Westerly Sun Column | Sports Romances are Having a Moment

Sports. You can love them, you can hate them, but you definitely can’t escape them. And chances are, even if you have a passionate distain for each and every one of them, it’s likely that there is a sports-related book or TV series that you would love. From romance books to comedy and dramatic films, sport-themed media is all the rage right now. You just have to find the subset that speaks to you!

About 6 months ago, Rachel Reid’s enemies-to-lovers sports romance “Heated Rivalry” exploded in popularity following the release of the HBO Max series by the same name. All of a sudden, people who had never seen a hockey match in their lives were obsessed with hockey literature. Granted, it wasn’t really the sport that caught their eye, but still. There are too many other hockey-romances on the market for it to be a fluke; there’s clearly something compelling about the sport as a backdrop to a love story. Look at “The Deal” by Elle Kennedy (2015), which focuses on the unexpected love story between a college music student and the star hockey player. Even before the TV series “Off Campus”, based on the book, it was widely popular. “Icebreaker” by Hannah Grace (2022) and “Pucking Strong” by Emily Rath are 2 others in a growing collection of hockey literature that are worth looking at.

The prevalence of sports romances isn’t exclusive to hockey. There are steamy books revolving around nearly any sport you can think of! “The Wall of Winnipeg and Me” by Mariana Zapata is a very popular friends-to-lovers romance centered around football. Then there is “Simply the Best” by Susan Elizabeth Phillips, a football-adjacent contemporary romance that focuses on the relationship between a hot shot sports agent and a struggling chocolatier. In a review for the book, the Wall Street Journal remarked: “The queen of the football romance is not Taylor Swift. It’s Susan Elizabeth Phillips”, which – perhaps – tells you all you need to know. If none of these are doing it for you, there are books on soccer (“Cleat Cute” by Meryl Milsner), racing (“Not So Fast” by Karen Booth) and even pickleball (“The Pickleballers” by Ilana Long)!

Despite the fact that sports romances are clearly having a moment, they aren’t for everyone. I’m not a romance reader, nor am I a massive sports fan, but I have definitely enjoyed my share of sport-themed media. The “Beartown” series by Fredrik Backman is a great example, which centers on a youth hockey team in a remote Swedish town. Though I haven’t read it, I’ve also heard good things about Andre Agassi’s memoir “Open”.

Next time you’re at the library, consider reaching for a book or movie related to soccer, or baseball, or curling. If the 1993 film “Cool Runnings” taught us anything, it’s that you don’t have to care about or know anything about a specific sport to enjoy the story!

by Cassie Skobrak, Adult Services Librarian