GS vs. STA: Sports Romances

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by SB Sarah | January 10, 2012 | Tuesday at 12:34 am | 58 Comments

Last week I had hellaflu, and while working on this week's lineup, I asked on Twitter if there were any requests for content. OddSoxAlex requested a GS vs. STA for sports romances - specifically those that take place in the UK, or in Europe, and not in the US.

Most of the sports romances I know of, such as Jaci Burton's Play by Play series, which features football and baseball, or Erin McCarthy's Fast Track series, which is about car racing, take place in the US.

Do you know of any sports romances that take places outside the US, or, if not, sports romances that you loved in general? Recommendations, please!

Filed: General Bitching, Good Shit vs. Shit to Avoid

Tagged: romance, awesomesauce

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Four-man rotation? Retro! Is this guy the second coming of Denny McLain? Hopefully he doesn't end up in prison.
Posted by verlander on 2012-02-06 22:22:50 Thanks *so* much for this recommendation. I'm an American who moved to Australia 6 years ago and follow Aussie Rules football (not soccer, as M88888888 notes) so I thought I'd check the book out. It's really well written besides being full of inside references that I'm proud of getting now :->
Posted by JG on 2012-01-21 20:17:40 Having checked with Amazon, that was indeed the romance! It's now setting comfortably on my Kindle. Thank you very much!
Posted by pandora charms on 2012-01-13 01:25:58 In the "surprise pregnancy" subcategory that seems to be within every larger category of romance, there is "Argentinian Playboy, Unexpected Love-Child" by Chantelle Shaw that was surprisingly alright, for what it was (although it had its fair share of cliches--dead perfect wife that was, perhaps, not-so-perfect; Trauma involving a twin; virgin-that-hero-did-not-know-was-a-virgin; rich and powerful guy vs. poor and powerless girl; stupid misunderstandings; and Big Trauma forcing I-love-yous). It is set in both rural Britain and Argentina and both the hero and the heroine in this book are equestrians: she is a show jumper working towards being on the British Olympic team, and he is a world famous polo player.

As for other sports-related books...I can't think of any off the top of my head. There's one where the guy had a fling with the heroine's sister, said sister had a baby then died, and you know where this leads...but he was a football player. I don't remember what it was called, and I don't remember whether I liked it or not. The others I know of have pretty much already been mentioned.
Posted by KellyC on 2012-01-12 22:36:41 i like sport romances. steaming hot and lots of good looking, sexy male characters. dating blog here----http://www.relationshi...
Posted by Edwardpetri on 2012-01-12 14:47:34 Almost Like Being in Love is an hysterically funny gay romance between a baseball obsessed OCD history professor and a former football jock. Baseball is central to all Kluger's books that I've read. I can't rec this one hard enough because it's the funniest, most fun book I've ever read.
Posted by Ann Somerville on 2012-01-12 00:00:07 One Way Street by Laney Cairo is also about AFL - not soccer, sorry. Australian Rules for Tigers and Devils and Cairo's book. I enjoyed it a lot.
Posted by Ann Somerville on 2012-01-11 23:57:38 Dick Francis wrote a lot of books featuring steeple chasing and as he was the Queen Mother's steeple chasing jockey for a while he probably got the details exactly right. His books are not romance novels, but they usually feature a strong love story and his heroes are generally awesome.

Ones that have both sport and a strong sense of romance:

Break in
Bolt
Nerve
Enquiry
Dead Cert

to name just a few

Posted by Christina Auret on 2012-01-11 23:35:28 The "International Billionaires" Series from Harlequin Presents had something to do with rugby~
Posted by Danny on 2012-01-11 22:44:14 From the Outside by Helen Brenna. He is a NASCAR driver. I don't recall if we ever see him race or just hear about it. He is from Argentina, IIRC, and part of the story takes place there, though not the NASCAR.
Posted by Katherine on 2012-01-11 21:08:04 D'oh! And snork. I was trying so hard not to do something like that, LOL.

