Book picks similar to
Playing the Game by J.L. Paul


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Home Ice


Rachelle Vaughn - 2012
    Sure, she secretly dreams of a fairytale romance, but she is content living vicariously through her promiscuous, quirky best friend Izzy. However, Izzy has other plans. Intent on finding her friend a man, Izzy drags Ally to a local hockey game. Ally doesn’t know anything about hockey, except for Izzy’s hormone-fueled description of sweaty men in uniforms, but she tries to be a good sport anyway. To Ally’s surprise, she enjoys the fast-paced game and is even more stunned when she collides into star player Benjamin Price, practically knocking him off his skates. Ben plays for the Red Valley Razors and has everything that Ally does not: an exciting career, a multi-million dollar home overlooking the city and, of course, a fast car. Ben opens up an exciting new world for Ally and easily sweeps her off her feet with his boyish good looks and athletic charm. When his contract with the Razors expires and he is offered the chance to play for the best team in the league, which just so happens to be 1300 miles away, Ally risks losing everything. Will they end up on thin ice when life threatens to tear them apart? With the support of her family and friends, Ally experiences life, love, letting go and discovers that the true meaning of home isn’t necessarily an address.

Falling into You


Lauren Abrams - 2013
    Instead, thrust into a world of glittering parties and oversized bank accounts, she immediately feels like an outsider.Chris Jensen’s Hollywood agent keeps telling him that he’ll be the next big star, just as long as he gets the lead role in the reboot of a classic action franchise. When he returns to New York after a two-year absence, he has other things on his mind—his dying father, an irate sister, and the beautiful, seductive, infuriating, and ruthless Sophia Pearce. He's not exactly thrilled when she asks him to be her roommate's tour guide, but he reluctantly agrees.When Hallie and Chris meet, they're irresistibly drawn to each other. However, Chris’s meteoric rise to stardom and long-suppressed secrets from Hallie’s past threaten to destroy their tenuous connection, and each is forced to examine whether happy endings are nothing but a Hollywood fantasy.

Falling into Infinity


Layne Harper - 2013
    A chance meeting with A&M’s star quarterback Colin McKinney changes everything. A friendship between the two grows over time and blossoms into a powerful love affair. Charlie and Colin must learn to cope with his transition to playing professional football, the crushing attention of the media, and constant demands of his fans. At the same time, she’s struggling with how her dream of attending medical school will fit into their already stressed relationship and Colin’s new life. Falling Into Infinity asks the question is just loving someone enough to make a relationship work?

Center of Gravity


K.K. Allen - 2018
    "If I could rewrite the rules, I'd do it for you."Lex came to Los Angeles with big dreams. To learn from the best choreographers in the business and to secure a professional dance gig working for Hollywood's elite. Everything was going according to plan—until she was shoved into the arms of the one man who could make or break her career. Come to find out, it wasn't her career she had to worry about. It was her heart. Theo didn't work with amateurs.Then again, he had never seen anyone move across a dance floor like Alexandra "Lex" Quinn. She was athleticism and grace, precision and passion, and she had a stage presence he couldn't tear his eyes from. He wanted her...on his team, in his bed. There was only one problem... He couldn't have both.

Rocked Under


Cora Hawkes - 2012
    The intense and angst-filled story of Emma and Scott is a painful, gut-wrenching and exhausting portrayal of how hard it can be to let go...Picking up the pieces and starting again in the US, Emma enrols in college with her cousin, Ashley. She is finally free to do what she wants and live how she chooses, and no man will ever rule her decisions or emotions again.That is, until Scott Mason walks on stage...Intense bad boy Scott is the lead singer of a popular local rock band. A ladies’ man and Ashley's long-time friend, Scott holds an instant fascination for Emma — she finds herself drawn to him, even though he represents everything she hates and needs to stay away from in a guy. He treats females like he does a cigarette — light it, use it, and lose it. For her cousin's sake, Emma makes an effort to get along with Scott, but she soon discovers that there is more to him than first appears, making him even more dangerous in her eyes. Behind the façade of friendship, jealousy, obsession, fear and insecurity fester — an internal battle rages as she fights her attraction and does everything she can to stop history from repeating itself.One thing she knows for sure is that if she breaks her rule, it may destroy her.Warning: Contains mature content — recommended age 17+.

