Book picks similar to
First to Fall by Stacy Lane


sports-romance
sports
contemporary
low-angst

Libby Lane


C.E. Johnson - 2019
    I’ve lived here my entire life. So I couldn’t have been more excited when we bought the fixer upper on Libby Lane. That was until “we” became “I”. After I cried out every ounce of my heartbreak with a hammer in my hand, I learned how to be happy alone. Now, all I need is a porch swing, the warm country breeze and a glass of sweet tea. But when I run into Wyatt, the new cop that just moved into town, my time in solitude begins to fade. I just hope trusting him won’t be one of the biggest mistakes I make.This is not the type of place I would have pictured myself living. Jasper Creek is a far cry from the city streets I grew up on. But this town does have one advantage. Cora. Every minute I spend with her on that porch swing, breaks down a little piece of the wall I built inside of me. So when someone targets her and my instincts point to things getting dangerous, you may as well have taken a sledgehammer to that wall. Now my fear of leaving someone behind is replaced by an even greater fear. Losing her.

Undisputed


Aaron L. Speer - 2018
    As much of a gentleman as one can be having an undisputed record with every win by a knock out. People LOVE him.Overworked barista Tegan Holland doesn't know he exists. Not until ten minutes before her friend Fiona drags her to the biggest cage fight Sydney has ever seen. By the time he heads back to his training camp in the States, she'll never forget him. But should she let him forget her? He's chasing his dream. He doesn't have time for her. Does he?For Owen, the hits just keep coming. Trash talking opponents, sensationalist media, and someone's out to ruin him for good. He can't put Tegan in the middle of it. Can he?Soon, will any of it matter? Cause life has other plans, and NOTHING hits harder than life.

When He Falls


Michelle Jo Quinn - 2017
    WHEN HE FALLS ~Maggie~ I thought I had found the man I was going to spend the rest of my life with – until he ran off with my best friend on our wedding day. I had to get away from it all - my meddling mother, the cheating couple of the year, and the embarrassment of being stood up at the altar. My sister’s house in San Francisco is the perfect escape. I can get lost in a big city where nobody knows who I am, where I can mend my broken heart in silence. But someone crashes my pity party. Zach Faustino was the quiet boy who lived next door ten years ago. He was my first kiss and - if a young heart can be trusted - my first love. That was before he and his mother left without saying goodbye. Ten years have shaped him into an irresistible, charming young man. But the same ten years have also sharpened his edges, his dark past paving the way to a career that could end in a heartbeat. And despite it all, Zach hopes to change my mind about giving love another chance. But is a broken heart a willing heart? And if we’re both broken, is a second chance at love enough to fix us?

For the Captain


Jenny Redford - 2018
    But Jordan realizes the title carries with it a new-found sense of responsibility. He needs to be a leader if he wants the team to win it all this season, which means leaving behind his reputation as a partying ladies' man. Charlotte Stone is a best-selling author and Manhattan socialite who is sick of the city. She's determined to live somewhere different that doesn't include being a guest star on her mother's reality show. But places like London or Los Angeles would just be more of the same. Then she hears about a building renovation project in Detroit and decides a move to somewhere completely unexpected is exactly what she needs. What Charlotte doesn't need is another hockey player in her life. Two years ago, she dated the biggest pest in the league who ended up breaking her heart. So why is she trying to find excuses to see the all-star captain of the Pirates? And how did she become the only woman who could derail Jordan's plan to win it all?

Make Her Mine


Scarlett King - 2020
    A newer edition of this book can be found here.Telling my boss my BIGGEST secret was just one of many mistakes…#1 I revealed that I was still a…you know what.#2 I also confessed I’d never experience the big O.#3 I don’t even have to spell it out do I?Look, I NEVER expected him to make it his mission to help a girl out,But I can’t say I haven’t fantasized about it.Even when I want to slap his arrogant face,I wouldn’t mind tearing his suit off in the process.As much as I want to let him take me in every way imaginable,My mission to find the big O,Quickly turns into Oh shit!Falling for him wasn’t part of the plan…or the agreement.Will I always just be another conquest for my billionaire boss?Or can I fall out of his bed and into his heart?

