Book picks similar to
The Playbook by Kelly Elliott


sports
romance
sports-romance
contemporary-romance

Royal Player


Katie McCoy - 2017
     He's a beast on the courts, and a wild animal in bed (according to all the tabloids). Girls are lining up for chance at his crown jewels, and when I stumble into the wrong Wimbledon dressing room and catch a glimpse of his game, set, AND match, I can see why.So what's a little good luck kiss between f̶r̶i̶e̶n̶d̶s̶ strangers?I know better than to get involved with a bad boy like Charlie. But now he's on a winning streak, he thinks I'm his lucky charm - and you know what's luckier than a kiss?Everything.Suddenly, I've got paparazzi on my trail, exes coming out of the woodwork -- and you don't know 'cutthroat' until you've seen a pack of hungry socialites set loose near the Royal Family.I'm in way over my head, and even worse - I'm falling in love. Can this American girl win her Prince Charming? Or will we both crash out of the championships in flames? Wimbledon-meets-The Prince and Me in this hilarious, sexy new rom-com from Katie McCoy!

Tackled


Sabrina Paige - 2016
     
Cassie 
I can’t stand jocks. And I don’t know the first thing about football.
 So it’s just my luck that the tutoring job I take to get me through graduate school involves making sure a dumb jock passes his classes.
 Now, I’m babysitting Colton King, a spoiled arrogant player who’s as famous for his bedroom antics as he is for his football skills.
 The tight end with the filthy mouth tells me he’ll show me that everything’s bigger in Texas. 
And heaven help me, I just might be considering it. 
* * * 
Colton 
My life is one big party, and that’s never going to change.
 Not even if my coach finds me a nerdy tutor he thinks will keep me in line. Miss Goody Two Shoes is uptight, high-strung, and unimpressed by the fact that I’m a campus legend.
 Even worse, the hot little tutor is as pure as the driven snow. 
Debauching her and making her mine is the ultimate challenge. And I always rise to the occasion. *This is not a football-heavy story, so if you're not into sports, don't worry! It's light on the sports and heavy on the steam!*

One Night with a Quarterback


Jeanette Murray - 2014
    Cassie Wainwright thought her father—head coach of the Santa Fe Bobcats—ignored her purposefully. Come to find out, he had no clue she’d ever been born.Now Cassie is determined to meet the man who’s always been missing from her life. Her mother warns her, being the long-lost daughter of a well-known NFL coach won’t be easy, but Cassie’s determined to stick it out. And before her life turns upside down, she wants one more night of fun.Starting quarterback for the Santa Fe Bobcats, Trey Owens is tired of being in the limelight. Lucky for him, the beautiful brunette he meets at the club isn’t a local. She has no idea who he is…and she’s down to party.Tomorrow, Cassie will think about her father. Tomorrow, she’ll think about her future. But tonight is for herself and the hottie she found on dance floor. It’s a matchup made in heaven—if only for a night…

Thin Love


Eden Butler - 2014
    It isn't supposed to leave you bleeding. Kona pushed, Keira pulled, and in their wake, they left behind destruction. She sacrificed everything for him. It wasn't enough. But the wounds of the past can never be completely forgotten and still the flame remains, slumbers between the pleasure of yesterday and the thought of what might have been. Now, sixteen years later, Keira returns home to bury the mother who betrayed her, just as Kona tries to hold onto what remains of his NFL career with the New Orleans Steamers. Across the crowded bustle of a busy French Market, their paths collide, conjuring forgotten memories of a consuming touch, skin on skin, and the still smoldering fire that begs to be rekindled. When Kona realizes the trifecta of betrayal—his, Keira's and those lies told to keep them apart—his life is irrevocably changed and he once again takes Keira down with him into the fire that threatens to ignite them both.

