An emotional slow-burn grumpy sunshine queer mid-century romance for fans of Evvie Drake
Starts Over about grief and found family between the new star shortstop stuck in a batting
slump and the reporter assigned to (reluctantly) cover his first season— set in the same
universe as We Could Be So Good . The 1960 baseball season is shaping up to be the worst year
of Eddie O’Leary’s life. He can’t manage to hit the ball his new teammates hate him he’s
living out of a suitcase and he’s homesick. When the team’s owner orders him to give a bunch
of interviews to some snobby reporter he’s ready to call it quits. He can barely manage to
behave himself for the length of a game let alone an entire season. But he’s already on thin
ice so he has no choice but to agree. Mark Bailey is not a sports reporter. He writes for the
arts page and these days he’s barely even managing to do that much. He’s had a rough year and
just wants to be left alone in his too-empty apartment mourning a partner he’d never been able
to be public about. The last thing he needs is to spend a season writing about New York’s
obnoxious new shortstop in a stunt to get the struggling newspaper more readers. Isolated
together within the crush of an anonymous city these two lonely souls orbit each other as they
slowly give in to the inevitable gravity of their attraction. But Mark has vowed that he’ll
never be someone’s secret ever again and Eddie can’t be out as a professional athlete. It’s
just them against the world and they’ll both have to decide if that’s enough.
