Sports romance has basically turned into its own giant universe at this point. Hockey alone could keep you busy for months, but I didn’t want this list to turn into 18 hockey books and call it a day.
For this list, I stuck with books where the sport actually matters. The season, team, career, competition or training is part of the story and affects the relationship in some way. There’s football, soccer, hockey, baseball, rugby, figure skating, golf, Formula 1 and more.
The romances are pretty varied too. There are best friends, enemies, fake relationships, forbidden relationships and one football romance that gets a whole lot darker than the rest.
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Football & Soccer Romance Books
Blindsided by Amy Daws
Freya Cook is almost thirty, still a virgin and not exactly confident when it comes to dating. Her best friend Mac is a Scottish footballer who decides he can help with that.
Obviously, giving your best friend lessons in seduction is a perfectly reasonable idea that could never possibly get complicated.
This is a friends-to-lovers romance with plenty of banter, jealousy and two people who already know each other a little too well.
Blindsided
A Scottish footballer offers to help his best friend gain some confidence with dating, only for their friendship to start turning into something more.
Only When It’s Us by Chloe Liese
Willa Sutter is a college soccer star who has enough going on without dealing with Ryder Bergman, the irritating guy sitting next to her in class.
Unfortunately, they’re forced to work together.
What starts with irritation, misunderstandings and plenty of pranks slowly turns into something neither of them expected. The soccer side matters too because Willa is serious about her future in the sport.
Only When It’s Us
Two college rivals are forced to work together and turn their feud into a game of pranks—but as tensions shift, their rivalry sparks unexpected feelings neither of them saw coming.
The Crush by Karla Sorensen
Adaline has had a thing for Emmett Ward for years, but she was firmly stuck in the friend zone before he was drafted into the NFL and moved away.
Now he’s back, and apparently he never forgot about her either.
The problem is that Adaline already knows how much football matters to Emmett. Wanting him is one thing. Trusting that there will actually be room for her in his life is another.
The Crush
A longtime crush gets another chance when an NFL player returns and makes it clear he never forgot the woman he left behind.
The Wall of Winnipeg and Me by Mariana Zapata
Vanessa Mazur has spent two years working for football star Aiden Graves, and she is more than ready to quit.
Aiden barely seems to notice her until she leaves.
Then he shows up asking her to come back into his life with a marriage-of-convenience proposal she definitely wasn’t expecting. This is a very slow burn, and Aiden’s football career is a huge part of his life and their relationship.
The Wall of Winnipeg and Me
A professional football player asks his former assistant for a marriage of convenience in this very slow-burn sports romance.
The Cheat Sheet by Sarah Adams
Bree is secretly in love with her best friend Nathan, who also happens to be a famous quarterback.
She has managed to keep that little problem to herself until she gets drunk and says too much to a reporter. Suddenly everyone is interested in their relationship, and Bree and Nathan find themselves fake dating.
Of course, pretending to date the person you are already in love with sounds like an excellent plan.
The Cheat Sheet
Best friends are pushed into a fake relationship after her secret feelings for a famous quarterback become very public.
The Wrong Quarterback by C. R. Jane
This one is much darker than most of the books on this list.
Casey thinks she knows where her life is headed until Tennessee star quarterback Parker Davis decides he wants her. Parker is obsessive, morally gray and absolutely convinced that Casey belongs with him.
If you want your sports romance sweet and cozy, this probably isn’t the one. This is definitely the darker end of the list.
The Wrong Quarterback
A darker college football romance featuring an obsessive star quarterback who is completely convinced he has found the woman he wants.
And if Parker’s morally gray side is more your speed, you might want my list of dark romance books where the bad guy gets the girl.
The Striker by Ana Huang
Asher Donovan is one of the biggest football stars in the Premier League, but trouble with a rival-turned-teammate lands them in an off-season cross-training program.
Their trainer is Scarlett DuBois, a former ballerina who also happens to be his teammate’s sister.
So now Asher has football drama, forced training and a woman who is very much supposed to be off-limits.
The Striker
A Premier League football star falls for his teammate’s sister while an off-season training program keeps throwing them together.
Cleat Cute by Meryl Wilsner
Grace Henderson has been one of the stars of the U.S. Women’s National Team for years. Then an injury sidelines her and newcomer Phoebe Matthews gets a chance to take her spot.
They should probably be focused on making the World Cup roster.
Instead, the rivalry starts turning into something else.
Both women are professional soccer players, so the competition is actually part of the romance instead of just sitting in the background.
Cleat Cute
Two professional soccer players compete for World Cup spots while their rivalry starts becoming something much more complicated.
If the rivalry is your favorite part, I also have a whole list of enemies-to-lovers contemporary romance books.
Hockey & Ice Sports Romance Books
The Deal by Elle Kennedy
Garrett Graham is the captain of his college hockey team, but his grades are threatening his future in the sport.
Hannah Wells can help him academically. In return, Garrett agrees to help Hannah get the attention of another guy by pretending to date her.
Fake dating strikes again.
The deal works just fine until they start realizing the person they actually want might already be sitting right in front of them.
