It may surprise you to learn there are eight sports romances on the current (2018) AAR Top 100 List. Five are from Susan Elizabeth Phillips’ Chicago Stars series: Match Me If You Can (2005), Natural Born Charmer (2001), Nobody’s Baby But Mine (1997), Heaven, Texas (1995), and It Had To Be You (1994). The other three are: Him by Sarina Bowen and Elle Kennedy (2015), Kulti (2015) and The Wall of Winnipeg and Me (2016), both by Mariana Zapata.
Power Search tells me we have 144 romances tagged as sports romances, 47 of which are DIKs. Looking at the reviews, it appears our grades of this sub-genre are declining. In 2018, we had 18 DIKs tagged as such–in the years since, they’re been just 11. (It’s highly likely we’ve missed some with our tags, so take that number with a wee grain of salt.)
My personal faves, currently, are Natural Born Charmer, This Heart of Mine, and Bench Player. I also come back again and again to Rachel Gibson’s Chinooks series. For some reason, I’m not a big fan of angst in my sports romances so while I think Kennedy Ryan’s Hoops series is so good, I don’t love them in the way I love my favorite sports romances which blend sex and humor. (Shallow, just call me shallow.)
How ’bout you? What do you think the best sports romances/series are?