Foolish Games


Leah Spiegel - 2011
    She must avoid letting her mother know what she is up to, keep one friend from jumping from one frying pan into another while helping the other hook up with the love of his life and all this while attempting to thwart a killer who is seeking revenge. The dialogue is humorous, the characters engaging and the dramatic tension both romantic and murderous.

Who He Is


S.Q. Williams - 2013
    She's never dated a guy in her life, never even hugged a man (outside of her father/manager of the hot and popular rock band, FireNine) but when she decides to spend her summer on tour with FireNine, it all changes. Eliza really gets to meet Gage Grendel - her former crush from high school and the lead singer of FireNine - and witness sides to him to which she'll begin to truly despise. She'll ignore him, she'll dislike his ways, she'll do anything to try and stay away from him until Gage finally gets her to slip up and give in. She agrees on a casual fling with Gage, but soon they'll both see how the fling will blur into something they can't control and when it's finally time for Eliza to go and accomplish her own dreams, she'll know there's more she took from Gage than she ever thought possible.

Winging It


Ashlyn Kane - 2015
    It doesn’t include being the first out hockey player or, worse, getting involved with one of his teammates. But things change.Dante Baltierra is Gabe’s polar opposite—careless, reckless… shameless. But his dedication to the sport is impressive, and Gabe can overlook a lot of young-and-stupid in the name of great hockey. And Dante has a superlative ass in a sport filled with superlative asses.Before Gabe can figure out how to deal, a tabloid throws him out of his comfortable closet into a brand-new world. Amid the emotional turmoil of invasive questions, nasty speculation, and on- and off-ice homophobia, his game suffers. Surprisingly, it’s Dante who drags him out of it—and then drags him into something else. Nothing good can come of secretly sleeping with a teammate, especially one Gabe has feelings for. But with their captain out with an injury, a rookie in perpetual need of a hug, and the race to make the playoffs for the first time since 1995, Gabe has a lot on his plate. He can’t be blamed for forgetting that nothing stays secret forever.

Groupie


Ginger Voight - 2013
    At first it is easy to use her freelance writing career as an excuse to indulge the steamy flirtation from city to city. As she gets ever closer to making her lascivious fantasies a reality, however, she finds herself trapped in the fake and sometimes dangerous world of celebrity where nothing is as it seems, including the celebrities themselves. She hangs on to find something real amidst the illusion, while Giovanni balances what he wants against what he fears most. Over three years they come together and blow apart with the same kind of combustible passion. This keeps them orbiting in the others' stratosphere despite new relationships and bitter betrayals. They are bound together by something they can't fight, something that draws the ire of another fan determined to claim Vanni all to herself. Unknowingly they all race toward a dramatic moment of truth that will leave two people injured, and one dead, with a twist of an ending you may never see coming. Author of Love Plus One and My Immortal, Ginger Voight once again brings Rubenesque romance to life through a curvy heroine and the sexy rock god who wants her. It is the ultimate fantasy for anyone who has ever indulged a celebrity crush, and wondered "what if" you ever got that one chance to be with your idol. More than a romance, Groupie is a sizzling contemporary read that throws back the curtain on the lives of celebrities and the fans who love them. Adult content intended for readers 18+.

