The only thing you need to know about this book is that you need to read it. It's spectacular and I don't know how Cat will top herself.

I absolutely adored this. I was so immersed into the world Cat Sebastian created and fell in love with the characters and all their sharp parts and the way they fit together so beautifully.

I am not entirely sure that I was the best audience for this book but it was a cute romance nonetheless. Unlike most gay period pieces, there wasn't this overwhelming plot point of will they get found out, and the world ends when they do. The romance was cute and slightly slow burn, the friends were charming but not to memorable that I want a separate story for them.

Overall, I think this story is one that is super important and needed in the queer community. A sweet, cute, and reasonable romance that happens without strife.

"You Should Be So Lucky" has a great sense of setting and such good writing, but it's just so slow! The first half especially felt like the same sad scenes on repeat with very little movement.

There was still a lot to appreciate, though - Eddie's storyline of failure and loneliness; Mark's grief and refusal to hide his queerness. And the history! Baseball history. New York history. Queer history!!

This one won't be at the top of my list, but I eagerly anticipate whatever beautiful story Cat Sebastian writes next.

Thank you to NetGalley & the publisher for providing an eARC for review.

Thank you Avon & Netgalley for the review copy of You Should Be So Lucky. We Could Be So Good was my first read of 2024 and tbh it set the bar high for my year of reading. Thankfully, the second book in this world does not disappoint either. Both can be read as standalones but I recommend reading both and in order.

I loved the element of having Mark, an arts writer, writing a season long feature on Eddie, the young baseball “star” who is struggling in his second MLB season and first in NYC. Both Mark and Eddie are out of their comfort zones in so many ways: Mark trying to live with the grief of losing his longtime (secret) partner, Eddie hiding his queer identity in the hyper masculine world of professional baseball in an unfamiliar city. The way Cat writes with alternating POVs allows us to feel the range of emotions both men feel for each other, including their elations as well as their reservations.

"Even if he never goes back to the way he used to be, he might still be all right."

As a forever baseball fan, and a long-time reader, I must say I feel like this book was written just for me. I've entered a time in my reading life where I have no expectations and simply hope for the best, and in those times, I find little gems like these. I'm so grateful to netgalley for letting me read a copy so I could say such nice things about it.

Let's start with how I felt it in my soul when Cat Sebastian described the sound of a good hit. The echo, the anticipation, the slow motion cheer in a crowd. There is nothing quite like entering a ball field and knowing that for the next several hours you get to sit with hundreds of people that feel the same way you do. Hundreds of people waiting for the sound of that bat and ball connecting in the absolute perfect way. Sebastian describes the game as glacial, and for the firs time I truly understood why people call baseball boring and slow. Because it isn't glacial in the sense that you can't see the bottom or experience the best at the top. It's the appreciation of every moment in between the very first pitch and the very last out. Everything in between is just as important as each step before and after. It's the perfect game, the one that makes patience feel almost fun.

And it wasn't just the praise for baseball that sucked me in, but the couple, whom I found bafflingly unlikely to have ever been together without a spark. Mark is sad, and grief-stricken, and has been in a writing slump for months. Eddie is just in a slump, but you wouldn't know that based on his attitude when he's around Mark. Think golden retriever and black cat and you'll almost have them pegged for their compatibility.

But they bring out the best in each other simply because they both have a very important lesson to learn.

Time changes you, and it's meant to. And maybe who you become doesn't have to mean you're leaving a loved one behind, but instead, that you're lucky enough to love someone so much on two separate occasions. Maybe who you become can be alright as well. Maybe moving on isn't so much moving on as it is keeping the things that make you great, and allowing more to come into your life so you can be better.

Failure is inevitable, and it's what you make of it that shows who you are. Baseball is the perfect place to find that simply because failure is built into the game. You're meant to do the impossible, train for the impossible, and sometimes slumps need to be celebrated as much as our highs. Sometimes we just need something to cheer for.

