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:
- Hoops – Basketball Romance on GoodReads
- Sports Romances on GoodReads (mix of sports)
- Basketball Jones by E. Lynn Harris, a m/m baskeetball romance from 2009
- The Locker Room by Amy Lane, also m/m basketball romance.
- Fire Inside by Dawn Douglas, also a m/m basketball romance.
- Stealing Kisses (Kimani Hotties) by Harmony Evans
- Love Becomes Her (Kimani Hotties) by Donna Hill
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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[music]
Sarah Wendell: Hello, and welcome to episode number 126 of the DBSA podcast. I’m Sarah Wendell from Smart Bitches, Trashy Books, and with me today is Amanda, also of Smart Bitches, Trashy Books. Today we’re talking about sports romance. We also talk about mouth guards, but then we go back to sports romance, and we talk about all of the different sports romances that she likes.
Three things before we get started. Are you ready? First, during the course of this podcast we mention that she has not encountered very many basketball romances. While we were recording, I asked on Twitter, basketball romances? Why aren’t there more of them? Am I missing them? Where are they? And I received all of the links, so I am going to provide a few of them in the show notes, which I used to call the podcast entry but have since been educated that it’s the show notes, and I will make sure to include those links, so if you are thinking, oh, oh, basketball romance, I could totally go for that, the romance genre is here for you. It could be here for you a little bit more – in my opinion, there aren’t enough – but there are some.
Thing the second: this podcast is brought to you by InterMix, publisher of The Prince, the brand-new Gabriel’s Inferno novella from New York Times bestselling author Sylvain Reynard, on sale wherever all of your fine, fine eBooks are sold.
And third, and most important: during the recording of the previous podcast, episode number 125, when RedHeadedGirl and I were interviewing Courtney Milan, I used an incorrect term, and I would like to take this opportunity to both correct myself and apologize. During the interview, I asked about the upcoming book in the next Cyclone series and referred to the heroine as transgendered with an –ed on the end, thereby making it an adjective, and I have since learned that this is an incorrect and problematic way of referring to people who are transgender, because as GLAAD says, you don’t refer to somebody as lesbianed or gayed. Now, I have to confess to being completely amused by the idea of someone being lesbianed. Like, what does – [laughs] – what does that look like? Like, lesbians flying out of the walls! Ka-pow! You have been lesbianed! I understand, however, why the idea of being transgendered is problematic, so I apologize for using an incorrect word, and I appreciate the people who contacted me and say, hey, heads up, this is not cool. Second of all, if I offended you, I am very sorry, and I apologize honestly. I did not know I was being incorrect and the language that I was using was problematic, and I will endeavor never to use that again.
And if you are wondering what I am talking about or what words are problematic or not problematic, because as we all know, language changes quickly, GLAAD has a page full of explanations of terminology that are appropriate and inappropriate, and I will link to it in the show notes, but if you’re thinking, I want to read it right now, you can go to bit.ly/Glaadgender. Like I said, I will link to this in the show notes, but in the meantime, I stand corrected and I apologize.
And now, on with the podcast.
[music]
Sarah: Tell me – you wanted to talk –
Amanda: Yeah!
Sarah: – about sports romance. Tell me all the things!
Amanda: [Laughs] I can’t get enough of contemporary sports romances. In general, contemporary romances, for me, I don’t, I don’t know. I find some of them to be, like, too sickly sweet sometimes, and I like a little, something I can sink my teeth into, I guess.
Sarah: Mm-hmm.
Amanda: And for some reason, sports romances just do that for me. I, like, cut my teeth on Susan Elizabeth Phillips and her –
Sarah: I think a lot of people did.
Amanda: Yeah, and her, what is it, Chicago Stars –
Sarah: Yep.
Amanda: – which is football. But, God, I hate that cover on book one, where it’s just, like, the chick’s cleavage, and –
Sarah: Oh, with the big pink bra?
Amanda: [Laughs]
Sarah: And the perfectly round, absurdly perfect boobs?
Amanda: Yeah, yeah –
Sarah: What could possibly be bothersome about that?
Amanda: Hate that cover so much. And then I also did, what is it, Rachel Gibson’s Chinooks Hockey Team?
Sarah: Have you read Deirdre Martin’s hockey books?
Amanda: No!
Sarah: Ohhh, ohhh! There is one, there was one that I loved about, above all of the others, and of course I can picture the cover in my mind. Do I know the name of it? No, so I have to look it up, but the hero is on a hockey team – there’s a couple of them that take place around this hockey team – the hero is on the hockey team, and the heroine is a soap opera star –
Amanda: Ooh!
Sarah: And all of the players are fans of that soap because they watch it while they work out. So they all watch this soap opera when they’re doing their workouts, and so when he gets involved with her for – I forget, like, I think they were set up, but professionally. You know what I mean? Like –
Amanda: Yeah.
Sarah: – like, it would be good for you to go out with her and, you know, you’ll be seen together. But they actually – it’s called Power Play, I’m pretty sure. Hang on, let me make sure I’ve got the right one.
Amanda: Yeah, it’s the – I Googled it – the New York Blades series.
Sarah: Yes, right, and he gets hooked up with this soap opera star, Monica Geary, and the whole team loves this soap opera, so when he starts dating her, they’re all like, oh, my God! Dude! But there are some things that happen during the course of the book that are so sweet and so well written. Like, it has, this book has scenes that I still think about.
Amanda: [Laughs]
Sarah: It’s adorable. You, you have to, you have to read this. It’s so good.
Amanda: I will, because hockey is my preferred romance sport.
Sarah: Ooh!
Amanda: Yeah! I don’t know what it is. Also, spoiler alert, I’m slowly crawling my way through writing a contemporary sports hockey –
Sarah: No shit! That’s awesome!
Amanda: [Laughs]
Sarah: I would have a hard time with the, to be honest, with the missing teeth.