But I am glad I made you have a gigglefit. Always a good way to start the day.
Posted by ToppysMom on 2012-01-11 19:09:50 Thank you!
Posted by ksattler on 2012-01-11 18:22:37 ...some of the romance stuff is awful, frankly, particularly on the horse end of things

toppysmom, thanks for the morning gigglefit! ;-)
Posted by Tamara Hogan on 2012-01-11 10:40:12 Amy Lane's "The Locker Room" is about a relationship between two male basketball players. I loved this book. Think it is American, though.
Posted by Jacqueline Code on 2012-01-11 10:37:52 NR also has an early category where the heroine is a former gold-medal gymnast but is now a PE teacher who heads West to help her sister on her ranch. It's not really about gymnastics, though, since she doesn't do that anymore.
Posted by Nadia on 2012-01-11 07:53:05 Thanks E!
Posted by cleo on 2012-01-11 07:14:30 India Grey has a romance called At the Argentinian Billionaire's Bidding which features a hero who owns a polo team and a heroine who designs polo kit. I think it's loosely connected to the rugby series mentioned earlier (the hero played rugby before).

For female athletes, I second Lowell's "Remember Summer" and Seidel's "Summer's End" (weird coincidence with the names there). The Lowell is weaker, but I enjoyed both because I felt that being an athlete was truly part of the heroine's identity.
Posted by Lisa on 2012-01-11 05:19:40 Keep up the great work here at Sprint Connection! Many thanks.
Posted by pandora charms on 2012-01-11 04:10:00 The tennis player with cancer is an old Silhouette Desire "The Thrill of Victory" by Sandra Brown (when she was writing as Erin St. Claire). Incidentally, the book is currently listed right now as a Goodreads Giveaway.
Posted by "E" on 2012-01-11 01:28:50 Because I'm a lifelong horse owner / horse nut, I read any horse-related fiction I can find, no matter how bad -- and some of the romance stuff is awful, frankly, particularly on the horse end of things (Iris Johansen, I'm glaring at you!).

Elizabeth Lowell's "Summer Games" and/or "Remember Summer" (about three-day eventing and international intrigue) is better than most, although there are certainly some cringe-worthy moments. The previously mentioned "True Betrayals" by La Nora is about horse racing and not very believable at all, at least from the horse-knowledge end of things. (Sorry, Ms. Roberts, it's.just.not.) IIRC, her "Irish" books were a smidge better in the horsey department.

Laura Moore also did some decent ones, as did Jessica Bird -- although, again, both have some rolly-eyed moments. A good list of horsey romance fiction is here (along with all sorts of other equine-themed books): http://www.ponydom.com/books/r...

And there are, course, some excellent equestrian-themed books from the UK side of the pond, most especially by Anne McCaffrey; a good resource: http://adultponybooks.ponymadb...

Eons ago, when I read Harlequin Presents religiously, there were several football-oriented ones (that would be "soccer" for us heathens here in the U.S.) and several race car ones, although can I remember their names? No, no I cannot. But **I do** remember one of the footballer ones that I liked enough to read a couple of times; had to do with a former player now coach and a woman who switches places with her more adventurous (natch) model-sister (cousin?) for a commercial with the team and the usual hijinks and misunderstandings ensue. There was also one where the heroine was a team trainer, which was also good.

But without a horse in it, I cannot remember the titles. Sorry.
Posted by ToppysMom on 2012-01-11 00:27:58 Claire Harrison's 1980's romance Love is a Distant Shore features a Canadian female swimmer training to swim across Lake Ontario, fwiw.
Posted by Elsoar on 2012-01-10 21:27:59 "Stroke to his Cox" - OMG - that's the sort of title that my husband THINKS romance books have, and I keep saying, no, no they're not that blatant. But um, wow. Is it more romance or erotica? Or does cox not sound like cocks in British English?
Posted by cleo on 2012-01-10 18:18:30 I read a contemporary ages ago that had a tennis star heroine - the hero was a sports reporter and he tracked her down when she was hiding from her public (recovering from an injury? waiting to find out if she had a tumor that would make her infertile? something like that). Do I remember the title? why no, but I remember that the heroine had a long blond braid and it drove the hero crazy when she twitched it over her shoulder when she played. I think this one was more about the athlete than the sport.
Posted by cleo on 2012-01-10 18:11:41 Elizabeth Lowell had a book about Olympic equestrian eventing, with the heroine as the athlete. "Remember Summer," started as a category but got expanded, and re-released as a single title. I haven't read it in years, so I cannot speak as to whether it's good or to be avoided. Pretty sure I read it when it was a category released for the 1984 LA games, LOL.