"Two men clink their mostly empty glasses, toasting bad luck. Toasting the fact that bad luck is both inevitable and impermanent. Even terrible things come to an end." 🍀⚾️✨

This book felt like a togetherness of moving on, and finding joy in the impossibility of life's expectations, and I loved every second of it. I loved watching Mark and Eddie learn to accept the parts of themselves they felt were wrong and unlovable, but I loved more that they didn't try to change each other for those things. They loved each other in a time where they could have been arrested for doing so, but it never stopped them from being more than that barrier. More than any barrier placed in front of them.

We were so lucky to have received an ARC of this lovely book!! So first thanks to @netgalley and @catwrites !! This book has been one of the best I have read all year. It had everything. It was a slow burn, a happily ever after, all of it!!!!!! Eddie is traded from a team that was aiming towards the fences to a baseball team that could only in name could call itself a major league team. Once he moves to the big apple he has lost his umph, he can’t hit the ball, his teammates won’t talk to him, and the city seems to hate him with mean glares and angrier fans every where he turns. In order to right his wronged image the team employs a magazine to start publishing his diary, so to speak, with weekly updates to try and fix New York’s hatred of him. Lo and behold they contract a well known art critic, Mark, to help ghost write Eddie’s diary. Eddie and Mark fall into a friendship with the signals of possibly something more. This is a very heartwarming story about assisting others along in their journeys of grief, self actualization, and relationships all while coming to terms with yourself and what you are willing to give up of it. And as Cat says it best there’s a very good doggo who stays with us through the entire journey!!! Beautiful and impactful, slightly historical fiction, sapphic romance that received ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ five hearts from this gal!!!

This wonderful book comes out on May 7th and I would highly recommend this sweet tale!!

Earnest and charming. The romance is endearing but the personal growth and depth of characters make this book a grand slam. Sebastian explores the pain of a closeted era without sparing any punches while infusing it with a tender, hopefulness and the reminders that even when the world wants you to be alone, queer connections are possible and are life saving. The rich friendships were as powerful as the main romance, which was epic in itself. I kept waiting to roll my eyes at the predictable forced conflict and resolution, but instead the arc of the story gradually builds and shifts in ways that are as surprising and storied as, well, a good baseball game. I was rooting for Eddie and everyone on the Robins the whole way through, and for Mark and George and Lillian and Nick and the two girls with their own run of bad luck. This was a team of characters I wanted to be a part of, and I’ll be returning to again and again.

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon for the ARC!

Overall I think I went into this book with expectations that were too high. The idea of the story is unique and I loved the historical take on what it was like to be gay during that time period, especially in professional sports. I just found myself not caring about the romantic relationship at all, and overall felt the plot lacked .... something. I loved Eddie and his character was charming and endearing. Mark was.... well he kind of sucked? I couldn't understand why Eddie liked him so much and the romantic connection wasn't believable for me at all.

This story had so much potential to get deep into some pretty great topics but stayed very surface level. This didn't work for me because the book was very long and quite slow moving. With that much verbiage - why did we only get a skimming of the meat ?

Low level spice. Loved the historical elements. Wanted more out of this.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the advanced copy.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an ARC of this story
SPOILERS TO FOLLOW

It took me a REALLY long time to get into this story. It felt like it started off suuupppeerrr slooowww but once it picks up and you get to see more of Mark and Eddie's personalities, the story really shines through. I'm not a baseball fan (or a sports fan really) so maybe that's part of the reason I was put off. Eddie and Mark made this story special though. The grief that Mark feels, over William, and Eddie, over baseball, were very palpable. I was able to understand them better because of their struggles and I throughly enjoyed watching them fall in love with one another. I think this story could have been a little shorter in retrospect, given how I almost decided to DNF it at 10%, but if you can get past that first slump where Eddie is having the absolute worst time of his life before he meets Mark then you'll love the rest of the novel!

4.5 stars

I don’t know what it says about me or the books I read or the movies and tv I watch but almost the entire time I was reading this, I kept expecting something bad to happen… and then it just didn’t. It was honestly refreshing to read a book set in the past, in times where queer people were not even close to being as accepted as they are today, and have those characters just be happy together. Especially when one of those characters is so inherently tied to sports. I had a great time with this!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advance copy of this book.