Amanda: Oh, okay, so this is going to sound crazy, but I will watch hockey sometimes, and I went to, like, a Bruins game, and it was amazing, and my mom got me great seats. But there was footage, I think it was a Penguins player, I think it was Penguins or Flyers. One of the Pennsylvania teams, I’m pretty sure, but this dude sat, like, got out of the game, just took out his tooth that had been knocked loose, and just, like, handed it to the medic and then, like, got back on the ice. Just, like, took out his tooth when it gets loose –
Sarah: Ohhh! Oh, no, no. NO and no and nope. Nope and no.
Amanda: And then the Rangers player this year, he had, like, part of his ear sliced off during the game, I think? And I can’t remember if he got it reattached or just taken care of, and then, like, got back on the ice and scored the winning goal. I find that weirdly attractive that they can, like, take a beating and lose parts of their body but just, like, get back on the ice, and they’re totally fine, like it doesn’t even matter. So just get some, like, implants or some veneers, and I’m golden. So. [Laughs]
Sarah: You know, maybe what you need is some hockey orthodontia romance.
Amanda: [Laughs] Hockey –
Sarah: He wore braces. She had a bridge. It was meant to be. My dentist, who sees both my husband and me, and diagnosed me with what apparently is a truly epic case of TMJ, where not only does my jaw pop in and out like it’s, like it’s removable, but I have, I grind my teeth in my sleep, and I had no idea. I ground my canine teeth all the way down –
Amanda: Ooh.
Sarah: – to the fact, to, like, to, like, they were flat at the top, so I had to have, like, little tips pointed on my canine teeth, and I really wanted her to keep going with, like, with the compounds so I could have, like fangs, but she was like, no, I can’t do that. But she was telling me, you know, so many people find such good, restful sleep once they get a mouth guard that they become almost, like, different people because all of a sudden they’re getting better sleep, and it changes their personalities, and they’re happier, and then she says, and then they meet people and they fall in love, and I’m, and I’m just like – because of the mouth guard. She’s like, so you should write a romance about mouth guards, and I was saying –
Amanda: [Laughs]
Sarah: – I don’t know that I could sell that one, but I’ll keep it in mind. I mean, it totally makes sense, right? That –
Amanda: Yeah!
Sarah: – you get better sleep, you’re more relaxed, you don’t have a headache, you, you have much more, much more rest that’s better for your brain. It’s totally going to affect your personality and your mood, and it makes sense that you would be more open and, and curious, and you would meet somebody, but she is, like, totally serious that these people fell in love ‘cause of mouth guards.
Amanda: I mean, after that Gronk book that I read, I –
Sarah: [Laughs]
Amanda: – feel like I’ve now started a romance, it wouldn’t be the worst thing I write this year.
Sarah: [Laughs] Is there any other real person fiction that you want to read?
Amanda: I haven’t, like, seen any. I didn’t even know it was a thing. I mean, I can understand why ladies find Gronk attractive. God bless that boy and his football skills, because there’s nothing but rocks up there, but –
Sarah: And don’t forget his deflated balls.
Amanda: [Laughs] Oh, my gosh. I haven’t seen any more, like, real person romances. I wouldn’t mind Edelman, who plays on the Patriots, and he’s got, like, a nice, scruffy beard now.
Sarah: What about the book by that same author who wrote about Flo from Progressive?
Amanda: Ooh, that’s right, she did.
Sarah: Having a threesome with the Wendy chick and Teri Hatcher, which I –
Amanda: Teri Hatcher?!
Sarah: Yes.
Amanda: Why, out of all people?
Sarah: Because she did this series of car commercials with Howie Long?
Amanda: Howie Long?
Sarah: Howie the football player.
Amanda: I say Howie Mandel.
Sarah: No, not Howie Mandel.
[Laughter]
Sarah: No, Teri Hatcher, and I want to say Howie Long. Did he, did he play football? Clearly, I’m –
Amanda: Yes. Yeah.
Sarah: Yes, Howie Long and Teri Hatcher did these television commercials for, I want to say, Chevy, but they had such great chemistry. Like, you would watch these commercials, and you would be like, oh, my God, those two people are having a really good time talking about minivans! Because you know how people are like, oh, they have terrible chemistry, they have terrible chemistry, and you’re like, what are you talking about?
Amanda: Yeah.
Sarah: And then you see good chemistry, and you’re like, oh! Those two, for some reason, had fantastic chemistry on these minivan commercials, so whoever –
Amanda: Things are going on in those minivans.
Sarah: Yeah, exact-, well, there’s room. Not enough for Howie, but certainly enough for Teri Hatcher. But she wrote a real-person fiction about Teri Hatcher, the Wendy’s woman – the redheaded model who works for Wendy’s, or actress who works for Wendy’s – and Flo from Progressive. Big old lesbian threesome. You could read that. You could. Those are words.
Amanda: I could read it.
Sarah: You could read that. Those are, those are words in an order that could be read by you.
Amanda: Have you seen the title of her Sasquatch book?
Sarah: NO!
Amanda: Okay. [Laughs] This is the title, and it is the greatest title I have ever heard in my life.
Sarah: I don’t know; I’m still high on Adeste Fiddles.
[Laughter]
Sarah: I’m still cruising on that high, so you’re going to – it’s a very high bar you’ve got here, but hit me with the Sasquatch.
Amanda: This is the, this is the entire title: I Don’t Care If My Best Friend’s Mom is a Sasquatch, She’s Hot and I’m Taking a Shower With Her.
[Laughter]
Sarah: I can’t, I can’t breathe! Oh, God, tears! I Don’t Care That Your Mom Is a Sasquatch; She’s Hot, And I’m Taking a Shower with Her. God. Wait, so is this a woman speaking to her boyfriend or a boyfriend speaking to his girlfriend? Like, is there any, any, any – wow!
Amanda: My friend bought it and read it, and he was sending me, like, screenshots of –
Sarah: Oh!
Amanda: – of the pages.
Sarah: Do you ever get the feeling that you’re just sort of like, there is a, a money yacht that’s very close by. I could hop on this money yacht because it’s not going to sail for much longer –
Amanda: I know!
Sarah: – and I’ve, I’m missing out on, like, a whole, you know, forty or fifty dollars here with Your Mom’s a Sasquatch and I’m Going to Take a Shower with Her.