Badd Motherf*cker


Jasinda Wilder - 2016
     Your wedding day is supposed to be the happiest day of your life, right? That’s what they say, at least. I went into that day hoping I’d get the happiest day of my life. What I got? The worst. I mean, you really can’t get any worse of a day without someone actually dying. So…I may have gotten just a little drunk, and maybe just a tad impetuous… And landed myself in a dive bar somewhere in Alaska, alone, still in my wedding dress, half-wasted and heart-broken. *** Eight brothers, one bar. Sounds like the beginning to a bad joke, yeah? I kinda think so. Wanna hear another joke? A girl walks into a bar, soaking wet and wearing a wedding dress. I knew I shouldn’t have touched her. She was hammered, for one thing, and heartbroken for another. I’ve chased enough tail to know better. That kinda thing only leads to clinginess, and a clingy female is the last thing on this earth I need. I got a bar needs running, and only me to run it—at least until my seven wayward brothers decide to show their asses up… Then this chick walks in, fine as hell, wearing a soaked wedding dress that leaves little enough to the imagination—and I’ve got a hell of an imagination. I knew I shouldn’t have touched her. Not so much as a finger, not even innocently. But I did. ***THE BADD BROTHERS is 8 connected but standalone books in a sexy, funny, alpha male family series. Warning: this book contains mature content, and may also make you laugh out loud!***

On a Tuesday


Whitney G. - 2017
    Became best friends, then lovers, on a Tuesday. And everything fell apart on a Tuesday... Charlotte Taylor has three automatic strikes in my book: 1) She hates me. She also claims that I'm a "domineering jerk with a huge, overbearing ego." (I do have something huge. It's not my ego, though.) 2) She takes our mandatory tutoring sessions way too seriously. 3) She's sexy as hell...And a virgin. At least, those were her strikes before our study sessions started lasting longer than they were supposed to. Until one innocent kiss became a hundred dirty ones, and until she became the first woman I ever fell hard for. Our future together after graduation was supposed to be set: Professional football for me. Law school for her. But she left me at the end of the semester with no explanation, and then she completely disappeared from my life. Until tonight.We met on a Tuesday. Became everything, then nothing, on a Tuesday. And now it's seven years later, on a Tuesday... **This is a full length second chance romance, inspired by Adele's "When We Were Young"**

Hard Luck


Liv Morris - 2016
    Hot shot. MVP.I've been called it all.I was the real deal, baby.The diamond was my battlefield.Women were the victory celebration.My "Lucky" streak was a given.On and off the field.Then I slept with the wrong woman,And she cursed me.Literally.Turned my game upside-down,In the ballpark...and bedroom.Now my team is paying the price.My last hope is Cali Jones,A smart and sexy physician assistant.Her Midas touch may fix my swing,Repair my equipment.But will it be enough to cure my hard luck?

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.

Not Yet


Laura Ward - 2014
    Lesson #1: Nothing goes the way you plan.Lesson #2: You can’t trust men. Especially not the pretty ones.Lesson #3: Turns out, appearances are almost always deceiving.Emma thinks she has life all figured out, and what she knows isn’t good. For years, she’s put her big sister, who was born with Down syndrome, first. Now Emma’s ready to start her own life, but fate has other plans. To do the right thing for the sister she loves, Emma’s dreams will just have to wait.She doesn’t plan on meeting Landon — a rich, flirtatious jock, who never has to wait for anything. Not for attention, not for money, and certainly not for girls. Meeting Emma marks the first time in his life that he’s had to fight for something. And Landon doesn't know how to lose.Emma has no interest in wasting her summer with a superficial guy like Landon. But very soon she realizes she is wrong about him. The question is, can she trust him? Or will he let her down like every other guy in her life? But most importantly, can Emma trust herself enough to live the life she's always dreamed of?Life has a way of sneaking in the most important lessons when you aren't looking. And once the heart gets involved, that's when the real learning begins. *** This book is intended for mature audiences. 18 and over!

