Where I Left Off
Welcome to Where I Left Off, a bookish podcast. I'm your host, Kristen Bahls. Join me to hear my recommendations of a mix of young adult, new adult, romance, mystery, and thriller novels.
In each episode, I dive into the intricate worlds crafted by talented authors, exploring the characters, plots, and the emotions that make you want to throw your television out the window, because we both know the book is always better than the movie. Whether you carry a book everywhere you go and already have your own Bookstagram, or are just trying to make your Goodreads goal, Where I Left Off is the podcast for you.
From heartwarming romances to spine-tingling mysteries, I cover it all. Sometimes, I'll delve deep into a single novel, and other times, I'm filling your TBR with multiple reads.
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Where I Left Off
Sports Romance Recs (Open Door) with Author Sarah Blair
Thanks to author Sarah Blair for joining me to talk about open door sport's romance. Find her books here.
For links to the books discussed in this episode, click the link here to take you to the Google Doc to view the list.
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Welcome back to when I Left Off a bookish podcast. Today I am talking all things sports romance with author Sarah Blair, and you may have heard of her before. She has written the Tides of Darkness series and she's currently working on her own romance novel. Thank you for joining me today, sarah.
Speaker 2:Hello, hello, happy to be here.
Speaker 1:You're like my unofficial co-host.
Speaker 2:I am excited that you have honored me enough to have me back so many times and to consider me a honorary co-host. I'm always here for chatting, books and hanging out with you. It's a blast.
Speaker 1:I know I have so much fun in our chats Speaking of books.
Speaker 2:I know I don't think everybody knows that we like Marco Polo just about every other day. Oh, we do, and you're like this is what I'm reading now and I just put on your polo and make my coffee and sit there and it's like my own personal book recommendation mini podcast and it's delightful. I love it so much.
Speaker 1:I was going to say I give you more recommendations than you can ever probably read, but it works. I feel like sometimes it's just every five seconds. Hey, have you read this book? Have?
Speaker 2:you read this and I thought I read fast oh man, I try it, we'll see. I read Harriet's book and I just blew through it and you're like wait, wait for me you're supposed to do a buddy read and that I just completely failed the buddy read I did not wait for you. I'm so sorry it's too good.
Speaker 1:Well, speaking of Harriet's book, um, one of my friends was alpha reading it I think, yeah, or maybe she's a beta reader, one of those and uh, she said that it was really really good. So now it made. So now it made me even more excited to. I'm so excited One day we'll get our hands on it and we'll get to read it. Yeah, well, you're writing your book Love Creek. Yay, romance novel. How is that going?
Speaker 2:It's going. What is the saying? Slow and steady wins the race. Oh, I totally agree with that.
Speaker 1:I totally agree, it's going slow and steady, wins the race. Oh, I totally agree with that.
Speaker 2:I totally agree. It's going slow and steady. I've been working on it for about a year now, so it's it's hit the one year mark since I had the idea and first started thinking about it and starting to write on it. So I'm like I hit. I kind of hit a wall at 50,000 words, but 50,000, like that's huge, that's a lot. Yeah, I mean like it's a real book. It's a real book and I don't have that much left. But it's getting into the mushy feeling part where they have to talk about their feelings and I'm just like oh, oh, feelings.
Speaker 1:I don't want to have to write that part, like I was gonna say, especially with what you're used to writing, feelings or not- no, my, my characters in Tides of Darkness do not like talking about their feelings.
Speaker 2:You know this. That's a touchy subject for them, so maybe I need to just talk to my therapist about it.
Speaker 2:But um, I did mention to her that I was struggling with writing uh Love Creek and I was like I just can't get into the headspace. I don't know what's going on. She's like, well, maybe right now it's good to maybe try writing Tides of Darkness again, just to like be in a familiar, comfortable headspace where you like know the characters really well and just like accessing that easier. And I was like, oh, that's good advice. And then, like a few minutes after we hung up on our call, I was like, wait a second, does she just want me to finish this series? Yep, like, I think that's like 60% of it. I'm like that was smooth, that was smooth that was.
Speaker 1:But you have a lot of really good ideas. Every time you hit me with a new idea, I'm like, no, you need to work on what you're working on. But then you throw it out there and you talk about it and it just sounds so good that I'm like, okay, I give up.
Speaker 2:You could do any of this, I know right and I spent this week working on the Santa movie that I want to do. Oh nice, I did get a little bit of writing done. I'm developing that and trying to figure out the plot. And it's weird because normally I'm very much a discovery writer and a pantser and I just want to dive right in. Writer and a pantser and I just like, want to dive right in. But with the Santa movie that I want to do, like approaching it as a script and a screenplay instead of a novel is very different. It's like I need to know everything that happens before I get started, which is a very strange thing for me. But I think every project is different and I'm just trying to roll with it yeah, and it's such a visual medium.
Speaker 1:So it's really hard to just completely convert it from, yeah, having to use all of the costuming and you know, stage direction and all that other stuff to tell what you can't just have the characters, like say, in their own train of thought. That's why?
Speaker 2:that's why I started writing novels originally, because I tried to write screenplays and I kept describing too much and I was like well, if I'm describing too much, maybe I should just write a book. And that's what I did, like the past 20 years is just write books because it was so much easier, but I like the challenge. I think I'm finally up for the challenge of writing a screenplay but you're still gonna work on Love Creek kind of at the same time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and the Lumberjacks series and Tides of Darkness and and and it's like my writing agenda is like you're reading tbr agenda, like you're listening to a book, reading a novella. You know reading a mystery and a cozy romance and all these different things at once and that's what I'm working on. But I think it's good for my brain because if I have multiple projects going on, I can. I can mood right, and whatever I'm in the mood for I can just work on that and I'm still making forward progress and eventually it'll all get done.
Speaker 1:So whenever you have like all that character development and stuff, how do you kind of tap into each different book with different characters, like in different places?
Speaker 2:That's a really good question and, honestly, for me I think it's music. Whenever I'm listening to music in the car and there's a song that hits me and I'm like, ooh, like my characters will just jump out and I'm like, oh, that's a vibe, and so I'll save that song and add it to whatever the project playlist is, and so whenever I need to like be in that mood, or whenever I listen to those songs, it brings it right back for me and I can just instantly like get in the mood. It's really smart, so it really helps a lot.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a good way to think about it. I've never thought of doing smart. So it really helps a lot. Yeah, that's a good way to think about it. I've never thought of doing that.
Speaker 2:So yeah, you just gave me an idea. Thank you, book playlists, for the win.
Speaker 1:But I will say that, oh my gosh, love Creek, whatever, I'll gush for five seconds and then we can talk about sports. But oh my gosh, every time I read Love Creek it just makes me so happy. It's just like I just laughed so much and it's like the pacing of it just keeps everything going, like there isn't a dull moment, no matter what, and especially when it's something like, you know, a small town farm, like there is the propensity for it to be really slow and it to just be like milking a cow or you know, very like boring. But but the way that the pacing is and like the dialogue and how the characters interact, like they kind of breathe life in it. So anyway, I can't wait to read it when it's finalized. I need to read the rest of what you sent me anyway, but I will get there um, I'm waiting for you to get to where the spice hits, okay.
Speaker 2:Okay, because I need to know if you can make it through. Is it too much? Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 2:Um, I was talking with my writing partner the other day about how I might just need to write this current version and I think it'll help me finish because I, if I just write it the way I want to read it and just go all out on the spice and just write the book that I want to read and then when I revise, like tone it down and write the book for like mainstream, that's smart. I think that would work and just, you know, have two versions and one can just be for me, like my writing, my closest writing friends that like it's spicy, you know, like, but I might just like go over it, because I think sometimes I feel like I really need to push the lines to find out where I want to land, like if I go over the top and like push the limits, and then I can rein myself back in and revisions. But if I don't do that to begin with, I feel like I'm always going to wonder and be really dissatisfied with it.
