A work in progress, built for my wife with love. Suggestions welcome
Discover 699 sports romance books on TropeScope.
Romance where the hero (or heroine) is an athlete — hockey, football, basketball, soccer, MMA. Locker-room banter, team dynamics, and game-day tension wrapped around the love story.
Modern sports romance is dominated by hockey — Hannah Grace's Icebreaker led the BookTok wave, Elle Kennedy's Off-Campus series laid the campus-hockey foundation, and Liz Tomforde's Windy City and Rachel Reid's Game Changers extended the pro-league lane. But the genre covers every major sport: football, soccer, basketball, rugby, MMA. Most sports romance lives inside new-adult or contemporary; settings lean college campuses and pro-league cities. Spice usually sits mid-to-high, and grumpy-sunshine dynamics run through a huge share of the catalogue.

Hannah Grace · Maple Hills #1
A figure skater who hates hockey players is forced to share the ice — and her heart — with the hockey team captain.

Liz Tomforde · Windy City #2
Chicago's grumpiest NBA captain fake-dates his sister's best friend — who just moved into his apartment.

Liz Tomforde · Windy City #1
A hockey bad boy vs. his flight attendant: 30,000 feet of enemies-to-lovers turbulence.

Liz Tomforde · Windy City #3
A grumpy single-dad pitcher can't fire his coach's daughter — but he can't stop falling for her either.

Liz Tomforde · Windy City #4
A drunken Vegas elopement forces a baseball team's trainer to fake a real marriage with her persistent new husband.

Ali Hazelwood
A diving prodigy and a swim champion start a no-strings fling — until feelings make it complicated.

Hannah Grace · Maple Hills #2
One wild night. One summer camp. One very strict no-fraternizing rule neither of them can follow.

Rachel Reid · Game Changers #2
Two rival hockey captains can't stop hating — or wanting — each other, but love could cost them everything.

Liz Tomforde · Windy City #5
Six years after breaking each other's hearts, she's back next door — and renovating his house.

Mariana Zapata
She quit working for the NFL's most closed-off star — so why is he at her door asking her to marry him?

Meagan Brandy · Boys of Avix #1
She always imagined her future with him — until heartbreak shattered everything she thought she knew.

Elle Kennedy · Campus Diaries #1
Hockey rivals agree to help each other — but ignoring their chemistry might be the hardest play of all.

Rachel Reid · Game Changers #6
Two rival hockey stars have been secret lovers for years — but Ilya is done hiding, and Shane must choose.

Lauren Asher · Dirty Air #1
She's her brother's rival's biggest distraction — and keeping their secret might cost them both the season.

Becka Mack · Playing For Keeps #1
A guarded woman refuses to fall for hockey's hottest bad boy — so naturally, he falls for her first.

Emily Rath · Jacksonville Rays #1
A hockey team's new PT must resist three players — including the one-night stand who forgot her face.

Elle Kennedy · Off-Campus #5
Catch up with your Off-Campus faves: a wedding, a proposal, an elopement, and a surprise pregnancy.

Elle Kennedy · Briar U #3
A celibate hockey captain and his smart-mouthed classmate are paired on a year-long project — and she's making a play fo

Stephanie Archer · Vancouver Storm #1
Her high school crush is now her grumpy NHL boss — and her live-in roommate.

Stephanie Archer · Vancouver Storm #2
A bad boy hockey player fakes a relationship with her — but his feelings are anything but fake.

Becka Mack · Playing for Keeps #2
A hockey player can't resist his captain's sister — his only rule, his only neighbor, his only problem.

Liz Tomforde
She owns the baseball team. He manages the field. Neither one is playing by the rules.

Becka Mack · Playing for Keeps #3
A hockey star hides who he really is to win a single mom's heart — but his secret could cost him everything.

Bal Khabra · Off the Ice #1
A hockey-hating honors student is forced to make the team captain her research subject — sparks ensue.
Campus hockey teams, locker-room bromance, rival schools — the genre's current juggernaut.

Hannah Grace · Maple Hills #1
A figure skater who hates hockey players is forced to share the ice — and her heart — with the hockey team captain.

Liz Tomforde · Windy City #2
Chicago's grumpiest NBA captain fake-dates his sister's best friend — who just moved into his apartment.

