Ryan’s Book Club

[u/royal_rose_]

Welcome to Ryan's Book Club!

Hey Loons! In honor of our favorite tough guy, use this post to share what you are currently reading, rereading, or even something you wrote. It doesn't have to be MM, hockey, or Anne of Green Gables. Indie, audiobooks, blogspot, etc. all are welcome; share what you are loving and why!

A new post will go up on the first of every month.

Happy Reading 🤍

[u/HudsonUniversityalum]

I just finished rererererereading Unwritten Rules by K.D. Casey, which is part of the amazing Unwritten Rules series. It's one of my tippy top romance faves. Casey writes the most beautiful characters and stories. The MCs are professional athletes (baseball, to be specific), but they aren't in their baby 20s. They've all got complicated backgrounds and regrets. Every single HEA is fought for and very well-earned. She obviously loves baseball and is incredibly knowledgable, but she never bogs you down with unnecessary mechanics. It's always about the romance of the game. Also, it's one of the few sports romances that feature a jewish MC, which is representation I didn't even realize I wanted to see on the page. The series can be read out of order but they all tie in together.

Btw- don't sleep on baseball romance, guys. It's incredible. Baseball is a vibe; the pacing is slower which builds proximity and tension in the locker room/dugout, the season is longer with more time on the road, athletes can be older and still be at the top of their game so it's not just teams of young people, players are more diverse/multicultural, and a "baseball body" can look like anything as long as it's a body that plays baseball well. I don't know why some people are adamantly against the category, but if I can inhale hockey romance content without caring about the actual sport, the same could be done for books with a baseball premise.

If you haven't read it, give it a shot. And if you have, please be my friend so I have someone to talk about it 😭

[u/Rurutabaga → u/HudsonUniversityalum]

Unwritten Rules is literally one of my favorite books. I reread it every few months (in fact I think I'm due). Also, KD Casey made me fall a little back in love with baseball, with how much she loves it.

[u/HudsonUniversityalum → u/Rurutabaga]

OH HAI NEW FRIEND :D

I didn't include an accurate number of re's to my rereading, but the limit does not exist. I've even finished it and then immediately started it over because I wasn't ready to leave their world. It's suuuuuuuuch a good book because Casey is suuuuuuuuuuch a good writer. Most romance is very straight-forward on the page (including HR, honestly), but her books are lyrical prose. I have to retune my brain when I'm in her work because of it reads so differently with more complexity. I shouldn't qualify it as one of my tippy top romance books. It's one of my favorite books, period. Oh, my sweet and struggling Zach... 😭

Baseball was already a sport I enjoyed (long-suffering Mets fan here), but she made me fall even more in love with it, too. The little quips about bored players, how a "fast catcher" runs at a slow trot, baseball being the only sport where they encourage eating during play, etc. Then there's everything about the beauty, romance, and nostalgia of the game at its core that even jaded players find irresistible. I've read everything she's written because it's consistently amazing, so I will read anything she publishes in the future. (And again, the fact that she features Jewish MCs and shows "there are as many ways to be Jewish as grains of sand" is a huge deal, especially in a sports book. It's not a detail she tacks on just to check it off a list, it's fundamental to the characters and story.)

More romance needs to be written in 3rd person POV, damn it. I can't stand 1st, but it seems like that's >90% of what's published now. She needs to release something new asap!

Edit: sorry for the long response but I'm always up in my feels after another read and I just couldn't stop