Running Home to You

Saldivar follows up Play You for It with an endearing, long-simmering love story between two softball players whose undeniable on-field chemistry pushes them together off-field, too. Insley University shortstop Kate Hutchins, raised by conservative Christian parents and a proud member of Collegiate Athletes for Christ (where she met her boyfriend, Blake), is recruited by her coach to give an extra hand to Abby Cruz, a transfer student who’s joining the team and whose mom’s recent death has led her into some self-destructive behaviors. The women’s opposite personalities initially clash, but through competing together, they find common ground. Readers follow Kate and Abby through their final two years of college, marked by mutual pining and poor timing, and then as their paths cross through the ensuing six years, when at times the only constant is softball. While there is plenty of tension between the heroines, with Saldivar doing an especially good job capturing their youthful yearning, their romance remains low heat, with a single sex scene that leans more into tenderness than spice. (“The curves, lines, joints, the plush and taut that could only be of a woman, left her ravenous.”) With dynamic leads and a sweeping scope, this is sure to reward fans of sapphic sports romance. (May)