Smart Podcast, Trashy Books Podcast

126. Amanda and Sarah Talk Contemporary Sports Romance

Sarah interviews Amanda about her love of sports romance. They discuss sports contemporary romance, fluorescent lightbulbs, and make many, many recommendations. Our apologies in advance.

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Oh, yes, we discussed a lot of books:

Additional links! Looking for basketball romances? Here are a few lists and individual books that were tweeted to me while we were recording:

After we recorded, Harlequin announced a new partnership with PBR (Professional Bull Riders)  so MORE SPORTS ROMANCE, eh?

And finally, the GLAAD media guide.

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This Episode's Music

Our music in each episode is provided by Sassy Outwater, who is most excellent. This podcast features a song called “Dun Beag” and it’s by Peatbog Faeries from their CD Dust. You can find them at their website, or at iTunes.


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Transcript

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This podcast transcript was handcrafted with meticulous skill by Garlic Knitter. Many thanks.

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  1. JaniceG says:

    Surprised there’s no photo here of any of the Susan Elizabeth Phillips Chicago Stars football books (first one: It Had to Be You) or golf books (Fancy Pants and Lady Be Good).

  2. Loni says:

    I so needed this podcast today. Thank you.
    Also as a broke Uni student my wallet is displeased. I was gonna get steak this week now I have to wait for a parental unit to bring me bacon, mmm bacon.

  3. SB Sarah says:

    @JaniceG:

    Oops! The cover didn’t appear the way it should have – all fixed. That book has to be part of the sports romance discussion, though the giant perfectly round cleavage on the cover doesn’t necessarily say “sports.” Or comedy.

    @Loni:

    You’re so welcome!

  4. azteclady says:

    Mouth guards: I’ve tried–feel like I can’t breathe, so…

    May have to try it again, though.

  5. SB Sarah says:

    @AztecLady: I honestly thought there was NO way I was going to be able to sleep with it in, and now I can’t sleep without it. I get better sleep, too. Totally changed my life in a lot of little, meaningful ways.

  6. Rugby series: Kat Latham’s London Legends series and also Rosalind James is New Zealand rugby romance writer.

    I definitely agree with Jane wanting more winter or even Olympic sports. Then again I can’t really read anything with skating because they never seem to get it right.

    *sighs* Bama grad here! And yeah, we are pretty good. 🙂

  7. Ack, Sarah rather. Dammit. Mixing my people. Sorry!

  8. Amanda says:

    @Julia: YOU’RE SO GOOD THAT IT FILLS ME WITH RAGE. I did my undergrad at FSU.

    And yes! Kat Latham’s series was the one I couldn’t remember!

  9. Love my mouthguard! It’s upper teeth only, and fairly low profile. And years ago my dentist showed me my enamel up close on a television screen from a camera in my mouth – terrified me what the grinding was doing and I’ve worn it every night since. (Here’s the TMI deal: if things start to get interesting, you just pop the mouth guard under your pillow subtly and then put it back in after. Truly, no partner in the history of the world has every cared that you stuck a piece of plastic under the pillow. Does not interrupt anything important.)

    And football romances – Julie Brannagh writes the Love and Football series with Avon, many of which are still 99 cents.

    She’s also hosting Avon’s Superbowl twitter party on Sunday for the second year running. I think it’s super cool that a romance publisher is embracing something like a Superbowl party. Not only is Julie a committed football fan, she’s actually a SEAHAWKS fan (her fictional team is the Seattle Sharks) and knows her football so I’m sure the twitter patter party will be great.

    Crista McHugh has at least one Olympic ice skating book – Breakaway Hearts, maybe? – from the Kelly Brothers series. It’s pretty intense and I think it’s the favorite Kelly Brothers book for a lot of readers.

    I am writing, by the way, while sitting in a curling rink. ROCKS ON ICE! Gotta love a sport that considers open bar part of the team equipment. Unfortunately I have to drive. Anyone know a curling romance?