Furious Rush


S.C. Stephens - 2016
    Daughter of a racing legend, she is eager to show the world that she has inherited her father's talent in the male-dominated sport of professional motorcycle racing. The last thing Kenzie needs is to be antagonized by her rival team's newest rider, Hayden Hayes. Plucked from the world of illegal street racing, Hayden immediately gets under Kenzie's skin. His insinuations that Kenzie is a spoiled princess who was handed her career fuels her desire to win, and much to her surprise, Kenzie soon learns she performs better when she's racing against Hayden.As Kenzie and Hayden push each other on the track, the electric energy between them off the track shifts into an intense--and strictly forbidden--attraction. The only rule between their two ultra-competitive teams is zero contact. Kenzie always does her best to play by the rules, but when her team slips into a financial crisis, she has no choice but to turn to Hayden for help. The tension simmers during their secret, late-night rendezvous, but Kenzie has too much to lose to give in to her desires. Especially when she begins to doubt that Hayden has completely left his street life behind...

The Rebel


Kendall Ryan - 2021
    And the chemistry I remember? It’s more combustible than ever. Except…our fling is forbidden and must exist only in secret. Her rules, not mine.I can’t be her forever. I’m not that guy, and even she knows it. But I can’t stay away from her either. I’m determined to claim not just her body but her heart, even if that’s the one thing she’s vowed not to give me.

Rock Her


Rachel Cross - 2013
    He’s rock music’s most infamous guitarist. When a day at the beach turns life or death, their worlds collide, and no one will ever be the same.Kate Gibson’s life has been all about family. She spent her high school years taking care of her dying mother, and her college years raising her younger sister. Alec Sawyer’s past was an excess of everything: drugs, parties, rock, sex, and money. His downfall had been long, spectacular, and public.Thrown together by fate and the media, Kate and Alec find themselves falling in love. But dating in the spotlight has its downside, and some secrets are better left in the dark.

Hoops Holiday


Kennedy Ryan - 2018
    Years later, they've climbed so high and lost so much, but one thing hasn't changed. The attraction that simmered between them in a locker room before is still there. With success like theirs, everything has been possible... except them.That was then.But what about now?*Hoops Holiday Collection consists of FULL-COURT PRESS, a HOOPS novella originally published in the TEAM PLAYER Anthology. It has been expanded with all-new, never-before-published content & epilogue.It also includes Christmas-themed short stories for characters from LONG SHOT and BLOCK SHOT, books 1 and 2 of the series.

Breakaway


Ali Parker - 2016
    He’s hard-hitting, rough and puts up with very little. He’s kept to himself throughout his years at Providence University, but it’s time to train the next man up in line for his position. His second on the Hockey team has a twin sister that catches everyone’s eye and leaves most of the guys acting like idiots, but Lucas isn’t interested. Girls are too needy, too catty and a pain in butt. Plain and simple. Aubrey Moore’s had her eye on the captain of the hockey team for the last few years since her brother, Jayce joined the team. He’s known for being a complete jerk, but Aubrey’s had the pleasure of seeing around the edges of his personality and wants to know him more. Now she just has to figure out how to help him breakaway from being so jaded and join her in the best adventure anyone could embark on -love. 18+ Explicit sexual content, possible foul language and violence. **HEA - these novels are all within the Pro-U series, but are about different couples at the university and should stand-alone.

Jordan Reclaimed


Scarlett Cole - 2017
    When he was taken from his parents and a house that was never a home. When he met his brothers, the other lost and abandoned boys in his group home. When he learned what friendship and family and love looked like.Now he’s made a career out of playing the music he loves, touring the world with the band he and his brothers formed in that crowded group home. No one but his found family really knows the man under the fame and fortune, the scars he hides behind the rockstar lifestyle. Until he sees her through the windows of the National Ballet, dancing, and suddenly the world doesn’t seem so dark.Aleksandra Artemov ticks all the ballet boxes. Father a legendary Kirov dancer. Check. Prepping since birth for classical ballet. Check. Compulsive control over the food she eats. Check. Principal dancer at The National Ballet of Canada. Check. But what she craves is freedom.She craves Jordan.Everything about him should terrify her. His size, his tattoos, his hard rock edge. But he doesn’t. He stirs her very soul. Jordan has nothing but himself to offer her, and he's never been good enough for anyone. Can he figure out how to face his own demons before he loses his light for good?