Showing titles in Sports

With Bliss, Remembered, the celebrated Frank Deford has produced a work of literature that ranks with the best of his many novels, including Everybody’s All American, which Sports Illustrated ranked as one of the 25 best sports books of all time. In Bliss, Remembered, Deford explores new territory as he tells two love stories from the perspective of a beautiful should-have-been Olympic champion named Sydney Stringfellow.

From Coney Island sideshows to the brand-new Yankee Stadium, Diamond Ruby chronicles the extraordinary life and times of a girl who rises from utter poverty to the kind of renown only the Roaring Twenties can bestow. But her fame comes with a price, and Ruby must escape a deadly web of conspiracy and threats from Prohibition rumrunners, the Ku Klux Klan, and the gangster underworld.

The Sandlot Legacy: Chronicles of Youth and Baseball, an award-winning tale, invites you into a world where dreams are woven into reality through determination, resilience, and the transformative spirit of baseball. Journey alongside our protagonist, Jack Thompson, a dreamer undeterred by skeptics who dares to reach for the stars against all odds. This beautifully penned narrative unearths the profound power of mentorship, encapsulated in the bond between Jack and his mentor, Mr. Davis. Their relationship shines a spotlight on how an act of belief can catalyze someone to achieve their dreams.

There's only one person in the world that Mattias Bergstrom allows to see his soft side: his younger sister, who was born with Down syndrome. She lives with their parents in Sweden, so there's no worry of accidentally showing his players any part of himself other than the hard-assed former defenseman and current head coach of the Portland Storm. At least not until the doppelganger of Matti's sister snags one of his young D-men in the corridor before the team's skills exhibition event, and his frozen heart melts.

An ambitious Harlem woman’s husband upends her social climbing when he buys a Negro Leagues baseball team and appoints her as the team’s business manager. Overnight, Effa Manley goes from 125th Street’s civil rights champion to an interloper in the boys’ club that is professional baseball.

Calder Griffin needs to get back in shape. Sidelined last season by a knee injury, he's determined to return to the San Diego Barracudas and play the best hockey of his career. This might even be the year he gets out of his talented older brother's shadow. For months Becca Chen has poured her energy into Cups, the restaurant she owns, desperate to prove to her parents that she can succeed in the career of her choice, not theirs.

The pressure has never been more intense for Rough Riders’ star defenseman Beckett Croft. With his contact expiring, Beckett has to live up to his badass reputation every minute of every game to earn the next big deal. A deal that will secure a stable home for his five-year-old daughter. So when an injury on the ice threatens to send him to the ER, he fights protocol - until the feisty EMT refuses to take no for an answer. Beckett likes his women assertive, and the spark between them is nothing short of scorching. Her indifference to his fame and money only intrigues him more.

After overcoming a potentially career-ending concussion, Tyler Vanek, Dartmouth Cobras' first line forward, couldn't be happier with his life. Until his boyhood hero worship for Raif Zovko, a newly acquired player, develops into more. His mistress, "Chicklet", encourages him to explore his feelings, and with her enjoyment of toying with the powerful Dom, Tyler figures it might be fun.

Inside the Octagon, I have no fear. I'm at home, in my element, inflicting pain onto men trained to hurt me just as badly. Making them submit, knocking them out, maiming them, because it's them or me. And I choose them.

Roaring back from a life-threatening injury, Theo has the world at his skates as defenseman for his new team, the Chicago Rebels. Everyone adores his big personality, his on-ice talent, and his killer smile. Everyone but his prickly neighbor - or so he thinks. One chilly Christmas Eve, Theo will learn that maybe the girl next door isn’t such a hater after all....

Ryder "Playboy" King is what everyone calls me, in and out of the octagon. I'm fine with being known as a Playboy. I've turned it into an art form. A big smile, charm, and a little flattery - and my needs are easily met. Besides, giving a shit can get a man hurt - I'd rather get in and out in one piece. Enter Tessa Jameson. One fiery lust filled moment with her is not enough. If anything, it leaves me wanting more, but she's not interested. Me? I know I've met my match - I want more. She thinks men only want sex.

