The Prospects
K.T. Hoffman
The pressure cooker of minor league baseball leads to major chemistry in this exhilarating, sexy, and triumphant rivals to lovers debut romance. 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. A joyful, heartfelt debut rom-com revealing what’s possible when we allow ourselves to want something enough to swing for the fences.
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I wanted to enjoy this more than I did. The first 35% is a lot of baseball and Gene being whiny / annoying. He does not like Luis but the reasons were very unclear to me, there was obviously history between them but this is never shown on page so it almost felt like a second-chance romance even though they had not been together previously? I felt underwhelmed because it seemed like both characters liked each other before the start of the book, so there wasn't much emotional development on page. One element that I thought was interesting was that Gene in some ways holds himself back, he doesn't want to hope for too much and therefore be disappointed. But this means that he didn't really have any goals or dreams throughout the book and it felt like there was no stakes here. I felt that this was interestingly juxtaposed with how talented Luis is and yet he is questioning his own dreams. The whole friendship falling apart between Gene and Vince was weird, poorly explained, and resolved too conveniently-- why couldn't Gene have had a best friend throughout this book? I thought it was cool to have the anxiety representation with Luis, and obviously both the gay and trans rep as well, I'm glad that they were accepted by their peers. The amount of baseball for me was at first nice to see in a sports romance, but ultimately ended up being too much and I eventually got bored with it. Overall the pacing was off for me, I felt like it was kind of a slog to read through the whole book. Additionally I have forgotten most of this book, I don't feel like the feelings nor the plot has lingered over time, I never found it swoony. Other reviews mentioned the found family aspects being great, but I don't remember much of this, I just felt that there was a level of team spirit and friendliness that seemed pretty appropriate for a team? Overall I felt that Gene was instantly lusting after Luis but hated him for no clear reason, and then Gene is in love with him by 50% and we never got to see their previous relationship together nor why they are in an especially great fit now either.
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