Showing results by publisher "-emdashery books-" in Sports

As the assistant baseball coach, I’m supposed to keep my hands off the players. But Rafael Rivera, the ace pitcher for the Rangers, is as handsome as he is smooth. Half Puerto Rican and half Italian, his smile makes me think of orange groves and red wine. And when he shows up outside my hotel room one night? Let’s just say our workout can’t be found in any baseball program. But Rafael has two teammates who want to share me during the season.

Colin is enthusiastic about the challenge awaiting him on the wrestling mat as a member of the Indiana University Wrestling Team. He’s determined to focus on wrestling and equally as determined to avoid a serious relationship with either sex. His plans begin to go awry when he meets a member of the Alpha Alpha Omega Fraternity and is introduced to bike racing. His plans are further derailed when he meets Haakon, a handsome freshman from Norway who shares his athletic interests.

Preston Parker is the son of a famous hockey player and the captain of his team. He shouldn’t want his coach’s daughter, but he’s never been one to turn down a challenge. Tucker and Trent Kane are the sons of a hockey icon and love playing games. They’re happily screwing their way through the student body…until they meet two feisty women who whip their butts into shape.

Six years ago, an ultimatum forced Dan Greyson to make a choice that cost him everything he loved most. One of those things? His boyfriend, hockey player Ashton Yager. Now that they’ve crossed paths again, Dan isn’t about to let the opportunity slip away. Ash’s reappearance in his life is just the catalyst Dan needs to escape the rut he’s fallen into and win back Ash’s trust and love.

The Natural, Bernard Malamud's first novel, published in 1952, is also the first - and some would say still the best - novel ever written about baseball. In it Malamud, usually appreciated for his unerring portrayals of postwar Jewish life, took on very different material - the story of a superbly gifted "natural" at play in the fields of the old daylight baseball era - and invested it with the hardscrabble poetry, at once grand and altogether believable, that runs through all his best work.

Out of all the football stadiums in the world, why did Roxanne “The Ballbuster” Benson have to plow through mine? Don’t get me wrong. I’m all for women playing professional football. But what I’m not for is The Ballbuster waltzing onto my field, trying to take over my position as the Wildcats’ starting kicker. The woman dislocated my knee with her freaking Jeep, for chrissake, and yet all of my teammates love her! So what if Roxy’s...gorgeous and sweet and loves football more than anyone in the world? This is my team.

Ted ‘Little Boy Blue' Taylor has replaced his estranged father Ron—a disgraced former heavyweight champion on the cusp of an unexpected comeback—as the darling of Australian boxing. But after two uninspiring losses, he is failing to live up to the expectations that have always weighed so heavily upon him. Ted's battles are not isolated to his sport: a painful history of alcoholism, domestic abuse and ties to the underworld of boxing has a firm hold on the Taylor family. Generational trauma and guilt are not Ted's only inheritance.

Melody is running from her past and the small, country town of Garnet is the perfect hiding place. With an ex-husband after her and scars from her abusive marriage etched deep, the last thing she expects is to fall for a man who makes a living with his fists, but she can't resist Clay or the tender connection they share. Finding love in the most unlikely of places, the passion is undeniable, but Clay and Melody know their haunted pasts and unpredictable futures leave the odds stacked against them.

All's fair in love and potatoes. Melody Brightly. Broadway Star. Pink hair. A smile that hits me harder than a slap shot. Terrible taste in hockey teams. Full of secrets.

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.

Twelve years ago Matthew "the Rocket" Rising had it all. Married to his high school sweetheart and one of the winningest quarterbacks in the history of college football, he was the number one NFL draft pick. But on the night of the draft, he plummeted from the pinnacle of esteem. Falsely accused...

Jimmy Lee Hickam grew up along Red Dog Road, a dead-end strip of gravel and mud buried deep in the bowels of Appalachian Ohio. It is the poorest road, in the poorest county, in the poorest region of the state. To make things worse, the name Hickam is synonymous with trouble. Jimmy Lee hails from a heathen mix of thieves, moonshiners, drunkards, and general anti-socials that for decades have clung to both the hardscrabble hills and the iron bars of every jail cell in the region. This life, Jimmy Lee believes, is his destiny, someday working with his drunkard father at the sawmill, or sitting next to his arsonist brother in the penitentiary.

When Pope left our hometown my life changed. When he came back and saw his nemesis's ring on my finger, I knew he would be angry, but people change, right? When he found out I had a little girl he demanded I call things off with Kal. He says he refuses to let a man like him raise his child. I told him she wasn't his, but he still won't back down.

A bestseller in Japan—a beautiful story about shared self-discovery and friendship involving an unlikely group of students who decide to defy the odds and pursue a seemingly impossible goal together. After shoplifting some bread one chilly March night, just before the start of a new academic...

Iris Marshall never wanted to be anything more than what she is—an official for the European League of (American) Football. So, why had she said yes to being a courier for the CIA? She’s not sure, especially when it lands her in an international thriller that has her on the run from a killer. And worse, the person she’s on the run with? Arrogant, bossy, playboy Hudson Bly, a football player and the last person on Earth she wants to go into hiding with.

Football is a game of steps: Quick steps. Trick steps. Even sneaky, slick steps. Whether you're on or off the pitch, you best know your footing. And for Max Best, that's no problem at all. He has the ability to read players to a T—thanks to the sentient stat-tracking display he received after saving an elderly man in the streets. Now, as director of football for Chester FC, everything's falling into place for Max. His team is climbing the ranks. He's executing great transfers and hired a literal old hand for his brand-new women's team. What could go wrong?

Casey Halbach's life was perfectly on track. She had it all: good friends, a loving boyfriend, a decent job with her very own cubicle. Then, she met Sky. Riding instructor, barn manager, and whirlwind of energy, Sky effortlessly launches Casey back into the saddle. Friends are confused, the boyfriend is concerned, and Casey is conflicted - but when she decides to take the plunge and buy a horse of her own, she realizes that she was just dabbling in the shallow end before. Now, Casey's pretty sure she's in over her head, but the crazy thing is: She thinks she likes it this way.

My status as one of the league's superstars means I can have any woman I want. Puck bunnies line up at the chance to score with a hockey player. There's just one problem...the only woman I want is off-limits.

She grew up in a world filled with poverty and hatred from the person who gave birth to her and had decided she would finally make her ideas a reality. After moving away to college as a junior she ran into the University of Maryland's walking one-night stand. Literally.

Falling down is an accident. Staying down is a choice. Going down is a career-changer...that's the one I did. How was I supposed to know that the NHL's toughest enforcer, the Red Wings' laundry room, and one security video would be my downfall? I've spent more time in the penalty box than any other player in the NHL, but this time I really screwed up. How was I supposed to know that one night and one choice would be worse than all of my transgressions on the ice? Now, I've lost my team, my sponsors, and my publicist. For most people, it's bend or break. For me, it's melt or harden.