Speaker 1:I feel like there's less rewriting if you're toning it down because you know what the characters are doing, you're just like taking maybe a couple detailed words here and there, versus if it's not enough, then you're gonna have to rewrite it, rethink about it, refigure out where body parts are located and all that stuff, and then you're gonna have to re like completely kind of re-block it, re-block it.
Speaker 2:There we go re-block it from scratch. That makes sense. Yeah, it's much easier to do less than to try to expand and do more in a revision and I'll tell you what I think, because you know that I'm kind of a wimp you're not a wimp, you are who you are and I love you for it.
Speaker 2:And like that's the thing that I love about romance is that there's all levels for all different kind of people and there's so many romance books to match. Whatever your preference is, there's something out there for you. And like I don't I don't like people on either side of it. Like you know, if you like it spicy, don't feel bad for liking it spicy. If you like it less spicy, don't feel bad for liking it less spicy. Like it's just who you are. And like that's cool. Like romance is out there for everybody and that's what makes it so exciting and so special. You're not a wimp, you just. You just like what you like and that's okay. That is true.
Speaker 1:As I have a Tessa Bailey behind me, that's going to push my limit. But, like I said, I'm meeting her. Did I tell you I am meeting her? Exciting, yeah. And my friend was like, okay, now that you're meeting her, I'm going to tell you which books of hers you have to read. So now I'm reading a lot of her backlist. I'm like, okay, do it, I'm doing this for you we'll see.
Speaker 2:We do have a Tessa Bailey book to talk about today, so I'm very excited yeah.
Speaker 1:I, I included it, I included it. We both read it. I couldn't not, okay. So, um, I'll go ahead and give you one suggestion and then we can just ping pong back and forth. My first one, this one Okay, so sports, for open door sports romance.
Speaker 1:And I forgot to say I will have a closed door sports romance episode. So if you only read closed door, you can still get sports romance. Just wait for that episode. But for this open door sports romance episode, almost all of the books that I picked are some of the spiciest books that I have ever read. I didn't realize that some of the spiciest books I've ever read are all sports romance. So when I say spicy in this episode, I mean extremely, almost to where I don't want to read it, and I read it because it was so good anyway. So I feel like I have to put that caveat in front of it. Like if you read it and go, whoa, you read that, and I'm like, yeah, I mean, I did, but it was sports just like, just to like caveat this like your level of spice is like a two spice for me and like my.
Speaker 2:I mean, like I read Anne Rice sleeping beauty books, like that was one of the very first romance books I ever read. So like I have an extremely high bar, like I hit high and never came down from that. So like you know, and I love all kind, all levels of spice, like if the book is good and the characters are good and the voice is good, like I'm in it and that's cool exactly banter and plot.
Speaker 1:If I have banter and plotting good characters, I don't well, I don't care.
Speaker 2:To an extent, yeah, if I can handle it it's, it's like very subjective though, but yeah, like your, your spice level and you, you did, I like, specifically told you not to read some of these books because I know where your level is at, like like, some of them were even a little much for me.
Speaker 1:It's like okay, which is exactly why I brought you on, because I was like, you know, someone may read my level of spice and go, oh okay, that really wasn't anything. But I was like, but then they can graduate up to Sarah's or if they, you know, already read as spicy as you do, then they'll have, like actual recommendations that they can take away. So yes, I asked you on purpose it's so funny.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, it's funny because when I was writing my first Tides of Darkness book, I was very I was less experienced in writing romance and like the spicy scenes and like for me I was like those are so spicy, like I can't let any of the girls at church read this or I can't tell anybody at preschool where I teach that I write spicy books, and I was shocked to get a review. It was like the sex was vanilla and I was like what, how is that vanilla? Like I described body parts and things and I was like I couldn't understand and then I found monster romance. Yeah, okay, so that's vanilla.
Speaker 2:Like okay, fair, fair points, oh man so you know it's, it's just, it's all.
Speaker 1:It's a scale, it's subjective and depending on what you enjoy again oh, this is not the spiciest, but this is probably up towards the spicier of the recommendations I'm going to give today. So the first one is face off by chelsea curto and oh my gosh. So I think this book is like almost 500 pages, but you would think it's a 200 page book with the way you will just tear through it. I originally read it on my kindle and I think I read this in like a day and a half. It was that just there's so much action going on the whole time, like you get a lot of actually like in the games, in the practices. When you say sports romance, this is actually sports romance, what I would classify what's the sport that they play in this one?
Speaker 1:so this is hockey, and they actually both. They're both hockey players, um, and they're both in the nhl, and so she is the first female hockey player in the nhl in this book. They Nice, they had sent him like footage. I'm pretty sure he's the captain. If I remember correctly, his name's Maverick, and so Mav didn't look at the footage, he thought he was above it, and then also her name is Emerson. So I think they kept saying like Emerson. So again, it just wasn't super clear and so he literally didn't look at the footage. She walks in, he, and so he literally didn't look at the footage. She walks in, he thinks she's a groupie, he starts hitting on her, she hands his butt back to him, and then it starts this whole thing of the coach and all the players are like you didn't watch the footage and he's like, oh, I didn't watch the game, yeah, so that's kind of how they start out and meet.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that sounds fun. Book bunny I did not know that term until I started reading a few hockey romance books oh like yeah, yeah, hook bunny is a thing, apparently, at least in hockey. Roman I I have to admit I don't watch hockey and I know the bare minimum about hockey. I I know all about everything I learned about hockey I learned from mystery Alaska.
Speaker 2:I was obsessed with that movie when I went through my Russell Crowe phase in like 2000, when gladiator came out and he was my everything that I obsessed over for like a couple years. Um, yeah, that's all I know about hockey. There's a goalie and a puck and they fight a lot, and that's that's about the extent.
Speaker 1:Now, puck bunnies, I know from reading hockey romance, yes, so all the terms, yeah, yeah, this one it's like it explains it, but it is very much into hockey. So if you are a hockey fan, you're gonna enjoy this, because they're both they're literally both hockey players and it's very much. I say rivals to lovers. I don't know, it's kind of borderline enemies. It might actually be like truly enemies to lovers because she does not like him, because, again, when you start out like that, that's you know.
Speaker 2:When you start out like that, that's you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly. So he really, and also one of her teammates had warned her about him and his reputation because he's kind of a playboy and so she is just not off to a great start with him. And and yeah, and Chelsea even said you know the fact that she's the first female hockey player in the NHL. So technically, you know, this can't happen in real life, most likely because now there's a women's hockey league.
Speaker 2:Oh, ok, that's cool.
Speaker 1:That started up. So yeah, and I mean, in the past there has been a woman that has come in and been a goalie in the NHL, but other than that, like in real life, and she says, I don't care that this is a fictional scenario, that can't really happen, because I wanted to write this book and I wanted to write it this way. So if any hockey fans are like, well, this wouldn't happen, she knows it's fiction, she literally wrote it this way. It's so fun. If it wasn't written this way, it would be a completely different book. And I love it because of how she did it, cause she really balances like the trials she would actually face, like in the guy's locker room, and she has this little like supply closet that she has to get ready in and still be game ready, just like all the guys that get their fancy lockers and you know all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 2:So it's very indicative of what it would actually be like for, you know, a female to be truly in the NHL and I love it like it's fiction, like, if you're gonna be that nitpicky about it, like, listen, suspension of disbelief is a thing, just go with it. And if you, if you can't, then just don't read that book. It's fine.
Speaker 1:Exactly, if you can read about dragons, you can read about this. It's fine.
