A review by tristatereader
The Prospects by KT Hoffman

adventurous hopeful informative reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

The Prospects is the debut novel for KT Hoffman and it centers around Gene, the first openly trans baseball player in the Minors. Gene plays for the Beaverton Beavers (Portland’s triple A team) and truly loves it. He loves his coach, his teammates, and his routine. But then his old college teammate, Luis, gets traded to the Beavers. After Luis was scouted in college, he left without a word to Gene. Although Gene is super annoyed by the trade, his forever optimistic disposition wins out as he attempts to make amends with Luis. But Luis seems quiet, guarded, and much more reserved than Gene remembers and he begins to wonder if there was more to Luis’ sudden departure back in college than Gene thought. 

This book made my little baseball-loving heart explode. It’s fair to say that hockey tends to dominate the sports romance market. So when I see a baseball romance, I immediately gobble it up. I also went into this book pretty blindly (other than knowing it was a baseball setting with a trans MC) and holy spice 🔥 Was not expecting it and definitely was not mad about it 😏 

I did have to take a star off my rating because I didn’t love the head coach character 😢 Having a queer, female, head coach in the minors is groundbreaking and could have been incredible. Especially because she scouted the first trans player. But I was really underwhelmed by her character. She felt a little bit like a bully in my opinion. 

Thank you to The Dial Press, Colored Pages Book Tour, and NetGalley for a gifted copy of this book!