Book picks similar to
Not My Romeo by Ilsa Madden-Mills


romance
sports-romance
sports
contemporary

Until It Fades


K.A. Tucker - 2017
    It isn’t until after the police have arrived that Catherine realizes exactly who it is she has saved: Brett Madden, hockey icon and media darling.Catherine has already had her fifteen minutes of fame and the last thing she wants is to have her past dragged back into the spotlight, only this time on a national stage. So she hides her identity. It works.For a time.But when she finds the man she saved standing on her doorstep, desperate to thank her, all that changes. What begins as an immediate friendship quickly turns into something neither of them expected. Something that Catherine isn’t sure she can handle; something that Catherine is afraid to trust.Because how long can an extraordinary man like Brett be interested in an ordinary woman like Catherine…before the spark fades?

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?

Hands Down


Mariana Zapata - 2020
    Including those your once loved ones might have unintentionally given you. (Those just take longer.)She thinks she’s ready when a call has her walking back into her old friend’s life. Or at least as prepared as possible to see the starting quarterback in the National Football Organization. Before the lights, the fans, and the millions, he’d been a skinny kid with a heart of gold. Waltzing out of Zac Travis’s life should be easy. Just as easy as he walked out of hers.

Sacked


Jen Frederick - 2015
    Warrior. Champion. And...virgin. Knox knows what he wants--and he gets it. All American Football player? Check. NFL pros scouting him? Check. Now, he's set his sight on two things. The national title. And Ellie Campbell. Sure, she's the sister of his fellow teammate, but that's not going to stop him. Especially not when he’s convinced Ellie is the one. ...but he's never met her before. But Ellie isn't as sure. She's trying to start a new life and she's not interested in a relationship...with anyone. Beside it's not just her cardinal rule of never dating her brother's teammates that keeps her away, but Ellie has a dark secret that would jeopardize everything Knox is pursuing. Knox has no intention of losing. Ellie has no intention of giving in.

Drive Me Wild


Melanie Harlow - 2020
    I’m a mechanic, not a hotel manager. I've got enough on my plate trying to keep my shop from going under, my overbearing mother off my back, and my baseball team in contention for the league championship. I don’t have time for a former debutante with zero street smarts and a cash flow problem, even if she is crazy beautiful. Problem is, she’s stranded in my small town, and I’m hiding a protective streak underneath my grumpy exterior that runs deep. So I offer her a place to stay and keep my hands to myself. For exactly one night. If only she weren't so gorgeous. So funny. So eager to please. She’s a disaster behind the wheel, but she drives me wild without even trying--at work, at home, in the back of my truck . . . I can’t get enough of the way she makes me feel. But I know better than to think it can last. She wants a fairy tale, and I’m no prince. So when it comes time for her to leave, there’s nothing I can do but let her go. No matter how much it hurts to say goodbye.

The Rivalry


Nikki Sloane - 2017
     He’s good with his hands, even better with his sexy mouth, and the best at making me forget my own name. His—ahem—stats are perfect. But I can’t fall for him. He might be everything I want, all rolled into a glorious package of gridiron god, but there’s one teeny-tiny problem. The vile, loathsome team I’ve spent my entire life hating—my beloved school’s arch-rival? This guy is their star player.

This Is Crazy


Natasha Madison - 2019
     Zara Stone All my life, I’ve said I will never date a hockey player. I know better because I’ve seen and lived it all. My father is a hockey god, my brother is the captain of the most successful NHL team in the world, and my brother-in-law also plays in the league. Their lives are complicated, so I went in the opposite direction. I fell in love with a scholar. But instead of proposing marriage, he broke up with me. Three months later, I saw his engagement picture on Instagram. I couldn’t let him get away with that. No, it didn’t matter what, I was going to make that man see that I did not need him. Evan Richards I was in the running to pass my point record from last year, ready to claim the number one spot in the league. On top of my game, I was riding my career high wave. Then, Hockey’s Princess, Zara Stone tweeted me. She wanted me to crash her ex’s wedding. The worst that could happen? A PR nightmare. The best? A fun night with a beautiful woman. It started out as a game—something I’m good at. Her crazy idea twisted into something I wasn’t looking for, something neither of us wanted. When push comes to shove, one thing runs through my mind: This is Crazy. Also, this is crazy right.

Fraternize


Rachel Van Dyken - 2017
    But even though the plus-size athlete is breaking down boundaries, she still has to contend with the massive rulebook. Carbs? Nope. Chocolate? Definitely not. Still, Emerson loves her curves, and she’ll rock the hell out of this job even if it kills her. Except for one mandate that is easier read than done…No fraternizing with the players.Problem one is Miller Quinton: Emerson’s first love, first sex, and the guy who still ignites her daydreams and R-rated fantasies. Thrown back together, Miller and Emerson feel the undeniable pull of passion again, even if the conflict that tore them apart seems insurmountable. Then there’s way-too-sexy Grant Sanchez. He has a serious reputation with the ladies, and when it comes to winning someone he wants, he doesn’t let anyone stand in his way.Now Emerson is breaking every rule in the manual. But what she doesn’t know is that she’s part of a wicked little game—one that could steal both her dream and her heart.