Amanda: Well, the, the women who wrote the dinosaur erotica, they did an interview, and they’re making, like, $30,000 a month.
Sarah: Yes, they were, but I don’t think that continues.
Amanda: No, but that’s still a nice padding in the bank account.
Sarah: Oh, yeah, I believe they’re undergrads, too.
Amanda: Geeze.
Sarah: Like, they went to Walmart, they bought all the ramen noodles.
Amanda: Oh, my gosh, yeah.
Sarah: ‘Cause I remember when I was in college, I went to college in South Carolina, and I was at a women’s college, and I had never had a Walmart before, ‘cause when I was growing up in Pittsburgh, we didn’t have Walmart, and there were, like, four Walmarts, and each one had a different specialty. Like, one had the light bulbs for that really hot stand lamp where you turned it on and the – you know which ones I’m talking about?
Amanda: Yes.
Sarah: I don’t even think they’re allowed in dorms anymore, but you turn them on, and they get 9,000 degrees Kelvin?
Amanda: Yeah.
Sarah: Only one Walmart had those light bulbs, but that Walmart had a crappy food section, so you’d go to, like, three different Walmarts for everything you need, and I would get my $85 check for having worked my on-campus student job, and I’d be like, oh, my God, I have $85. I am so fucking wealthy right now. Get out of my way, I’m going to Walmart. I’m going to get light bulbs, and I’m going to get ramen, and I’m going to get potatoes, potato flakes. Get out of my way. I got $85.
Amanda: That’s an adult purchase. Like, when you have to buy light bulbs. You’re like, I’ve reached it.
Sarah: Yeah!
Amanda: Adulthood achieved and unlocked.
Sarah: I’ve got to buy light bulbs. Special light bulbs. Unique, very specific light bulbs. You can’t find these at the grocery store.
Amanda: I buy, like, the swirly kinds.
Sarah: Yeah! The fluorescents?
Amanda: Yeah.
Sarah: The ones that take 95 years to actually become light?
Amanda: Yeah.
Sarah: I hate those. I mean, I know they’re great for the environment, but I like light to come on when I turn on the light switch. It’s this thing I’ve gotten addicted to by having electricity. [Laughs]
Amanda: Well, I have one and I forget that it’s the fluorescent one, so when I turn it on, it’s like, why is it so dim in here? It’s not usually this dim.
Sarah: [Laughs] What is wrong with this light bulb? What’s going – ? Yeah. I, I want fluorescent, long-lasting bulbs that actually become light. It’s, it’s a very, it’s a, I’m a bit of a stickler for the thing with the light switch and the light coming on.
Amanda: It’ll get there. It’s got to warm up a little bit.
Sarah: Yeah, slowly.
[Laughter]
Sarah: We, we – yeah. We have many of those in the house, and I’m like, I’m just going to walk around with a head lamp. Screw all you light bulbs. I’m just going to walk around with a lamp and have it on my forehead. [click]
Amanda: We have a roommate who never turns off the light, so we thought about getting her a head lamp –
Sarah: [Laughs] When you’re paying your own electric bill, all of a sudden you’re aware of, like, what kind of electricity you use.
Amanda: Yeah.
Sarah: Oh, yeah. It, that, there’s another adulthood achievement unlocked.
Amanda: [Laughs]
Sarah: So, what other sports romances have you loved and adored and would you recommend? Like, what is it about sports romance, too? Is it the, the, the conflict? Or is it just the, the competence porn of having someone be good at this very familiar thing?
Amanda: Well, those are both good points, and with sports you don’t really see a lot of, what is it, NBA sports romances for some reason. Like, basketball is rarely featured, but it’s usually, like, football and hockey, and baseball, but I would say football and hockey are the two main sports.
Sarah: Why do you think that is?
Amanda: I feel like they’re the most aggressive out of the sports. Not all of them are, like, alpha males in general, but you get that kind of aggressive, like he, like, hits people for a living, and – I don’t know. I enjoy it. Like, I think it’s attractive. Like, I can, I can understand the appeal of an athlete who, who, like, puts his body on the line for, technically, his job. And, you know, those uniforms. They’re doing us some favors.
Sarah: [Laughs] I was always amazed when you see a football player out of their pads, how small they are, and then you meet a baseball player in real life, and you’re like, oh, my God, you’re huge!
Amanda: Yeah!
Sarah: Like, how did this happen? You look so thin and little on TV and on the field, and now you’re, like, wow. It’s reversal. See, I – I’ve, I, I, I gave up football, like, two or three years ago –
Amanda: Yeah.
Sarah: – because I felt like – and, and, you have to understand, I give exactly zero fucks what other people do, so it’s not like I sit around not watching football and judging everyone who does watch football. I just felt really shitty about myself if I watched it, and I had to stop, and then my husband reached the same point, and I was like, oh, my God, we have all of this time on Sundays. What do we do?
Amanda: [Laughs]
Sarah: Like, like, we’re, wha-, what do we do on Sundays? You’re not watching football. Like, we can go do things? We could, we could be among the day people?
Amanda: Who knew we had this time –
Sarah: We’ve got, I’ve got so much frigging time, I can’t even tell you. But I, I can’t, I’m not going to be totally interested in a football romance either, for the same reasons, ‘cause –
Amanda: Yeah.
Sarah: – NFL has just, just a giant –
Amanda: They’re so problematic. Like –
Sarah: On so many levels. So I can’t read a football romance. It’s not going to do it for me.
Amanda: Yeah.
Sarah: I could go for a baseball romance, but the thing about baseball is hockey and football are ver-, are, are slightly faster games –
Amanda: Yes –
Sarah: I mean, they have a, they have a time limit, and of course, there’s time outs and there’s breaks, and, you know, it’s like, it’s never actually sixty minutes, it’s more like a lot longer than that, but baseball can go on all damn day. Now, I love that.
Amanda: Oh, yeah.
Sarah: I love baseball. I love going to games. I like the smell of everything that happens in the stadium. I think, I think going to Wrigley Field is kind of like a religious experience in some cases, but I can understand why that would be narratively boring.
