Spring has Sprung

Spring has sprung, and for my family (like so many families), that means youth sports are gearing up, perhaps after a nice winter break. Sports always makes me think of a sub-genre of Romance that I don’t read really all that often: athlete romances.

I was always too nerdy and too uncoordinated to play sports or even be noticed by the jocks when I was in school, but I can certainly understand the appeal of athletes. What I don’t really understand is how one sport – namely, hockey – dominates the sports romance subgenre. I’m an equal-opportunity athlete lover: I can appreciate hockey players, baseball players, swimmers, gymnasts, football players, lacrosse players (in fact I plan on writing a lacrosse player into my next book… if I ever finish writing the book I’m working on now, of course!)… but perhaps my favorite athletes are Rugby players. I mean… COME ON. *fans self* With so many sports to choose from, I’m not sure why hockey has a chokehold on romance readers, but here we are. Perhaps you, dear readers, could comment below with your own hypotheses on why hockey seems to be the most popular sport to feature in romance novels. And of course, we don’t genre-shame (or sub-genre-shame) here so if hockey romances are your favorite, read on!

Anyway, in honor of spring (and the calendar does assure me it really IS spring, despite the winter temperatures), I’ve compiled a list of sports romances for you to check out if you’re so inclined. (I’ve tried to include a wide variety of sports in there, not just hockey.)

I hope these books knock it out of the park for you. (Sorry, couldn’t help myself.)

1. Kulti, by Mariana Zapata: Soccer (I’ve read Zapata before; she is the Queen of Slow Burn Romance!)

2. Hard and Fast, by Erin McCarthy: Race Car Driving (We have this in our catalogue as an audio book.)

3. All of Me, by Jennifer Bernard: Baseball

4. Wedding the Wide Receiver, by Lisa Suzanne: Football

5. Deep End, by Ali Hazelwood: Swimming/Diving (We have this in our catalogue, FIC HAZEL)

6. Cross my Heart, by Esha Patel: Lacrosse

7. Icebreaker, by Hannah Grace: Hockey (We have this in our catalogue, FIC GRACE 1)

8. Binding 13, by Chloe Walsh: Rugby (We have this in our catalogue as an eBook)

9. Balance, by Lucia Franco: Gymnastics

10. The Zoya Factor, by Anuja Chauhan: Cricket