Book picks similar to
Cross Check by Lynn Stevens


sports-romance
college
college-young-adult
mid

The Changeup


A.M. Williams - 2019
    Tall. Handsome. Compassionate. Confident. He makes me feel things I haven’t in years.There’s just one problem: me. He can’t stand me and I’m getting to where I can’t stand him either.The glares stiffen my resolve to forget about my dream man and concentrate on my new job.Except...eventually those stares turn to something more. More heated. More promising. More everything.ChaseEmma Carlisle is what I didn’t know I needed in my life until I saw her.I don’t want her in my life, though. I have too much riding on my shoulders to concentrate on a relationship. A sick mom. A team owner who’s breathing down my neck to win a baseball championship.It’s easier to ignore her and pretend like she doesn’t exist than to think about how pretty she is or how I feel alive whenever she's around.But one surprise kiss and I’m left wanting more. One glimpse into what love could be like and I can’t think of anything else.We have to decide if it’s worth tempting fate and the flames of desire to see what love might be like.The Changeup is the first book in A.M. Williams Boys of Summer baseball romance series. It’s a workplace, enemies-to-lovers romance that features two perfectionists struggling to come to terms with the curveballs life has for them.If you love men in tight pants and the sassy women they fall for, this series is for you.This book was previously published as Coached in Love. It has been updated with new content and re-edited.

Top Notch


Nicole Richard - 2020
    First baseman for one of major league baseball’s hottest teams, he’s lived most of his adult years playing the field. But the time has come for him to work just as hard off it as he has on it. That is, if he wants the girl. And for the first time, he wants the girl. He wants Rowan Landry. A top-notch civil engineer, she's made her place in this so-called man's world. Rowan knows her worth, and the dedication it takes to get to the top, but she isn't stopping there.Nothing will stand in her way of what she's worked so hard for... until he actually does.With chemistry so undeniable, it's no wonder their torrid one-night stand holds enough heat to burn up the sheets. But when a pertinent piece of information complicates things and a make-or-break decision leaves unanswered questions, they come to realize this just might be the final inning.

The Chase


Elle Kennedy - 2018
    And they must be right, because there’s no logical reason why I’m so drawn to Colin Fitzgerald. I don’t usually go for tattoo-covered, video-gaming, hockey-playing nerd-jocks who think I’m flighty and superficial. His narrow view of me is the first strike against him. It doesn’t help that he’s buddy-buddy with my brother.And that his best friend has a crush on me.And that I just moved in with them.Oh, did I not mention we’re roommates?I suppose it doesn’t matter. Fitzy has made it clear he’s not interested in me, even though the sparks between us are liable to burn our house down. I’m not the kind of girl who chases after a man, though, and I’m not about to start. I’ve got my hands full dealing with a new school, a sleazy professor, and an uncertain future. So if my sexy brooding roomie wises up and realizes what he’s missing?He knows where to find me.

Goal Keeper: A Pearson Players novel


Sarah Nego - 2018
     Luci has big ones and they don't include getting laid. She's got scholarships to maintain, a grueling schedule of classes and soccer practice, and no room for nonsense. So when her captain makes it clear that the guys' team is off limits, it's not a problem... Until she meets Ryan. Star forward on the guys' soccer team. Hotter than should be legally allowed. And worst of all...her team captain's ex. When Ryan talks Luci into being his partner in Spanish class, he makes her want things that could set all her big plans on fire. Things like Ryan, naked in her bed, naked in the locker room, naked on the quad...so much naked. She shouldn't want him, but a girl can only have so much restraint when temptation throws a drool-inducing six-pack in your face and kisses in a way that makes breathing seem optional. Dating Ryan was never Luci's plan, but plans can change. Is this hot jock worth risking everything she's worked for? Goal Keeper is a laugh-out-loud standalone full of swoon-worthy, forbidden romance. Drop your plans and start reading today!