Posted by Nadia on 2012-01-10 17:43:41 I loved Fever Pitch too, but I don't think it can count as romance unless its a romance between the hero and Arsenal...
Posted by Zohar on 2012-01-10 17:17:54 I haven't read Shalvis, but it sounds a bit like Greg Maddux in the 1990s - he wasn't in a four-man rotation, of course, but he did win multiple Cy Youngs, and had a long streak more than 15 wins per season. Maddux won 20 games or close to it several times, and had 16 and 19 wins in the two strike shortened seasons. It was fun to watch.
Posted by Rose on 2012-01-10 17:08:53 Would Fever Pitch (the Nick Hornby book/Colin Firth film) about Arsenal fandom count? I loved both (despite not being an Arsenal fan!)

Adding to the list of Mills and Boons: In India Grey's At the Argentinian Billionaire's Bidding hero is an Argentinian billionaire but also a rugby player (who played for England?) and the heroine designs sports jerseys. I think it's part of the rugby series mentioned above.

The Lingerie Castle has a Scottish footballer as a hero but I've not yet read it. Kick it up by Carol Ericson's hero seems modeled on David Beckham (English star, playing for an LA team) and it's a quick read.
Posted by Pria on 2012-01-10 17:01:21 as a baseball fan, I have to say that I didn't love Shalvis' baseball stories. I wanted to see more of the sport with a bit more realism. maybe this is just me, but when your hero is a starting pitcher on a four man rotation, has won two Cy Youngs, wins more than 20 games a season, every season... I know that in romance novels, heros can't be well off, they have to be BILLIONAIRE PRINCES, so I suppose pitchers can't be good, solid pitchers, or even great ones, they have to be better than Lincecum, Verlander and Halladay combined! just really, he wins more than 20 games, every season? his run support must be unreal. and a four man rotation for a whole season would destroy his arm, especially if he's going (presumably) at least 7 innings. and so on. what's wrong with writing about a relief pitcher? a struggling first baseman? oh well.

I guess my point is perhaps I expected a little too much realism. I think I'll stick to historicals from now on, where the inaccuracies bother me less.
Posted by sami on 2012-01-10 16:52:32 Nora Roberts also has an early one with a baseball player.
Posted by Amelia on 2012-01-10 16:37:35 Nora Roberts had two early romances that featured tennis (both the hero and heroine played) and racecar driving (just the hero), respectively. (I should add that I hated both of them). She also deals with horseback riding in one of her more recent fiction titles "True Betrayals."

Joan Wolf wrote an extremely-dated story in the early 1980s about a baseball superstar and his wife. I think it was called "Beloved Stranger." I seem to remember a reissue or rewrite more recently, but I wasn't reading romances then, so I don't know if it's any good.
Posted by Dancing_Angel on 2012-01-10 16:35:16 Another vote for Deirdre Martin's Blade series! SO GREAT! Plus Carly Phillips Hot Zone
Posted by Kristi Davis on 2012-01-10 16:14:18 Thanks for mentioning Life on the Edge! I'm the author, and the book is categorized as YA but lots of adults have enjoyed it as a contemporary romance, too :) It's a story of forbidden love between a pairs skater and her coach. You can find more information about it on my site: http://jennifercomeaux.blogspo... Hope you'll check it out!
Posted by Jennifer Comeaux on 2012-01-10 15:33:04 There's one called The Bottom Line (by Shelley Munroe) with H as rugby player (non-professional) on local team (by day works in IT at same Company as h, an accountant). Set in NZ, as I recall.
Posted by Deana Stom on 2012-01-10 15:19:29 Sarah Mayberry has a couple of Harlequins with female athletes. Below the Belt is about a woman boxer (the hero is her coach). Her Secret Fling is about a female (retired) Olympic swimmer. Both are set in Australia and both are great.
Posted by mssb on 2012-01-10 14:45:35 @ksattler

