Thank you so much to Rosen Publishing / West 44 Books and Netgalley for the ebook to read and review.

Dustin is supposed to be in Japan with his baseball teammates, learning all about the sport and playing with the Japanese team. His life has other plans as death follows him and his girl-friend Andrea around all summer and they attend multiple funerals of many different religions.

This was so incredible, it was heartbreaking though. Reading about one death and then another really makes your heart hurt so much, this may be just a story but it’s reality that death follows you, it’s scary, it’s intense and never ending. The amount of death surrounding these two characters was really crazy and unexpected, they continually had to mourn many different people. I did like that each person had different beliefs and so Dustin and Andrea were experiencing how death is for different religions, it was a great addition to it.

I really loved Dustin and Andrea together you root for them from the start, hoping and knowing they’ll be together at some point. They form this really strong connection instantly and you feel it as a reader, you know that there is more than friendship between them. Together they experience so much, not just loss, but they just go through a lot all in one short Summer. I liked that together they found each other, they knew they were right with each other, it was so sweet.

This was such a through provoking and heartbreaking, but beautiful story on death, on it effects on those remaining, where they go after, the thread of how people mourn and those that don’t. I really enjoyed reading this one so much, though it was sad it was written so perfectly. A great example of life doesn’t always turn out as you expect but that life has a plan for you regardless.

Thank you to NetGalley, Rosen Publishing Group, West 44 Books, and Ryan Wolf for the opportunity to read Songs for the Offseason in exchange for an honest review.

This is a Hi-Lo novel written in a poetic verse style. This is my fourth Ryan Wolf YA verse read (see The Memory Vampires, Moving Through Walls, and The Real Unreal), and as such, I believe I am allowed to call myself an official fan, excited for any verse novel Wolf has to offer.

Songs for the Offseason follows Dustin, a local teen baseball player who is excited for the summer between his junior and senior years of high school. Excited to go on a trip to Japan with his team to see a Japanese baseball game, Dustin's plans change when a family member passes away. At the funeral service, he meets Andrea, the step-daughter of a distant relative who he didn't know until that moment.

Andrea has another funeral to go to and doesn't want to go alone, so she asks Dustin to accompany her. Being distanced from her own mother and having been with many families due to her mother's knack to remarry constantly, Andrea has a lot of indirect family. Because of this, there is funeral after funeral after funeral after funeral. Dustin and Andrea find themselves in an interesting "funerals only" friendship, sharing the songs that give her solace and meaning as they journey to different venues.

When Dustin wants more beyond that, Andrea has other priorities.

This is a fast-paced novel-in-verse, and on the surface, it appears to just be a majority of repeated funeral visits and a base friendship, but there is so much more depth to the characters and events than that. The need for companionship during times of loss is explored through the characters and how they cope: Dustin enjoys being with Andrea, while Andrea relies on music. There is also the idea that "life is what happens when you are busy making other plans," demonstrating that things do not always go the way we expect, but there are positive outcomes from those alternative experiences as well.

Songs for the Offseason is a brilliantly titled, well-written, and enjoyable quick read that appears morbid, but has so much more about exploring oneself and the different paths life has to offer. An excellent read for teens.

Reflective and heartfelt, this is a coming-of-age story that will have you contemplating life and mortality. The book also explores adolescence, family and invisible illnesses in youth. The hint of romance was a nice touch without overshadowing the novel's more important themes. A good read overall.

Dustin meets Andrea at a wake and is angry she’s listening to music. She explains that music makes her feel better and if she plays the right song all is good. In the next few weeks they end up seeing each other at more funerals and become funeral buddies. Dustin asks Andrea on a date, but she’s says I don’t know. When Dustin’s dad has to go to the hospital, Andrea shows up for him. He tells her he wants to honor his cousin Jack who had just died from cardiomyopathy and raise money and awareness for this disease. What happens now?
Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the eARC of this book. All opinions are my own.