Speaker 2:I mean seriously. Also, did you hear they're supposed to be starting a women's baseball league?
Speaker 1:No, I didn't hear that Really. That's amazing, for reals.
Speaker 2:Yeah, hey, I'm so excited it's gonna be like a league of their own. My kid, my sweet, precious little daughter, who loves baseball, could like actually play baseball. Amazing, like soft, obviously, like softball exists. Like this is gonna be like the women's version of the major league baseball team. Like it's gonna be major league that's I know.
Speaker 1:I was just thinking of like, oh my gosh, they're gonna pitch different and wow, that'll be so different, okay, anyway.
Speaker 2:I know, I know, so exciting. I love baseball. I'm a big baseball fan.
Speaker 1:I do have one baseball book on here so excited, can't wait to hear about but yeah, so this one is fantastic, like the banter, the nicknames they call each other um.
Speaker 1:So his name's maverick and they call him mav, and then her name's emerson and he calls her emmy and he calls her emmy girl, and it's so, it's so cute. Yeah, I need to read that all. And the second book just came out. It's called Power Play. Stacey warned me that it is so spicy. It's really spicy, and I thought that this was really spicy. And she's like I don't know if you can read this book.
Speaker 2:No, I need to read them both so I can let you know. No, I need to read them both so I can let you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm probably going to give it a try, but I may be I don't know, I may be traumatized.
Speaker 2:It's okay, like, just like skim, exactly. Yeah, don't worry about it, that's what I tend to do anyway.
Speaker 1:Well, that's what I used to do before I had to write by scenes.
Speaker 2:Staple those pages together.
Speaker 1:That's a genius idea, yeah, so anyway, you have to read this one. You have to read it face off. My first pick what is your pick?
Speaker 2:excellent. Okay, I am gonna start with a novella. Um yeah, it's called heart trick and it's by kristin granada and it's a fake dating, hockey romance, fake dating and hockey. Okay, yes, about Gulley Trenton Ward and romance author Cassidy Quinn. So she's a romance author and she is having some trouble writing her next book because her fiance not fiance, I don't remember.
Speaker 2:Honestly, I'm sorry, I read this book like two days ago, but things have happened between now and then, like I did other things in the world. So, kristen, I'm Kristenisten, granada, I'm so sorry for botching this, but so she ended up breaking up with her person because he was a cheater. And then trenton ward ended up having his best friend, who was on his team, cheat with his fiancee oh, and then?
Speaker 2:he's the one that got kicked off the team because he was caught like it was too much trouble. So he and he's like on a new team. He's a goalie and he is kind of like an older player, so he really wants to like prove that he still has what it takes to be this goalie, not just get, you know, cuckolded by this younger best friend player, but like he just got like whammied from every angle.
Speaker 1:This poor guy it was so sad, his whole life changed and his grandma has alzheimer's, so he like just piling it on.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and he ends up moving across the hall and the girl next door is Cassidy and she she literally the girl next door and she is having trouble writing this book, her next romance novel, because she felt you know, dissed and like had this problem with her guy and she's like I just don't know if I can write romance when I just feel like you know what happens is they kind of start off like in trouble because she sings really loud and he lets the heavy door slam and that makes her mad and she sings in the shower and he wakes up listening to her sing terribly in the shower and so they like don't like each other and she has no clue who he is, she doesn't do hockey, and so basically what it boils down to is they need to fake date because her boyfriend wants her back and tried to like get her back and say he was you know bad and like it was. He was like super toxic and gross, but he Ward defended her in the parking garage from her ex and someone like the paparazzi or something took pictures. So then it got published online and the whole time she's like doing tiktoks about this annoying guy next door and she has no idea this hockey was famous, famous hockey player. And so basically they come up with a deal that he wants to show everybody that he's like still got it and everything's fine.
Speaker 2:He's moved on, he's found a new girlfriend, so he wants her, the publicist wants her to, you know, fake date for this person. You know this thing, you know this thing. And then what she gets out of it is that she gets to like pretend to be the girlfriend and practice things with him for her book, to like help her get her writing groove back. Um, so it's spicy, got it and for a short novella, like, it was really well done. That sounds like a lot of plot. Yeah, there's a lot and the characters were fun. The banter is like amazing.
Speaker 1:It was a fun, fun, quick read I want to add it to my tbr now.
Speaker 2:And yeah, and there wasn't a lot of hockey in it. It was mostly that he is just like a famous hockey player, like I feel like sometimes with hockey romance it's like, yeah, this is a hockey romance, but you know, in name only we're just gonna like some of those get the parts where they actually do the hockey, but I mean they did.
Speaker 2:There were a couple of scenes where he was either in practice or, you know, on the ice, and there were a couple of game scenes where she went to his game, and one major one at the end, which is really all you need for a novella, like I wasn't. Yeah, I think if there was too much more, I would have been like we don't need this much hockey, this hockey romance. We don't need it to actually be about hockey.
Speaker 1:Let's get to the spicy scenes oh, it was just her singing in the shower.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was so funny and, yeah, their banter was really hilarious. I had a good time with that reading that. So yeah, it was. It was a great setup, I think, for the rest of the series, because I think the other two books in the series are full length. I want to say that's right.
Speaker 1:So is this like the first one, or are they just yeah, this is the first Okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so Odd man Rush is the second one and Puck Pact, I think, is the third one. No, no is it? I might have got them switched. Sorry, but those are the next. Hard to keep up. It is hard and they're not. I'm looking at the. Oh, here we go. Yeah, odd man rushes book two and book three is puck packed. Check those out. I haven't read those other two yet, but I want to well, I'm adding those.
Speaker 1:I feel like that's um the eternal reader. Readers struggle. I haven't read that yet, but I really want to yeah, get in line.
Speaker 1:Okay, up next I. I have one more. Yeah, I think this is my last hockey, I just had to go all in with hockey. So, okay, unsteady by Peyton Corrine. So I just finished this one, like I just finished it.
Speaker 1:It was recommended to me by, uh, rachel Lewis and, oh, okay, it is so good, it's definitely. It's one of those heart-wrenching books. Like it is. There's a lot of emotional work going on, um, a lot of it does take place at the rink, but she's a figure figure skater. So, okay, sadie, the main character, she's a figure skater and she has a really dark past. She's actually the caretaker for her two younger brothers and so she has a lot going on herself and she's trying to impress her figure skating coach and she has a lot of pressure on her.
Speaker 1:Then Reese, which it's spelled r-h-y-s and it's Reese, which I haven't seen that before, so it took me a second. That's Welsh, isn't it? I think it is. Yeah, so now I know for all, for all future. But so Reese, he's a hockey player and he actually has PTSD pretty much at the beginning of the book. So he had this really intense head injury that just they described it and you're like, oh man, but anyway, he had this really intense head injury. So he has PTSD every time he gets on the ice or like even really tries to get on the ice.
Speaker 1:And so they both have like this early skate time and they end up meeting each other there and she walks him through a panic attack, like she's walked herself and her younger brothers through. So they kind of start out on that emotional level. She knows he's a hockey player but doesn't really know like how popular and famous and stuff he is, because she's just kind of had like her nose to the grindstone, you know, like focusing on school and skating, and so anyway, they have this whole relationship and basically he's like a shell of himself. She is exhausted and grumpy and has a lot going on, and so they both kind of try to heal themselves themselves, but they also heal each other in the process and it's just really really sweet. But it is very emotional. She is very closed off. He's the one that's like really trying to romance her and she is just not having it for a lot of the book and so, um, he is just really really trying with her more than he has with anyone else. So it's like the banter, yeah.
Speaker 1:So anyway, she has like a lot of really snappy mean. She's just kind of mean, but, like you understand why. She's had a lot that's made her that way. So she has a really gruff exterior and he is really a total shell of himself, really a total shell of himself.