The Deal
A college hockey captain makes a deal with a classmate: tutoring in exchange for helping her catch another guy’s attention.
Right Man, Right Time by Meghan Quinn
Running into an ex is bad enough. Running into an ex who is dating someone you can’t stand is apparently how you end up kissing a random man at a bar.
Except the random man turns out to be a professional hockey player.
One panic kiss turns into a fake relationship, and what is supposed to be a convenient arrangement becomes considerably less convenient once actual feelings get involved.
Right Man, Right Time
One impulsive kiss with a stranger turns into a fake relationship with a professional hockey player.
The Good Luck Charm by Helena Hunting
Ethan left Lilah years ago to focus on hockey.
Eight years later, he’s back and suddenly wants another chance.
The timing is suspicious, especially when his performance starts improving after they reconnect. Lilah has to figure out whether Ethan really came back because he loves her or because he thinks having her around somehow makes him better on the ice.
The Good Luck Charm
A hockey player returns to the woman he left years ago and wants another chance, just as his performance on the ice begins improving.
Pucking Around by Emily Rath
Rachel Price lands a job as a physical therapist for a professional hockey team and discovers that a man from her recent past is one of the players.
Then there’s his best friend.
And the goalie.
Yeah, this is a why-choose hockey romance, so it is very different from most of the other books on this list. It’s also one of the spicier choices here and leans fully into the multiple-partner relationship.
Pucking Around
A physical therapist joins a professional hockey team and finds herself falling for not one player, but three men connected to the team.
Icebreaker by Hannah Grace
Anastasia Allen is a competitive figure skater with her sights set on Team USA. Nate Hawkins is captain of the college hockey team.
Then a problem with their facilities forces the hockey and figure-skating teams to share a rink.
Anastasia definitely does not want anything to do with Nate, until problems with her skating partner put her in the position of needing his help.
This one gives you two athletes instead of the usual athlete/non-athlete pairing.
Icebreaker
A competitive figure skater and college hockey captain are forced to share rink space before an unexpected problem pushes them even closer.
If the ice and snow are half the appeal, I also have a list of winter romance books for when you want something a little cozier.
Baseball, Rugby, Golf, Racing & More
Kiss Hard by Nalini Singh
Danny Esera is a professional rugby player. Catie River is chasing Paralympic gold.
They also cannot stand each other.
When circumstances push them into pretending to be a couple, keeping things fake gets harder than either of them expected.
Both characters have serious athletic careers here, so neither one is simply standing on the sidelines while the other gets all of the sports storyline.
Kiss Hard
A professional rugby player and a Paralympic athlete who can barely stand each other end up pretending to be a couple.
Everything to Me by Lauren Fraser
Kendall has been in love with her brother’s friend Pete for years.
Pete is now a professional baseball player, and Kendall is definitely supposed to remain the annoying little sister in his head.
Then she stays with him while she’s in town, and Pete discovers that ignoring his attraction to her is considerably harder now.
It’s best friend’s sister, off-limits romance with professional baseball mixed in.
Everything to Me
A professional baseball player starts seeing his best friend’s younger sister very differently when she comes to stay with him.
Play Along by Liz Tomforde
Kennedy is the athletic trainer for a professional baseball team. Isaiah is the team’s shortstop and has been interested in her for years.
Then Las Vegas happens.
They wake up married and decide that staying married for the baseball season might actually solve a few problems. Kennedy wants to protect her career, while Isaiah sees the arrangement as his chance to prove that their marriage doesn’t have to be fake forever.
Play Along
A professional baseball player and the team’s athletic trainer wake up married in Las Vegas and agree to stay that way for the season.
Cross the Line by Simone Soltani
Dev Anderson is a Formula 1 driver whose career has taken a hit after a social media disaster.
Willow is his best friend’s younger sister, and she happens to have the skills he needs to repair his public image.
Working together would be simple if they hadn’t already kissed and spent the last year thinking about it.
Formula 1 gives this list something completely different from the usual football-and-hockey lineup.
Cross the Line
A Formula 1 driver hires his best friend’s younger sister to repair his public image, despite the attraction they have already tried to ignore.
Fangirl Down by Tessa Bailey
Wells Whitaker used to be one of golf’s rising stars. Now his game is falling apart and almost everyone has given up on him.
Almost everyone.
Josephine Doyle is still cheering for him, even when Wells himself decides he’s finished. He eventually comes back with an offer: become his caddie, help him turn his game around and share the prize money.
So this isn’t just a golfer who happens to fall in love. Josephine actually becomes part of his attempt to save his career.
Fangirl Down
A struggling professional golfer asks his last remaining fan to become his caddie and help him turn his career around.
Final Thoughts
There is definitely no shortage of hockey and football players in sports romance, but I like this list better with some other sports mixed in.
You’ve got soccer players competing for roster spots, a figure skater trying to reach Team USA, a Paralympic athlete, professional baseball players, rugby, golf and even Formula 1.
The thing they all have in common is that the sport actually matters. It affects careers, schedules, relationships and sometimes the entire reason the couple gets thrown together in the first place.
And yes, there is still plenty of hockey. Apparently sports romance was never going to let us escape that one.
