Book picks similar to
More Than the Game by Jenni Bara
arc
romance
contemporary
sports
Hard to Hold
Katie Rose - 2016
Marcus. Now the award-winning author of the Bad Boys of Baseball series introduces a team of soccer stars who score on and off the pitch. New Jersey Hurricanes striker Logan Hart lives for the grind of training, the adrenaline of competition, and all the perks of the road—until his ex hands him a baby and tells Logan to raise her on his own. He’s eager to pass this bundle of joy into more capable hands and get back to his hard-playing, hard-partying ways. But when a beautiful, blond drill sergeant of a nanny turns Logan’s life upside down, he sets a new goal: winning her heart. Isabella Bennett takes pride in teaching the rich and famous how to become loving families. Her no-nonsense style is just what Logan and his crying, copper-haired cutie need. So why can’t she get the image of Logan’s tanned, muscular body out of her head? Isabella’s here to whip a new father into shape, not fall for a sexy ladies’ man. But their chemistry is too tantalizing to ignore, much like the temptation to trust someone with her deepest secrets—and embrace a loving family all her own.
Poles Apart
Kirsty Moseley - 2014
She’s a pole dancer. The two of them are poles apart. Carson Matthews, the hottest driver ever to hit the MotoGP circuit, is living the carefree, celebrity lifestyle. With little to worry about other than keeping himself top of the leader board, his favourite weekend pastime is visiting a certain blonde at Angels Gentlemen’s Club. Emma Bancroft, a part-time lap dancer, is just trying to make ends meet. Her responsibilities weigh heavily on her as the does the secret she’s kept from everyone for the past two-and-a-half years.With the world’s press watching his every move, their relationship and Emma’s explosive secret can’t stay hidden for much longer…From international bestselling author Kirsty Moseley comes a tale that proves opposites really do attract.
Saddler's Secret
Nicole Rodrigues - 2019
Heartbreaking circumstances thrusts me into motherhood, and on the plane ride home, I break down, kissing a total stranger and the angel offered me a solution; Saddler Enterprises. I've climbed the ladder and worked my ass off for months, and in walks, Adam, our intern. I try to keep things professional but all of a sudden, I start to find him funny and charming. His kiss electrifies me but that's precisely when shit really hits the fan.Suddenly, I'm on the mysterious Machlin Saddler’s radar. Big, bad CEO that never makes his way to our floor, now makes it his new stomping grounds. He lights my body on fire like no one has before. He's alluring and gorgeous and I'm being pulled in two different directions. Only the new intern isn't who I think he is. He's the perfect stranger from the plane I took to start my new life with Kenzie. The perfect stranger I kissed. The perfect stranger I hate.Genevieve LangstonThe breathtaking woman I haven't been able to keep my mind off of, has been my downfall. I need her like a lion needs prey but I can't screw up the plan. She'll hate me, hell she already does, but the line between love and hate is very, very thin.
Wrecking Ball
P. Dangelico - 2017
How else would you describe losing your husband, your job, and your money all at once? Desperate times call for desperate measures. So when salvation comes in the form of one intolerable jerk, she has no choice but to accept his offer as a nanny for his eight year old nephew. Now all she has to do is find a way to ignore him for the next three months. Which is easier said than done.NFL quarterback Calvin Shaw has zero interest in women. It’s not that he doesn’t like women. In fact, he loves women. He just doesn’t want anything to do with them. What he needs to do is focus on winning another Super Bowl before he retires. Problem is, the woman living in his house is a major distraction. And he doesn’t know what’s worse, that he promised to be civil, or that he’s attracted to her.Best laid plans are going to get wrecked when a reclusive football star is forced to live with a reluctant nanny.
The Anti-Boyfriend
Penelope Ward - 2020
When my daughter wouldn’t stop wailing one night, Mr. Manwhore came knocking on my door. Miraculously, at the sound of his voice, Sunny stopped crying. And when he held her…she eventually fell asleep in his arms.Deacon was rough on the exterior, but apparently on the inside? Mr. Single-and-Ready-to-Mingle was a baby whisperer.After that night, we became friends.He’d go for coffee runs. Come over to chat. Normal friend stuff.But over time, our conversations ran deeper. We got closer.Until one night we crossed the line.Our friendship turned into a complicated mess.I’d gone and fallen for a guy who’d sworn off commitment and kids.I knew Deacon was starting to care for me too, even though Sunny and I didn’t fit into any plan he’d ever imagined for himself.He was wrong for me—so wrong that I’d dubbed him the “anti-boyfriend.”Then why did I wish more than anything that I could be the one woman to change him?