  10. elianara says:

    Had to stop the podcast when you talked about cricket romance. I know of at least one of those,a MM romance. The first book in th International Men of Sports series by TA Chase and Devon Rhodes, A Sticky Wicket in Bollywood

  11. Coco says:

    Before listening to this I’d have said I absolutely am not a fan of sports romances but Rachel Gibson is one of my favorite authors and I read everything Susan Elizabeth Phillips writes (I’d also say I’m not about actors or rock stars… I’m all about the nerds though).

    Now I have all sorts of new sports romance to look for and Yea! my library has several of these so I don’t have to go broke.

    Thanks!

  12. EmilyAnn says:

    You know I was reading a sports romance and I realized the absolute ridiculousness in the lack of diversity. Hockey makes sense, not a lot of minorities in that sport. Football and Baseball, absolutely nonsensical. Baseball teams have plenty of Latino players and football has to be at least 70% black at the professional level, so why so many Caucasian heroes?

  13. Coco says:

    @ EmilyAnn

    I fully agree. The only thing that worries me here is that white people who’ve apparently never spoken with a black person will write terrible black people. Of course you can read black authors and save yourself from that mess.

    I haven’t read these but there’s a Brooklyn Monarchs Trilogy by Regina Hart which is both black and basketball!

    I was recently looking at my library for romances written by PoC as I’d like to read more diversely and there were quite a few that were sports themed that I brushed off as not my cuppa. I’ll have to revisit those.

  14. Ellen says:

    I really like American Football sports romance because I’m not expected to know any of the current players or even really the sport but the heroes tend to be rich, hot sports guys.

  15. JaniceG says:

    For anyone looking for a winter sports book, I highly, highly recommend Summer’s End by Kathleen Gilles Seidel – the main character is an Olympic figure skater. Although the book mainly concentrates on her family dynamic rather than any sports drama, there are a lot of insights into the training and competitive aspects of the sport.

  16. Sarah Morgan says:

    In the UK Mills and Boon did a Rugby themed series for the Modern Romance line (which is published as Harlequin Presents in the US) http://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/jan/06/mills-boon-rugby

  17. Kareni says:

    I can recommend Lily Burana’s Try. One of the characters does rodeo.

  18. library addict says:

    I’ve enjoyed Kat Latham’s London Legends series (rugby as mentioned above by others).

    One of my all-time favorite sports romances is Kathleen Korbel’s Edge of the World. The hero is an Olympic skier. It’s an older book and not yet available in digital, but the author said she’d be self-publishing her old SIMs, so hopefully will be available at some point.

    I was disappointed in the first book of Kate Willoughby’s In the Zone series (not because of the hockey, but something else), but enjoyed book two a lot. Alison Packard has a baseball series, Feeling the Heat.

    The first two books in Dee J Adams’ Adrenaline Highs series feature heroines who are race car drivers. I enjoyed book one, but haven’t read book two yet.

    There’s also Rebecca Crowley’s The Striker’s Chance, a single title with a hero who is a soccer player from South Africa.

    Also see AAR’s Special Titles Listing – Sports Romances.

  19. Trix says:

    @Anna Richland: There’s a great m/m curling romance called THE MAGIC BROOM, by Teegan Loy. It might have been my favorite of 2013. It also works for fans of Olympic scenarios and winter sports in general, since it involves a klutzy sportswriter having to try out all the various sports for an assignment on the local Olympics prospects…

  20. Rosario says:

    A couple of recs that came to mind while I was listening…

    Romance with a basketball player character: I thought you were going to mention this one when you spoke about Sarina Bowen. Her Blonde Date has a really sweet basketball player hero.

    Non-white American football players: Farrah Rochon wrote some for Kimani a few years ago. I loved I’ll Catch You. Hope you don’t mind me posting a link to my review http://rosario.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/ill-catch-you-by-farrah-rochon.html

  21. JaniceG says:

    The best sports novel I’ve ever read is World Class by Jane and Burt Boyar about the development of professional tennis and the fight to have professionals allowed to play in Grand Slam tournaments. It has a central romance and good secondary relationship stories as well. Great characters and insight.

