By Jennifer Dugan
Star rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Spice rating: 🌶️
Audiobook rating: 🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧
Thank you to PRH audio for providing me with a gifted audiobook! All opinions are my own.
Blurb
From the author of Some Girls Do comes another heartfelt YA sapphic romance—starring a baseball pitcher and a student umpire who are definitely not supposed to fall for one another.
June is the star pitcher of her elite club baseball team—with an ego to match—and she's a shoo-in to be recruited at the college level, like her parents have always envisioned. That is, if she can play through an overuse injury that has recently gone from bad to worse.
Ivy isn't just reffing to pay off her athletic fees or make some extra cash on the side. She wants to someday officiate at the professional level, even if her parents would rather she go to college instead.
The first time they cross paths, Ivy throws June out of a game for grandstanding. Still, they quickly grow from enemies to begrudging friends . . . and then something more. But the rules state that players and umpires are prohibited from dating.
As June's shoulder worsens, and a rival discovers the girls' secret and threatens to expose them, everything the two have worked so hard for is at risk. Now both must follow their dreams . . . or follow their hearts?
Genre: Young Adult
Read if you Like:
⚾ Baseball player and an umpire
⚾ Sapphic romance
⚾ Forbidden romance
⚾ Family pressure
⚾ Living with loss
My Thoughts:
Playing for Keeps managed to capture something that I don't think gets recognized a lot. It is amazing to be a woman who breaks barriers and works twice as hard to be in a field that is traditionally male but it's also ok to say I don't want to deal with that pressure.
June plays baseball and Ivy wants to be a ref. They are both dealing with odds stacked against them and family pressure. It is interesting to see them talk about it and I loved that they connected over their experiences with loss.
I found June a bit of a difficult character to like. I think it's because she can be a bit self-centered (like a lot of teenagers) and I was raised to be very much overly less sacrificing more like Ivy. I related more to Ivy and liked seeing her learn to communicate her needs.
🌶️ - Kissing only.
🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧 - I really enjoyed this audiobook! I always appreciate when a dual pov sapphic or gay romance is dual narrator. It makes it easier to know whose pov you are in. Daisy Guevara and Bailey Carr are both great! Both were new to me narrators but you may recognize Bailey from A Good Girl's Guide to Murder.
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