Hot Cop


Aubree Valentine - 2018
    He's has had one goal his entire life: to protect and serve the community he loves. But when a photo of Rhys and his colleagues goes viral, he finds himself faced with opportunities he never anticipated before. From book covers to modeling gigs, and even a few tv appearances, Rhys quickly becomes the object of female attention. Women every where are offering themselves up for a good time. There's just one problem. There's only one woman's attention he's after.KJ is a best selling author who finds herself in a very compromising position with one of Tallahassee's finest police officers. His abrupt exit after a weekend fling, has her convinced she's seen the last of Rhys. Until one surprise leads to another, and his photo is plastered all over social media. When he becomes the featured model at her next signing event, KJ finds herself tangled in more than just the sheets. After all, Rhys Mitchell is so much more than just one Hot Cop.

Mane Attraction


Kay Stewart - 2019
    What Emma discovers is that she hates surprises. When her life is turned upside down and she is suddenly seeing people in a new light, she decides to embrace this opportunity to take a walk on the wild side.Declan loves playing hockey for a living. Who wouldn't? Life as the captain of the professional hockey team, the Milwaukee Manes, is very organized and he likes knowing his main concern is putting the puck in the net. That is until his best friend's sister decides to shake up his life with rules of her own. Before he even knows what is happening, he has completely fallen under Emma's spell.Everything was good... right up until it wasn't. When Declan's best friend finds out about his relationship with Emma, and a ghost from Emma's past resurfaces, the trust they had built with one another shatters around them. Trust has a way of bringing people together just as it has a way of ripping them apart. Will Milwaukee's favorite hockey player find his way back to the one woman who has ever meant more to him than a rubber puck?

Avalanche


Cambria Hebert - 2018
     Through a bullet hole in a wall, I watch a man bleed to death. Those responsible think their crime died with the victim, until I identify them. What’s a girl to do when she’s being hunted by murderers witness protection can’t even stop? Run. My only refuge is a place I vowed to never go again. When it’s do or die, an eight-year-old heartache suddenly seems trivial. Besides, he won’t be there anyway. But he is. Turns out my old pain feels brand new the second his eyes meet mine. I can’t leave. I can’t stay. This snowy town that’s supposed to be my shelter suddenly exposes me more than before. With no one else to lean on, Liam becomes my lifeline. Now we’re both running for our lives, trying not to get swept away.

A Game Like Ours


Marissa J. Gramoll - 2021
    To the outside world, Bobby Anderson is an attractive, charismatic baseball star. But inside, Bobby holds secrets—including his closeted sexuality—and each secret alone has the power to destroy his carefully-constructed life.When his best friend Cody dies, Bobby is thrown into the unwitting role of supporter for Cody’s grieving fiancée, Lexie. The issue? Bobby has long-harbored feelings for her that he never allowed to surface. Torn between his growing attraction for Lexie and devotion to his deceased friend, Bobby is forced to re-examine his life and concern about divulging his sexual identity. Another secret spoken by Cody during his final moments eats away at Bobby’s conscience, driving the wedge of Cody’s death deeper. Once these secrets come to light, will Lexie ever be able to forgive them? Can she accept Bobby for who he is? Will she ever want anything to do with him again?

Ryan's Kiss


Mel Walker - 2019
    That damn kiss. one kiss that not only destroyed our future but ended my ability to believe, to trust, to love.He was my best friend. We should have known better.Three years kept us apart, yet an invisible rope continues to tug at us.  He’s finally returning home and I know it’ll only be a matter of time before we must face each other again. I’m older, stronger, wiser and no longer the starry-eyed girl who followed his every command.He almost destroyed me last time, I won't give him a second chance. I can't.