Amanda: Yeah. A, a few of the baseball romances that I’ve read, The Devil in Denim being the most recent, by Melanie Scott –
Sarah: Oh, how did you like it?
Amanda: I love it. It’s great. Like, I really enjoyed it. I think the next one, Angel, Angel in Armani came out in December, so I would love to read that one, but I’m almost done with it. I had to re-check it out from the library, so I’m, like, eighty percent of the way through.
Sarah: Of The Devil in Denim?
Amanda: Yeah, The Devil in Denim, and there’s very little baseball actually being played right now, and so you don’t really have to worry about that slow going –
Sarah: Yeah.
Amanda: – boring –
Sarah: It’s a very slow-developing sport. It’s, it’s kind of like golf. You’re taking a walk.
Amanda: Yeah.
Sarah: A long, slow walk. But then there are other sports that you don’t see as much, like basketball. There should totally be basketball romances.
Amanda: I was so, I did, like, research of all the books that I’ve read that have a sports theme, and I have yet to read anyone with a, a basketball theme. I mean, you have, like, Erin McCarthy’s Fast Track series, which I love, and that’s race cars, and then if you want to throw, like, Lorelei James in there with her rodeo romances.
Sarah: Rodeo. Rodeo became a hot thing. I’m just going to go out on a limb here and say, these are all sports that are largely associated with white people in romance.
Amanda: Yes. Yep, you said it!
Sarah: Rodeo’s a whole lot of white people, to be honest with you, in romance –
Amanda: Yeah.
Sarah: – in, the depiction in romance, and –
Amanda: Football, you do have a lot of people of color playing football, but, yeah, rarely have I read a football romance that has included that. The Devil in Denim –
Sarah: Soccer.
Amanda: – has a ton of, like, diverse characters so far that – the wives and girlfriends are a range of people. You have the players, and they’re all different backgrounds, so if you want, like –
Sarah: More diverse sports portrayal?
Amanda: Yeah.
Sarah: The Devil in Denim will do it? That’s cool!
Amanda: Yeah.
Sarah: You know what we need? We need, like, cricket romance.
Amanda: [Laughs]
Sarah: Like, we need romance with cricket because I want, I, I feel like I’m dropping the biggest challenge right now. Okay, no one in the United States – okay, that’s not true – like, 99.98% of the United States does not understand how cricket works –
Amanda: I don’t think so.
Sarah: – so you have to work in an explanation of the game without info-dumping. Go! [Laughs]
Amanda: I –
Sarah: Somebody out there is like, challenge accepted!
Amanda: Rugby – I still don’t understand what’s going on with that, but they wear some tiny shorts, and that’s all I care about.
Sarah: Rugby. Rugby would be a very interesting sport portrayal. I think there are some; I’m drawing a blank.
Amanda: There are some rugby romances. I have one on my Kindle that I was reading. I can’t remember the name of it. But there are some out there. But I’ve tried watching rugby, and I have no clue what is going on. They, like –
Sarah: [Laughs]
Amanda: – just converge together, and they’re, like, pushing against each other, but if they, like start turning –
Sarah: That’s the –
Amanda: – the scrum?
Sarah: The scrum, yeah.
Amanda: Yeah. I don’t know what the hell that is. Like, a scrum is the equivalent of –
Sarah: It’s an opportunity to look at bunch of men’s butt, butts in tight shorts. What, what are you missing here?
Amanda: That’s what I’m doing.
Sarah: That’s, you’re doing it fine.
Amanda: Oh, trust me. That’s what I’m doing. But I don’t, I don’t understand a lick of it, so. Soccer? I think you mentioned soccer briefly. I haven’t read any soccer romance novels, but what is it, Jaci Burton’s Play-by-Play series?
Sarah: There’s a lot of sports in there.
Amanda: She doesn’t stick to one sport, which I really love. So if you don’t want to read about football players, she’s got baseball, she’s got hockey. I think she might even have, like, a jockey maybe? I want to say I saw a horse or some guy in, like, a weird jockey uniform on a cover?
Sarah: [Laughs]
Amanda: I don’t know. Maybe I’m making that up, and that’s all in my mind.
Sarah: Now I remember, there was a, there was a basketball romance that was sort of poking at the back of my brain like – you ever get that feeling? You know the answer to this question. It’s just, the answer’s going to roll in twenty minutes later after you ask it?
Amanda: Story of my life.
Sarah: Yes, this is how my brain works. So there is a Harlequin Superromance by Ellen Hartman called The Long Shot, and the hero is a former professional basketball player who comes back to a small town. I think he, he coaches or something, but he gets involved with one of the, one of the women who lives in the town, and he’s a former pro basketball player, which is funny, ‘cause if you look at the cover of the book, he does not look like a basketball player. He looks like a guy who would, like, straight up go toke and then roll down the hill on his snowboard.
Amanda: [Laughs]
Sarah: That’s what I would love, I would – and it, and it would be really hard to depict, I think. More snowboarding and skiing romances. ‘Cause I mean, okay, so Sarah Morgan did a professional, a former pro skier in her last O’Neil Brothers book – I have to look up the title of it – but one of the things I loved that she incorporated in that story is the fact that when you ski or snowboard or you use your, basically you use your thighs, you get big-ass thighs, and jeans don’t fit you, and so there was this whole thing about how the hero and the heroine, who was also a, a, she’s not a professional skier, but she skis all day for her job working at a ski resort?
Amanda: Yeah.
Sarah: And so they could never find jeans that fit, so they find a pair and they, like, buy twelve pairs of them because it’s so rare. This is also the story of my life. Maybe This Christmas! That’s the one. The pr-, the former pro skier and his childhood best friend. But I like that, because it’s completely true. And then I know Jennifer Echols wrote a, a snowboarding romance. I have to look up that one, which one it is. I want more, I want more winter sport romances.
Amanda: Well, Sarina Bowen, you loved her The Year We Fell Down. I think it was you that really liked that book, or Jane, but –
Sarah: That was Jane. She was the one who talked about it more.
Amanda: Yeah. Sarina also has one, Coming in from the Cold. It’s like a stranded winter romance with a –
Sarah: That’s the one that I read that Jane hated.