Heartless


Winter Renshaw - 2016
    It was raining sideways that morning, and my plan was to return it the next day; safe and dry. Only I kept it. I kept it, and I read it. A week later, overwhelmed with curiosity and feeling guilty for harboring secrets that didn’t belong to me, I tried to return it. Only I wasn’t expecting to meet him. Unapologetically heartless and enigmatically sexy, he claims he knows nothing about the journal I found outside his place, but the reticent glint in his blue-green gaze tells me otherwise. There’s something different about him; something damaged yet magical, and I’m drawn to him; pulled into his orbit. There’s just one problem. The more I get to know him, the more I’m positive the journal belonged to him... ...and the more I find myself hoping, selfishly, that I’m wrong.

Puck Me Secretly


Odette Stone - 2018
    I’ve never had an orgasm, but I’ve faked plenty. I want to experience love.  Real, passionate love. I don’t want to die. It’s funny what blurts out of your mouth when the plane you’re on is going down, and I didn’t hold back with my seat mate when my plane decided to crash. My hysterical confessions didn’t faze the muscular stranger that sat beside me.  In fact, he promised if we survived, he’d give me my first orgasm.   We survived. I came. And then he left without telling me who he was. On the first day of my job, I stood in front of the Vancouver Wolves hockey team and called out a number.  #33. Imagine my shock when he skated forward. Max is an incredible hockey player, whose wild, out-of-control antics have almost derailed his career.  So many secrets shroud his past and continue to threaten his future.   Now he’s my secret.  And that secret could ruin everything.   Puck Me SECRETLY.  Some secrets are too big to keep. Intended for adult audiences only.

The Right Player


Kandi Steiner - 2020
    And while that label stung at first, I’ve since embraced it — living the wild and free life and sticking to a three date max. That’s just enough time to have some fun and snuff out the possibility of catching feelings. And it’s been working for me for years… Until Makoa Kumaka.Sadly, he also has a three date rule — and it’s the exact opposite of mine. From the second I meet him, all I can think about is stripping down that six-foot-five Herculean hunk of a man. But like the gentleman I wish he wasn’t, he’s making me wait.The more time we spend together, the more I feel those pesky emotions creeping in. I’m even tempted to trust him, but blame it on my past or my instincts, I can’t shake the feeling that he’s hiding something… I’ve been playing the game forever, and no man has ever won my heart — which meant they never had the power to break it.But maybe I just hadn’t met the right player.Maybe I’ll wish I never did.

Alex


Sawyer Bennett - 2014
    Pushed into the sport by an alcoholic father, Alex isn't afraid to give fans the proverbial middle finger, relishing his role as the MVP they love to hate. Management, however, isn't so amused. Now Alex has a choice: fix his public image through community service or ride the bench. But Alex refuses to be molded into the Carolina Cold Fury poster boy... not even by a tempting redhead with killer curves.As a social worker, Sutton Price is accustomed to difficult people--like Alex, who's been assigned to help her create a drug-abuse awareness program for at-risk youth as part of the team's effort to clean up his image. What she doesn't expect is the arrogant smirk from his perfect lips to stir her most heated fantasies. But Sutton isn't one to cross professional boundaries--and besides, Alex doesn't do relationships... or does he? The more she sees behind Alex's bad-boy facade, the more Sutton craves the man she uncovers.

Royally Screwed


Emma Chase - 2016
    Then, one snowy night in Manhattan, the prince meets a dark haired beauty who doesn't bow down. Instead, she throws a pie in his face.Nicholas wants to find out if she tastes as good as her pie, and this heir apparent is used to getting what he wants. Dating a prince isn't what waitress Olivia Hammond ever imagined it would be.There's a disapproving queen, a wildly inappropriate spare heir, relentless paparazzi, and brutal public scrutiny. While they've traded in horse drawn carriages for Rolls Royces, and haven't chopped anyone's head off lately, the royals are far from accepting of this commoner. But to Olivia, Nicholas is worth it.Nicholas grew up with the whole world watching, and now Marriage Watch is in full force. In the end, Nicholas has to decide who he is and, more importantly, who he wants to be: a King... or the man who gets to love Olivia forever.

#Nerd


Cambria Hebert - 2014
    He wants to stay on the team. An awkward alliance doesn't even begin to cover Rimmel and Romeo's relationship.But that's about to change.It starts with a dare. An initiation. A challenge.Quickly, it turns into more. But when you're a victim of your status, there is no room for anything real. The rules are clear and simple.Stick to your circle.And never fall in love with anyone on the outside.

The Player


Claire Contreras - 2016
    With flashy cars and enough media attention to put the Royal Family to shame, I’m the definition of Most Eligible Bachelor. I've never met a man who doesn't want to be me or a woman who doesn't want to tame me. Until I meet Camila. From the moment I lay eyes on her, I know I have to have her. She wants to keep me at arm's length.I want her naked in my bed. She thinks our worlds are too different.All I want her to think about is screaming my name. She says I’m bad news. I have three weeks to prove her wrong.