Hometown Lover


Annabelle Love - 2019
    So, how did I end up in my best friend's bed? Well, he did rescue me from my broken down car. Plus, he’s grown into a complete hunk of a man and is hardly the beanstalk that I recall growing up with. It just... happened. I mean, if you call being trapped inside due to a snowstorm and then finding yourself being ravished in bed 'just happening'. A fling… that’s what we agreed. We know this can’t last, I’m only back in my hometown for a couple of weeks. My life is in Vegas with the job I love. And his is here with his ranch. We physically can't be together… So, why don’t I want to leave? ***Hometown Lover is a stand-alone read with toe-curling romantic scenes. There's no cheating, no cliffhangers, no escaping the steamy nights (and days), and a guaranteed HEA***

Her Secret Santa


Kelli Callahan - 2019
     I don’t care if all of the people I work with call me Elly-nezer Scrooge behind my back. I don’t care if my family judges me because I haven’t been to a Christmas dinner in years. I don’t even care that I spend every single holiday alone. I’m happy. I’ve said that so many times that I think I finally believe it... Then my cousin signed me up for the Secret Santa Romance dating app. And I got matched with Ian... Sure, he’s hot, charming, and checks every single box I can come up with on the perfect guy list but there’s no way he’s going to convince me to go on a date with him or change my perspective of Christmas with his corny jokes. So why can’t I convince myself to stop talking to him, delete this stupid app, and get on with my life? This is a full-length standalone Romantic Comedy.

Kiss and Don't Tell


Meghan Quinn - 2021
    Steamy and unapologetically witty.Five hockey players, a cabin in the woods . . . and little old me, Winnie Berlin.Sounds like the start of a fantasy, right? But it's not. It's my reality.It all started when I got lost in the middle of the Canadian Rockies. A wicked thunderstorm sent my car mud sliding into a ditch and for a girl whose survival skills involve finding the nearest Starbucks, I was in deep trouble.Forced to abandon my car in search of help, I stumbled upon a cabin in the middle of nowhere. Soaking wet, irritated, and in desperate need of a hot shower, I knocked on the door for help only to be greeted by five boisterous, burly, and insanely attractive men.Not just men.Professional hockey players.I hit the motherload of fantasies, right? Wrong.Because as it turns out, one of them is my ex-boyfriend's half-brother. And when I end up crashing in their spare bedroom for the night, things take a very unexpected turn.I'm not sure any amount of survival skills can protect my heart from Vancouver Agitators star goalie, Pacey Lawes. But as long as we kiss and don’t tell, maybe everything will be okay . . .

Kismet


Dee Lagasse - 2019
    Sister. Princess. After a nonstop week promoting her new book to schools throughout Boston, all she wanted to do was spend a Friday night in her hotel room... eating chocolate and drinking wine. Then her eyes met his... Bodie Cambridge Son. Brother. Hometown Hero. After a whirlwind week celebrating a World Series win, the last thing he wanted to do was attend yet another event. Until he heard her laugh... Diving head, and heart, first into a seemingly picture perfect romance, it doesn’t take long for the world to fall in love with them too. An All-American baseball player winning the heart of a princess? It’s a modern day fairy-tale. But as Sutton and Bodie settle into the idea of their happily ever after, ghosts from the past begin to haunt them. With their love, faith and trust on the line, Sutton and Bodie must choose to fight together or walk away and leave everything they’ve worked so hard to build behind.

Par for the Course


Jenna Bayley-Burke - 2008
    He’s felt this magnetic pull only once before, for a bespectacled brunette back in college. That woman was nothing like this platinum blonde from New York—confident, poised…and hitting on him like crazy. Is she really interested in him, or merely seeking fodder for her Dating Diva column? Just one wrong move from Ben, one more disappointment, and Jillian will finally be able to stop obsessing about her college crush, leave town, and get on with her life. Except the more rope she gives him to hang himself, the more he ties her up in knots. Every move he makes is the right one, both in bed and out of it. Shaken to her college-nerd core, Jillian begins to wonder if giving him a taste of love-’em-and-leave-’em is what she wants after all.