Amanda: Really? The ski, he’s, like, a ski champion –
Sarah: Yes, she hated him because of the way he handled the heroine’s pregnancy.
Amanda: Ooh.
Sarah: Like, she was so angry about the things that the heroine said. She’s like, I sound like a men’s rights activist, and any book that makes me sound like an MRA is just not okay! Yet again, to everyone’s utter shock, Jane and I disagreed about that book. But yes, that’s, that’s the one, the other one I remember with a skier.
Amanda: [Laughs]
Sarah: This is a thing: we never agree. This is why we have a podcast, so we can sit around and disagree.
Amanda: It’s funny how in books regarding, like, this, this pregnancy, like how it was handled, that according to how you are as a reader, there could be, like, the smallest thing that could happen that totally turns you off –
Sarah: Yep.
Amanda: – while someone else is like, what? I don’t understand what you’re going on about. This is totally fine.
Sarah: And you’re right about The Year We Fell Down. They’re hockey players, both of them.
Amanda: Yeah.
Sarah: And there’s a lot of – actually, you know what, now that the penny has dropped, there’s a lot of New Adult sports romances. Cora Carmack has a whole series about them.
Amanda: Yeah, that Rusk University series.
Sarah: They’re all, they’re all, they’re all football players. So, I mean, that, that sort of fits the New Adult because you have the idea that in high school if you’re good at sports there’s a great deal of attention paid to you –
Amanda: Yeah.
Sarah: But you’re still a very, very big fish in a very small pond, and beyond that school, you may have a continued career in sports, or you could be entirely mediocre and this is it for you.
Amanda: Well, we were talking about sports romances that we love.
Sarah: Right.
Amanda: Speaking of college sports, there was one that I was over the moon about the description. It was like, I have to read this, and I wanted to just bang my head into a wall until I was unconscious. That’s how badly it turned out, and I hated this book so much.
Sarah: Oh no.
Amanda: So, Alabama is my most-hated college football team.
Sarah: Is this a Florida thing?
Amanda: It’s a Southern thing.
Sarah: It’s a Southern thing.
Amanda: The only people who like –
Sarah: But you’re from, like, not south Florida. You’re, you’re from south Florida, which isn’t the South.
Amanda: No, not technically. My formative high school years were done in north Florida –
Sarah: Which is The South.
Amanda: – in a very rural town.
Sarah: Capital T, capital S, The South. Okay, I understand.
Amanda: Yep.
Sarah: ‘Cause once you hit the, the dividing line of Jewish retirees –
Amanda: [Laughs] Oh, yeah, we passed that –
Sarah: Then, then you, you are no longer in the south, you’re just in southern Florida, which is a completely different thing.
Amanda: Yeah, no, we were, like –
Sarah: Culturally.
Amanda: – closer to the Georgia border, sort of.
Sarah: So you hate Alabama football.
Amanda: I hate Alabama. The only people who like Alabama are Alabamans.
Sarah: There are, like, five people listening right now who are just like, that’s not true!
Amanda: I’m sorry. I’m sorry! But they’re just stupidly good. Their football team is always good, and it just, it makes me so angry. But this New Adult romance is set at the University of Alabama, and the, the main character is a football player, and –
Sarah: And you were like, I’m done. I’m out of here.
Amanda: No, no –
Sarah: [Laughs]
Amanda: – Once I wanted to read it, I was like, someone please make me like the University of Alabama. Maybe this romance will do it for me.
Sarah: So I’m, I’m challenging people, you must explain cricket without info-dumping, and you’re like, you know what, y’all just got to make me like Alabama, and, and –
Amanda: Yeah.
Sarah: – the challenge – I think, I think mine is easier.
Amanda: I think so too.
Sarah: [Laughs]
Amanda: I think so too.
Sarah: I think mine’s the easier one.
Amanda: The heroine is, like, a TA at the school, and she’s academic, and so you have the whole, like, jock and nerdy girl sort of trope going on, but the heroine’s name is Molly Shakespeare –
Sarah: Wha-?
Amanda: – and the quarterback’s name is Romeo Prince.
Sarah: Of course it is! [Laughs] Naturally!
Amanda: Oh, my God! And this book immediately does the whole trope where the ex-girlfriend/hookup is the main antagonist, and she’s just like a complete and total bitch to the heroine for no reason. Like, the heroine is trying to TA a class, and the, like, evil side chick is just being really rude. That would never fly in, like, a big lecture university setting. Like, you’re being rude to the person teaching the class. Like, you’re straight up just being inappropriate and horrible. And then it’s just, the whole Molly Shakespeare/Romeo Prince. Like, what. I just, it, like, makes my brain short circuit when I think about the time I spent reading this book.
Sarah: Molly Shakespeare? Romeo Prince?
Amanda: Yeah, it was Sweet Home by Tillie Cole, which I, when I was getting the books up for a podcast that you were doing with Jane, Tillie Cole wrote a book called Raze that apparently Jane really loved. And I was like, what? I read a book by this author, and I wanted to, like, put a bullet in my brain, like –
Sarah: No, Jane said the same thing.
Amanda: Really?
Sarah: She was like, I read Sweet – isn’t, isn’t there a scene in Sweet Home where, like, some completely improbably football things happen? Like, he throws the ball into the stands –
Amanda: Yeah.
Sarah: – and, like, it hits somebody in the head or some crazy business?
Amanda: It’s horrible.
Sarah: Right, that is, that is – Jane was like, this is not going to happen ever! This is not – she was raged, raging, rage-pants –
Amanda: But she liked the author’s other book, right?
Sarah: But the she really like Rise, or Raze?
Amanda: Raze? Yeah, like, I –
Sarah: Ray, Rayon?
Amanda: This – [laughs]
Sarah: Teflon? Yeah.
Amanda: I just thought of, like, a polyester blend.
[Laughter]
Amanda: But this completely turned me off to the author and reading any more of her books. I don’t know. Like, it completely shut me down. I don’t know.
Sarah: Raze is supposed to be pretty fly. Jane, Jane really liked it. But I also know that what, the things that she likes are not things that I like, so she liked it, I’m like, okay! Won’t be reading that.