Speaker 1:So if you want just an absolute like gut wrenching, heart wrenching, emotional book that is so entertaining and so I hate to say fun to read, it's not fun, but it's like it keeps you turning the page. It's a page turner for sure. Nice, then you will like this. And he's he is college, so it's college hockey, and he's, um, he is college, so it's college hockey, and he's like finding his way back. So a lot of it takes place on a rink, but there isn't really like true game or locker play scenes till a little bit later where they're actually like other players involved, because it's kind of like before the season leading up to it. But yeah, so this is my hockey. And the next book actually just came out as well, unloved. I didn't get to that yet, but I'm definitely going to, because now I'm going to read like everything Peyton Corrine writes after reading this one.
Speaker 2:That's what happened with me and SJ Tilly.
Speaker 1:I read her hockey books and that was it for me, addicted to everything she writes, yeah because you talk about SJ Tilly a lot and I still haven't read her because I'm a little bit scared.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh. No, listen, don't be scared. The thing about SJ Tilly's Spice is that it is very hot, but it's also, it is fun, like it's. You know, the spice is spicing but it's not like, not in a scary way, it's not intimidating, like she does a good job with it, I think, but it's explicit, but not in a gross way. Okay, I don't think. Okay, I don't think. You might feel differently, but to me it's the kind of spice that is perfectly suited to my taste.
Speaker 1:How did you find her in the first place? Instagram?
Speaker 2:Oh nice, I was scrolling and I saw one of her books and then I think actually I'm friends with Romantically Inclined Podcast and Michaela and Kate on there, I think, did one of her books or like, mentioned her books or something. I was like, oh, that sounds fun. And they kept talking about her and I kept seeing her on my Instagram, so I followed her and then finally it was winter break this was like two years ago two years ago, yeah and over Christmas break and I didn't have to, like my kids were taken care of, you know, like we didn't have to get up, I didn't have to do car line, I didn't have to pack lunches, we didn't have to do homework, none of that. It was Christmas break and the house was sorted, and so I just literally sat down and read her entire sleep series in like four days. I just like pounded one out every day, so asleep.
Speaker 2:The hockey series, yes, the sleep series. But she recently wrote the last one in that series this year, I think. So there was only like two or three, I think there's three, and then the last one. I want to say four. So okay, um, yeah. So there's four books, yeah, um. So I think that actually I was wrong.
Speaker 2:The first book that I read from SJ Tilly was her second Bites book, because it just came out and it was a novella and so it was like a holiday novella about a cooking show and I was like, oh, it was really good. And I was like I really like this author, so what's next? I was like hockey is very wintry. I could get into that and I had never read hockey before that Literally my first hockey romance was Sleet Kitten so fun. And then Sleet Sugar is the second one and Sleet Banshee is the third one and Sleet Princess is the fourth one. Banshee is the third one and Sleet Princess is the fourth one. So each one Kitten, sugar, banshee and Princess are all nicknames that the main male characters have for their main female love interest oh okay, that makes sense.
Speaker 2:So it's all there and so the name of the hockey team is the minnesota sleet. They're all really fun. They're. The banter is hilarious and just like the crazy situations they all get into are so funny. And I really love how she does.
Speaker 2:She sets up each different story so well with like the characters and like she covers all the tropes and it's just a really fun series and there's plenty of hockey playing and hockey in it. But it's never boring, it's never too sportsy and it's like this found family that comes together because all the, all the female love interests are get to be good friends and they have like this sunday brunch that they all get together for and they like talk about the guys and then the guys are all the hockey players on the team, so they like talk about the girls in the locker room and they're just like this one big group and there's one scene and I think it's actually the same scene happens over like two different books, because you get it from a different point of view in the other book, or they at least refer to it and like talk about it and they all go to a haunted house.
Speaker 2:I love that for halloween. So it's like this group of like hockey players and their girls going through this haunted house and it's the funniest thing you're adding to my tbr. It sounds really good. Yeah, in the in the first book, my fate, one of my favorite scenes that like really hooked it for me was she ends up falling asleep on the couch at his house and they just snuggle and like that. There's like no innuendo or anything. She just like falls asleep on him and it's the sweetest, cutest thing and he's just like well, you fell asleep, so like I didn't want to move and bother you and it's just like it's the best you have me at found family.
Speaker 1:I really liked that portion of it and I think that's definitely where that may actually be why I really tend to like sports romances just because I feel like you have a lot of opportunities with the locker room in general, like all all of the good sports books have a lot of locker room scenes, because it's just like you have that time where they can unabashedly just chat and I feel like, especially with guy groups other books like there aren't that many opportunities unless there's like some kind of cookout or something for them to really like get together and chat versus in a locker room. You you have all this time in between games and practices and stuff. So I don't know, I think that that really adds a lot to it.
Speaker 2:The more locker room scenes, the better for me right, exactly, it's so much fun to just like watch them be real together. The banter between the guys is so fun, you know, and even like between the girls when they get all sassy and it's yeah, it's a good time.
Speaker 1:I love all that stuff yeah, yeah, my next pick is football, american football. I feel like I do have to say that, and I read the first book, which was Intercepted. I don't know why I cannot. So it's like Intercepted, Fumbled, Blitzed. And there's another one that I'm kind of blanking on, but this is by Alexa Martin. Alexa Martin is one of my favorite authors. She wrote Next Door Nemesis, which I talk about. I feel like a lot and I've probably thrown your way.
Speaker 1:Sarah like 15 times, and then she also wrote Better Than Fiction and I'm trying to think of what else. Now I'm blanking on all of her books, but anyway, this is one of her. This is her only series so far and it is all tied around football. But the interesting thing with this is that, okay, so alexa was actually an nfl wife and her husband is derrick martin and he was a safety for the ravens and so anyway, you can just tell that she knows what she's talking about.
Speaker 1:On a deeper level, like, for example, all of the women have ESPN alerts on their phones. So sometimes the alerts happening while they're in practice and they find something out before they've had a chance to talk to their husband, because you know, like news is always breaking and stuff. And then also there's this whole big thing with kind of like the cattiness between some of the football wives and they have like very distinguished the football wives and the football girlfriends, and so there's like this whole thing with that and like charity events that they do and everything that it kind of takes to be an NFL wife. So anyway, that's like a whole side part of the book and they all kind of gang up on the main character in the first one, and so there's a really interesting back, and they all kind of gang up on the main character in the first one, and so there's a really interesting back and forth between all of them. In addition to you still get a lot of the actual football scenes and all of that and the um, they actually talk about games.
Speaker 1:so you'll see like games, and even just the way that they'll like talk about positions and stuff and like positions related to their personalities. You can just tell that she has like a real understanding of football. So if you want like really football, you're going to get that here. Oh, it even talks about like pregame rituals, like the wives help them with their pregame rituals and stuff. So anyway, it is just very in-depth. But it is pretty spicy. It is very in-depth and there's a lot of like best friend stuff too and you have teammates and anyway it was really good.
Speaker 1:But I will warn you, in the first book the third act breakup is a doozy. I don't know that I've ever had a third act breakup. That was that much of a doozy. But it makes sense for the characters. You understand why. I really don't think it could have happened any other way. It it is what it is for a reason. But yeah, the way that Alexa writes is just really punchy, really bantery, really sarcastic, really funny, and she um uses a lot of like pop culture references and stuff. So it kind of feels like it honestly feels like you're watching a tv episode of this, like this could be the real housewives of football, basically yeah, right, yeah, I need to.
Speaker 2:I need to read that one because I'm interested to know, because my husband worked with the NFL but he wasn't a player, so I was like NFL adjacent yeah, I guess still.
