Romance can be pretty hit or miss for me, but as my 5 star review likely indicates, this was a HIT! No pun intended. The book follows two young men, one a reporter, one a baseball player, as they fall in love in 1960. Obviously, because of the 1960 of it all, queer men, especially famous athletes (I mean, shoot, they aren't even out NOW) had to be very closeted. The book manages to thread that tricky cathartic needle of being simultaneously heartwarming and heartbreaking. The romance itself was very sweet, and there was not a shortage of spice (but even the spice read as sweet to me due to the nature of the relationship), and I even liked the baseball bits. The setting and trappings added to what would've already been a great character development tale. Anway. I loved it. Would definitely recommend to fans of romance. 5 stars.

Cat Sebastian is one of my favorite authors and my go-to comfort read author. When I'm feeling down, I know a Cat Sebastian romance, with all its clever, infinitely quotable phrasing, prickly characters, endearing earnestness, and dedication to queer joy will pick me up again. So when I got the email that I'd been approved to read the advance copy of her latest, I squealed and then dropped everything to immediately begin reading. My mom asked me if I was going to take it slow and savor it and I was like, "no? Honestly the only way for me to really enjoy a book I love is to devour it and then reread it again and again and again. If I'm reading a book slowly, I have mixed feelings about it at best."

True to form, I finished this the next day, after being unable to concentrate on anything else. And, as I knew it would be, it was delightful and charming and full of heart. I cried softly for the last little bit of it. Not the wrenching sadness of the third act breakup, because her books don't really have that. Not that there's anything wrong with that - I enjoy it in other books. But I think the tears come most often when I'm reading her books in the quiet moments of being seen and understood. The little realizations that cut deep because you recognize them in yourself, and then you come away seeing yourself a little more clearly, too.

I loved the flavor of 1960 New York that colored everything, pinning the story so firmly in time and place. I loved the way an angry baseball player in a slump and a grieving and barely-employed newspaper reporter and a dead-last team of misfits and has-beens came together to create baseball magic and gain a new lease on life. I loved the inherent decency of the characters, their charm and heart and courage. I loved the way they grew together and compromised and lived. They felt real, like people you might meet on the street one day, like people I would like to be friends with.

As is always the case when I read a Cat Sebastian book, I highlighted about three dozen quotes that will be nearly impossible to pare down into a few favorites for my blog post. I also preordered the audiobook so I can listen to the story again when I need to. Actually that's a lie - I would have, if I hadn't already preordered it the second it showed up as available for preorder.

*Thanks to NetGalley and Avon for providing an early copy for review.

I enjoyed this one but I found the characters to border on insufferable. There were times when the dialogue felt very cringe and needed a bit of thinking put behind it.

Honestly, Cat Sebastian can write anything and I would read it. This is a beautiful look at grief and hope, and somehow baseball is a perfect metaphor for it all. I think I enjoyed We Could Be So Good just a little bit more, but A+ for Cat Sebastian not going with the typical third act breakup and for writing a story that is sweet, sad, and lovely.

As a lifelong fan of the Golden Age of Hollywood, this book gave me a mental movie starring young Christopher Plummer and Burt Lancaster. The quiet desperation of grief paired with the endlessly talkative smiles make this a wonderful grumpy/sunshine story that also demands we pay attention to the closeted culture of queerness in the 1960s. The lack of graphic spicy scenes makes one immerse more deeply in the developing love story between Eddie and Mark. This story is as cozy as one of Mark's sleek cashmere sweaters.

You Should Be So Lucky is the latest in Cat Sebastian's midcentury romances and the second one set in New York. Mark Bailey, who had a small role in We Could Be So Good, is at the center of this novel. He's been grieving the loss of his long-time partner, isolating himself from his friends and going to work only to have something to structure his time. His boss, Nick, who found love in We Could Be So Good, shakes him up by assigning Mark something entirely out of his comfort zone: ghostwrite some fluffy "diaries" for Eddie O'Leary.

Eddie is a former baseball wunderkind, unexpectedly and unwillingly traded to a new New York team (the hapless Robins). He's loathed by his teammates and hated by the city for not only badmouthing the Robins when he found out about the trade, but also for being entirely unable to hit the ball once he arrives.

Mark is coping (poorly) with loss, as well as his complicated feelings about how, when his partner was alive, their love had to be entirely secret. Eddie is coping (poorly) with loneliness, and is aware that if anyone found out he is queer, his career is over. Yet it seems inevitable that their friendship will transform into something more than either of them expected.

Like We Could Be So Good, You Should Be So Lucky is funny and heartfelt, sad and hopeful, and beautifully written. Cat Sebastian does it again.

Ok… I’m about to say something that might make some of you do a double take.

There will be gasps. There will be a slew of “no ways”. I know what’s in store for me, but I was raised to speak my truth. I suggest you get yourself in the seated position for this next sentence:

I think this book is tied with RWRB as my all time favorite book 😳

If you haven’t fainted after that declaration, read on.

