Books: Romance and/or hockey recommendations

[escritoireazul]

I'm in need of recommendations for contemporary romance stories, hockey romance stories, and hockey stories in general and would love any and all suggestions, fic or books or movies/tv shows, whatever.

Comments

[snickfic]

If you are looking for hockey fic, I CAN HELP YOU. :D My first rec would be for sevenfists - if you look in her hockey fics and sort by length, her hockey longfic romances will be on top. I also have a tag of hockey recs. Can you talk a little more about what kind of thing you're looking for?

As far as other media go, The Mighty Ducks is a classic for a reason, and I found the more recent Goon unexpectedly delightful, although with a lot of sports-related injury and violence, so fair warning there.

[misbegotten]

Your tag of hockey recs is magnificent. I'm going to be browsing for a while. \o/

[snickfic]

Enjoy!! That is what it is there for. :D

[misbegotten]

Are you familiar with Check, Please! (I can't keep track of who is a fan and who is not, so please forgive me if you're a superfan of it already).

Regarding hockey, are you looking for het, slash, gen? All of the above? RPF?

[wpadmirer]

I really enjoyed this book - contemporary romance and hockey! https://smile.amazon.com/Bad-Ice-Sandra-Cormier/dp/1897445164/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1547347985&sr=8-3&keywords=Sandra+Cormier

[havocthecat]

Oh, uh, contemporary romances? Like, without supernatural stuff?

I'm going to have to ask my mom. (Also my circle.) I mostly read genre.

(I am generally fond of Zoe Chant for paranormal romance, though!)

[havocthecat]

Mom sent me a rec list. She's very traditional in her picks compared to fandom, but also has some good taste when it comes to books. I'll email it to you tonight, as she's not on Dreamwidth. (Please, God, never.)

[celli]

Samantha Weyland has some contemporary hockey romance that I love - m/m, m/f, and an OT3 series. Avon Gale also has an m/m series called Scoring Chances that I recommend if that's your thing.

[rebecca_selene]

Heidi Cullinan for all your m/m contemporary romance needs. The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang (m/f, autism rep). Some of Shira Glassman's short stories for Jewish m/f and f/f. The Less Than Epic Adventures of TJ and Amal by E.K. Weaver, an m/m roadtrip graphic novel that's also available for free online.

[aj]

Double thumbs up for The Kiss Quotient, but cw: sex work. It's an absolute delight. Also double thumbs up for the Courtney Milan contemporary recced below. I'd also recommend digging through the Smart Bitches, Trashy Books review archives as that's where I generally get most of my recs.

[wakeupnew]

These are very much not hockey, but my favorite contemporary romance novels are by Kate Clayborn (my absolute favorite is the second in her series, Luck of the Draw), and the Reluctant Royals series by Alyssa Cole (my fave is the f/f novella, Once Ghosted, Twice Shy. I also really love Courtney Milan; still very much not hockey, and her historicals are my absolute favorite, but she has one contemporary series and I like it.

I've tried a bunch of hockey romance novels and honestly haven't been wowed yet, but based on my goodreads ratings (my memory is swiss cheese), the one I enjoyed the most was Stay by Sarina Bowen and Elle Kennedy. In terms of fic, I haven't read any in SO LONG that I'm terrified that I'll go back and all of my old favorites will actually be terrible, lolol.

[oracne]

Rachel Gibson wrote several mainstream het romances involving hockey player heroes.

Book Riot has a big list of sports romances.

[tielan]

At some point in the past, I got hooked into Catherine Gayle's Portland Storm hockey romance series. It's a series surrounding the players of a Portland hockey team, and how the various players find love.

It's a pretty long-running series - about 18 stories at this stage, most of them novel-length, a few novellas. Sometimes there are callbacks, and the series progresses through the various years. In book-time, there's at least five years between the first book and the ones currently being published.

The books are pretty good. There's something in the writing that feels a touch awkward and I've never managed to quite process what. It might be the first-person POV (for both male and female protags) that puts me off, I can't decscribe it. But I liked the characters better than the first hockey romance series I tried reading, which was Dierdre Martin's NY Blades series. The characters in that one annoyed me, and I think I stopped reading after book 3.

There's at least one m/m romance in the Portland Storm series, but that's about book 15 or 16. She also has a spin-off series that's a lot darker-and-edgier: the heroes or heroines have been through a much rougher time, including abusive parents, exes, and a background in the porn industry.

I don't know how you feel about Hockey AUs for fandom, but philyra has written an entire MCU AU where the Marvel characters (mostly from the movies) are part of a hockey team owned by Pepper Potts. Get Ready For It is a fun, enjoyable happy-place read (particularly the first one in the series).

Contemporary romances: someone above has mentioned Courtney Milan, and although they didn't talk about the series name, it's called "Year Of The Crocodile" and is a couple of novels, assorted short stories, and I think that there's an m/m romance coming out about the father(s) of the male protag from the first book. Also, Tina Chen's mother is GOLD.

Finally, I briefly landed in hockey RPF when someone recced me Neon Tulips by ladyalysv which is Sidney Crosby/Amanda Kessel. It's delightful and entertaining and deservedly popular.

[indywind]

Here via havocthecat for just one rec. If you're open to m/m contemporary romance and hockey in the same fic, dsudis' Hawks and Hands (AO3 link) is 200k+ words of DueSouth fanfic AU where the main characters (and romantic leads) are Chicago Blackhawks players. Hot, realistic (AFAICT, I am not a hockey fan), immersive, like most of this author's stuff.