Amanda: [Laughs]
Sarah: There have been times where I said, I hated this book. You would like it. You should read it now. So, here’s a question I have, and this is a hard question, and I don’t know if I know the answer to this one.
Amanda: Okay.
Sarah: So, there’s a, there’s the, the athlete hero and the nerdy girl trope, right?
Amanda: Yeah, I ha-, technic-, I don’t really like those. It feels too easy, like –
Sarah: I want the athletic heroine and the nerdy hero.
Amanda: Yes! Yes.
Sarah: Like, I want bad-ass, athletic heroine and sort of geeky, nerdy science hero.
Amanda: There’s got to be one out there.
Sarah: I have read a, I’ve read two, but they’re both fanfic.
Amanda: Oh, yeah.
Sarah: I, those aren’t, you know, that’s not like – I can’t recommend those, I don’t think.
Amanda: I’m, like, maybe halfway through the Play-By-Play series. There’s no lady athletes further down the line? I don’t remember.
Sarah: I don’t, I don’t know, actually. I wonder if Jaci Burton’s online, and I could ask her.
Amanda: [Laughs]
Sarah: Jaci! Jaci!
Amanda: And then, I think the Fast Track series might have a –
Sarah: Has a female driver, yes.
Amanda: Yeah.
Sarah: The Fast Track series definitely has a female driver.
Amanda: But the hero’s not, like, a nerdy scientist.
Sarah: And see that, for me, would be the most interesting aspect of a NASCAR series, because, you know, the guys who work a NASCAR pit crew, they’re like engineers and shit.
Amanda: Yep.
Sarah: They have extremely high levels of science. There’s, there’s some ass, ass-tastic, awesome levels of science going on here. Like, like, all those guys swarming the car have a collective IQ of, like, nine billion. That’s, that’s fascinating to me. So, I, I want more, like, nerds of NASCAR. Here! There’s your series name. It’s like a gift from me to you.
Amanda and Sarah: Nerds of NASCAR.
Sarah: I can hear someone who works at NASCAR HQ in, like, the, the branding department twitching right now.
Amanda: [Laughs]
Sarah: Like, they, they’re upset, and they don’t know why.
Amanda: What are they doing to our sport?
Sarah: I know! [Laughs] They’re upset, they’re very, very bothered, and they don’t know why.
Amanda: We’re making it better, you guys.
Sarah: Nerds of NASCAR.
Amanda: Don’t, don’t worry about us.
Sarah: Nerds of NASCAR! Trust me, it’ll be awesome.
Amanda: And then, like, the pit crew uniforms start to change. They get a little tighter. [Laughs]
Sarah: That’d be okay! I’d, you know, it, it’s weird, I’m one of those weird people who it’s like, oh! Look! Pectorals and abdominal muscles. I wonder what your body fat percentage is. Like, seven percent? Maybe eight? That’s interesting. Like –
Amanda: They could probably tell you. Like –
Sarah: Exactly!
Amanda: The people who have that kind of body know it off the top of their head.
Sarah: There’s, I think there’s two Fast Track books with female racers. One of them is Full Throttle, which is a female racer.
Amanda: Yeah.
Sarah: The hero is her best friend’s brother-in-law, which is like –
Amanda: I wish this series got more love. I feel like not a lot of people –
Sarah: What, the Fast Track series?
Amanda: Yeah!
Sarah: Oh, it’s totally, totally wonderful. I al-, I, I always recommend Flat-Out Sexy to people who are looking for funny hot. Because funny and hot is really difficult to do.
Amanda: Elec Monroe is a gentleman and a scholar. He is so sweet in that book. [Laughs]
Sarah: I love that book. I love that the heroine is older. I love that –
Amanda: Yep.
Sarah: – he’s just totally blown away by how awesome she is. That she, he, he things that she’s cool ‘cause she has her shit together and she’s a grownup.
Amanda: I would definitely classify him too as, like, a, a beta hero. I mean, it’s just so nice.
Sarah: Oh, I love him. I love that book.
Amanda: It’s great.
Sarah: It, and it’s funny; that’s the other thing. She, Erin McCarthy can write sexy, hot, funny, and that’s really difficult to do. I would like more.
Amanda: And the dramatics are never too over dramatic. Like, it’s not, it doesn’t go into the melodrama territory for me. And all of the, like, Tamara, the heroine, like, all of her concerns about being an older woman and a single mom are totally valid. So I never – she’s a relatable heroine –
Sarah: Totally.
Amanda: – and I liked that the hero handles the situations wonderfully.
Sarah: And she married young and, and, and – so if anyone’s listening to this and –
Amanda: Read it.
Sarah: – doesn’t know the setup of the book, you should just read it, but the hero is a racecar driver who’s, I don’t want to say, like fifteen years younger than her? Or maybe not even, maybe it’s more like nine or ten years younger than she is?
Amanda: Yeah, I don’t think it’s quite fifteen.
Sarah: No, it’s, like, ten years, but she’s a widow. Her, her husband was like, kind of like Dale Earnhardt, only not that old.
Amanda: Yeah.
Sarah: And he died in a race, and she’s, she has kids, and she’s like, I’m never daving, diting, dating a racecar again; I’ve had enough of this, and she meets this guy –
Amanda: Did you say never dating a racecar again? [Laughs]
Sarah: Yes, she’s never dating a car. I’m thinking of Disney’s Cars, so she hooks up with this guy who sounds a lot like Lightning McQueen – no, I’m kidding. She hooks up with this driver, only she doesn’t know he’s a driver, and she has a one-night stand with him, and she wakes up, and she’s like, oh, my God, you’re younger than me, and you’re a driver. Oh, God, I’m a cougar. I have to go.
[Laughter]
Amanda: I have to go.
Sarah: I have to go right now. This is just bad. And it, and it’s wonderful. It’s so, such a good book. Like, we’re going to stop gushing now, but it’s so good! You should read it!
Amanda: And I love the, I’m a sucker for the one-night-stand trope. Like, people sleep together and then, you know, the next day, they’re like, oh, crap, it’s my new boss or, oh, crap, this is my professor.