Try this link
http://smartbitchestrashybooks...
Posted by Vixenbib on 2012-01-10 14:39:36 the Shalvis baseball ones had the sport in them as did the Martin hockey ones, at least at the beginning of the series. I think the SEP football series goes back and forth. the one i read (about the quarterback) took place in the off season so there were not any games/practices
Posted by Bri on 2012-01-10 14:27:54 Set in the US, but VK Sykes' Caddy Girls has a heroine who is on her way to being a professional golfer. I bought it from Carina a year or two ago and still re-read it occasionally. I'd call it "sleek" rather than "personal," if that makes sense, but it has no gaping flaws, and actual games of golf feature prominently.
Posted by Zee Lemke on 2012-01-10 13:59:24 I'm a skating fan, and hang out on a couple of forums. Someone recently posted an update there about her YA romance novel (Life on the Edge) being published; I think the relationship was between a pairs skater and a coach. I suspect that a skating fan would be more likely to get the sport right than an author less familiar with it, but I've no idea if the writing is any good - I'm not really into YA.
Posted by Mari on 2012-01-10 13:34:20 GS vs STA - huh?
Posted by ksattler on 2012-01-10 13:28:51 If you'd like a terrific book about a female ice skater, I highly recommend Summer's End by Kathleen Gilles Seidel.
Posted by JaniceG on 2012-01-10 13:15:41 I've never read a romance that requires the least knowledge of sports, or that really features the game (for which I am grateful). Or featuring a professional female athlete. Unless you count ice skating. And it was awful.
I thought the Lori Foster series was fun at first, but lost interest with the aliens, and the Carly Phillips series was thoroughly poor, for whatever that's worth.
Posted by kkw on 2012-01-10 13:02:07 My question is, do any of these books actually feature the sports, or are the characters just athletes? I don't know if that question makes sense, but so many of the sports romances I read have a football/baseball/whatever star who could easily be replaced by doctor/lawyer/billionaire/whatever...

Also, any female athletes? That's what I'd really like to read.

Um, not really fitting with the rec, but Shelly Laurenston's Shifter Series feature lots of hockey and roller derby. They're definitely paranormals, but they're hilarious, and I enjoy the sports parts. And I recommend them any chance I get because they're awesome. Except they are also US-based. Okay, I guess this is a recommendation-fail... :(
Posted by JL on 2012-01-10 12:15:38 I had thought about the Mills & Boon rugby stories - apparently there were 8 of them. I think they were set in different countries, some of which surprised me as I hadn't heard of their rugby playing tradition!
http://wesclark.com/rrr/romanc...

I love sports romances, and tend to collect them. However, the only British or European titles I can think of immediately are m/m:
Overdrive by Airel Tachna - French/Canadian rally drivers
Stroke to his Cox by JL Merrow - Oxbridge rowing eight
Something about Trevor by Drew Hunt - yay!! a romance about cricket (village not international)
Ravages by RA Padmos - UK Soccer (I haven't read this yet, so I can't vouch for its accuracy)

