The Olympics are wrapping up as I write this review, which means I have sports on the brain—so even though it’s an entirely different season, this softball romance found me at the perfect time.
Framed in flashback, Running Home to You (May 19, 2026) introduces us to Kate and Abby, third year undergraduates on the softball team at Insley University who clash when Abby transfers in and turns out to play Kate’s position: shortstop. Kate freezes Abby out, seeing her only as competition, while Abby secretly deals with depression due to her mother’s death. When their coach assigns Kate to tutor Abby, the two struggle to find friendship despite their differences, only to be forced to face the strange tension that burns between them—one that bisexual Abby understands, but Kate, with a religious upbringing and a purity pledge binding her to her boyfriend, doesn’t dare recognise. Even when she finally admits that Abby makes her feel “confused,” she clings to her faith, her relationship, and her life plan—law school at Berkeley—to keep their relationship physically platonic, although emotionally they’re deeply entwined by the time summer rolls around. Both Abby and Kate deal with their parents—Kate’s trying to force her to fit their opinion of Christianity, Abby’s absentee baseball star father showing up only when Abby begins breaking softball records—and their respective faceoffs are gut punches.
I had a few quibbles with the writing: The point of view wobbled in places, jumping in and out of the characters’ heads; I didn’t always believe the character voices, especially in the segment where they write letters to each other; I get stuck when authors don’t understand where to use the past perfect tense rather than the simple past. But the emotion of the story carried me through. It’s a slow burn, but the progress feels earned, especially as Kate suffers through the conflict between her strict faith and her growing attachment to Abby. The lengths the two go to on the field and off to manage their feelings and their responsibilities to the team are earned. And the vibrant cast of teammates never quite get as much time as I wanted, but shine at the corners of the story for emotional support as well as comedic relief.
I already told you most of the book takes place in flashback, so it’s not too much of a spoiler to say that the two go in different directions after senior year. Their separate lives make it clear that neither is complete without the other, but they both need to change in order to acknowledge the possibility of coming back to each other.
I’m not a big softball fan, but love for the game radiates from the characters and the writing. It’s the perfect backdrop to a story about finding out who you are in order to be part of something bigger.
Running Home to You is out May 19, 2026. Find pre-order links on Penguin Random House. Thanks to NetGalley for the eARC.
Content warnings: alcoholism, religious trauma, homophobia, parental abuse, drug abuse, depression, parental abandonment.
Kathryne Slant (she/her) is a queer Canadian writer and general pop culture enthusiast. She wants to spend less time online and more time at puppy yoga. Find her @SapphosHands.bsky.social.
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