, even when the end of the story is relatively happy given the high stakes these characters face in their personal and professional lives.

Now for Mark and Eddie, specifically. Ahhhh. I loved them. Maybe even more than Andy and Nick in the first book. I found their to be clear parallels between this couple and Andy and Nick, but the characters and stories are still so unique. Eddie's optimism and openness are infectious. I found myself, like Mark, wanting to protect him at times. The development of their relationship felt natural and it made the story all the more compelling. Every time Mark hesitated, worried, or tried to slow things down out of concern for Eddie's wellbeing, I loved him even more while also wanting to yell at him to stop so they could be together. These guys are wonderful. I SO enjoyed reading their story.

I also loved getting glimpses of Nick and Andy again, as well as meeting new characters. I felt that George, in particular, added such depth and sweetness to this story; this was especially true as Mark navigated his grief. This entire plotline was raw and emotional and beautiful and added so much to the book.

Read this book. And anything else by Cat Sebastian you can get your hands on. I'm definitely going to read her other books.

ARC provided by publisher via NetGalley in exchange for honest review.

A review in three parts. Read whichever ones apply to you!

For general audiences not wanting spoilers:

You Should Be So Lucky is the story of Eddie O'Leary, a baseball player who has lost his swing, and Mark Bailey, a reporter grieving the loss of his partner of many years. I really did not expect to love a book about baseball, and I especially didn't expect to have any patience for a book that tried to turn baseball into a Metaphor for Life. This book proved me wrong. It's a gentle, contemplative story that is doing so much more than just developing a love story between two protagonists (though it does that very well).

For WCBSG fans who want expectations set without being too spoiled:

YSBSL is very much of a piece with WCBSG in the sense that it has a similar prose tone (third-person present, appreciation for the lyricism of the domestic, and focus on protagonists refusing to acknowledge a single feeling until they can't resist). In both books, the threat of outing is an acknowledged reality of 1950s queer life, yet it is not wielded *against* the characters as an imminent threat to safety. There are a few notable differences as well. Where physical intimacy in WCBSG happened on-page but in rather vague terms (more "fade to black"), YSBSL often used the device of initiating intimacy and then cutting immediately to its aftermath (more "closed door"). While both books focus on character development, vibes, and the long romance arc, I would say that YSBSL has a slightly broader narrative universe than its predecessor. Its overarching themes (baseball, grief, slumps, second chances) and its cast of secondary characters both get more air time than they did in WCBSG. Some readers may lament even a minor shift away from a tight focus on the romance, I thought the balance was perfection. My very subjective takeaway is that in WCBSG I felt most moved by the minute detailing of Nick and Andy's romance; in YSBSL I felt most moved by what Eddie and Mark's romance had to tell me about living joyfully in the face of change. I value both deeply.

For the spoiler-indifferent, or those having finished and looking to Talk Themes:

If you've made it this far, you've pretty much got my "review" of the book. But I still have a bunch of un-marshalled and un-collected thoughts about this book that feel a bit more spoilery. I went into YSBSL braced to possibly dislike two different elements of it. The first one is, quite simply, baseball. I kind of despise the sport. Not for anything inherent to baseball itself, but for the way it was wielded by the men in my family as both something I had no choice but to interact with (I was constantly getting dragged to stadia) and something I could never fully appreciate because I was a girl. Anyway, I have little time or patience for baseball. And when it became apparent that Cat Sebastian might be trying to draw broad thematic parallels between losing your baseball swing and losing a romantic partner... let's just say, it's a testament to how much I trust her as a writer that I did not fling my ARC into a river.

But... goddamn if she didn't actually make it work? I loved the thematic resonances in this book so, so, SO much. I'm not sure Sebastian gets enough credit for how boldly she takes on the irrevocability of loss as part of an HEA (she has a romance hero in a different book dying of tuberculosis, ffs). But she does it beautifully. I loved how the theme of continuing to live after loss wove its way through everything in the book, from something as small as the loss of a neighborhood, to something as uninteresting (to me) as the loss of a baseball game, to as earth-shattering as the loss of a loved one. And it was done in a way that didn't try to *overplay* similarity between these things, but rather let each one be its own experience, each speaking differently to the centrality of loss and recovery to the human experience. It left me just kind of in awe over the bravery of living. Which is a lot, for a romance!

