Review: Thirty Love by Tom Vellner
Things heat up on and off the court for two tennis rivals in this steamy debut gay sports rom-com, perfect for fans of TJ Alexander and Casey McQuiston.
American tennis star Leo Chambers is determined to win the US Open by thirty, the age when many players feel retirement looming. He’s just a year away from that dreaded birthday, but he can’t find his focus—considering he hasn’t told anyone he’s gay, he’s clashing with his strict coach (who also happens to be his dad), and he still can’t figure out how to beat his longtime nemesis on tour, Gabe Montoya, who, well, hits different. Gabe is playing better than ever, and Leo can’t seem to escape him—and maybe he doesn’t want to escape him.
Leo’s other obstacle is Sascha Volkov, a Russian legend who has such a powerful influence on the tennis world, he would destroy Leo’s career if he found out that he’s gay.
No distractions, Leo reminds himself. But when Gabe makes a shocking announcement, Leo is thrown off his game—in more ways than one. Ready? Play.
Thirty Love is a must-read for fans of queer sports romances.
Review:
Dear Tom Vellner,
I loved your book. I have a couple of nits to pick, but for the most part I loved it so much. My inner tennis fan ( I never played, but I watch a lot and read a lot about this sport) was so so pleased reading this story. We know that till 2024 there was no openly gay tennis player on ATP tour, which was not good to put it mildly. I believe there is one openly gay player now ( from Brazil) and I am not sure if he is even in the top 100. I am always happy to see the sport romance featuring gay tennis players and when I saw this book of course I one clicked right away.
Readers, as much as I loved this book please beware that this book is what in my opinion sports romance should be – I believe that sport should feature prominently in the book. I would argue that tennis is almost a separate character here. There are so many descriptions of matches and practices ( not super long, but all together it was a lot). I loved it, I felt as if I was in the middle of the match or practice, but if you do not love the tennis, I do not believe you will enjoy this book.
I think this story can also be called “A year in Leo Chambers’ life on ATP tour”. It is not as the author gives us the run down on every tournament, but a lot of major tournaments were mentioned ( some more, some less) even if as blurb talks about Leo is concentrating on US Open. This was actually one of my small nitpicks. Of course I get the idea that American player wants to win US Open more than anything else after Andy Roddick did it. Leo also wants to win it for his father, who got to US Open final, but did not win it and soon had to retire. I get it!
However, while I am aware that unless you are one of the Big Three ( or Big Two now? Do Sinner and Alcaraz count as big two yet I wonder?), you may have a stronger game on either hard or clay or grass ( or two of the three ? You get my point), I was very puzzled as to why Leo was not just as obsessed with winning Australian Open which is also played on hard. Again, my perspective is of the fan who never played, I cannot pretend to know what top players think, but I believe that any tennis player who fight for the majors will be just as happy to win any of them. I could be wrong and I get that Leo has a special emotional connection to US Open because of his father and it was probably first and foremost for story purposes, but it felt a little – did not win? Oh well. Not exactly how he felt about US Open.
Tennis being one of the main characters in this book, of course Leo and Gabe’s story also featured prominently. Two young players who met as juniors and who become rivals rather than friends definitely rang true to me and if in this case the reason why Leo felt like he did was his attraction to Gabe which he did not figure out right away, but figured soon enough absolutely makes sense to me. In the first maybe third of the book I worried a little about not enough chemistry between two leads, but they won me over pretty fast. Again, it all rang true to me – the need to keep the head in the game, not always having the same schedule, etc. It just worked well this assumption of two gay players falling in love. We know of several couples getting together on tour even if for some it did not work long term, so I did not need to imagine much.
I also loved Leo and his relationship with his father . There are several well known players on ATP tour who are coached by their fathers and sometimes it works and sometimes it becomes too restrictive even if both player and the coach really love each other. In Leo’s case his father also has a chronic illness and Leo worries extra about him managing it.
There is no real villain in this story. There were some not very nice people. The blurb mentions homophobic Russian player, but really all he did was making snide homophobic remarks several times. I had to laugh because anyone who watched tennis more or less regularly probably figured out pretty quickly whom this character was most likely based on. No, I do not know if the player I am thinking of is a homophobe in real life, but he was accused of other unsavory things and the way it was shown in the story was pretty sly ( not what happened in real life at all, but of the same variety if that makes sense). I think the biggest joke (I loved it) was giving this player twenty slams.
Grade: A-
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