Reviews with content warning for Homophobia - You Should Be So Lucky

Reviews tagging 'Homophobia'

You Should Be So Lucky by Cat Sebastian

98 reviews

jennp28's review

emotional hopeful inspiring lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Oh, I loved this book. My fave by Cat Sebastian thus far. The characters are so real feeling - they are hurt, they are loved and loving, they are hiding and not wanting to hide. The slow burn, the dancing around each other but the obvious love and affection in the smallest touches. The found family in a ball team, at a workplace, with friends who are like you. The evocation of sixties baseball and its ups and downs. The way they fall in love, slowly, quietly, but so deeply and so gently. So so good.

Content Warnings

charli3_b's review

Go to review page

emotional hopeful medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Made me think of Fellow Travelers but softer (and happier). Such a beautiful story.

Content Warnings

rachelshubin's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging emotional inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

I’m pretty sure I’ve never read a queer historic romance and if I had to pick an amazing one to start with, it would be You Should Be So Lucky. It was a tender tale with flickers of romance, grief, and being your true self in private when you cannot be your true self in public. I’m so thankful I buddy read this with Natalie! It needed to be discussed with someone for sure!

As a journalist, Mark Bailey was definitely going to be my favorite character and all the aspects of writing/journalism included in this novel made me so happy! And how could anyone not love Eddie O’Leary, the sparkling sunshine to Mark’s grump. The reason Mark is grumpy is hinted at as a breakup (spoiler alert) when he is really mourning his partner William that he had to keep a secret. This queer, 1960s New York City baseball romance delves into the difficulty of hiding who you are, at a time where LGBTQ+ was not widely/universally accepted.

Weaving between both Mark and Eddie’s POVs was genuinely so well done and refreshing to be inside both their minds as they both had so much to bring to the story. As Eddie and Mark open up to each other, the reader sees more about the way they navigate their lives both separately and together. As Mark begins to open up about William, I couldn’t help but cry (especially when the photos come out of his wallet). Anyone who has lost anyone (not just a romantic partner) can understand the grief Mark carries with him every day.

The story is so intensely moving, it kept me captured until the very last page. I never wanted to put it down. The absence of William is a character in itself, and neither the reader or Mark is forced to “get over” his loss. Instead, Mark finds a way to have his love/memories of William as part of his relationship with Eddie. Honestly, what more could anyone who has lost someone ask for? I think in a way, Eddie helps guide Mark in his grief and loss and this reassurance allows Mark to be messy and human and find happiness in the present.

It’s amazing how a book that is advertised as a queer romance is actually more a story of loss and hope, that makes the reader believe in second chances and learning to live again after loss.

I can’t wait to go back and read the “first” book in this standalone Mid-Century NYC series!

Content Warnings

clara_h39's review

Go to review page

emotional funny hopeful tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I didn’t love this book as much as ‘We Could Be So Good’ but it was still a nice queer romance. I had zero interest in baseball before this book but I did enjoy being immersed into its culture. Full of emotional moments but also funny parts that balance it out. I felt the characters were really fleshed out and appropriately flawed and real feeling. I would not reread this book but I did enjoy it.

Content Warnings

shred's review

Go to review page

emotional hopeful inspiring medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

Content Warnings

rennygrunau's review

Go to review page

emotional funny hopeful informative relaxing medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Content Warnings

lifesarosch's review

Go to review page

lighthearted sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

It literally was every trope I love (baseball, journalists, longing, light angst).cat Sebastian, your mind!

Content Warnings

just_one_more_paige's review

Go to review page

emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

I read, and LOVED Sebastian's first novel in this "series," We Could Be So Good, last year. It was one of my favs of the year. So, while I thought I was done with baseball romances for a while after The Prospects (which was amazing, but just, baseball is not my preferred sport/pastime), the publication of this one said otherwise. And I'm glad I overcame my baseball hesitancy because Sebastian hit this one out of the park (see what I did there? *elbow, elbow*).

It's 1960 and it's setting up to be a terrible baseball season for Eddie O’Leary. He's offended his new teammates and coaches, he can't settle in NYC because he's homesick for the midwest, and he's (maybe, probably) in a hitting slump. When the owner orders him to give a bunch of interviews to some snobby reporter, he’d rather do anything else, but it doesn't seem like he has much of a choice. Mark Bailey is not a sports reporter. In fact, these days, he's barely a writer at all. He’s had a difficult and lonely year, mourning the death of his partner (privately, since they were able to be public about their love). But maybe writing about the (terrible) New York Robin’s obnoxious new shortstop can both get the struggling newspaper more readers and distract him somewhat? Finding themselves mostly alone, but now together in that, Eddie and Mark slowly realize, and give in to, the attraction and connection growing between them. But with laws and society against them, can they find a way to be together - open enough for Mark and subtle enough for Eddie - that works for them both?