I will always make an exception to read a sports story if it's queer. What can I say? I'm not a sports girlie, but You Should Be So Lucky hits the spot. It's about an unlikely sports viewer - is this me?? - who is tasked to write about the latest season. Both Mark and Eddie are on edge about their future and still haven't figured out their pasts. For Mark, his story is about grief and the ways love can reinvigorate us. Can convince us there's more to life than survival and loss.

This one didn't quite click for me. I don't know what it was about it though. I did quite like this book, but I just never really got invested in the story. I felt a bit of distance to whatever was happening, and I never really felt that attached to our cast of characters. I really can't explain what it was about this book that made me feel this way though.
I quite like the romance. They were really cute together, and it felt very wholesome. Yes, they both had their issues to work through throughout the novel, but they really were supportive of each other's issues. The developement of their relationship was also really well done. They had a lot of really cute moments together.
I also quite liked the storylines of our two main characters, and their developement throughout the book. I thought the discussions around grief especially were really interesting. Especially in the context of this book. Grieving someone you publicly barely knew must be difficult, and I loved how it was included in this book. Also the discussions around public queerness in a time where that wasn't allowed at all was also really interesting. I'm not a big sports person, but I did also like the baseball side plot as well. I thought it was really well integrated. I also liked the sports journalism angle to this book as well. I don't know, all the moving parts of this book just clicked together really well.

Definitely a case of golden retriever x black cat boyfriend.

I love Eddie and Mark an absurd amount and I’m so glad that Cat decided to continue on with this series so we could meet them.

Cat always crafts her novels in a way that makes them feel like a hug. They’re soft and cozy and tender. They don’t shy away from the ugliness of the world though; there’s sadness and grief too but approached in a way that makes it all feel survivable. Yes, the world sucks but look at how much beauty and love there is in the everyday.

I will always want to read about happy queer domesticity, especially when it’s Cat Sebastian writing it.

3.5stars—YOU SHOULD BE SO LUCKY is an historical, adult, LGBTQ+ baseball romance set in 1960 focusing on twenty two year old, professional baseball player Eddie O’Leary, and journalist Mark Bailey. YOU SHOULD BE SO LUCKY is set in the same world as the author’s WE COULD BE SO GOOD.


Told from dual omniscient third person perspectives (Eddie and Mark), covering approximately nine months, YOU SHOULD BE SO LUCKY follows journalist Mark Bailey as he is tasked with writing a diary (of a sorts) focusing on professional baseball player Eddie O’Leary, a young man whose career is quickly spiralling out of control. Traded without warning to the New York Robins, Eddie is in a slump, struggling at the plate, and in the proverbial closet when it comes to his sex life and his career. The world has yet to accept the idea of homosexuality, or ‘queers’ in professional sports but Eddie will quickly discover the journalist assigned to write a piece about his career, is a man with more in common than Eddie could have ever imagined. Enter journalist Mark Bailey, a gay man who is battling between head and heart in the wake of losing someone he loved,and his attraction to a man whose career could end if his secret were discovered.


The relationship between Eddie and Mark begins as a professional arrangement in which Mark has been assigned to follow Eddie, and write a weekly journal focusing on the man with whom he will fall in love but Mark’s last relationship had been hidden from view, and Mark refuses to cross the line in the face of discrimination, homophobia, heart break and professional suicide. The $ex scenes fade to black and are mostly implied.


The secondary and supporting characters include a few cameos from reports Nick Russo, and his lover Andy Fleming (We Could Be So Good 1), as well as sports reporter George Allen, and several teammates and management from the New York Robins.

YOU SHOULD BE SO LUCKY is an extremely slow building story of secrets and lies, acceptance and love. The premise is thought-provoking; the slow burn romance is awkward at times; the characters are charismatic yet desperate.



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I've been reading this book for several weeks and I've finally finished. It took ages to finish, not because it was bad. A Cat Sebastian book is never bad. But from the moment I opened this book and began reading I was overcome with emotion. 'You Should Be So Lucky' is a love story yes but it's a love found in grief and the slow recovery of that. I didn't know Cat Sebastian's 'We Could Be So Good' (the partner novel to this) could be surpassed but here we are. There aren't the words to say how wonderful and romantic this book is and how deeply it has affected me. I have 60 kindle highlights. 60!