When We Touch
Tia Louise - 2017
My biggest regret. I thought she’d always be waiting for me. I was wrong.Now I’m back in Oceanside searching for peace, hoping to escape what my life has become. She isn’t supposed to be here…Dark hair blowing in the ocean breeze, Luscious curves barely hidden by thin cotton.I didn’t come back for her.But when we touch, I know I’ll do whatever it takes to make her mine.
Baby Mine
Kennedy Fox - 2019
Gorgeous. Feisty.I was captivated.But it didn’t matter because when she walks out of my best friend’s bedroom half naked, I know I’ve lost my chance.Now we’re roommates and constantly fighting about our living arrangements. Though we argue about everything, I can’t stop thinking about her in all the wrong ways. I should move out so I can finally get over her, but the selfish part of me can’t let go.When tragedy strikes, we’re left to deal with it together. Instead of pushing her away, I pull her closer.Just as we come to terms with our new reality, she reveals a life changing event that affects us both.And I’m left to make the hardest decision of my life—remain friends or confess my feelings and risk it all.BABY MINE is book 1 in the Hunter & Lennon duet and must be read first.
Most Valuable Playboy
Lauren Blakely - 2017
Touchdowns.Don't let the fact that I'm the leading pick in the Most Valuable Playboy charity auction fool you. These days, I'm only a player on the field. I've kept my pants zipped all season long — and it has been long — because nothing's more important than leading my team to victory every week. Except maybe escaping from the team owner's recently-widowed and handsy-as-hell sister who's dead set on winning more than a date with me.Enter Violet and a well-placed Hail Mary.She's my best friend's sister with a smile as sweet as cherry pie and a mind that runs quicker than the 40-yard-dash. After Violet saves the day with the highest bid, I don't even give her a two-minute warning before I kiss her in front of the whole crowd and then announce that she's my girlfriend. Which would be fine except my agent tells me we've got to keep up the act while he's negotiating my contract.What happens next when faking it starts to feel all too real?
Playing with Fire
Alix Nichols
Au pair Uma is all kinds of wrong for single dad Zach. She's his son's nanny. Raised in a conservative Hindu family, she’s still chaste at twenty-three. What's more, she’s his teammate’s almost-sort-of fiancée.Zach knows all of that. Then why can’t he rein in his lust for her?If there is one man Uma should not be attracted to, it’s the father of the adorable five-year-old in her charge. Once burned twice shy, Zach is the captain of a Paris water polo team and a wealthy entrepreneur who can have any woman he wants. No strings attached. Small wonder he goes all out to shun Uma!But when, with the help of a bottle of fine wine, Zach confesses all the dirty things he’d like to do to her, Uma astounds him by saying she wants that, too. What’s a man to do but oblige?Besides, it’s not like it’s the end of the world. They’re both sensible, level-headed adults. They’ll just have a bit of fun and then go back to normal, as if nothing happened.As if feelings weren’t already getting in the way.
Forward Progress
S.R. Grey - 2019
He blew his first shot at success, but now he has a second chance at playing football . . . and at having a life. Graham’s not about to squander this new opportunity with a rising team. No way. They’re about to make his dreams come true, even If they did just add a weird clause that he’s supposed to pretend some random chick is his girlfriend. Whatever. Teams can be weird about stuff. But Graham can play along. After all, it’s all about forward progress. In football, getting the ball down the field and scoring is goal number one. Life isn’t all that much different. That’s why Graham is hoping to do some scoring of his own off the field. Especially when he finds out the pretend girlfriend the team has picked out for him, Eden Vetterly, is beyond hot.But it’s not all about sex. Graham really likes Eden. And she likes him too—a lot.Too bad the team just changed all the rules. Forward Progress is the first book in the new Men of Fall football rom-com series, where football meets romance.
The Perfect Catch
Joanne Rock - 2019
But when he finds a sexy stranger acting as the temporary caretaker for his childhood home, all thoughts of baseball disappear. She won't fall for another player After losing her savings to a swindler ex-boyfriend, Josie Vance moves to Last Stand to start fresh where no one knows her unhappy past or the con that bankrupted her. But her peaceful healing time evaporates when the homeowner’s son arrives and throws himself into life on the farm—and charming Josie. She can’t risk an affair that draws attention to her or her past. Especially not when the public's fascination with the baseball-playing Ramsey clan is at an all-time high. Can she keep her secrets, her low profile, and her heart too?
