Beyond the Play
Are we still not over sports romances?
1. FIRST DOWN by Grace Reilly
SYNOPSIS
Tutoring the new star quarterback in exchange for a few fake dates won’t lead to anything more... right?
James Football is my everything. I live, eat, breathe the sport. But when I transfer to McKee University to escape the distractions that nearly cost me my future in the NFL, I’m faced with another retake and pass the writing class I failed at my last college, or lose any chance I have at making it big. That’s where fellow senior Beckett Wood-gorgeous, stubborn, and just my type-comes in. She’s the key to my success in this class... but the price of her help is a fake relationship, and I never do things halfway.
Bex I don’t mess around with athletes, and at first glance, handsome, self-assured James Callahan is no exception. He wants me to help him pass the writing class we’re both stuck taking, but I’m too busy to take on yet another responsibility. But when his teammate-my cheating ex-won’t leave me alone, I realize I need to convince him I've moved on... and what better way than by pretending to be with James, who wants nothing to do with a real relationship?
Yet with every fake kiss, James pulls me deeper into a place that thrills and terrifies me. Why does he make me feel alive like no one else has? And why don’t I want it to end?
2. BREAKAWAY by Grace Reilly
SYNOPSIS
Cooper
As a pro-bound college athlete with a good-time reputation, I usually have my pick of puck bunnies. But lately, I’ve been in a dry spell that feels more like a curse, and the stress is affecting my game—the one thing that can’t happen if I’m going to make team captain, and eventually the NHL. Enter Penny Ryder.
She’s my coach’s daughter, but the moment she pulls me into that ice rink closet, she’s the one thing on my mind besides hockey. She has a sex bucket list, and each item on it confirms we’re kindred spirits in the bedroom. If I say yes, I’ll be relaxed on the ice again—but if her dad finds out, I’ll be forced to say goodbye to being captain and finally earning my own father’s approval.
Penny
Thanks to the ex from hell, I’m a long way from being ready for a relationship—but it’s time to reclaim my agency, one long-sought-after experience in bed at a time. Enter Cooper Callahan.
He’s my dad’s star defenseman; an arrangement with him will mean keeping yet another major secret from my father. But the agreement we strike is simple: secret friends-with-benefits until he makes captain… and I cross off everything on my list, so I can finally move on from the incident that ruined both my life and my figure skating career.
Yet the longer our connection goes on, the more we trust each other, and the less I want to say goodbye. I know love leads to heartbreak, but what if it can also clear the ice for a breakaway?
3. STEALING HOME by Grace Reilly
SYNOPSIS
Sebastian
It’s my final season to prove myself before the MLB draft. The last thing I need is a distraction—and especially not one as tantalizing as Mia di Angelo. She’s the drop-dead gorgeous astrophysicist-in-training who ditched me the moment I wanted to take us from casual to committed. Yeah. Ouch. But when she needs somewhere to stay for the summer… well, I offer her my place. Being roommates shouldn’t be so hard. Not distracting at all. Not the least bit challenging…
Mia
I have two goals this summer: get into a study abroad program and get over golden baseball god Sebastian Miller-Callahan. Doesn’t mean it’s easy to stop thinking about him, but he deserves better than a prickly, career-focused girl like me. Our futures can’t be more different. The last thing I need is to play roommates with the only man who can set my body ablaze. And all the feelings I’ve tried to pretend I never had? They come rushing back far too strong for either of us to ignore.
4. WICKED SERVE by Grace Reilly
SYNOPSIS
Nikolai
Hockey is my life, and I need to make this last season count. But when I’m forced to transfer to rival school McKee University for my senior year, I risk pissing off the captain, who happens to be the older brother of Isabelle Callahan: the gorgeous beam of sunshine I messed around with in secret this summer.
Rekindling our fling could risk her brother icing me off the team—not to mention the fact that my scarred past makes having a real relationship impossible—and yet the moment I see Isabelle again, all my wild, burning feelings come rushing back.
Izzy
I have two goals for sophomore year: win back my old volleyball position, and forget I ever knew devilishly handsome hockey defenseman Nikolai Abney-Volkov. As the youngest and only daughter in a family full of athletes, failure isn’t an option. But when Nik crashes back into my life, I can’t stay away from his broody charm. I’m determined to guard my heart this time, but between the furtive hookups and the heartfelt conversations, the lines between friends-with-benefits and more begin to blur.
As we fall deeper into a place we can’t come back from unscathed, we’ll have to make a choice: fight for a future together, or watch it go up in flames.