Book picks similar to
Player by E. Cleveland
sports
sports-romance
romance
college
Rhett
J.S. Cooper - 2014
I’ve got it all: the looks, the money, the endurance. I’m the guy that every girl wants to be with, yet none of them have ever been able to tie me down.I don’t do love. I don’t do relationships. And I sure as hell will never do marriage.I’m all about the fast life and everything that entails. There’s a different woman in my bed every week. My friends are jealous of me. My enemies envy me. Everyone wants my life. And everything in my life is absolutely perfect. Until the day she told me she was moving away. She’s my best friend. She was my first kiss in grade school. We share everything with each other. We never dated because I don’t love her. I don’t care that she’s moving. I don’t care that she’s moving for a guy. I don’t care because I don’t love her. I don’t do love. I’m Rhett and I don’t let anything get me down. Then one night changed everything and everything I thought I knew was called into question.All of a sudden, being Rhett didn’t mean so much anymore.
Play
Holly S. Roberts - 2013
The pre-season jock party isn’t her scene, but she’s roped into attending to provide her sister a sober ride home.Hiding in the kitchen to avoid an athletic sex fest, a drunken football player forces Rebecca to her knees, and thrusts his crotch in her face. Before Rebecca can extricate herself from the demeaning situation, an unknown champion saves the night. When Killian assists Rebecca off the floor, she’s stunned into silence while staring at the sexiest man alive.Will Killian’s bad boy rep and Rebecca’s need for commitment, make this the most impossible “Play” of the season? Or, will Killian’s haunting past and need for victory destroy the most important game of his life?
Hard Pass
K.G. Reuss - 2020
A weekend in Vegas. And a challenge that changes everything.LexyTravis Owens has been a pain since he tugged my ponytail and challenged me to our first dare when we were eight years old. Time hasn’t changed a thing in regards to the hotter-than-fire football hero, except the game we play with one another now has higher stakes. A weekend in Vegas and a fake marriage assignment ensures nothing will ever be the same between us. Because I think I’m falling for my enemy, and the ring on my finger says he’s already won.TravisLexy Hale is every guy’s wet dream, but she’s off-limits since she’s my best friend’s twin sister. I’ve spent our entire childhood challenging her to dares, hoping to one day beat her. But she never backs down. This time, I have a plan that will ensure I’ll win. A drunken night in Vegas and a fake marriage assignment are all I need to set this plan in motion. Except I didn’t plan on falling for her.She thinks I’m just a jock with too many notches in my bedpost. Now, I need to prove her wrong because everything I’ve ever wanted is at stake. Getting her to marry me is the easy part. Trying to keep her is the real challenge.Hard Pass is a standalone enemies to lovers college football romance. Guaranteed HEA. Contains mature content.
Second Draft
C.M. Seabrook - 2017
More than just the washed up hockey player, turned sports journalist whose body is almost as scarred as his soul. Layla Harper made me hope again. But life has a warped sense of humor, and I wasn't the only Bennett brother that fell for the girl with the caramel colored eyes. The night I saw Travis with her I knew I'd lost, even before I had the chance to fight. Because one thing I never compete with my brother over is women. Even if the woman stole my breath, and my heart with one single kiss. And damn, what a kiss it had been. Now, she's pregnant with my brother's baby. A baby he wants nothing to do with. And he's asked me to clean up his mess. What he doesn't know is that I'm in love with her, and I have no intention of offering her the deal he's laid out. I have a deal of my own. One that will finally make her mine.
The Hard Way
Katie Ashley - 2016
Because of his talent at football, coupled with his father’s wealth, he’s always gotten his way. But when a night of drunken debauchery lands him in hot water with the college athletic board, neither his influential father nor his charming grin can save him. He finds it a total buzz kill when he is sentenced to community service with troubled youth at an inner-city shelter. But his nightmare is only beginning when his greatest high school regret is the very one in charge of the program, and she has him by the balls in more ways than one.For Avery Prescott, senior year was a nightmare of epic proportions, and Cade Hall played the lead villain. After she fled her small town for college in the bright lights of Atlanta, she thought she had escaped the painful memories of her past. She never could have imagined Cade would waltz through the door of the outreach program she presided over. But Avery has news for Cade--she isn’t the same shy, doormat of a girl she was in high school. Since she holds Cade's football future in her hands, she’s more than ready to make payback a real bitch.Will the two stay in the defensive zone or discover that sometimes life's greatest lessons are learned the hard way?
Bender
Stacy Borel - 2014
Instead, she got Camden Brooks. Camden, with his sinful body, sharp tongue, and the inability to stay out of Keegan’s personal space, couldn’t seem to curb his interest in the new girl who wouldn’t put up with his domineering ways. Feelings were running rampant, sexual tension was thick, and both were struggling to let go of control. To some people, getting a roommate simply meant living with another person. But to both Camden and Keegan it was a curveball that neither was prepared to swing at. **Strong sexual content** Can be read as a stand alone. Each brother will have their own book. (A 96,000 word novel)
Bat Boy
Christina Lee - 2020
Except, things have never come together for me in the romance department. Until Kellan Crawford walks onto the field as the team’s newest bat boy. Bells and whistles go off in my body, and just like that, I’m totally crushing on a guy for the first time in my life. Too bad he’s the coach’s son and officially off-limits.Kellan CrawfordI’m working toward my statistics degree, so landing the bat-boy position with the Easton U Pirates is right up my alley. It keeps me close to the action on the field, even if that means hauling equipment, picking up sweaty jockstraps, and putting up with the players’ antics. My dad’s the coach, and his number-one rule is never to play favorites…which probably includes getting too friendly with the team captain. But Brady Donovan’s annoyingly perfect smile and protective nature are making that nearly impossible.When something shifts between us at an away game, everything is thrown off-kilter. Donovan’s never been with a guy before, and I certainly don’t want to be his test case. But I can’t seem to help myself. He’s sweet and hot and somehow charms the baseball pants right off me. If Coach ever catches wind of this, he’ll bench us both. Disappointing my dad might kill me, but so would losing the guy who makes my heart pound harder than a home run in the bottom of the ninth.So much for not playing favorites.