Speaker 2:I was still there at the games and like in the family room, but it was kind of like a quiet observation because like I was sort of just on the, I was on the sidelines of like the wives and girlfriends stuff, um. So that was a really interesting experience to have because I got to just sort of watch and learn about stuff and just like save it up for maybe another series. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:So yeah, that sounds really good. I would definitely read this. I think you would like Alexa Martin style a lot. It's really really sounds like. Yeah, it's really smart. She's a genius. Um oh man nice yeah, I would definitely recommend it. Okay, what is your next pick?
Speaker 2:I will go to my football rec because I I feel like if I talk about em Rath and fucking around like that is like so beyond spicy. I don't know if this is like good for this.
Speaker 1:Okay, yeah.
Speaker 2:But that's fair. Okay, so I have a football recommendation, and this is by the author who wrote Lights Out out, which is a dark romance, and I don't think you've read that one yet. No, have you read like? I loved it. I read it and I'm listening to the audiobook.
Speaker 1:um I have heard so many things about the audiobook and my hoopla has it. They have butcher and blackbird, they have lights out. I'm like they must be really catering to, like there must be a dark romance audience that is requesting stuff on Hoopla because my library has it all.
Speaker 2:Well, okay, I'll tell you, Lights Out. I feel like is way less than Butcher and Blackbird. Okay, like if you survived Butcher and Blackbird you could definitely handle Lights Out out.
Speaker 2:but you have to know that, like, at the beginning it's very, you're very like okay, like this is weird and I don't get it yet, but like, if you give it time it's slowly. I love how she like slowly like worked things out, is it like? And then there was one part where I was laughing so hard I couldn't breathe. It was like amazing and yeah, so it goes from like what you think you're getting is like this dark, creepy stalker romance and you're just like, oh, my, like I don't know about this. But then you like keep reading and it slowly, like he inches his way into like her heart and she and she's just like it just keeps pushing the line until you're just like okay, so this is happening.
Speaker 2:I guess it's like I'm really enjoying it. You're like I don't know how I could enjoy a soccer romance. But here we are, I'm having fun, okay, and there's a cat. That just is amazing. So, like I highly recommend it just because it's so fun. But she also wrote a football romance before she got to dark romance and it's not quite as it's not like that, like it's a genuine romance, like it is a football. I'm categorizing it as a football romance, even though he's retired. But there's just like so much football talk in it and like so much like he talks about because he he might have this, uh, the disease that you get from too many concussions, and it's a big, long word yes, I'm totally blanking.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but I know exactly what you're talking about.
Speaker 2:Yeah so it's kind of it's it's not alzheimer's, but it's a little bit like it. So he has to like the whole book is centered around him being afraid that he has it and not wanting to get the test because he's too scared to find out and so like there's a lot of football stuff in it, but it he's retired and like no, nothing on the field. Basically he goes to maine to hide out and like be alone, and his neighbor is ella and she knows who he is but pretends not to know because she's like oh my gosh, if this guy is like all the way out here, he must not want people to know who he is. Oh, that's amazing. So she like tries to like pretend that she doesn't know and like be really cool about it, even though she does know. He's like there's a really famous football player and then they have this mutual friend. He's like an older guy and he also is like I don't know, like he just he plays it cool too. And she's like wait, you knew. This whole time he's like who doesn't know this guy? And they're so funny.
Speaker 2:Um, but it's a really sweet love story because he tries the whole time to say like well, I can't be with anybody, because I don't know if I have the sissies and I don't know how long I have to be me and it's really touching and like really sweet that she like is just like I am going to be here because I'm into you and that's it, like it's really good and it's just like I'm gonna be here because I'm into you and that's it. That's it like it's it's really good and it's really sweet and it's I would say it's like medium spice. It might be right up your alley, actually on the spice level, okay, but it's been a minute since I read it perfect.
Speaker 1:I know I was gonna say it sounds interesting, it sounds really good. Well, okay, so on lights out, slightly switching for a second back to that, so what I was gonna say was that I think in dark romance so far, what I don't love, okay. So, hear me, I liked Butcher and Blackbird, I liked their banter. I had fun, had fun with it. Like, even though there were a lot of parts that were a lot, I genuinely had fun with the book. So I was still able to have fun with it.
Speaker 1:Um, but I've been reading like a lot of technically dark romance, fantasy and, yeah, cool. Um, it feels like things are just done for shock factor. I think that's what I don't like on dark romance, like when things are just piled on for the sake of being like he's morally gray, like I get it he's morally gray. I mean I've read, you know, like YA romancy where they're morally gray but it's more in their actions and their banter and stuff like that, instead of like an adult dark romanticy. It's very much like, how much can we shock you with? So the fact that you're saying that lights out is not, you know, like it has some. I've heard that it has some kind of humor in there, like it is dark, but it acknowledges that it's dark, right exactly? Instead of just like throwing it in your face, like I feel like I've just had a lot of those where it's been thrown in my face and I'm like, okay, now I just feel like you're just literally adding this for the sake of, like you know, stock factor right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, lifestyle doesn't have that vibe at all, and that's what I love so much about it is because it's just like it's very self-aware and the whole time and that's what makes it so funny to me is like the characters are just like I can't believe this is happening. Like what am I doing? How is this a thing that is happening right now? And a lot of it is. I don't want to say slapstick humor, but it's very situational comedy, just like the situations that they find themselves in are very funny to me, and the spice is spicy, but there's honestly not that many spicy scenes that I remember. For, like what you get, it's a pretty long book. So, like what you get the amount of spice to like the rest of its plot is Okay. Get the amount of spice to like the rest of its plot is okay. Yeah, so like the, the the spice to plot ratios.
Speaker 1:You know it's relative it's good, okay, and that's really interesting on what she did with the football romance, like that's a really unique angle to take with it.
Speaker 2:I haven't heard of anything like that at all yeah, it's really good and the fun part is is like it's in Maine, so there's a lot of snow and like there's a lot of like you know close proximity and getting snowed in and like snuggling and and that kind of thing and and they have. Um, she's got dogs and they're so cute. I love that. She does in Lights Out and Snowed In there's animals and she does animals really well, Like I tried to put a cat in Tides of Darkness and I was just like I can't, I don't have the energy for this Like.
Speaker 2:I can't keep up with this animal, like I just we're not doing the cats, but she, like, really includes the animals in a fun way and you can tell she's a big animal lover, so it's really fun, yeah, so give it, give lights out a chance. I will.
Speaker 1:I actually will, I will. I was debating, I was, I don't know why I didn't even think to ask you if you've read it. Duh, you'd probably read it. I was like if I could just find someone that's read it, that can just confirm that it's not gonna traumatize me, because, you know, even with Butcher and Blackbird, everyone's like it.
Speaker 2:They made it seem so mild oh no, it's not mild at all. I would not call Butcher and Blackbird mild, like they made it seem so mild, yeah.
Speaker 1:And then I read the trigger warnings and I was like, oh wow, so that was kind of my fault. The first time I read it was I went into it having recommendations that were like, yeah, it's a little bit much, but you'll be fine, not realizing that. Like oh no, it's like you just have to be ready for it. You just have to know what you're reading. That's why I was able to read it, I think, the second time, because I knew. Knew what I was going into versus not yeah and.
Speaker 2:But yeah, if you got through butcher and blackbird like lights out is way way less yeah it's like baby, baby, dark romance.