Touch Back


Zoey Shores - 2020
    That’s how I know I’m not falling for Cole Hampton.Empire State U’s top Running Back is a cocky alpha-hole who thinks he’s God’s gift to women. While I’m hosting all-night study sessions, he’s pulling all-nighters of a very different kind. Needless to say, our paths don’t cross.But at the tail end of Junior year, a series of chance encounters are enough to get our personalities clashing and our tempers flaring.I hate his arrogance. I hate his sense of entitlement. I hate that he has sorority girls hanging off his arms as he walks down campus, even though he treats them with total disdain.I hate how his obnoxious, arrogant jokes are starting to make me laugh …I hate how I see his piercing, blues eye when I lie down in bed at night …And when a wild coincidence over the summer forces us closer than ever, I hate how sexual this tension is starting to feel …Pfft, nothing to worry about, right? “Opposites attract” just doesn’t happen in the real world.

Assumptions


Melanie Codina - 2014
    It’s simple, you work hard, enjoy life, surround yourself with friends and family, avoid jumping to conclusions … and oh yeah, don’t date college athletes. These rules have worked well and taken her down the path she wants in life. So what’s a girl to do when temptation, in the form of a sexy college soccer player, is placed right in the middle of that path? Deciding when to break the rules has never been easier for Leeann. But when assumptions are made, and more than just the rules are broken … will she be able to find her way down that path again? And what happens when it’s no longer the path she’s meant to take?Until now, Jonathan Baxter had one primary focus in his life, soccer. All decisions made, have been based on how it could affect his ability to play soccer. His grades, his choice of college, any type of extracurricular activities, were all carefully assessed. All of it has made playing college soccer possible. But when an injury sidelines him for the foreseeable future, and jeopardizes his dreams, he has to work even harder than before. Rehabilitating his injury becomes his primary objective. Until he meets Leeann, a physical therapy assistant whose touch has the ability to make him lose focus. She has him thinking there could more in his life—in his future—than just soccer. So what’s Jonathan to do when Leeann assumes he’s just like every other jock out there? He has to prove her assumptions wrong.

This is Falling


Ginger Scott - 2014
    Then, I had to learn how to survive. Two years, three months and sixteen days had passed since I was the Rowe Stanton from before, since tragedy stole my youth and my heart went along with it. When I left for college, I put a thousand miles between my future and my past. I’d made a choice—I was going to cross back to the other side, to live with the living. I just didn’t know how. And then I met Nate Preeter. An All-American baseball player, Nate wasn’t supposed to notice a ghost-of-a-girl like me. But he did. He shouldn’t want to know my name. But he did. And when he learned my secret and saw the scars it left behind, he was supposed to run. But he didn’t. My heart was dead, and I was never supposed to belong to anyone. But Nate Preeter had me feeling, and he made me want to be his. He showed me everything I was missing. And then he showed me how to fall. *This is a standalone in a three-part series that will focus on different characters. Each book can be read on its own.

Power Play


Alley Ciz - 2019
    if they’re on your brothers’ team. The last time Jordan did that, it ended in disaster. It was easy to promise her brothers she'd never date another one of their teammates again. Until she meets Jake. The spark she feels when she spends time with him makes her promise harder and harder to keep. Surely her brothers would understand breaking this promise if it means following her heart. Wouldn't they? Never sleep with a teammate’s sister. This is the universal rule of athletes everywhere. Until he meets Jordan. As soon as Jake sets eyes on her, he wants her. The goalie's job is to see missed shots and failed opportunities on the ice. This is one shot he's not going to miss, no matter what obstacles get in his way. POWER PLAY is a flirty, swoon worthy sexy rom-com and the first book in the BTU Alumni series. It can be read as a stand alone. If you like hockey boys, sarcastic friends, matchmaking K9’s, too-cute-to-handle kindergarteners, fierce heroines and swoony hot as puck Alpha heroes, then you want to get to know these cast of characters. One puck head and a HEA guaranteed.

