The Prospects by KT Hoffman: Book Review
This is a spoiler-free review.
The Prospects by KT Hoffman
Published April 9th, 2024 by The Dial Press (Random House Publishing Group)
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance, LGBTQ+
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.
Thank you to Colored Pages Book Tours and the publisher, Random House Publishing Group, for sending me an ARC of this book. All thoughts are my own.
The Prospects by KT Hoffman gave me such a book hangover. This novel had me in a chokehold. It was so hard to put down while reading it, and almost impossible to stop thinking about after finishing it. (And I don’t even know anything about baseball?!)
What I loved most about this book was that while it didn’t shy away from touching on heavier topics like the discrimination faced by our leads, their journeys with mental health and gender/queer identity, and finding their place in spaces not inherently built to include them, this was balanced out with pure, heartfelt joy and acceptance. Hoffman has managed to craft an exquisitely written, hopeful novel that doesn’t feel cheap or gimmicky. These characters have earned their happy ending. You can’t not root for them.
And what a great cast of characters there was! Gene and Luis stole the show. Their individual character arcs were done expertly, and that romance? Perfection. It was great to see them grow individually as well as together throughout the novel. Plus, those sex scenes were intimate and real, and so hot.
The Prospects is a story of resilient optimism and queer/trans triumph. It is the perfect story for queer readers looking for some much-needed positivity and feel-goodness.
About the Author
KT Hoffman is an author of queer romance. His debut rom-com, The Prospects, will be published by Dial Press (US) and Sphere (UK). KT is originally from Beaverton, Oregon and currently lives in Brooklyn. If he isn’t writing about trans hope and gay kissing, he’s probably white-knuckling his way through the ninth inning of a Seattle Mariners game.
Author Links: Website | Goodreads | Instagram | Twitter
Book Links: Storygraph | Blackwells | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop US | Books_A_Million
Have you read The Prospects?
What did you think of it?
Let me know!
Liza
Liza is a twenty-something book blogger who spends way too much time with her nose in books and feels way too much. She loves cooking, baking, reality tv show watching and, of course, reading. She can be found most often with a cup of tea in one hand and a book in the other. Her blog, Literary Liza, features bookish content like reviews, recommendations, and author interviews.
5 Comments
itsKoo
The gif and caption made me laugh
Liza
I aim to please 😂
ahaana @ Windows to Worlds
haha! i love the gif 😂 the prospects sounds like a fab read though – can’t wait to check it out! (:
Liza
Haha, thank you! It’s such a good read. I highly recommend!
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