Hate to Love You
Jennifer Sucevic - 2018
Brody McKinnon is Whitmore University's star defenseman destined for NHL greatness. He made a name for himself playing juniors before gracing us with his esteemed presence. As much as it pains me to admit it, he’s exploded at the college level. While other girls fall all over themselves trying to gain his attention, I do my best to steer clear just as I would a particularly nasty case of crabs. For reasons I can't fathom, Brody takes great pleasure in messing with me. And I, in return, enjoy slicing him to ribbons with my razor-sharp tongue. You'd think after three years, he'd learn to keep his distance. No such luck. Unfortunately for me, I’m about to experience the worst week of my life. It starts with my ex-boyfriend announcing at a party that I’m a lousy lay. He’s the hockey-playing jerk I dated last year who left a bad taste in my mouth (*eyeroll* seriously…get your mind out of the gutter). Want to guess who rides in on his trusty white steed to rescue me? Or should I say, opens his big mouth? Yep, you guessed it. Brody freaking McKinnon, the guy I love to hate. He only makes matters worse by telling everyone that we’re together and then punching Reed in the face. The first…I plan on strangling him for. The second…I’m only sorry I didn’t get to Reed first. Now I’m stuck fake-dating Brody, the one guy who makes me feel like a rabid dog on a choke chain, for the foreseeable future. I guarantee we won’t last more than seventy-two hours without me killing him. *This is a mature New Adult novel with strong language and sexual situations intended for readers over the age of 18*
Playing with the Enemy
Madison Wright - 2019
Tall, Dark and Douchey is causing me all kinds of problems... Working 3 jobs while at college and struggling to maintain my GPA, I crashed pretty hard. The result. I’m being punished and I have to share a room with the biggest name and hearth-throb on campus. The trouble: • He’s the burning hot, bad-boy superstar of the football team • Biggest sports star on campus and even bigger jerk • Sexy as hell My only problem, I’m a SUCKER for a bad boy and damn if his dominant attitude isn’t skin tingling. And now he sleeps on a bed only a few feet from mine! One game day with him and my life changes forever. Will I be able to make it through this semester with my GPA and dignity intact?…
The Soulmate Equation
Christina Lauren - 2021
After all, her father was never around, her hard-partying mother disappeared when she was six, and her ex decided he wasn’t “father material” before her daughter was even born. Jess holds her loved ones close but working constantly to stay afloat is hard...and lonely. But then Jess hears about GeneticAlly, a buzzy new DNA-based matchmaking company that’s predicted to change dating forever. Finding a soulmate through DNA? The reliability of numbers: This Jess understands. At least she thought she did, until her test shows an unheard-of 98 percent compatibility with another subject in the database: GeneticAlly’s founder, Dr. River Peña. This is one number she can’t wrap her head around, because she already knows Dr. Peña. The stuck-up, stubborn man is without a doubt not her soulmate. But GeneticAlly has a proposition: Get ‘to know him and we’ll pay you. Jess—who is barely making ends meet—is in no position to turn it down, despite her skepticism about the project and her dislike for River. As the pair are dragged from one event to the next as the “Diamond” pairing that could launch GeneticAlly’s valuation sky-high, Jess begins to realize that there might be more to the scientist—and the science behind a soulmate—than she thought. “Laugh-out-loud, sweet, charming, and humorous” (Library Journal, starred review), The Soulmate Equation proves that the delicate balance between fate and choice can never be calculated.
A Lie for a Lie
Helena Hunting - 2019
I just want to be a normal guy for a few weeks. So when I leave Chicago for some peace and quiet, the last thing I expect is for a gorgeous woman to literally fall into my lap on a flight to Alaska. Even better, she has absolutely no idea who I am.Lainey is the perfect escape from my life. My plan for seclusion becomes a monthlong sex fest punctuated with domestic bliss. But it ends just as abruptly as it began. When I’m called away on a family emergency, I realize too late that I have no way to contact Lainey.A year later, a chance encounter throws Lainey and me together again. But I still have a lie hanging over my head, and Lainey’s keeping secrets of her own. With more than lust at stake, the truth may be our game changer.