Sarah: You like that trope?
Amanda: I love it! Like, Losing It by Cora Carmack, I love it. I adore that trope so much.
Sarah: I’ve, I’ve never been a huge fan, but I know it works for so many people.
Amanda: Works for me!
[Laughter]
Sarah: You know what trope I hate? I hate the I’m really attracted to her; I’ll just have sex with her and get her out of my system. It never works. The whole get her out of my system? Having sex is not like getting a, getting a, a vaccine.
Amanda: [Laughs]
Sarah: It’s like a flu shot, and you’re going to get over it. I’m going to get her out of my system. That never works. You’d think that there would be, like, this folklore knowledge passed down from romance heroes from decades prior who would just sort of send up a big flag: It never works!
Amanda: When you mentioned –
Sarah: You cannot get her out of your system!
Amanda: [Laughs] When you mentioned vaccine, I wanted to make quite a few, like, injection dirty jokes.
Sarah: That’s appropriate on this podcast!
[Laughter]
Sarah: So, what other books are you reading and do you recommend?
Amanda: My other books are, so, I’m almost done with The Raven by Sylvain Reynard, and it’s blowing my mind. It is –
Sarah: Really! What do you like?
Amanda: It is the definition of, like, a slow burn. It is –
Sarah: Mmm?
Amanda: – so good. Like, there are some romance novels where they just kind of mush the hero and heroine together every chance they can get, and this is not the case in this book. You know, the, the heroine, Raven, is dealing with her own things, and then the hero is dealing with his own things, and so when they come together, it’s natural and not just an excuse to, like, ramp up the, the sex or the relationship progression, so when they finally do get in the same room, you’re just like, I don’t know, shaking the book, ‘cause it’s, like, crackling off the pages. Like, you’re just like, oh, my God, you guys, just kiss already! Do it!
Sarah: [Laughs]
Amanda: So, it’s, it’s really good. The author is male, or identifies as male, so I thought that was really interesting. I had no clue. I thought it was a woman. But it is so well written. There are a few, like, minor quirks of mine that I don’t like. The heroine is a little perfect. Like, she volunteers at a mission and an orphanage and –
Sarah: That’s super perfect.
Amanda: Yeah. It’s all well and good and everything. I would like a little more, I don’t know, flaws in her, but in terms of the character interaction, I, I’m really, really enjoying it so far, so.
Sarah: Cool!
Amanda: Yeah. I know I’ve talked about it before, about how the description is one of, like, the best jacket copies I’ve read in a while that have made me want to pick up the book. That’s what I’m reading that’s blowing my mind is that one.
Sarah: Any other books you want to recommend?
Amanda: Talk about Flat-Out Sexy. So everyone needs to read it, and I expect a full book report on my desk by Monday.
Sarah: [Laughs]
Amanda: So everyone who reads it, it is great. The Devil in Denim, I know we’ve talked about this. I’m almost finished with it. It’s great. The hero is, like, this weird, like, billionaire, but he suffered a really tragic event in college. He played college baseball, but the heroine really doesn’t know that going into it. He, she just thinks he’s, like, a, a corporate raider taking over her father’s legacy as the owner of this baseball team and that he has no knowledge about baseball whatsoever.
Sarah: That’s always a great setup.
Amanda: Yeah, but he, he has really close ties to basebowl, baseball, but also really painful memories about his time playing baseball, so I’m, I’m really liking the hero, Alex Winters, in the book, and the heroine, Maggie, Maggie Jameson, which is a really cool name.
Sarah: Yes.
Amanda: I feel like my mom did me a disservice. Maybe I can change my name to Maggie Jameson now.
Sarah: [Laughs]
Amanda: But she’s smart and competent and educated, and she’s not, like, one of those too-stupid-to-live, whiny heroines or anything, so that’s also a really great one, if we’re talking sports. The Devil in Denim and The Raven are the two that I’m reading and finishing.
Sarah: Yeah?
Amanda: I should finish both this weekend – that I would recommend, and then Flat-Out Sexy if anyone wants racecar drivers.
Sarah: Oh, I –
Amanda: [Laughs]
Sarah: I just love that whole series. And I, and I like that it changes enough that – you know, the first three you kind of knew who the main characters were going to be –
Amanda: Yeah.
Sarah: – ‘cause there’s three groups. One of the other things that I love about the series also is that in the first one, the heroine has a research assistant, who is, like, totally not –
Amanda: Imogene or Imogen –
Sarah: Im-, Imogen. She has no interest in any of this weirdness. She’s, she’s from up north. She wears black. She’s kind of quiet and Goth-y, and then there’s this one driver who’s completely fascinated by her and is just like, you are the weirdest, most interesting person I have ever met, and if I remember correctly, he’s dyslexic.
Amanda: Yeah.
Sarah: And so he’s like, I – like, he can’t even –
Amanda: Doesn’t she, like, give him a, she, like, gives him a book or something.
Sarah: Uh-huh.
Amanda: There’s, like, a scene with a book, and he gets, like, kind of frustrated.
Sarah: Mm-hmm. And then –
Amanda: Oh, my God.
Sarah: – and I think that he, his phone is programmed with pictures because he can’t read names –
Amanda: Yep.
Sarah: – so his phone is all visuals.
Amanda: I want to read that one, read the second one, Hard and Fast, again. It was very good!
Sarah: Go! The Hard and Fast? Oh!
Amanda: Yep. The titles of these books – [laughs]
Sarah: And the, and the covers, they are all good.
Amanda: All good. There’s not a bad one in the bunch.
Sarah: Hot Finish is a great – yeah.
Amanda: I’ve – when it, when it first came out, a few, what is it, like, 2010? It’s, like, five years old now, but when it first came out, but when it first came out, I remember reading reviews, and people weren’t liking it for some reason, but I loved it.
Sarah: [Laughs]
Amanda: I loved the whole, like, second-chance romance between Suzanne and –
Sarah: Oh, when they put their marriage back together?
Amanda: I know!
Sarah: Ohhh! So good.
Amanda: Good book noises here.
