Grand Slam Romance by Olivia Hicks
The lesbian softball love story you didn’t know you wanted to read. Grand Slam Romance is a light-hearted queer love story set in a world where women’s softball attracts the kind of enthusiasm that only AFL gets in Melbourne - and a player at the top of her game might develop magical powers that elevate the game to a high-speed, stratospheric superhero battle. Ridiculous? Maybe (unless you read a lot of manga growing up) but go with the flow and you’re in for a treat.
The story centres on Mickey Monsoon, star pitcher of the Belle City Broads. Mickey is thrown off their game when their ex-best-friend-and-maybe-sort-of-girlfriend, Astra Maxima, reappears in town, batting for rival team the Gaiety Gals. Mickey hasn’t seen Astra since Astra abandoned them to accept a scholarship to an exclusive boarding school in Switzerland with an elite softball program. Astra has graduated from teen softball prodigy to renowned bad girl and lesbian heartbreaker, but she seems to be interested in rekindling something with Mickey.
The only way Mickey can end Astra’s softball dominance is to team up with Astra’s more recently jilted ex-girlfriend, the handsome leather-jacket-wearing Wolfgang.
The ensuing hijinks aren’t going to make you think, but they’ll certainly make you smile. Riffing off shoujo manga tropes, lesbian stereotypes and classic sports movie plot beats, this tongue-in-cheek full-colour graphic novel is flashy, quirky, and surprisingly heart-warming. The ending was sweet and satisfying, but I was having so much fun that I want to see book 2 ASAP anyway.
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