Speaker 2:They're really like baby yeah baby steps, baby steps to the elevator. Just you know, and I think honestly like if you get through lights out and you're cool with it, um, and you want to in, you're in the move. Sj tilly has the sin series and it's it's like mafia adjacent. He is like the main character in the first book is ex-mafia, so like his family was in the mafia but he like worked really hard to get legit and go legal and like make everything above board but like he still has some dark friends and like acquaintances. So it's kind of like adjacent and there's like a lot of stuff that happens. It's like mafia ish, but that's a fun series to like dip your toes into the dark romance because it's like it's not quite, you know, to the level that a lot of mafia romance is. And then she's got the alliance series which is heavier on the mafia stuff. But they're also like just the way she writes is so funny and entertaining that you don't even care I think you could be on her pr team.
Speaker 1:She needs to hire me. She does need to hire you. It's okay, like katherine center can hire me, sj tilly can hire you.
Speaker 2:We can, just we can vamp up, let's be their hype girl cheerleaders yeah, they're fun yeah okay, I am going, I'm going with baseball next.
Speaker 1:so, okay, this one, um it, it is, but there's a lot centered around baseball. Okay, it's called the Art of Catching Feelings by Alicia Thompson, and this was my first Alicia Thompson book. She's really incredible. I'm obviously going to read more of her books after this. She wrote Love in the Time of Serial Killers and With Love from Cold World yeah, that one I've heard a lot about.
Speaker 1:And then, uh, love in the time of serial killers, and then, of course, she has a bunch of other books as well. Oh no, looks like she has a gymnastic series. Hey, the things you learn, yeah. So, anyway, so with her, okay, it's kind of funny, okay, so with alicia thompson, I've noticed that she's a lot of my favorite author's favorite author, if that makes sense. Like all of them that I love to read their words and I feel like they just write pure gold on the page. They all love her. So I was kind of saving up her books to try out, you know, when I could really savor them. And this one did not disappoint. Like I said, it's called the Art of Catching Feelings, it's baseball. And so, daphne, she gets divorced, she decides to go to a baseball game because her ex-husband and her had tickets and she wanted to take them from him, so he couldn't go.
Speaker 1:So, she takes her best friend and they go to a baseball game. Does she know anything about baseball? Absolutely not, uh, but she's just excited to be there. She gets really caught up in the atmosphere and she gets super drunk also, and so she ends up heckling a player and she makes him cry. Oh no, and my first thing was well, now I have to read this book, because I want to know what she said to make him cry.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And I'm not going to spoil it, but it's actually. It's ridiculous. But it hits something. You'll find out why it hit a nerve for a specific reason. So it's completely outlandish and absolutely ridiculous what she ended up saying. That made him cry, but anyway, so so she makes him cry.
Speaker 2:That sounds like so much fun. Seriously, it really is.
Speaker 1:It was so much fun. So she makes him cry and then she slides into his DMs to like apologize later because she is just feeling horrible. As she sobers up, she realizes that she forgot to say who she was, so he thinks that she's just like a concerned fan. And so they end up forming an online relationship and she never says who she is, that she's yeah. So the whole thing centers basically on this miscommunication. And then her sister is a sideline reporter for the team and she goes on bed rest and so Daphne has to fill in, and so Daphne is simultaneously DMing him, and then also a new sideline reporter for the team and she travels with the team and he doesn't know it's her. He does not know it's her he doesn't know it's her.
Speaker 1:He does not know it's her, he does not know it's her.
Speaker 2:So he thinks he's basically talking to two different women plus the heckler, so she's like three versions of the same person.
Speaker 1:That's amazing yeah, she is yes, yes, yes oh my gosh.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so the whole thing centers on miscommunication. Um, and yeah and that's. I can't give you any more than that. That's really all I can tell you. But the majority of the book obviously takes place either on the fields or in the stadium somewhere, and so they'll talk about, like you know, pre-game and post-game interviews, where she gets to interview him, so she has to interview him and all that kind of stuff and like their chit-chat before. But then you actually have a lot of like the actual games and so you get a lot of baseball. This is very heavily baseball influence, but yeah, it's really fun, the miscommunication.
Speaker 1:There's a point at the end where, when it all falls apart, you just feel like it's a slight, like it's a little bit ridiculous, but the whole plot's ridiculous in itself, like in the best way. So it might be slightly frustrating. I personally really don't like the miscommunication trope, but I just had so much fun reading this book that I don't know that I really cared, like even though I could see technically some of the issues that some people would have with it. I just don't, I just don't know that I really cared, like even though I could see technically some of the issues that some people would have with it. I just don't, I just don't care, it was just so fun. I talked to someone else that were like, yeah, the miscommunication bugged me, but I also didn't care because it was just so fun to read.
Speaker 1:So it is just really, really fun, like it'll make you laugh, it is so fun.
Speaker 2:Miscommunication is great when it's hilarious and you don't care.
Speaker 1:Yeah yeah, it's like so ridiculous that it's not pretending like it's something that could actually happen. And that's what bugs me more is like if it were realistic. And then you're like they could just have a conversation. Well, this one, they clearly just can't have a conversation, otherwise they would have done that 200 pages ago right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think for me, when it's a trope that I'm not into or whatever, I think 90% of the time if it's self-aware and like they hang a lantern on it, it's like, yeah, we know we could do this, but like just go with it, like I'm so on board for that, like it doesn't bother me at all anymore, as long as it's just like yeah, we, we, wink, wink, we know you know that's a good way to put it, yeah, yeah yeah, yeah, I will definitely be reading more of her books, but this one was really fun um that sounds fun, like you're I.
Speaker 2:If people don't get on this podcast, they're just like oh, you're killing everybody's TBRs. I know.
Speaker 1:We're both killing everyone's TBRs. How dare you. They're just going to have 20 new books.
Speaker 2:I know, maybe just change the podcast name to Killing my TBR.
Speaker 1:One recommendation at a time. Oh man, anyone who loves sports romance, maybe they shouldn't listen to this episode, because then they'll be like, okay, this is insane.
Speaker 2:I know right. Well, okay, speaking of baseball, so my baseball recs are so fun. So my baseball recs are so fun. This is um. Kelly reynolds is the author of the rose, I feel like.
Speaker 2:I've heard of her books before you might have. Yeah, she's pretty popular, um, and she's an indie author. So she wrote the rose city roasters series. The first one is called hit it and quit it and the second one is called pitches, be crazy. And those are the two that came out, all right. So the first one came out, I want to say, last year or earlier this year, and then the second one came out recently, ish, like september-ish.
Speaker 2:I want to say what I love about this series is again found family. Yay, the baseball team is just ridiculous and hilarious. The guys are just so goofy and some of the best team banter. It's like in in these books. They're just hilarious and they they get together and they have movie night with each like. I love that it's, it's so wholesome and precious and I just love that. It's like very, um, whatever the opposite of toxic masculinity is is like these guys and it's so refreshing and so delightful to experience that they're just like really good friends. They like hold space for all their feelings. They like, you know, it's just it's good fun and so like. That's one of my favorite things about these series. And then the two other things is the locations. So the first one is like this um, like an old-fashioned, like 1950s, um, like rv park, that's like where you can like go and rent an rv and like live there and the way she described it.
Speaker 2:It's so quirky and it takes place in oregon and um, it's just so quirky and cute and it sounds like a place and I think she based it on a real place that you can actually go to and she like goes there to write so cool which is so funny because, like I think, if you scroll through her Instagram, you might find like some pictures and, um, then the second place that I really want to be a real place is the Roasters, like baseball stadium and it they're called the roasters because of coffee.
Speaker 2:They have like a whole coffee theme. That's amazing For their stadium and there's like a coffee bar in their stadium and they get like really good coffee when they go to work and I'm just like, oh my God, it sounds so yummy and just so much fun. It's like kind of like redwoods and coffee is like the vibe you get and it's just delightful. Just like I need that to be a real stadium and I wish it. That's really unique.