Rush Me


Allison Parr - 2013
    Like her parents pressuring her to leave her unpaid publishing internship for law school.But when Ryan's rookie teammate attaches himself to Rachael, she ends up cohosting Friday-night dinners for half a dozen football players.Over pancake brunches, charity galas and Alexander the Great, Rachael realizes all the judgments she'd made about Ryan are wrong. But how can a Midwestern Irish-Catholic jock with commitment problems and an artsy, gun-shy Jewish New Englander ever forge a partnership? Rachael must let down her barriers if she wants real love—even if that opens her up to pain that could send her back into her emotional shell forever.89,000 words

Phenomenal X


Michelle A. Valentine - 2014
    Notorious Bad-Boy. One Phenomenal Love. From the mean streets of Detroit rises the newest superstar of professional wrestling, Xavier Cold, better known as Phenomenal X. His muscular physique makes men cower before him and women lose their minds with desire.Anna Cortez is fresh out of college and naive to the harsh realities of the real world. Tired of living under the thumb of her conservative family, she defies them when she accepts a job as the assistant to wrestling’s most notorious bad-boy. Phenomenal X has an animalistic nature that even good girl Anna finds hard to resist.One night forced to share a bed in a sold-out hotel, lines blur between them and they quickly learn that one lustful night changes everything and neither one of them will ever be the same.Join Michelle's Facebook Reader Group: Valentine Vixens

Next to You


Daisy Prescott - 2016
    I’d never let you go.” I added Sage to my rugby club’s annual list of women who are off limits thinking I could protect her from the gorillas I play with. Aspen's a small town in the off season when the dating pool shrinks to the size of a melted snowflake. Never did I think I’d be the one to break the code and date her. Even if it’s all for show. A wager between friends. An excuse to hang out with her more. Nothing more than that. Right? *** Who agrees to date their best friend over a green smoothie? Apparently this girl right here. Now the man-bun-sporting South African rugby god next door is my fake boyfriend. I need to rebuild my confidence after some poor dating decisions. Who could be better to fluff my ego than Aspen’s hottest bachelor? This situation is a win-win. Right?Next to You is a standalone Romantic Comedy/sports romance about a rugby player and an heiress in Aspen. Next to You is book one in the Love with Altitude series of standalone romances set in the small town of Aspen.Stan and his man bun first appeared in the Modern Love Story Short, Take for Granted. This is a full-length novel told in dual POVs.

Hard to Handle


K. Bromberg - 2020
    Bromberg is back with an all new second-chance, standalone hockey romance.At first, the request seemed simple—sign a new athlete to the agency. Then I found out the new athlete was none other than the most wanted man in hockey today: Hunter MaddoxGifted. Sexy. At the top of his game. And the only man who has ever broken my heart.If signing him will help save our family business, I’ll swallow my pride and do what’s asked. But when it becomes clear his uncharacteristic antics off the ice are a hint of something deeper, keeping things strictly professional between us becomes more than complicated. But I know better than to cross that line. I’ll never date a client. Not even for him.***Win the Stanley Cup and do it before time runs out. Not a small feat, but it’s what’s motivated me since the start of my career. And time is running out.Enter Dekker Kincade.Feisty. Dogged. Damn gorgeous. The one I let get away.I have no idea why she’s traveling with the team, but hell if resisting her is going to be easy. But I have a job to do, and I refuse to lose sight of that end game. Even if she confuses me. Even if she sees parts of me I’ve hidden from the world. I can’t lose focus. Not even for her.Are you ready to fall for the Kincade sisters and the men who love them in K. Bromberg's sexy, contemporary, sports romance series? These books can all be read as standalones, but you’ll enjoy reading them as a series!Hard to Handle (Hunter & Dekker's story - hockey romance)Hard to Hold (Rush & Lennox's story - soccer romance)Hard to Score (Drew & Brexton's story - football romance)Hard to Lose (Gunner & Chase's story - baseball romance)Hard to Love (Finn & Stevie's story)

Red Card


Carrie Aarons - 2016
    He spent five years trying to erase a past he can’t forget. London is Leah Watson’s fresh start. When she secures the perfect internship during her study abroad semester, with an infamous celebrity public relations firm, she is determined to forge her own path - one that is nothing like her life back in Oklahoma. That plan is tested when British football’s bad boy, Killian Ramsey, decides that she's the one he wants and he's playing for keeps. Will she put her future on hold - again - for the type of man she swore she'd stay away from? Killian is one bloody good football player. After a tragedy shattered his entire world, the cocky and arrogant face he puts on for the media is a complete lie. When he meets Leah, his heart starts to beat for the first time in years. But when the feelings get too real, his perfectly constructed facade starts to slip. Will he risk it all to be with her - taking whatever penalties are thrown his way - or will he play it safe?

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.