Best Spicy Athlete Romance Books
Caught Up - 5 Stars
This was my first ever athlete romance and I started off with a BANG (pun intended). Oh my god I loved this book so much and I loved the characters as well. When we first meet Kai, we hear about how his son was just essentially dropped off at his front door by the mom who just couldn’t handle it anymore. He never even knew she was pregnant but jumped right into taking care of the baby. He’s fired nanny after nanny for reasons only a parent would understand, which creates a situation where the rest of the baseball staff is left (happily) picking up the slack. Enter the team manager’s daughter, Miller, who is going through a rough patch in her Michelin restaurant industry career after experiencing severe creative burnout. Of course she becomes the nanny and of course there is intense flirting and I ate up every second of it. She never hid how attractive she found him which kind of pushed things along. The dual POV is so clutch because we get to read about how attracted he is to her when he doesn’t say it to Miller.
Their spicy scenes are so good and make sense with the story. While I’m coming around to the idea of spice for the sake of spice because I’m a thirsty bitch, it is always better when it feels authentic to the characters.
Play Along - 5 Stars
This is the next book in the Windy City Series after Caught Up and follows Kai’s younger brother Isaiah and the team’s athletic trainer, Kennedy. Isaiah has been in love with Kennedy since he first saw her and they have a fun and flirty relationship, but Kennedy has never seriously given Isaiah the time of the day. She doesn’t hang out with the team outside of work and she is just really focused on her career. But when the team takes a bonding trip to Vegas and Kennedy is there for her step-sister’s bachelorette party, Kennedy wants to escape the party. Her step-sister is marrying her ex-fiance after all. Isaiah to the rescue. What ensues is a drunken marriage that they have to keep up. That means rooming together on the road and learning things about each other to keep up the ruse.
I love Isaiah so much. His brother is rugged and on the stern side, but Isaiah is boyish and dirty, which is a lethal combination that both Kennedy and myself can’t get enough of. Their spicy scenes are even hotter than Kai and Millers, especially because there is a whole “I couldn’t really get off with my ex” trope that Isaiah is more than happy to remedy for Kennedy. God it’s just so good.
The Fake Out - 5 Stars
Rory has had eyes for Hazel since high school but Hazel only had eyes for Connor. Too bad Connor broke her heart in a brash way and now Hazel has written off hockey players for life. Until Connor gets traded for Rory’s team, the Vancouver Storm (the team Hazel also works for as a physiotherapist), and during a little tense reunion with Connor, Hazel says she’s dating Rory—who also happens to be Connor’s rival. When Rory finds out he’s now “dating” Hazel, he genuinely could not be happier. As Hazel starts to see a different side to Rory, she starts to realize maybe she had it all wrong. And for Rory, the dating was never fake. He’s meant everything he’s said and done and just needs Hazel to believe it too.
You’ve got forced proximity, “get your hands off her,” fake dating and more in this spicy romance. The way they fall in love is so cute because while Hazel was pretending and then struggling to pretend, Rory was all in from day one. An absolute must read.
Behind the Net - 4 Stars
From the same series as The Fake Out, Behind the Net focuses on Hazel’s younger sister Pippa and the Vancouver Storm goalie, Jamie. When Pippa gets fired from her job, she takes a position as Jamie’s assistant. Her job is to unpack his moving boxes, take care of his dog and handle anything else to do with Jamie’s personal life that he doesn’t have time for due to taking care of his mom and hockey. When Jamie opens the door to find Pippa standing just over the threshold, he can’t think straight, and neither can she. Why? Because they were both obsessed with each other in high school and neither of them knew it.
What I love most about this book is another “I have trouble coming” and Jamie wants so desperately to help her out, but he knows he doesn’t have time to give her what she deserves, so he just masturbates in his room while moaning her name out loud. Of course she hears him and this is kind of where things take off. This book is so sexy and cute the development of Jamie and Pippa’s relationship but also Jamie’s relationship with his mom is really great. It’s not just spicy romance, the writing is great and the story itself is emotional and well-developed.