Speaker 1:That's a really unique way to structure a team. Um, yeah, like that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's really cool. Yeah, it's a fun idea. It's a fun two book series and I think she's gonna do a third one and the spice is spicy. Okay, but like for like for me I would say like for me it's like two, yeah, two and half peppers, but that would be for you like a three at least, okay.
Speaker 1:Got it. Well, now, I, now I want you to read, like some of the books that I said were spicy, just so you can tell me, like that was nothing or okay, okay, that was maybe like a little bit. Yeah, yeah, oh, okay, nothing, or okay, okay, that was maybe like a little bit. Yeah, yeah, oh, okay. Last we're talking about, well, last that we're really getting into, and then I'll just throw out some recommendations, because, again, you know why wouldn't I want to kill your tbr just a little bit for fun. Um, the last recommendation is well, I say recommendation. We both have mixed feelings about this book we both read it together we read it.
Speaker 1:No, I read it first and then you read it separately. But you sent me a bunch of voice memos about it and we had a cool conversation, a gift conversation, if you will, um, and yeah, yeah, it well fangirl down by tessa bailey. Uh, so it is golf, it's golf um, it's very golfy because golf heavy, golfy, golf heavy because wells you know, what?
Speaker 1:why not? Tessa bailey just threw me off already just talking about her books, threw me out. It's golfy. We're getting golfy today. It's a new term. It just stayed up just now. Okay, so it's very golf heavy because and I know absolutely nothing about golf and again it's kind of like if an author can make me care about golf, then I feel like they win, because you know, like hockey and football and baseball and basketball, I feel like just naturally, maybe a little bit more entertaining than golf. So you know, props to Tessa for being able to entertain me with the book centered around golf. But anyway, so Wells is a professional. He's kind of having like an off season, off couple of seasons, wasn't it like a couple? I feel like a couple years that he's had that.
Speaker 2:he just really, yeah, downswing yeah, he's like, he's like on the down, down. What can we use a golf term like the downstroke, downswing?
Speaker 1:yeah, yeah yeah, I like that. What do you mean? Golf he has?
Speaker 2:how many golf tons we can include in this section.
Speaker 1:Exactly. She works at a pro shop and she becomes his caddy and she plays golf too, so it is very golf centered. This one is going to feel like a sports sportsy romance. So, Sarah, do you want to say real quick what were your thoughts on this?
Speaker 2:one. Well, that's the thing is. Like I really enjoyed overall, like I enjoyed the writing, I was super invested in it. I had fun reading it. Um, it was great until the third act and like the breakup stuff just didn't hit. For me it was a yeah, it went into the sand trap, it was a birdie, it was a what do you call it, I don't know. It went into the weeds a little bit, but I would say like 90 of it I really enjoyed and and I liked. I liked the whole setup, I liked how they were put together, I liked how Much she was a cheerleader for him and like really believed in him when he didn't believe in himself. That was a really great Strong point. But at the end I feel like it kind of I feel like the characters were completely out of character, like it didn't match up with everything I had read so far.
Speaker 1:Yep, personality change. Yeah, I felt like that too yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Personality shift that didn't line up in my brain to where I felt comfortable with their decisions, I agree, but it was such a it was.
Speaker 1:It was a really minor thing and you know we just blew it up out of proportion because it bugged us so bad, it bugged me so bad yeah.
Speaker 2:I know, I know, I think, well see, I think I wonder if it's just because we both enjoyed it so much, yeah, that it was just like oh no, why did they do that? And then so I think we're just like so invested, which is a really good thing, and you know it, they were really spicy together, like their chemistry was really good together. I felt like they worked really well together. It's just that one little character moment, it's just like oh no. But I mean I would still recommend it though, because there was so much good in it that I really did enjoy. I wouldn't say that that part ruined anything for me, it was just really disappointing.
Speaker 1:It kind of ruined it for me. But, yeah, I feel like a. I've heard so many people say how much they love this book and I get it, I completely get it. So I felt like it would be silly, just because the back half didn't end up, the back half didn't live up to the front half of the book, I didn't want to, like you know, exclude it, but yeah, the back half, just I felt like from there they couldn't well, yeah, it wasn't even the half, though Like it was like the last 10%, For me maybe a little bit more.
Speaker 1:there was kind of like 80% yeah yeah, okay, I'll go with that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like the last 20 somewhere around in there, the last like 20%, it was kind of I feel like it just a lot got lost and I felt like they really didn't get it back like they did, but it just didn't, I don't know. Then after that it like it marred it for me and it didn't hit quite right. But, to be fair, I was picky and that was my thing that I latched on to and you may read it and not latch on to that at all. And yeah, I, I really liked the banter in the beginning and, of course, like you said, it was just the way that they had the forced proximity.
Speaker 1:Where they're on the course, they now have to talk to each other. They really don't like each other at first, they're just like barely tolerating each other, but they have to work together. I don't know, I think that's kind of like my favorite favorite part Whenever there's some kind of like common goal or something like that, where they're literally right there, they're together for a large majority and, of course, whenever she, she's the only female caddy. So again, the guys give her a hard time and I felt like that was also realistic, even though she was just as good, she was amazing she as well as was, if not better.
Speaker 1:Like he said, you're better than me.
Speaker 2:Basically, yeah she's so that's one thing that I can really say that I really enjoyed about is that she's so smart and she like really knows what she's talking about, like she is a pro and her family she has this family legacy to live up to and like she tries so hard to like keep it together and and all that. So I yeah, that's one of the things that was like a real part that I liked same here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, same here. So we trepidatiously recommend fangirl down. No, I, I mean, I liked. I liked it enough to pick up the next book behind me from the library. So there you go, I'm, I'm reading it, I'm getting there and this was my first tessa bailey, by the way, so I've not read you.
Speaker 1:Okay, I was gonna say I haven't read any of her other books yet so I have absolutely no idea. Like this may just be kind of how she does plot and stuff. I have no clue. I don't have any frame of reference. So that's that's our feelings on fangirl. Down, it was really good, like it, you're gonna enjoy it. If you're looking for a sports romance, if you're having a bad day, if you like want to get out of your head, you know it's a fun ride yeah, and the bonus is that, like it's golf, so like it's not, it wasn't as familiar to me.
Speaker 2:So I felt, felt like I could really get lost in it, whereas, you know, football I'm pretty familiar with and baseball I'm pretty familiar with. So I have kind of like set expectations of to like what I want from it. So I think those are kind of you know, it's a little bit different vibe.
Speaker 1:So, like with golf, I was just like all right, I have no idea what this is about and I'm like super here for whatever you have to offer you know now that say that I just realized I actually mainly read sports romance books about sports that I don't know a whole lot about, like hockey and golf and stuff. I haven't read that many like football or baseball or basketball that I would actually understand. I don't know why I do that, but apparently I do Good to know I haven't read any basketball ones.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay, so I'll throw a basketball one out there real quick, um, okay, okay. So this one I would classify as it's barely a sports romance, because he's always coming back from practice, like the entire, the entire thing takes place in like a library, a coffee shop and a bookstore, and he is always coming back from practice and, yeah, and even when there's a game, like she works in the library so she has a shift and so she's listening to the radio of his game. Is this college? Yes, this is college. Sorry, I did not explain that. Okay, so it's called night shift by annie crown. I think I read this like a year and a half or two years ago, but I just I was.
