hockey

Changing on the Fly

by Em Maddax

Tropes: enemiestolovers, humor, athlete

Hunter Valentine is a junior at North Chicago University. He spends his college days playing ice hockey, hanging out with his best friend and getting tormented by his team captain. The kid who was once a prodigy with promise is now a bench-warming, insecure center who sees the puck even less than he sees a good night's sleep. For a reason Hunter can’t figure out, his captain has made it his mission to make sure the younger player hates the game even more than he hates himself. When one ice-shattering lapse of judgement leads to a brutal fight with even worse consequences, Hunter is faced with the truth of his teammate’s intentions. He’s now forced to decide if he should let the echoes of self-doubt or the pleasure of a forbidden touch dictate his next move. CHANGING ON THE FLY is a queer love story about trusting yourself, listening to your heart and going for what you want, no matter the risks. [Read More]

The Penalty Box

by Rebecca Zorg

Tropes: slowburn, forcedproximity, firstperson

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He doesn't remember ruining her life. She's going to ensure he does. IVY Seven years ago, Gabriel Castellano took the best night of my life and turned it into a punchline, costing me the national team and the only future I'd planned. Now he's back. Traded to Whistler, parked in my booth with his new teammates, telling me to surprise him like he's never seen my face before. As far as he knows, he hasn't. So I did what any professional would do. I "accidentally" poured a pint of our worst IPA straight down his six-hundred-dollar shirt. Surprise. Here's the problem: his team just bought the sponsorship keeping my late father's bar alive—which makes the man I've spent seven years hating a fixture on the wrong side of my taps. And the longer he keeps showing up, the harder it gets to remember that I hate you was supposed to be the whole story. GABRIEL People have told me who to be since I was fifteen, and I've never once disappointed them. Golden boy. Franchise face. So I can't explain the bartender. She hates me—openly, specifically, like she's been waiting years to do it to my face. The worst part isn't that I don't know why. It's that I'm starting to think I should. The First Line, Book One. A slow-burn, high-angst, second chance, enemies-to-lovers hockey romance with a grovel that draws blood. [Read More]

Top Shelf

by Nate Winslow

Tropes: sports, hockey, mm

My smile works on everyone in the league. Then they traded for Grant Hale, and he looked at me like he already knew exactly what I was hiding behind it. I'm Ollie Reyes — golden boy, top-line winger, the guy the whole room angles toward. Being loved is my superpower and my survival plan; you don't get bounced through seven foster homes without learning how to be easy to keep. It has worked my entire career. It does not work on Grant Hale. He's thirty-three, freshly traded, growls one word at a time, and comes with a locker-room-problem reputation I'm ninety percent sure is bad press. Coach has forty-three days to get him integrated before the trade deadline — so he bolts us together. Same line. Same road room. Every hotel between here and March. The trouble isn't that Grant won't buy the smile. The trouble is what's under it: a guy who's terrified he's one bad season from being sent back, who has never once shown anyone the real thing and gotten to stay. And somehow the grumpiest man in the building is the first person to look straight past the sunshine and actually see me — and not leave. Turns out getting solved by Grant Hale feels a whole lot less like losing and a whole lot more like being found. Top Shelf is a bright, low-angst M/M hockey romance: grumpy-sunshine, forced-proximity linemates, a golden boy with a secret and a gruff closeted vet who says everything with an assist, banter for days, and found-family warmth. Standalone with a guaranteed happy ending. Steamy and swoony. Book 1 of the Northport Sentinels. [Read More]

Hellebore Fields: A Dark Academia Hockey Romance

by Rivkah Plume

Tropes: darkromance, newadult, grumpysunshine

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He says I'm his light. But loving him feels like drowning in shadows. At UC Wisteria, I'm supposed to be chasing my future: books, scholarship, and a life I've fought tooth and nail to earn. But instead, I'm being chased by Branwen Atthill, the campus hockey star with sharp edges, hidden scars, and ice-blue eyes that track my every move like I belong to him. When his obsession transforms into something that looks like love, I fall headfirst into the dark fairytale I always craved—until I start losing myself in its twisted pages. Branwen is dangerous. Possessive. Beautiful in ways that make me forget to breathe. When the violence starts, I convince myself I can fix him. That if I love him hard enough, my light will chase away his darkness. But as secrets unravel and the campus grows more dangerous, I'm forced to confront the question I've been too terrified to ask: if I survive loving him, will I still recognize the girl I was before he consumed me? He's everything I was warned about, and the only boy I've ever wanted to burn for. Trigger Warning & Tropes: Contemporary, Dark Romance, Erotic Thriller, Dark Academia, Hockey Romance, Stalker, Grumpy/Sunshine, Dubious Consent, Possessive, Tortured Past, Rags-to-Riches, Murder [Read More]