Liz Tomforde · Windy City #1
A hockey bad boy vs. his flight attendant: 30,000 feet of enemies-to-lovers turbulence.

Liz Tomforde · Windy City #3
A grumpy single-dad pitcher can't fire his coach's daughter — but he can't stop falling for her either.

Liz Tomforde · Windy City #4
A drunken Vegas elopement forces a baseball team's trainer to fake a real marriage with her persistent new husband.

Ali Hazelwood
A diving prodigy and a swim champion start a no-strings fling — until feelings make it complicated.
Rival teams, rival athletes, training-camp opponents. Competition as the engine of the romance.

Hannah Grace · Maple Hills #1
A figure skater who hates hockey players is forced to share the ice — and her heart — with the hockey team captain.

Liz Tomforde · Windy City #1
A hockey bad boy vs. his flight attendant: 30,000 feet of enemies-to-lovers turbulence.

Rachel Reid · Game Changers #2
Two rival hockey captains can't stop hating — or wanting — each other, but love could cost them everything.

Elle Kennedy · Campus Diaries #1
Hockey rivals agree to help each other — but ignoring their chemistry might be the hardest play of all.

Lauren Asher · Dirty Air #1
She's her brother's rival's biggest distraction — and keeping their secret might cost them both the season.

Liz Tomforde
She owns the baseball team. He manages the field. Neither one is playing by the rules.
NCAA settings, frat houses, team road trips — the new-adult territory where most current sports romance lives.

Hannah Grace · Maple Hills #1
A figure skater who hates hockey players is forced to share the ice — and her heart — with the hockey team captain.

Ali Hazelwood
A diving prodigy and a swim champion start a no-strings fling — until feelings make it complicated.

Meagan Brandy · Boys of Avix #1
She always imagined her future with him — until heartbreak shattered everything she thought she knew.

Elle Kennedy · Briar U #3
A celibate hockey captain and his smart-mouthed classmate are paired on a year-long project — and she's making a play fo

Bal Khabra · Off the Ice #1
A hockey-hating honors student is forced to make the team captain her research subject — sparks ensue.

Meghan Quinn · The Vancouver Agitators #3
A panicked kiss at a bar lands a college girl in a fake relationship with a pro hockey player a decade older.
Pretending for the team, the contract, the family photo op. A staple setup in athlete-meets-outsider plots.

Liz Tomforde · Windy City #2
Chicago's grumpiest NBA captain fake-dates his sister's best friend — who just moved into his apartment.

Liz Tomforde · Windy City #4
A drunken Vegas elopement forces a baseball team's trainer to fake a real marriage with her persistent new husband.

Stephanie Archer · Vancouver Storm #2
A bad boy hockey player fakes a relationship with her — but his feelings are anything but fake.

Meghan Quinn · The Vancouver Agitators #3
A panicked kiss at a bar lands a college girl in a fake relationship with a pro hockey player a decade older.

Meghan Quinn · The Vancouver Agitators #4
A hockey player pining for his roommate gets one magical fake-date night to show her he's exactly her type.

Avery Keelan · Rules of the Game #1
She planned the perfect rebound with her ex's rival — then threw up on his shoes.
Sports romance is romance where at least one protagonist is an athlete — usually college-level or professional. The sporting world (team dynamics, training regimes, game schedules) drives the plot structure and emotional obstacles.
Hockey romance exploded post-2022, led by Hannah Grace's Icebreaker, Elle Kennedy's Off-Campus series, and BookTok-driven virality. The sport lends itself to romance structure: team loyalty, close-knit locker rooms, rival schools, and strong aesthetics.
Icebreaker (Hannah Grace) for campus hockey; The Deal (Elle Kennedy) for the earlier-wave classic; Mile High (Liz Tomforde) for pro-league hockey; Heated Rivalry (Rachel Reid) for queer hockey romance; Ana Huang's Twisted Games for pro soccer; Elsie Silver's Chestnut Springs for rodeo cowboy-sports crossover.
New adult is defined by protagonist age (18-26, usually college); sports romance is defined by the athletic setting. A college-hockey romance is usually both. A pro-league book with a 32-year-old NHL captain is sports romance but not new-adult. The two overlap heavily but aren't synonyms.