You Should Be So Lucky was absolute perfection. The witty dialogue, the compelling characters, the engaging plot, the pacing… ✔️✔️✔️✔️

You know those books that immediately grab hold of you and don’t let go? The ones where after each chapter you’re like, “Oh, this next chapter is only 10 minutes long, I’ll just read one more”, until you’ve done that 12 times and it’s 3am? This book was that for me. I couldn’t put it down.

So first and foremost, this book is FUNNY. I know that sounds like a weird way to describe a book centered around coping with grief and loss. And yes, there is active mourning, tough conversations, and I teared up more than once. But above all, it’s so hopeful. Mark and Eddie play off one another’s personalities so well and are snarky, sassy, yet so gentle and compassionate with one another. And Lula? Lula is a dog, but she is the absolute star of this book. Period.

The side characters are also the absolute best and yes, we saw several Nick and Andy cameos 🥳 The other thing that was a home-run for me (lol I’m such a loser) is that it centers around the best sport in the entire world 🙌🏼 I am a DIEHARD baseball fan and there is such a lack of this setting in the bookish world of sports romance! I felt like I got a nice taste of it when I read Luke & Billy, and then Cat said, “I’m going to bless the world with a whole 4-course meal by writing YSBSL”. And the world became a better place because of it.

I know this isn’t my normal review style but I am truly unhinged. I’ve been tilted off my literary axis and couldn’t be happier about it. You really don’t want to miss this one!

Thank you SOOOO much to DJ, Avon, and NetGalley for the eARC ❤️

I had a blast reading about these vibrant characters and going along for the ride of this story. The research and care put into it was apparent on every page. It’s exactly the kind of fun, happy story I was hoping it would be.

A lot of sports romances use SPORT, broadly speaking, as a metaphor, but Sebastian brilliantly looks at what is specific to baseball--the fascination with statistics in a game where those numbers reveal baseball's unlikeliness--and parallels it to grief, love after loss, and the vagaries of life. The result is one of the smartest sports romances I've ever read, one that cares about history as much as its characters, that allows space for prickliness and hard feelings. Sebastian is brilliant; her career is one to watch.

I really liked revisiting the setting of Cat Sebastian's previous book, We Could Be So Good. This time the story focused on Mark Bailey, a reporter who experienced a devastating loss few people know about and Eddie O'Leary, a baseball player recently traded to a newly formed New York baseball team. Pretty much everyone hates Eddie after he melted down publicly over the trade and insulted his teammates, and Mark is assigned to write a series of diaries in the paper from Eddie's perspective.

Once again, there's not a ton of plot here; it's mostly just a soft relationship development story. I loved the way Eddie and Mark worked as a couple and how they helped each other work through their issues. It was very sweet and the historical setting was really interesting to read about.

Overall, I really liked this and hope we get even more from this 'verse in the future.

If there's ever a time when I don't give five stars to a Cat Sebastian novel, know that it's not truly me writing the review.

Mark is grieving the loss of his partner and Eddie is grieving the loss of his home and life back in Kansas. Together, they stitch themselves back together and learn to let that grief exist without letting it bury them.

This is a book about knowing the risks, knowing the damage your choices could cause, and saying "lol ok" and making those choices anyway. I loved Eddie most of all. A big, lumbering, golden retriever of a man. He was always so sure of himself and what he wanted and I loved that. So many times we have both main characters terrified to take that next step and terrified to go forward. Eddie was all in from the jump.

Cat Sebastian does it again! This was such a sweet follow up to We Could Be So Good. To be fair, I'm a HUGE baseball fan so I was going to be partial to this book from the start. Sebastian really captured the strange, infuriating, and beautiful elements of the game and, as always, developed full, lovable characters. A fun, lovely read that I'll be recommending to any romance or romance-curious reader.

I adored this book! After being more lukewarm than usual for a Cat Sebastian novel on her last Georgian era one, I've been loving her 20th century queer stories (including last year's We Could Be So Good and the self-published Cabots series), and am happy to say You Should Be So Lucky continues that trend with the added bonus of being a baseball romance. I didn't even know I liked baseball romance--I'm not a huge sportsball fan, and while I don't mind hockey romance, I'm sports-neutral as far as my romance taste unless it's from a really good writer--but lately I've read a few I really liked, and if nothing else it's nice to see something different in a more hockey-saturated market. Personally I'd recommend this title for fans of K.D. Casey's recent contemporary Jewish m/m series or Alicia Thompson's forthcoming The Art of Catching Feelings sooner than Evvie Drake Starts Over to readers looking for more baseball romances, as well as to those who enjoy mid-century queer romance like Fellow Travelers (the 1950s-1970s period in particular is another relatively unexplored romance genre market niche that I'd love to see more of).

Cat Sebastian can do no wrong. This book is a gem - if you loved "We could be so good" do yourself a favor and get this one too. Same cast of characters but this time focused on Mark and a ballplayer new to town who is in the biggest of all slumps.

