Book Reviews

You Should Be So Lucky by Cat Sebastian at Avon

Genre Gay / Bisexual / Historical / 20th Century / Athletes/Coaches / Romance
Reviewed by Barb on 06-June-2024

Book Blurb

The 1960 baseball season is shaping up to be the worst year of Eddie O’Leary’s life. He can’t manage to hit the ball, his new teammates hate him, he’s living out of a suitcase, and he’s homesick. When the team’s owner orders him to give a bunch of interviews to some snobby reporter, he’s ready to call it quits. He can barely manage to behave himself for the length of a game, let alone an entire season. But he’s already on thin ice, so he has no choice but to agree.


Mark Bailey is not a sports reporter. He writes for the arts page, and these days he’s barely even managing to do that much. He’s had a rough year and just wants to be left alone in his too-empty apartment, mourning a partner he’d never been able to be public about. The last thing he needs is to spend a season writing about New York’s obnoxious new shortstop in a stunt to get the struggling newspaper more readers.


Isolated together within the crush of an anonymous city, these two lonely souls orbit each other as they slowly give in to the inevitable gravity of their attraction. But Mark has vowed that he’ll never be someone’s secret ever again, and Eddie can’t be out as a professional athlete. It’s just them against the world, and they’ll both have to decide if that’s enough.

 

Book Review

I never worry about whether or not I will like a story written by Cat Sebastian and performed by the highly talented Joel Leslie. They are a win-win team. And that’s quite a fitting segue into this review as this is about baseball in the early 1960s. Anyone besides me remember that era? I’m dating myself, but I totally loved going back in time to meet Eddie and Mark and bear witness to their first encounter, their growing relationship, and eventually, their happy ending.

 

There’s so much story packed between these covers… or earphones, as the case may be. Eddie, a Nebraska native, is sent up to the Big Leagues to play for a new NYC baseball franchise. Mark, a seasoned writer with no interest in sports at all, takes on a temp assignment that puts the two in the same postgame locker room at the same time. The attraction is there, but this is 1960 so neither man can acknowledge it initially. Still, they keep talking and Mark keeps interviewing and writing, and they develop a friendship. Mark lost his former lover to death at an early age, and though he reaped some financial benefits and lives in a nice, spacious apartment, he lost the love of his life. Several years later, he’s still mourning and in no way is he interested in pursuing something new. He’s in his twenties, as is Eddie, but they seem older, and that’s due to the flavor of the times. Thank you for the authenticity, Cat Sebastian. Much appreciated.

 

Their relationship evolves slowly. Eddie is strong-spirited, kind-hearted, and ultimately can’t keep his love for Mark off his face. Eddie also has hit a huge slump since his trade, so fans either love him or hate him, and this theme carries through a large part of the story.  There are so many secondary characters who play a major role in this story that we get several subplots, but the focus is always on baseball and Eddie and Mark’s relationship and Mark’s fear of discovery—not for himself, but for what might happen to Eddie in relation to his teammates, his fans, and the chance he might be traded or sent back down to the minor leagues.

 

Joel Leslie does a beautiful job with his performance of this story. The New York accents, the cantankerous characters, the younger guys, the emotional depth of the sad parts, the humor of the happy parts of the book—he simply brings it all to life.

 

I’ve been sitting on this review for a few days while I pondered the after-effects of this story, and there are many, which in itself is quite unusual. I generally have an audiobook, at least one e-book, and several editing projects all dancing in my conscious mind at the same time so I very often completely forget either a plot or the characters once I’m done with a book. Getting older equals poor short-term memory. However, in this case, Eddie and Mark have been hanging out with me for days.

 

This book is definitely going on my best-of-the-year list as well as my must-relisten list and my all-time-favorites list.

 

 

 

DISCLAIMER: Books reviewed on this site were usually provided at no cost by the publisher or author. This audio book was purchased by the reviewer.

 

Additional Information

Format audio book
Length Listening Length, 11 hours and 59 minutes
Heat Level
Publication Date 07-May-2024
Price $22.04 audio book
Buy Link https://www.amazon.com/You-Should-Be-So-Lucky/dp/B0CJW5RPHF