Holly Vanderbuilt is running. From her past, her present, her future - everything. Baking is her only solace. Cookies, cakes, ingredients coming together, they make sense. A professional fighter walking into her kitchen? Not so much. Vince Steele is focused on his future. The next fight. The next win. Nothing else matters except feeling the weight of the Light Heavyweight belt around his waist. Until Holly. He has what it takes to win the belt. But will Holly’s past prove to be an opponent he can’t beat? He’s never backed down from a fight.

I’m Alex Kosinski, left wing for the Austin Amurs. Hooking was my penalty. It’s never something I set out to do, but it happens. After all, it’s hockey. Hockey is life. Getting traded was a kick to the nuts, but at least I was still playing. It was all that mattered. Until Sydney. Our relationship was forbidden, but I didn’t care—I hadn’t run from a fight yet. I had her right where I wanted her, until everything crashed around me.

Fernando Fuerte is a total player. In every sense of the word. He's star forward for the Sharks, the pro soccer team where I handle PR. And I don't care if Mr. Match says he's my soulmate. I don't date players. But when my brother tells me there's no way Fuerte would ever go out with me anyway? All bets are off. I'll score him just to prove a point. Because if there's one thing I hate more than players? It's losing. The problem is, the closer I get to Fuerte, the closer I get to losing my heart.

Matt Lucas' first collection, The Boxer's Soliloquy, explores the intricacies of Thailand's most famous martial art. Set against the squalor of Bangkok and in the sweaty confines of Muay Thai gyms, only gradually do the tales reveal their true intentions. These are fifteen stories about the ring, the ropes, the fighters, the smack of bodies against bodies and the relationships in between.

I had simple goals. Move to a small town don't date women that hate my guts. Unless she's sexy, has curves in all the right places and needs a fake fiancee too. Easy Right? Wrong! My usual type. Blonde with commitment issues and a little crazy. The new neighbor that hates me and my loud parties? She's not my type. But my body says that's a lie. I want to see more of those sexy curves and I can use a fake fiancée to get out of trouble with the team. Will she take me up on my offer to fake it? Will she let me convince her she's the only woman for me? A Steamy Enemies to Lovers Curvy Girl ...

Business becomes pleasure when the attraction between a young bull rider and an orphaned stock contractor gets hotter than a Mississippi summer . . . Riley Davis lives and breathes bulls until a coronary takes her dad and she must find a way to hang on to the stock contracting business that was his life. When pro bull rider Skeeter Anderson hears about the tragedy, he drives to her rescue to help save the business. But business soon becomes pleasure when the attraction between them gets hotter than a Mississippi summer. Previously released by Samhain Publishing.

Hockey star Ben Kelly has retreated to his mountain cabin in the ski town of Cascade, BC, to recuperate from a season-ending knee injury and contemplate his future in the NHL. He never expects to run into the one woman who got away. Nine years may have passed, but nothing has dulled the explosive chemistry between them. Now he wants more than just one night.

In the twilight of the 19th century, as the Old West collides with the opulence of the Gilded Age, one man embarks on a journey that will redefine his life. The Gambler's Game is a captivating historical fiction saga that follows the extraordinary life of a mid-western baseball player turned high-stakes gambler. His audacious spirit leads him from the dust chocked plains to the refined ambiance of English garden parties and the allure of Belle Epoque Monte Carlo.

Blizzard captain Dave Grimson’s life is as tangled as a wad of skate laces—and it’s a mess of his own making. Used to being in charge, “the Grim Reaper” has become the team leader in name only. Adding insult to injury, he finds himself dumped and single. Though he’s determined to piece his life back together, it’s time to leave his team and his city behind. What he needs is a trade and a fresh start. Dating? He’s leaving that behind too, until he collides with Ellie Hendricks. Literally.