You Should Be So Lucky by Cat Sebastian is one of the best novels of 2024. Sebastian has crafted the perfect feel-good romance to warm your heart and keep you turning the pages.
The novel is about a bright, happy, go-lucky baseball player named Eddie who has hit a batting slump after an unfortunate trade and the grumpy, particular, and kind reporter named Mark who is tasked with writing weekly diary entries for him in the newspaper.
In 1960 at the beginning of the movement for gay rights in America, their romance was unlikely and risky. Despite that, the two still manage to find each other and present the reader with an incredibly comforting story about self-discovery amidst their relationship.
Sebastian presents us with a classic, cheese-filled romance full of sweet moments such as when Eddie thinks to himself that he “feels like an idiot, but Mark’s laughing, and he’d be okay with feeling like an idiot all the time as long as it made Mark laugh like that.” In addition to this light hearted and adorable romance, she also addresses deeper topics within these pages. She discusses queer struggles and learning about your own identities. She discusses how beautiful life is and the importance of failure.
In one of my favorite moments in the book, Eddie meets some women at a bar who praise him for failing in front of a national audience. Despite his unexpected batting slump, the women still view him as an icon and someone to root for. They view his failure as an inspiration and use it to help them get through the difficult time of losing a job and going through an intense breakup.
When reflecting on this, Eddie says to Mark, “Maybe it was just a bad thing that happened. Maybe that was her dream job. Maybe that was the only man she’ll ever love. Maybe something awful happened, and those girls are going to be changed by it, but they’re still people, and good things can still happen to them. It’s like you said – even after a disaster, there’s still tomorrow.”
This thread of perseverance and optimism despite the bad things follows Mark and Eddie throughout the book. By the end, we’re presented with a thoughtful and impactful message that has been subtly woven through us throughout the story, perhaps even going unnoticed.
Through these characters, Sebastian shows us it’s okay to fail. As many of the characters throughout the book tell us, that’s just the way life is sometimes. But this novel assures us that there are better days beyond those hard times.
Sebastian has also created a novel that tackles grief in a unique way. Before he met Eddie, Mark had been with a man named William for 7 years. William passed unexpectedly a little over a year prior to the start of this novel and Mark had been grieving ever since. While Mark finds love again with Eddie, he is also still on his own personal journey with his grief.
As readers, we experience this grief alongside Mark throughout the book. It’s almost always with him, but that also means we get to see all sides of it.
Often, grief is depicted as a one-note, sad affair. This can be the truth at times, but in my opinion, it’s so much more. As Sebastian shows us in You Should Be So Lucky, grief contains multitudes.
Yes, Mark is sad to have lost William. But he also remarks about how sad it is that William is missing out on all the wonderful things he still had left in his life. He discusses moments of crippling grief where he finds himself crying in the kitchen or on a walk home. But he also discusses moments of joy where he gets to share stories about William. He mentions that memories of him pop up and sometimes he imagines how William would react to Eddie or other situations in the book.
In moments like Mark’s breakdown over cherries or his joyful sadness when Eddie brings home food from the bakery Mark and William loved, Mark shows us a complete illustration of what grief can be and it is beautiful and comforting like a warm hug from a friend.
While You Should Be So Lucky is a fantastic representation of cheesy historical romance, it is also so much more. Sebastian tackles complex discussions on queer identity, discovering yourself, gratitude for this beautiful life, grief, love, romance, and beyond. This endearing novel is one of my personal favorites and never fails to comfort me and lift my spirits.