The scene with the cherries nearly broke me. It's so simple but so true to the grieving. So much of Mark's grief resounded with my own and Eddie's precious, careful understanding was so beautiful and intimate.

Aside from the romance and very realistic portrayal of grief, there's the very real historical part of being gay in 1960. I really think more young people (queer folks especially) need to read books like this, that are happy and end happy but never understate just how quickly that could all change.

Fantastic book, an all time favorite, Cat Sebastian has been an auto-read and auto-buy for years and that will never change!

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon/Harper Voyager for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Incredibly sweet and something I didn’t think I could fully appreciate just because of the sports romance aspect but the cover pulled me in and the writing kept me hooked. I thought it was a bit long but there was just something that kept me interested until the very end. Probably one of my favorites and the one I really want to buy a physical copy of!

I requested You Should Be So Lucky sort of on a whim - I've been meaning to read something by Cat Sebastian and intrigued by (but also skeptical of!) all of the baseball romances coming out this year. Within the first few pages, I had dopey grin on my face that remained in place for nearly the entire reading experience.

You Should Be So Lucky features Eddie, an outstanding rookie baseball player who was recently traded and dealing with a slump, and Mark, the journalist who ghostwrites a weekly column about Eddie. A very sweet, tender grumpy/sunshine romance ensues!

Grumpy/sunshine isn't a favorite trope of mine, but everything about it worked for me in You Should Be So Lucky. Eddie was a big, lovable sweetie. "Grumpy" Mark surprised me the most. He was often, and accurately, described as "fussy," which could make for a tough character to root for. Not the case at all - Cat wrote Mark with so much depth that he was as compassionate as he was fussy. I found myself thinking about Eddie and Mark a lot in between reading and I don't think I'll stop any time soon.

4.5 stars. I absolutely adored this book.

Honestly, I was worried the entire time that the story was going to take a bad turn given that the protagonists were two queer men in 1960. It didn’t. It was just a beautiful and sweet grumpy sunshine romance between a star baseball player going through a slump and the reporter hired to write about him.

The author really took the time to flesh out the characters and create a story that felt authentic to the time and was warm and funny. It deals with some heavy subjects like the death of a partner, family rejection, and potential repercussions of being queer in a high visibility career. The romance between the protagonists was great, but I also loved seeing their interactions with others in their lives as they chose to show up more and more as their authentic selves.

This was a really beautiful book. Definitely one of my favorite romance reads so far this year.

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon and Harper Voyager for providing me the ARC of this book to review.

This book was an easy 5-stars for me. Cat Sebastian's mid-century NYC books are just. that. good. I literally cannot think of a single bad thing to say about either one of them.

I absolutely loved getting to know Mark, whom we meet in We Could Be So Good, through this book. He was the absolute grumpiest, but he was also so lovable, and you can't help but root for him as he starts to open up again after the loss of his partner. While you never spent much time getting to know his partner, the devastation of Mark's loss is so keenly felt, and I think the author did a wonderful job of exploring a character learning to live with the grief while also learning to reach out for support from his loved ones.

Eddie was also such a delight to read. He was absolutely adorable, and some of my favorite scenes were those of him bonding with his teammates, despite their rocky start, as he tries to break out of his batting slump. He was the perfect sunshine to Mark's grumpiness, and I enjoyed watching him learn to embrace his team and the new city he has to live in.

Once again, the romance in this book hit all the right notes for me. It was another that was delightfully slow-burn, and yet the connection between Mark and Eddie is very much present from the moment they meet. I adored each and every one of their interactions, from the late-night phone calls to the mornings Eddie would walk Mark's dog just for an excuse to see him. There is also no third-act breakup, which makes for an immediate win in my book.

As with We Could Be So Good, the found family vibes are going strong in this one, from Eddie's teammates to Mark's friends. I would have loved to get more with Mark's friends, especially throwing Eddie into the mix, but that's just because I adore this world and its characters so much. I did really enjoy Mark's friendship with George however (excuse me while I cry), and Eddie's bond with his teammates and coach (specifically Price and Ardolino).

Long story short, you NEED to read these books. They are the definition of feel-good romance with characters that will undoubtedly steal your heart.