  22. cams says:

    Players: A Sports Romance Anthology! It has basketball, rugby, a bad-ass female athlete and a one-night-stand trope! 🙂

  23. Ashley says:

    I think I may have missed something, but I can’t find the book that Sarah and Amanda talk about almost half way through the podcast. It’s the one that Sarah liked, but Jane didn’t, possibly about a professional skier. Amanda said it’s “a stranded winter romance” by Sarina Bowen. I just couldn’t find it. I’d appreciate the help! It sounded interesting! Thanks!

  24. Amanda says:

    @Ashley: It’s COMING IN FROM THE COLD! For some reason, it wasn’t on Amazon when we were compiling the links for all of the books mentioned, though I believe it’s available from other e-tailers.

  25. SB Sarah says:

    Sorry, Ashley! That’s Coming in from the Cold by Bowen – but I’m not sure why it’s not available any more. I can’t find it anywhere. I’m sorry!

  26. Ashley says:

    Thank you! I thought I was going crazy! lol I’ll be sure to keep an eye out for it 🙂

  27. Ashley says:

    @SB Sarah and @Amanda, I found it! I went to Sarina’s websited and it had this for her Gravity series (which includes Coming in from the Cold) “Due to a publisher restructuring, this book will be re-launched in early 2015! If you would like to be notified when the book is re-released, please add your email address to Sarina’s mailing list here.” Mystery solved!

  28. Lea says:

    I love sports but am almost always disappointed because of how inaccurate authors can be when it comes to sports. For me this is a huge “write what you know” and if you aren’t a fan, just don’t. Baseball is my favorite but I also like football too.

  29. […] always on the lookout for good sports romances and there were a lot of recs in this Dear Bitches, Smart Authors podcast (with transcript if you’re like me and can’t listen to podcasts at all – […]

  30. KB says:

    @elianara OMG. When they were talking about cricket romance I was like “yeah, and it would be called The Sticky Wicket, heh heh heh…” Finding out that there really is a cricket romance with that title is pretty awesome.

    When Amanda was talking about new adult sports romances I was thinking of one that I just read, The Hook Up by Kristen Callihan. I feel like the ending got away from her a little bit and the last 25% of the book didn’t really do it for me but the beginning was really good. H-O-T things happened. Probably unrealistically hot for a couple in college but whatever.

    Also winter sports–isn’t there a Jill Shalvis series that starts with a former pro skier hero? I feel like I read this based on Sarah’s recommendation but I can’t remember what it is called. I remember in the first one the heroine has survived a terrible car crash and moves to to start fresh.

  31. Becky says:

    I know this is a silly question, but Courtney mentioned getting beignets for breakfast. I know she lives in the Rocky Mountain region. I have to know where she got them. If there’s a good cajun breakfast place somewhere near Denver, I’m desperate to know it.

    Thank you!
    -Becky

  32. Linastew says:

    It’s more historical fiction with romantic elements than straight romance, but a novel with romance and cricket is Half the Human Race by Anthony Quinn. But now that I’m typing this im thinking it doesn’t matter that this is one of my favorite books because it’s title sucks in comparison to A Sticky Wicket in Bollywood.

    Also, I am intrigued by this curling romance. I might have to read both Sticky Wicket and Magic Broom just because of the awesome titles.

  33. Jayne says:

    There’s a Rugby player in “The Hooker and the Hermit” by L H Cosway and Penny Reid. It was my first introduction to both those authors and I LOVE LOVE everything from both of those Authors now. It’s cute and the Female lead is delightful quirky
    The Hooker and the Hermit – Amazon

  34. Anne says:

    Hockey is also my favorite sport to read about – the m/m series by Avon Gale is really sweet, I love her characters and how they view the world. Power Play, Breakaway, Save of the game, etc. Glad the Deirdre Martin books are in the library since my wallet can’t take more abuse this month.

  35. […] and her guests gushing about in on the Dear Bitches, Smart Authors podcast. On their show on contemporary sports romance Sarah and Amanda had a lot of love for the first book in this series, Flat-Out Sexy, but I was […]

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