I’m a big fan of queer sports romances. It’s definitely the subgenre I read the most of, and there are so many really good ones out there. Something that I would like to see more of are the ones focused on women. Luckily for me, I was fortunate enough to receive an ARC of Running Home to You by Samantha Saldivar (out May 19), about Kate Hutchins and Abby Cruz, two college softball teammates who fall for each other, and it follows them over the course of a decade.
The good: I loved the first half of this book. It has so many things I appreciate in fiction, romance especially. It had fun team dynamics, yearning, extremely charged locker room glances, women working out and getting muscles—the list goes on. The romance felt like it built very naturally, and I liked Kate and Abby’s dynamic. I’m also a sucker for characters with self-destructive tendencies because I think that’s interesting to read. Like yes, girl, go make everything harder for yourself!
The not-as-good: The second half dragged for me. I’m sorry, but while I did continue reading it, I just wanted anything else to happen. The first half covers Kate and Abby’s junior and senior year of college, and the second half spans the next eight years. I’m no stranger to big time jumps in romance novels, but the fact that this was the entire back half where the main characters weren’t seeing each other much at all was less interesting.
Something that I really appreciated this book touching on was the fact that it’s so much harder to make it big as an athlete if you’re playing women’s sports, because of the simple fact that for so long (and in many cases even still) there were no professional leagues for women. In the case of softball or baseball, the Women’s Professional Baseball League is set to kick off this summer, which I think is super exciting! But also sad, because for so many years, there has been basically nothing. Running Home to You gets into the chase of finding leagues that will pay well, especially overseas (from North America) where there is more opportunity to be found.
Overall, I do recommend Running Home to You, especially for fans of A League of Their Own (show or movie, both are great), but also for fans of sports romance in general and for those of us who want to see more lesbian/queer women sports romances. Thanks to Ballantine and Netgalley for the eARC in exchange for review!
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