As the author fully acknowledges, there's about 2% plot, it's just a beautiful journey of two characters. Sometimes their internal musings "maybe this, maybe that...' and the repetative course of sports - ball game, practice, things don't go quite right, travel, another ball game make parts a litle bit slow. But slow is this book's middle name. You can't help but love Mark and Eddie, and particularly Mark's journey as he emerges from his all-consuming grief to have windows of time where he is in the world again -- the descriptions of grief -- or rather, the way the author SHOWS a person going throguh grief - is exquisitely done. The scene with the jars of cherries is just ughghhg heart-wrenchingly beautiful/sad/happy/comforting all at once.

The main threads of the story -- just getting throguh the bad stuff (because it happens to every one / there's not a 'Reason' for it / there's not a magic switch to make it better); grief & loving all of someone, and the DOG -- are all just a beautiful hug of a book. It doesn't get too sad or too sacharine, it just walks a perfect line of living through the good & bad and being brave enough to carve out a space for love and found family, in the face of life's obstacles.

Ugh...I love Cat Sebastian. So. Much. You Should Be So Lucky is set in New York in the 1960s. Eddie is a baseball player newly traded to NYC. Mark is an arts reporter asked to write some diaries intended to make Eddie more likable to the public. Neither is very thrilled about this idea until they start spending time together and sparks start flying!!

Cat Sebastian continues the captivating world she built in We Could Be So Good with this well-rounded romance about grief, loss, and baseball. 1960 is the worst year of Eddie O’Leary’s baseball career; his new team hates him, he keeps putting his foot in his mouth in front of the press, and he’s suddenly descended into a mortifying batting slump. Enter Mark Bailey, journalist for NYC’s The Chronicle, usually tasked with book reviews and architecture writing, but now assigned to ghost write a weekly diary from the struggling new batter to increase the paper’s readership. Both reeling from personal losses, Eddie and Mark find comfort and an undeniable connection in one another. You Should Be So Lucky is another sure hit from Sebastian, full of flawed but loveable characters, beautiful introspection on the nature of human relationships, and plenty of belly laughs. Definitely a must-purchase for our library’s collection!

Thank you Netgalley and Avon Publisher for the advanced copy.

This was such a sweet romance. No drama. Just the two characters in loved with each other.

Our two main character had their own problems, like how Mark tried to move on after the death of his lover and how Eddie tried to adapt in new city and club. We Saw how they struggled and supported each other.

I also loved how Cat Made Eddie personality. He was like a literal sunshine.

It was such a good book if you love no-drama romance. But, if you thought you prefer more conflicts, you would be dissapointed.

Cat Sebastian's reign as the Queen of mm romances continues with "You Should Be So Lucky".. The follow-up to "We Could Be So Good", this story centers on Nick and Andy's co-worker and friend, Mark Bailey. Mark, an arts reporter, agrees to write a "diary" for one of New York's newest shortstops. Eddie O'Leary is traded to NYC to as a star player, to save this team from their dismal record. His lackluster performance only continues to bring the team down, until he meets Mark. Will Mark be successful in helping Eddie get his mojo back? Will Mark open his heart to love after the devastating loss of his partner? Will the team and fans discover their secret? Will they have a happy ending? If you follow Cat Sebastian, you already have that answer. I hope that you will be as captivated by this love story as I was. Thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins for allowing be a sneak peak at this wonderful book!

As always, Cat Sebastian wrote another delightful book! This was very fun & as a person with a bad history with baseball, it made the sport much more interesting. Felt a little redundant at times, but overall was very sweet. I’m sad I won’t run into Mark & Eddie in real life.

The best way to summarize my thoughts on this book would be to play a recording of the inarticulate sound I made when my friend sent me the NetGalley link. Cat Sebastian is an auto-read author for me, and I have loved baseball literally my entire life--when the Twins finally won a playoff series this past year I burst into tears, sitting in my friend's car on the way to a concert. So you could say I am very biased towards loving this book, and you would be correct! Thankfully, Cat Sebastian knocks it out of the park (budum tchss).

Continuing on from "We Could Be So Good" (a favorite from last year), this is another sweet and low angst read; one that still manages to find ways of exploring grief and emotional turmoil in a respectful and in-depth way. I will say this definitley fits the 'fanfic vibe' of 'So Good', and your mileage may vary with that. Both books read like low angst, historical aus of your favorite 'grumpy x sunshine' pairing, and so I would recommend this book if you're in a cozy mood. I work on my feet for most of the working day, so coming home to this book, and curling up to read with a cup of tea, was really quite lovely.

It's not perfect--I have wished in nearly every single m/m Cat Sebastian book for her female characters to have more defined personalities and roles besides 'friendly lesbians who playfully scold the main couple into getting their act together'. Her female characters seem to flit in and out of these books, mainly to be shown as more put together than the male characters, and to be sounding boards for the male character's emotional turmoil. This problem is not exclusive to this book, it is just something that I have noticed across several of her books.

I wish we got to see more of Eddie's teammates, especially since I found the late night batting practice scene to be one of the best scenes in the book. And more information on William would have been wonderful--I felt his and Mark's relationship was fairly well sketched, but I also never really felt I got to know him well and truly as a person outside of the relationship.

But, overall, I'd say this book is very nearly a run home (probably a triple, maybe an in the park, if the runner's feeling lucky).