As I kind of hinted at above, there was a voice in my head that wondered if the actual, concrete love story of Eddie and Mark didn't get the tiniest bit lost under all that thematic work. And maybe it did? I certainly didn't feel quite as desperate for the catharsis of them getting together as I did with Nick and Andy. But I loved it, just the same.

So, the second thing I was wary about was how much the threat of public outing was going to play a role in this story. I think it could be argued that Cat Sebastian is writing in a genre climate where both other historical eras (like the regency), and other types of sports romance (like contemporary hockey romance), are already so wonderfully saturated with narratives of queer acceptance that midcentury baseball romance appears as a genre space in which the threat of outing can be newly reinscribed. And I'm always ... a little wary, especially keeping in mind my reader positionality as a cis queer woman writing this in 2024, about how the "threat of outing" narratives in mm historical romance is working.

I don't presume to have an answer to that, but I will say that one thing that resonated a LOT with me in this book is how un-binary Sebastian's approach to "the closet" and "outing" is here. Which is to say, first of all, the blurb is kind of misleading: this is NOT a romance where Mark wants to live fully out after a life of secrecy, and Eddie is terrified of being outed as a gay sports player. Rather, it's just as true that Mark wants to keep Eddie safe by NOT being public in certain ways, as much as it is that Eddie really longs to have his queerness be recognized by key people around him. The question of being "out" is, technically, a source of plot here, but it's one where both MCs have a lot of time and patience and understanding for the complexities of that issue. Similarly, I loved the recognition that being "closeted" or "out" is not, in fact, a binary switch-flip for Mark and Eddie: they get to kind of patchwork together a network of people who know only what the two men want them to know about their lives and identities and intimacies. I loved both the care and the nuance that went into that.

And, jeez, there's so much more I loved about this book that doesn't really fit into the confines of my review. GEORGE (*sobs*). Everything going on with Ardolino. Eddie crying over Mark's dog. The jar of cherries. MARGINALIA! I just loved it all a lot.

Anyway, these are just my ramblings, and I'm looking forward to hearing what a lot more people think about this book, and these issues, once they've had the chance to read it.

Slow burn, grumpy reporter, and golden retriever baseball player?? Say less! I absolutely knew that this would be like catnip for me just based on that alone, but Cat Sebastian's We Could Be So Good was also my top romance of 2023 so I just knew that this was going to be an absolute 5 star read for me, and indeed it was.

It's been quite some time since I finished this book and I truly don't know that I can talk about it coherently yet. Here's what I do know - it's going to at least be one of my top romances of the year. THE YEAR! I would protect Eddie and Mark with my entire heart and I want every good thing ever to happen to them. I highlighted so many quotes that I truly don't think I could pick just one to highlight here. Cat's writing is just so incredible - it's evocative, emotional, and so deep while also being really truly funny.

Eddie, my sweet golden retriever sunshine boy...oh what can I even say. I just loved him so so much. He was so incredibly sweet and thoughtful and open. UGH he's just so goodddddddd.

Oh and my little black cat Mark - so damaged and yet still so capable of love. The representation of grief here is also really spot on and his protection of Eddie was so so sweet. Gosh I just love them both so so much.

The scene where Eddie tells Mark that he loves him was also just so perfect and quintessentially them - like I couldn't have pictured a more perfect scene for them. Oh, and the cameos we get from Andy and Nick were just perfect too!

"He feels like every part of him is wrapped around Eddie, like they're tangled up in something dangerous and lovely and terribly, terribly precious"

Thank you so much to Avon and Netgalley for the eARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own and I am leaving this review voluntarily.