A review by lezreadalot
Unwritten Rules by KD Casey

4.0

There’s an entire ocean behind him, one Zach can’t see right now, Eugenio occupying his field of view, the world for once held at a distance.

3.5 stars. This was a pretty interesting sports romance; not written in quite the way that I expected, but I did end up really enjoying it. We follow the dual timeline of the relationship of two baseball players: three years in the past when they meet for the first time and start tentatively getting together, and in the present day, after they've broken up, and are taking steps towards a reconciliation. So it's a second chance romance, but one where we get to see the entirety of their first time together, rather than in flashbacks or conversation, like it regularly is in most second chance romances. It's also sort of a coming out romance, which I feel I have to mention because I know a lot of people don't really love that in their queer romances, but I do, and that was an aspect of the book that I really enjoyed; seeing Zach struggle with and eventually overcome his anxieties. 

But yeah, team-mates romance, and also sorta rivals romance, depending on the timeline. I did enjoy that aspect, and the switching back-and-forth between the years didn't get too jarring, but it just also was not structured like my ideal romance. It was devoid of a lot of the usual annoying romance clichés, but most of the time it also felt like there were no stakes. And, I mean, I guess that's not true, because there was conflict in the form of Zach's reluctance to come out, his relationship with his family, his status around his job and teams over the years. But I just didn't feel like it had a gradual buildup, as much as I usually feel it in other romances. The dual timeline and the switching back-and-forth did leave room for a lot of interesting situations and reveals. Like, in the present timeline, the two guys would share a gesture that seems simple and meaningless, like squeezing each other on the arm. Then when we go back to the past, we are able to see how that gesture originated, and what it really means to them both, especially given the fact that it has continued into the future. So that was fun. And I do think that it was interesting for us to see both the first time and their second chance play out sort of simultaneously. Interesting, but ultimately just a liiiittle bit weird.  

This is a sports romance where there isn't a lot of baseball, but there is a lot of talking about baseball, a fair amount of mechanical discussions about different techniques and stuff. Or it at least it seemed like a fair amount to me. And it aaaaaaaall went over my head, lol. Of all the sports, baseball is probably the one I understand the least, and while I do think the author did a great job of making this readable for anyone, I think I would have enjoyed this more if I was more invested in the sport, or if I understood it a little bit more. But it really didn't prove that big of a barrier to enjoyment. I've been listing a lot of nitpicks, but this was honestly really very sweet, heartfelt, and well-written. It's a romance where you were really able to get a sense of how they work as a couple, where we got to see a lot of little defining moments that made them good for one another. The characters are super well explored. I loved the scenes where Eugenio cooks for Zach, and we get to see them being kind of domestic and sweet together. I also loved the moments where Zach had to train Eugenio or other members of the team, and he showed his worth as a mentor. And I don't often see hard of hearing rep in books, so that was great, and pretty insightful, especially with regard to the way it affects and didn't affect Zach's ability to play baseball.  

Listened to the audiobook as read by Lee Osorio and I really enjoyed it. I think this was my first book narrated by him, and he had such a soothing and enjoyable voice, a narration style that was easy to get into. After reading a short story from this author a couple years back, I'm glad that I finally read one of their novels. This was so good, if a little unorthodox in its style (as compared to my experience, at least). The rest of the series looks good as well, so hopefully I will check it out soon.  

“Yeah, well,” Zach says, “some guys just got your number. That’s baseball.”