Sarah: Hmmm.
Amanda: [Laughs]
Sarah: Like I, like I’ve said, it, it is really tricky to do funny and hot sexy. To have all of that sexual attraction, like, where you’re just like, oh, my God, would you please just kiss and go bone right now! But also, it’s funny, too. Like, it is hilarious.
Amanda: And I think it ended – hasn’t Erin McCarthy moved on to, like, a New Adult series?
Sarah: Yeah, she has a New Adult series. I don’t know if there’s any more of this series coming out. The best thing about Flat-Out Sexy’s cover is that he, there is a portion of his – ahem! – anatomy that seems to have worn the, the crotch of his jeans.
Amanda: Lots of chafing and rubbing.
Sarah: Like, there is a portion of his jeans that is as – you know how the, the front of your thighs gets, gets worn –
Amanda: Yeah.
Sarah: – and it turns white. Yeah, there’s a certain part of the, the jeans in the front that’s also worn-in white.
Amanda: Like –
Sarah: It’s so big, it has its own wear pattern.
Amanda: His junk gives it, like, its own acid wash.
Sarah: That’s right! Oh, God, acid junk. That’s not the genre we are reading right now.
Amanda: [Laughs]
Sarah: Somebody, somebody just screamed, no, God, no!
Amanda: That’s a sci-fi book. I’m sure. Someone saw it.
Sarah: [Laughs] His acid junk. Somebody’s going to write that and send it to us, and we’re going to be like, no, please, no!
Amanda: Like, if you want acid junk, I know just the book for you.
Sarah: [Laughs]
Amanda: It’s like, oh, okay.
Sarah: Thank you.
Amanda: If anyone has any sports romance recommendations – I mean, Jaci Burton keeps my hands full. She’s, like, the queen of sports romances for me. If any –
Sarah: Is there one of hers that you like best?
Amanda: I get sentimental about, like, the first books in a series.
Sarah: I can understand that.
Amanda: So, like, The Perfect Play is the, the one that started it all sort of thing, and that also the heroine is a, a single mom with –
Sarah: Yep.
Amanda: – kind of, like, a preteen son, so I think that was really cute, and how the, the hero kind of, like, navigates that wall, obviously not using his star power and kind of manipulating the son and/or mom in any way. So –
Sarah: I liked, the thing I liked about The Perfect Play is that she had a job, and she was good at it.
Amanda: Yep!
Sarah: And she was completely unabashed about the fact that she was good at it. One – I, I really like competent heroines.
Amanda: Yes.
Sarah: Like, and they, and, this is my job, and I’m good at it. This is what I do, and I’m, and I like it, and I’m also really good at it. Have we talked about that? ‘Cause I, I don’t, I don’t fuck around pretending I don’t know what I’m doing. I like knowing what I’m doing.
Amanda: You should read –
Sarah: I love that in a heroine.
Amanda: – The Devil in Denim. It’s baseball. The heroine knows what she’s doing. She went to, like, grad school. I think, like, psych and sports management were her majors.
Sarah: You’re talking me into it.
Amanda: Yeah, because she wanted to take over her dad’s team. She was kind of expecting this would be her lot in life was to become the new owner of the sports team, and she doesn’t, but hero Alex recognizes that she’s a pivotal part of the team, and she knows what she’s doing, and so, you know, convinces her to just, like, help him get his feet wet with all the players until the season starts. So he, like, recognizes that she’s an asset and she’s got great potential, and she has grown up through this team and knows what she’s doing and knows the players intimately, and their wives and families, so it’s a really great book!
[music]
Sarah: And that is all for this week’s episode. I hope you enjoyed our discussion of sports romances. If you have a sports romance that you would like to recommend, or maybe you wrote the cricket romance that I am asking for wherein you both detail an incredibly hot and passionate love story while also explaining how cricket works, I would actually really appreciate that, ‘cause I’m still confused, you can email us at [email protected]. You can also talk to me on Twitter @SmartBitches, and you can talk to Amanda @_ImAnAdult. I’ve heard rumors that she is actually an adult and that multiple adult achievements have been unlocked, but at very least, that is her Twitter handle.
This podcast is brought to you by InterMix, publisher of The Prince, the brand-new Gabriel’s Inferno novella from New York Times bestselling author Sylvain Reynard. You can download it wherever eBooks are sold. It’s on sale now.
Our music in every episode is provided by Sassy Outwater, and you can find her online @SassyOutwater. This is “Dun Beag,” a song by the Peatbog Faeries, and I hope I pronounced the title right. Dun Beag is actually a place; it is a, an ancient sort of fortified, fort-looking type of thing. Wasn’t that just great? Shouldn’t I be a tour guide? It’s a, it’s a fortified fort-looking thing. It is a very, very, very old artifact, and it’s kind of cool. Peatbog Faeries, also very cool. Their CD Dust is on sale at their website and online, and you can get their music digitally, and I will have links to that in the show notes.
Our future podcasts will include me, possibly Jane, possibly additional people, all talking about romance novels, because that’s what we do here, and if you have an idea for a podcast or you have an idea for a show or you have something you’d like to say, please email us, ‘cause we’d love to hear from you. But in the meantime, on behalf of Amanda and Jane and myself, we wish you the very best of reading. Have a great weekend.
[awesome music]
This podcast transcript was handcrafted with meticulous skill by Garlic Knitter. Many thanks.
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).
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.
@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!
Mouth guards: I’ve tried–feel like I can’t breathe, so…
May have to try it again, though.
@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.
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. 🙂
Ack, Sarah rather. Dammit. Mixing my people. Sorry!
@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!
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?
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
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!
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?
@ 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.
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.
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.
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
I can recommend Lily Burana’s Try. One of the characters does rodeo.
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.
@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…
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
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.
Players: A Sports Romance Anthology! It has basketball, rugby, a bad-ass female athlete and a one-night-stand trope! 🙂
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!
@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.
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!
Thank you! I thought I was going crazy! lol I’ll be sure to keep an eye out for it 🙂
@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!
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.
[…] 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 – […]
@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.
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
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.
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
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.
[…] 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 […]