“The future is only grim because people see it that way. It’s unpredictable. Life is a summer storm of insecure thoughts. There’s an umbrella of precautions to prevent insecurity, but it doesn’t always keep the rain out of your face.”

Sebastian Hughes is that star goalie for the Bloomington High School Lions and he should be excited about his senior year of high school. His teammates are amazing and he’s got a coach who supports everyone no matter their sexuality or background. But when his estranged childhood best friend Emir Shah shows up to summer training camp, he finds himself determined to reconnect with him. But to his surprise, after a beautiful summer of sweaty days on the pitch, more than just a friendship starts to bloom between the two of them.

I have mixed feelings on this book. On one hand, I found it incredibly difficult to get into, whether it was because of the writing style or the sheer amount of characters. On the other hand, I really found Sebastian sweet and I loved all of the different music references in the book. Unfortunately, it’s not going to be my favorite LGBTQIA+ book of the year, YA or adult. It’s not the worst though, not even by a long stretch. However, something that I have to keep constantly reminding myself as I read these books is that they weren’t written for me or my age group.

For me, I had problems with a certain level of juvenility that surrounded the humor and character actions in this book, but that’s because it isn’t mean for me. This book is going to be great for young adult males that love soccer and want a little cute boy love in their life. I do not fit the normal parameters of this book, but I can appreciate what the author was doing with this book. And I definitely know that the author and I could get along in terms of musical tastes, because the references are sprinkled everywhere in this book.

The characters were cute, and overall well developed. There were a lot of characters, though. I found myself really struggling to decide, who was who. Even looking at the cover now, there is at least one character that I question who it is and one whose name I have forgotten because… soccer team. However, I enjoyed reading about their various exploits and watching them grow over the course of the book.

Overall, I would recommend this for YA readers, who are looking for a mixture of gay boys and soccer. This is a book that I don’t think crosses over to older readers that well. I’m not saying not to read it if you think you’ll enjoy it, but I think there are some other books of a similar vein that crosses the age group line better. If I was older, I’m not certain that I would have gotten some of the musical and pop culture references in the book. I liked it enough that I am planning on checking out more books by Julian Winters in the future.

Have you read Running with Lions? What did you think? Which character was your favorite? Do you have any similiar books that you would recommend? Let me know in the comments below!

Important Bits:
Length: 299 pages
Published: June 7th 2018 by Duet Books
Content Warnings: An instance of bullying/homophobia towards the end of the book
Awards: Not yet.
Also by: Running with Lions (2018), How to be Remy Cameron (2019), The Summer of Everything (2020), Out Now: Queer We Go Again! (2020), Fools in Love (2021), Up All Night (2021), Eternally Yours (2022), Right Where I Left You (2022), Eternally Yours (2022), Firsts and Lasts (2023), Cool. Awkward. Black. (2023), As You Walk On By (2023), The Grimoire of Grave Fates (2023), Mermaids Never Drown (2023)