Walk of Shame
Andrea Smith - 2015
He does have one problem though: he has to ace his Early American Lit class in order to graduate and stay eligible to play hockey for Hardwick University. Weston is provided a tutor to help with his senior Lit class. Enter Penny Lane, also a senior at another local college, doing part-time status at Hardwick. She tutors to earn money, but her aspirations go far beyond just that. Penny is plain, nerdy, brilliant, and has a hidden agenda. She and Weston get off on the wrong foot, and from there, things will only get crazier. Fasten your seat belts, and hold on for dear life as you take this roller-coaster ride on the Walk of Shame!Adult Content; Sexual Situations, 18+
Cruel and Beautiful
A.M. Hargrove - 2015
(Rated R)
Cate Forbes
, a dedicated college student with a carefully plotted future, doesn’t know the first thing about love. When she accepts a blind date with a rumored tasty piece of eye candy, she thinks she can get by with a night of fun. Cate’s plans quickly unravel when she gets one look at the sexy…
Drew McKnight.
The relentless hockey-playing medical resident knows what he wants— a career in Oncology and Cate. Although he’s heard the gorgeous brunette is a little relationship skittish, a single night out isn’t what he has in mind. Determined to have her — in every way possible— he shows her just what a future with him would hold. Only life has other plans. The unthinkable happens and everything begins to shatter. Both in too deep, they will have to fight the cruel and hang onto the beautiful.
Nothing But Trouble
P. Dangelico - 2019
And frankly, I kind of wish I still didn’t because then I wouldn’t have a sprained ankle to show for it. And my leg wouldn’t resemble a boa constrictor that’s swallowed a feral pig. Yeah, it’s that bad.I’ve spent years saving every penny I’ve ever earned to be able to transfer to Malibu University. And now my entire future––including my scholarship––is in jeopardy. So I either accept the help he insists on giving me, or lose everything I’ve sacrificed for. In the meantime, I’m going to ignore the fact that we’re becoming friends.And I’m definitely going to pretend he’s not turning into the object of my…umm, dirty fantasies. That’s not happening. Not even a little.Because the minute I clapped eyes on him I knew he was nothing but trouble.
Not a Player
A.J. Wynter - 2020
This book can be read as a stand-alone or as book one in the Laketown Hockey Series.
Chasing Butterflies
Terri E. Laine - 2016
Laine brings a new standalone New Adult Romance novel, Chasing Butterflies, about second chances on and off the field. One night … one kiss … one touch … will change everything. Kelley Moore’s tragic home life should make him a survivor. But when he’s uprooted yet again, his plans for a better future seem impossible. Being a player on and off the football field is all he knows, until Lenora Wells. The beautiful town princess makes him feel and want things he never thought he could have… Lenora will do anything to get out of her town, even if it means dating the wrong guy. There’s one problem: she can’t stop thinking about the gorgeous, complicated boy with the unusual eyes who gives her butterflies and makes her question her choices. When their lives collide, the world shifts and not in their favor. Four years later, the sins of their past can never be taken back and forgiveness won’t come easy. College is a different game, a second chance for something better. She’s not the girl he remembers and he’s the one boy she can never forget. He’s made a name for himself as the star quarterback -- the golden boy who can do no wrong. But he’s only interested in being her hero. Despite everything, she can’t deny he still makes her heart flutter; and she’s got him chasing butterflies. *Warning this new adult romance contains adult content and language and may not be suitable for younger readers.
Black Ice
Mickey Miller - 2020
Recklessly cocky. Brutally handsome. Exceptionally Talented.
Utterly Ruthless.
Meet my childhood crush, everybody.Except "little" Shane North is all grown up now, and he's out for revenge...on me.Before I moved away, Shane was my best friend's older brother. But Shane isn't the lanky, spindly boy I used to know. He's been replaced by a handsome man with broad, muscular shoulders and hockey scouts lining up to get him to play for their team.When he "accidentally" sends me a selfie one night after a chance phone call, then shows up at my house per my mother's request, a passion ignites inside me that I've never felt once in my life.But there's one big problem: Shane is holding onto an enormous secret. Something everyone in town seems to know but won't tell me. My father was the richest man in Black Mountain, and had his share of enemies, as reading his diary informs me.The more I fight my attraction to Shane, the more I fall for him. Despite his secrets, recklessness, and temper, he's got a protective streak a mile wide for those he cares about. Which, after one very hot night, includes me.My attraction to him comes on strong and without warning. But this is no fairy tale. This is a nightmare.I just pray the big bad ice wolf known Shane North is on my side.And before I make it out of Black Mountain, I'm going to have to confront the secrets about my father this town has tucked away.Or should I say, if I make it out of this town.