#k.t. hoffman

Happy Heated Rivalry Day! 🎉🏒 Here are some book recs to tide you over until next week 💖📚 (Originally posted on my Instagram)

Top row (left to right): ⚾ The Prospects by K.T. Hoffman ⚽ Cleat Cute by Meryl Wilsner (This one is getting a TV adaptation soon! 😍) ⚽ Futbolista by Jonny Garza Villa

Note: As always, I try to keep my reviews is as vague as possible. I prefer to go into books knowing as little as possible and I don't want to ruin that for anyone else, but I do give away some basic ideas and tropes used so that readers have clearer idea of what the book is about. If you'd prefer to know nothing, please skip this review until after you've read the book.

If there were a Mount Rushmore for my favorite contemporary, achillean romance novels, The Prospects by K.T. Hoffman would now be up there along with Red, White & Royal Blue and Boyfriend Material. It's that good.

This novel gave me everything I could possible want in a romance. It's wonderfully written, seriously funny, and so very joyful. Here are some highlights and points that I think are worth noting:

This book is full of great characters. Gene and Luis are both so loveable and will be relatable to so many people in so many different ways. The supporting characters are also fun and interesting and add a lot to the story.

Representation: this book feels so inclusive and has so much wonderful and casual representation.

The relationship is a perfectly constructed and well-paced slowburn. There is no "instalove" here. By the time these two get together, you understand why these two want to be with each other and how being with each other improves each of their lives.

It's friends-to-rivals-to-lovers! Gene and Luis were friends in college then something happened that caused some distance and resentment. Now they are forced together and things develop from there.

It's Spicy! This is an "open door" romance with a on-page sex scenes.

Found Family and biological family. Luis and Gene both have great families that feature in some great scenes but there's also found family. The relationships that Gene, especially, has with his teammates is a beautiful part of the story.

Baseball. I normally don't read sports romance books because I don't watch or really care about any kind of sports. This didn't stop me from loving every minute of this book. The baseball plot is woven into the relationship growth in a way that feels natural and that, I think, should keep both baseball & non-baseball fans easily invested in the story.

This book is hopeful and optimistic. While there are moments of drama and angst, there is nothing too heavy or sad in this book. This novel is 100% pure queer and trans joy.

Tags for the book: romance, queer, Achillean, trans character, contemporary romance, sports romance, rivals to lovers, spicy

Hope is familiar territory for Gene Ionescu. He has always loved baseball, a sport made for underdogs and optimists like him. He also loves his team, the minor league Beaverton Beavers, and, for the most part, he loves the career he’s built.

As the first openly trans player in professional baseball, Gene has nearly everything he’s ever let himself dream of—that is, until Luis Estrada, Gene’s former teammate and current rival, gets traded to the Beavers, destroying the careful equilibrium of Gene’s life.

Gene and Luis can’t manage a civil conversation off the field or a competent play on it, but in the close confines of dugout benches and roadie buses, they begrudgingly rediscover a comfortable rhythm. As the two grow closer, the tension between them turns electric, and their chemistry spills past the confines of the stadium.

I think this book has a lot to say and could make some people feel great. I unfortunately had some fundamental issues with this book.

First, I was hoping this would be similar to 'The Foxhole Court'--sports nonsense, maybe some violence, and romance. While there is sports and there is romance, that was such a bad way to walk into the book. This is a light and breezy romance first, with some baseball. I also found that the expectation of knowledge of baseball was fairly high and if you aren't versed in baseball terminology you could get bogged down in whatever the book is saying.

Second, I found the characters a bit bare bones with Luis just kind of being there which is how a lot of love interests are in romances but I just found that to be a bit of a bummer.

Finally, I found some of the writing almost fetishistic, with sexual scenes feeling very hetero and some of the language used a bit bizarre. I get that the trans experience isn't a monolith but it feels odd to read about Luis saying he's gay but has a horrible gag reflex so Gene is like perfect. I think I interpreted that poorly and that influenced my feelings on the book throughout.

Read in: July 2024

goodreads

Hope is familiar territory for Gene Ionescu. He has always loved baseball, a sport made for underdogs and optimists like him. He also loves his team, the minor league Beaverton Beavers, and, for the most part, he loves the career he’s built. As the first openly trans player in professional baseball, Gene has nearly everything he’s ever let himself dream of—that is, until Luis Estrada, Gene’s former teammate and current rival, gets traded to the Beavers, destroying the careful equilibrium of Gene’s life. Gene and Luis can’t manage a civil conversation off the field or a competent play on it, but in the close confines of dugout benches and roadie buses, they begrudgingly rediscover a comfortable rhythm. As the two grow closer, the tension between them turns electric, and their chemistry spills past the confines of the stadium. For every tight double play they execute, there’s also a glance at summer-tan shoulders or a secret shared, each one a breathless moment of possibility that ignites in Gene the visceral, terrifying kind of desire he’s never allowed himself. Soon, Gene has to reconcile the quiet, minor-league-sized life he used to find fulfilling with the major-league dreams Luis makes feel possible.