Posted by RachelT on 2012-01-10 11:57:33 Neither external to the US nor strictly a romance but Dead Solid Perfect by Dan Jenkins (author of Semi-Tough) is a fun novel about golf that also deals with relationships. My all-time favorite, although a bit dated, is World Class by Jane and Burt Boyar, which takes place during the fight to establish the open era in tennis where professionals could compete with amateurs. It follows several complicated and insightful couple relationships, one of which deals with Brits so I think that counts for an international flavo(u)r :-> (Oh, and another vote for Diedre Martin's hockey series and SEP's football series.)
Posted by JaniceG on 2012-01-10 11:54:59 Kate Angell has a baseball series too. The Richmond Roguesi think is the series name.
Posted by Alisonlee_79 on 2012-01-10 11:44:59 SEP, has Baseball team and then there are her hot golfers, Jill Shalvis also has a series with Baseball, Rachel Gibson has her Hockey Team,
Posted by Kathleen O on 2012-01-10 11:31:23 I enjoy Deirdre Martin's "Blades" series, built around the fictional New York Blades hockey team.
Posted by Tamara Hogan on 2012-01-10 10:05:20 As a mondo hockey fan I have to say I'm a bit addicted to Rachel Gibson's hockey series (Deirdre Martin also has a hockey series set in New York that's quite good). I haven't really been able to find any other hockey romances even though you would totally expect to find some set in Canada, no? Given that hockey is practically a religion up here...
Posted by Saby on 2012-01-10 10:03:25 I don't know of any set outside the US but I do like Deirdre martin's New York Blades series (hockey) and Carly Phillips Hot Zone series (football and baseball)
Posted by Amelia on 2012-01-10 10:02:37 There's the "awesome" Maharaja's Mistress by Susan Stephens, where both the hero and heroine are in the European race car circuit. I had to read it because of the review here at SBTB and I actually thought it had its moments, but the ridiculous plot points kind of ruined the overall effect.
Posted by Kim T. on 2012-01-10 09:57:53 Player's Ultimatum by Koko Brown is a good international soccer romance. Very hot.
Posted by awhit333 on 2012-01-10 09:17:29 Lori Foster has a series on MMA, but not set outside the US.
Posted by Laiab on 2012-01-10 09:15:49 I like SEP's Chicago Bears series (most of them, anyway, she's always hit or miss), Jill Shalvis has some with baseball players that's pretty great (Double Play, Slow Heat, maybe more), and I'm OK with the Gibson hockey ones, too. The Fast Track series has pretty much derailed, but I liked them initially. I have read some mediocre, and even some thoroughly awful ones, but I can't tell you what to avoid because of course I can't recall any names, but I feel like Lucky and/or Chance may have been involved in the titles of a mediocre series. Helpful, right? I don't think I've ever read any sporty romance set outside the US
Posted by kkw on 2012-01-10 08:43:02 I think one of these was published by Harelquin. It was Nice girls finish Last by Natalie Anderson but I can't find info on rest of series. It was fun to read about a sport I know a little about, rather than alway.s reading US ones where I have to imagine the ruLes! The story wasn't bad either.
Posted by Elizabeth on 2012-01-10 07:17:26 Over the last couple of months Mills and Boon have published a mini-series of books set in a New Zealand rugby club. I'm afraid that I can't remember the titles or the author. All I can remember is that I'm pretty sure it was/is set in Christchurch because as I have read them I keep thinking to myself. If they were real... I hope they weren't effected by the earthquakes!
Posted by Josieanne on 2012-01-10 05:21:28 I'm kind of tempted to say Jilly Cooper ;)

India Grey has a book in which the hero is a race car driver - I think it's The Secret She Can't Hide - but I don't remember much racing going on in the book.

For US-set romances, SEP's Chicago Stars books are the ones that immediately come to mind for me, starting with It Had To Be You.

Also, AAR has a listing of sports romances that's worth browsing: http://www.likesbooks.com/spor....
Posted by Rose on 2012-01-10 04:05:54 Tigers and Devils is an awesome book, but I have to point out that the football player is an Australian Rules Football player, not a soccer player! I was rather confused while reading the book whether they meant American football, soccer, or rugby, and then I went to Australia, and turns out all of them were wrong!
Rachel Gibson has a hockey series that is good, too, although that's American, too. Can't think of any European ones off the top of my head. What a great question!
Posted by M8888888 on 2012-01-10 04:04:29 Tigers and Devils by Sean Kennedy immediately popped into my mind. It's m/m and one character is a pro football player (ie soccer). Fantastic book.
Posted by Lori on 2012-01-10 01:55:57

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GS vs. STA: Sports Romances