Speaker 1:This was when I was reading, like sarah adams and katherine center, though so it seems like very, it was sandwiched in between them and I think it was like right before I went into Allie Hazelwood. So I was just like what am I reading right now? So, yeah, that was, that was kind of my own fault. But yes, if you, if you want a lot of description, if you want to be able to draw a diagram, that that could be this book. That is how, how descriptive it is. Okay. So what happens in this? Can I remember the character's names? Nope, so I'm just gonna go for it, okay. So basically, um, the mmc. He's a division one basketball player and she really doesn't know who he is. Of course, she works in the library and he comes up and gets a textbook from the library and so she thinks that he's just like a dumb jock, basically because he's wearing like his sweats or his jersey or something, some identifier, maybe his like Nike backpack, whatever it is. Anyway, she realizes that he's an athlete but knows literally nothing about him. So she goes to help him check out, like this very specific book that he wants and they have to go up to the stacks. How convenient, it's dark and it's secluded, and it's secluded and he's like flirting with her the entire time and she's just like trying to do her student like student work, job, you know, student campus job, and so anyway, they end up basically like making out in the library within like five seconds of meeting each other, apparently, as you do according to this book and he like no, that's going to spoil it, so I can't say that, never mind. Well, anyway he keeps coming back and eventually she agrees to be his tutor because he's almost failing English, and so she's tutoring him, and so you know, like some of his teammates walk by whenever they're in some of their tutoring sessions and stuff, so you do get like some teammate banter and that's about it. Everything else is he's just coming back from practice and like they talk about the fact that he's a jock a lot, but they don't actually talk about basketball, basketball. So if you were looking for a basketball book, this is not that um, it is just like he's holding a basketball on the cover and he's always coming back from practice and that's and it's a lot of smut. So well, there you go, that's what you want. I mean it was really entertaining, like really entertaining. I flew through it because it just there's like a lot of like poetry in it, because he's tutoring her. She's tutoring him in English, so they like talk about Shakespeare and classic works and stuff, but it's really interesting. You're like trying not to laugh. It's really interesting, but it's not very basketball related. Um, that's, that's my, that's my basketball.
Speaker 1:And then my other few recommendations I'm just throwing out rapid fire. Uh, the campus diary series by l kennedy. L kennedy is at the top of what I can handle at this moment, so she is the tip top. And, uh, the gram effect was really spicy, but I think this one was my favorite so far. And then the Dixon rule was the second book which I think. Butcher and Blackbird is the spiciest book I've ever read, but the Dixon rule is probably the second spiciest book I've ever read, I believe.
Speaker 2:I tried to start that one because you said it was so spicy and I just like as a mood reader. I didn't hit the mood for me so I wasn't able to get very far in. But like I'm not counting it out, it's just like I need to.
Speaker 1:Well, it takes a while, like it gets really spicy, but it takes a long time for them to get there. But it's an interconnected standalone. Yeah, I think it just wouldn't hit as yeah okay.
Speaker 2:I think that might be why, because I yeah, okay.
Speaker 1:So maybe I need to start with the first one for context the gram effect had a plot twist that I did not see coming and in a romance like wait a minute, there's a plot twist in there that I did not see coming. Yeah, I know, I rated the gram roll five stars. I can't remember what I rated the dixon roll, but it was close. But yeah, they're those and I listened to them both on audiobook and, uh, that was interesting was the dixon roll more spicy than the first one?
Speaker 2:yes, but it's still both spicy.
Speaker 1:They're still both very spicy, okay, they're kind of like so, okay, I haven't read the full thing, but the icebreaker but icebreaker. I dnf'd it, fyi, but it was just constant smut. That's pretty much what this is like. If you liked icebreaker but you want a slightly more adult, grown-up version where they just seem like like an icebreaker, they seem like freshmen and in this one they seem like seniors. So it's a little like it's the way that l kennedy does it, because she'll put in a lot of depth with her spice. Yeah, I like that.
Speaker 1:Okay, so I think that's my thing is, if I have a lot of spice, I need to have a lot of depth, and I think that's why I can handle her. But I couldn't handle Icebreaker, because these books in general have a lot of depth and there's a lot going on and, like I said, there's this plot twist that I did not see coming at all and I've heard from other people they didn't either. So, yeah, I think the gram effect was my favorite, but the dixon roll there's one thing in there that makes it spicier. But as far as like book to spice ratio, I don't know.
Speaker 2:Okay, they're probably kind of equivalent, just on a side note. So yeah, I'm really interested to know what you think of the blonde identity because it is very acutely closed door but it's like the spiciest closed door I've ever read and I really want to know what you think really for being a closed door.
Speaker 1:Okay, it's on my hoopla so I need to listen to it. Okay, that's really interesting because I just read the most wonderful crime of the year and it was not that way I mean, it was truly closed door there, but okay oh yeah, I think I started it.
Speaker 2:You need to put on my kindle. I don't know, I know I started it, but I was really confused about like books that throw a lot of names at you. At the beginning I'm just like I can't oh, yeah, yeah, no, no, I'm interested.
Speaker 1:I'll have to read the blonde identity because the most wonderful crime of the year. So good, so good, so good, the best, not sports related, but it's really good. Oh, and one more random sports one check and mate by Ali Hazelwood. I think it's technically YA. I'm almost positive. I don't think it was New Adult. I'm pretty sure they classified it as YA. Yeah, I would say it's open door. I can't remember if she classifies it as closed door, but it's pretty. I would say it's more open door and it's about chess and it's one of my favorite books that Allie's written. That and the Love Hypothesis are probably my two favorites, but it's all about chess and she made chess interesting, like super interesting, and I know absolutely nothing about chess. Like I said, apparently I like to read books about sports that I just do not know. And yes, chess is technically a sport. I looked it up, it counts.
Speaker 1:It does yeah for sure, I had no idea, I really didn't know, and then I looked it up counts it is, it does. Yeah for sure, I had no idea, I really didn't know, and then I looked it up but I'm like, oh okay, I mean that makes sense, I can see the intensity of it, like I can see why it's a sport. But yeah, chess is a sport, that's why it's in this episode. But check and mate by Ali Hazelwood man. I devoured that book in probably a day.
Speaker 2:It is really really good, yeah I know these are supposed to be spicy recommendations, but I have a ya that I just thought of, that I just love it and it's a it's.
Speaker 2:I mean, it's not spicy because it's ya, but it's called throw like a girl by sarah henning, and live is the main character and she loses her softball scholarship because she punches somebody in the most like the main, like for a good reason, like it's a yeah, it's a good reason. But then she goes to a public, she like plays for a private school, so she gets like expelled and off the team and she has to go to public school and she ends up making the uh, the football team as the replay. Temporary replacement quarterback.
Speaker 1:Wow, wow, okay, so from softball to quarterback.
Speaker 2:Got it Because she's got an arm. You know she can throw, yeah. So that's a really cute, fun YA story and there's like romance in it between her and the quarterback Gray and it's a sweet, good, fun book. So, so not spicy, but it's why, so we could throw out anything.
Speaker 1:This is our episode. There you go, there's kissing. Oh well, thank you for joining me. Did you have any other recommendations that you wanted to throw out there? No, no, we've pretty much given you everything we could possibly give you. Yeah, that was a lot, a lot.
Speaker 2:That was a lot. I think people are going to have plenty of spicy sports ball recs to deal with for a little while. It's going to last you a little while.
Speaker 1:Exactly and you can tell us like that was not spicy at all, what are you doing? Or like that was way too, spicy. Why did you recommend that to me? Yeah, so don't forget, you can click the send us a text button on the podcast and you can actually text the podcast. So if you have thoughts on the spicy books that we recommended and if you think you know they're super spicy or not spicy enough, let us know. Absolutely, I'll share it with sarah.
Speaker 2:We know where your, your spicy, scale falls exactly.
Speaker 1:Okay, that's it for this episode. Uh, you can purchase sarah's books in the links in the show notes and I would recommend giving her books a try, because I love the Tides of Darkness series, and one day we will have Love Creek and we'll get to experience a Sarah Blair romance. So thank you for listening and see you next time. Thank you.