Yes. Just, yes. I don't really have a lot of interest in this time period nor in the primary topics (probability/slumps, baseball as a metaphor for life), but Sebastian made me care. First, it's the fantastic historical fiction setting development; NYC in the 60s comes alive in her hands. Second, it's the characters; at only like 40 pages in, I already had soft spots for both Mark and Eddie. How is it possible that Sebastian can do that? I didn’t even really know them yet! Then, as I got to know them better, their development was just as good as the setting. They were full and nuanced, sweet and spiky, wholesome and flawed, each in their own ways. And those ways, in particular Mark’s prickly fearful love and Eddie’s earnest openness, were the literal perfect match for each other. The push and pull between them was so good. Delicious, really. The growing care is tender AF and I could not get enough of it (this was a highlight of We Could Be So Good too, so that's apparently a vibe that Sebastian has on lock). And the fact that they have to be so careful to hide something so tender is heartbreaking. The bittersweetness of that tears me upppppp. And the fact that it's all so unnecessarily heartbreaking - like, just let people love! - makes it all that much more emotionally devastating.

A few other aspects that stood out to me included a really nice acknowledgement of the ways that the queer community received support from allies in the time period. Things were different, yet the importance of those allies, how they communicated and made themselves known and offered what assistance/cover/misdirection they could, was touching. This was explored in conjunction/comparison with racial discrimination, the ways each population was oppressed similarly and differently, and how allyship looked similar and different between them. And while I obviously have no direct experience, nor done my own research, I felt like the picture Sebastian painted conveyed the frustrating and enraging aspects of each, while also highlighting the ways that the human spirit still found ways to rise past/around that. On the other hand, oooof most of these teammates are so dang petty and dramatic...and people think that’s what (only) women are like. Please. Ugh. No wonder unaddressed mental health challenges and unhealthy coping mechanisms abounded.

Against my expectations, I also did find the reflection on luck, and how sometimes bad things happen with no reason or not "within a bigger picture" - they just...are - but you can also still get past it, to be fascinating. Often, a higher power is used to explain these unexplainable bad things, but that has never worked for me (if someone could stop these bad things from happening, why wouldn't they just do that? Why do we have to learn resilience and recovery if we could ensure not needing it?) This consideration of it, using the most superstitious and statistical sport as a backdrop story for the discussion on the inevitability of failure (and coming to terms and being ok with that), was really high quality literary juxtaposition that appealed to my atheist self.

Overall, another banger of a recent historical queer romance from Sebastian. I loved the pacing, the dialogue (oh goodness was the dialogue great), the setting, the cameos from Nick and Andy (my heart smiled big during those), the story development, and, especially, Eddie and Mark. Their ending got me, in all my feels. The heart-filling hope and warmth and affection. I could not love them more.

“Sometimes when bad things happen to you, it’s just because the dice get rolled a certain way. He finds that almost impossible to believe about himself, but would fight anyone who even suggested that [other people] were anything but blameless.” (but for real tho…)

“But maybe it was just a bad thing that happened […] But […] even after a disaster, there’s still tomorrow.”

“I’m not saying things happen for a reason – I hate that. I’m saying that things happen. And it doesn’t have to mean anything except what it means to you. Nobody else gets to decide.”

“He wants to believe in the possibility of a second act.”

“He feels like every part of him is wrapped around Eddie, like they’re tangled up in something dangerous and lovely and terribly, terribly precious.” (anddddd there goes my heart, a puddle)

“They both know you can be happy and afraid all at once; maybe that’s easier to do when you aren’t alone.”

Content Warnings

himpersonal's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

I liked this one a lot. It probably could’ve done with a little editing and told a few pages shorter, but it was well done. I hope these two got to live long enough to see the Respect for Marriage Act. Even though the current regime is dismantling all the LGBTQ+ progress over that took decades (and some may argue, centuries) to attain with a few strokes of a pen, they still deserve to see and opt in or out of the Respect for Marriage act within their lifetimes. Given this book is a midcentury story, they might just be able to die with that legal recognition and before the dystopia we live in today.

Content Warnings

draven_deathcrush's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I honestly really loved this. I don't read romance very often, but the writing was quick and easy to read, and the characters were great. The only downside of it is that the themes can be very repetitive at times, and it can get a little annoying. I still loved it though, and I'll be reading more from this author!

Content Warnings

More...