STUFFED (The Slate Brothers, Book Two)


Harper James - 2017
    Each One A Football Star. Each One Sexy, Rough And Completely Untamed. A standalone romance with a guaranteed HEA When I first meet Carson Slate, he’s half-naked, his perfect abs and chiseled biceps on display. Of course, that’s because I’m in the team locker room and he’s changing after a game. But you don’t have to be a sports fan to know two things about him: 1) He’s only a junior, but he’s already being looked at by professional scouts. 2) His father is a murderer. Or at least, he’s accused of being a murderer. The only reason I’m even talking to someone like Carson Slate is because I’m a journalist for our college paper. But from the moment I lay eyes on the gorgeous superstar, it’s like I become a different person. I’ve always been responsible to a fault, and suddenly I’m doing bad things. Shirking all of my responsibilities, lying, hiding, pretending to be someone I’m not. And before I know it, Carson is treating me differently too, demanding that I do sexual acts for every question he answers for my article. The worst part? The worst part is that I love it. I love it when Carson Slate tells me what sexy outfit to wear. I love letting him touch me And I love it when he tells me how to touch him. Or where to put my mouth… And yes, he’s as big as the rumors suggest, in EVERY way. But then again, so is the story I’m writing. The story that could destroy Carson, his father, and everything I hold dear…

Lucky Hit


Hannah Cowan - 2020
    But with his move to a new city and a failing hockey team, he realizes it might not be as easy as he thought to start over. Especially not when he meets her, the girl who flips his entire universe upside down.Octavia Layton is the girl you love to know, that is if you can actually get that far. Ava is burdened by a dark past and memories she likes to keep tightly locked away. It's not very often she lets people into her life, not with everything she's been through. But when she gets dragged into meeting the overly-confident new hockey star in town, it seems like things might just be about to change.

I Dare You


Ilsa Madden-Mills - 2018
    Good girl.Lover of fluffy kitties and Star Wars. Curious.His dare? Spend one night in his bed—a night he promises will be unforgettable—and she can solve the mystery of who he is. She knows she shouldn't, but what else is she going to do with her boring Valentine's Day?One sexy hook-up later, her mind is blown and the secret's out.Maverick Monroe.Bad boy.The most talented football player in the country.Just ask him.Too bad for him Delaney's sworn off dating athletes forever after her last heartbreak.But Maverick wants more than one night and refuses to give up on winning Delaney’s heart. She isn’t one to be fazed by a set of broad shoulders. Will the bad boy land the nerd girl or will the secrets they keep from each other separate them forever?

Campus Flirt: A Friends-to-Lovers Football Romance (The Campus Series Book 3)


Jennifer Sucevic - 2022
    

Roommates with Benefits


Nicole Williams - 2017
    He’s the epitome of the “bad boy, good man” persona. The best of both worlds. The worst of them too. He’s the type of guy most girls wouldn’t mind sharing a confined space with, except my new roommate isn’t all swagger and chiseled abs. He’s bossy. Messy. Cocky. Infuriating. Doesn’t believe in personal space. Has no qualms about roaming the apartment with a loincloth-sized towel cinched around his waist. Seems under the delusion he’s my personal protector (refer back to infuriating). He plays college baseball and holds down a part-time job—I don’t know where he finds the time to get on my nerves. We have nothing in common . . . except our attraction to one another. And in six hundred square feet of shared space, the tension only has so much room to grow before one of us gives in to temptation. But really, what chance do a couple of young kids chasing their dreams in the big city have of making it?Since Soren claims I know squat about sports (he might have a semi-point), here’s a stat for him—one in a million. That’s our odds.

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.

Just Please Me: Standalone College Sports Romance (Westbrooke Angels Book 1)


Deanna Grey - 2021
    Star athlete. Talented graphic designer. And an absolute heartthrob... living a double life. We've sat next to each other all semester in silence. It takes a group project for us to finally talk. For some reason, I'm open with him about my secret darkness. And when Weston learns about my sadness he's determined to help.His offer takes me by surprise. Weston wants to please me. He promises to be the perfect distraction. And I'm in dire need of one of those. There’s a just list of rules I have to follow: No bullshit.No titlesListen to my bodyScream his name when appropriateLeave when I don't need him anymore...Seems simple enough. That is until his secrets start growing. He can't keep his double life in the shadows anymore. I can't take on any more shadows. Leaving is inevitable. But my want for him outweighs logic. And his want for me forces him to make a decision. Does he want to take on the darkness or become it?