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

Love and pain always go together. That’s why I like to keep my life easy. Simple. Commitment free. So, with my MMA career in full swing, and with an injury to overcome, stupid romantic distractions are the last thing I need. And Layla has distraction written all over her. She’s got enough emotional baggage to fill a 747. I don’t do baggage. I need to stay away. But for some reason…I can’t.

I thought he'd always be mine, even when I was forced to say goodbye. We were never meant to let go, but it happened anyway. Two years later, we were exactly where we'd always planned to be. I'd kept my promise. He'd forgotten all about his. Not only had he moved on, but the person he'd moved on with was my best friend, leaving me to begin college with a broken heart. I guess this is the part where I'm supposed to tell you some other guy stepped in and repaired my shattered pieces. This isn't that kind of story. My heart might have been broken, but it refused to fall out of love.

Hockey isn’t forever. The money, excitement, and glory of being a professional hockey player meant more to me than a family, a home, and a forever. Another man has my forever, and I have hockey. I thought making the big bucks and playing against the best in the world would feel better than this. Instead I’m empty and hollow, like a big piece of my heart was hacked off. There's something missing. Something big. Something I can never get back.

Television director Brooke Gordon thinks that baseball player Parks Jones is an insufferable cad with an inflated ego. Unfortunately, he's also brilliant and her client's spokesman. Brooke is determined to ignore the intense attraction she feels while directing Parks in a commercial. But Parks is willing to break a few rules to convince Brooke that love isn't just a game to him. It means forever.

When billionaire reality TV show king Howard Irwin announces he has cloned 21 of the past century's world champion racehorses and plans to race them against each other in a globally televised reality show, the racing and sporting world go crazy. The clones are now three years old and ready to race to determine who really is the champion of champions. Howard enlists three high-profile racehorse trainers—Logan Weston, Angus Masters, and ex-baseball star and rookie racehorse trainer Lance Holyfield—to put in front of the cameras.

It’s not the size of the stick that matters, but how well he handles it… Thanks to an epic playoffs loss and a somewhat regrettable bachelorette party video starring half the team and a can of whipped cream, Buffalo Tempest captain Roscoe LeGrand is on serious PR duty this summer. His assignment? Organize a youth hockey clinic and clean up the team’s tarnished image before the season’s first face-off. But one look at the hot-as-hell hockey mom storming the ice, and Roscoe’s thoughts slide right back into the gutter… Ally Heinz is afraid of everything—with good reason.

Vernon Rand is a charismatic figure whose great love - whose life, in fact - is climbing. He lives alone in California, where he combats the drudgery of a roofing job with the thrill of climbing in the nearby mountain ranges. Sure of only his talent and nerve, Rand decides to test himself in the French Alps, with their true mountaineering and famed, fearsome peaks. He soon learns that the most perilous moments are, for him, the moments when he feels truly alive.

Silver Delgado has gained control of the Dartmouth Cobras - and lost control of her life. Hockey might be the family business, but it's never interested Silver. Until her father's health decline thrusts responsibility for the team he owns straight into her hands. Now she has to find a way to get the team more fans and establish herself as the new owner. Which means standing up to Dean Richter, the general manager and the advisor her father has forced on her.

India Harris didn't have the best start in life. Abandoned as a baby, she and her twin brother, Kit, spent their lives in foster care, only having each other to rely on. Then, at a young age, a relationship with the wrong man left India pregnant. Wanting to give her son the life she never had, she put herself through school and graduated with honors. Now, at the age of 30, she's a highly respected therapist.

Maverick "The Avenger" Cage wants to rise to the top and become a legend in the ring. Though he keeps his identity well guarded, he's known on the fighting circuit as the new kid with a chip on his shoulder and a tattoo on his back that marks him as trouble. He's got a personal score to settle with the Underground's one and only Remington "Riptide" Tate.

The ice is a cold mistress. As the league's most eligible goalie, Max Fournier has access to his fair share of willing puck bunnies, but right now he's more interested in bringing home another championship than a one-night stand. A romantic at heart, Max believes in love; he's just not great at relationships. So when he finally meets a nice girl who's not blinded by his celebrity, he's feeling the heat - and the pressure to save her from herself.

Every distraction is a danger. And the number one distraction is his boyfriend, Lee. Sick over the death of a young player, Lee pushes Dev to take a more active role in reaching out to gay youth, and he doesn't take Dev's resistance well. When push comes to shove, will their love for each other triumph?

One night. It was supposed to be one wild night with my friend - a fiercely sexy chef. Now, I can't stop thinking about her. Can't stop craving her flavor. And that was before I found out our no-strings night resulted in two little pink lines. As the number one winger for the Seattle Sharks and the last man standing in our bad-boy trio, the only lines I'm familiar with are red and blue. But while hockey is my life, Jeannine branded herself on my heart.

After the romantic gesture of the century, Evan Allen is now faced with no friends, ineligible to play ball...and too late to get the girl. He's starting over alone and doesn't know quite how to proceed, until certain members of "The Crew" step in, taking him under their wing. It doesn't take the ladies long to notice him either.

Recovered from a near-fatal assault and rearmed with his embedded football scouting skills, former nobody Max Best has led his Chester men's team up in the rankings and ratings both on the pitch and in the front office. But there's no rest to be had with what's ahead: the FA Cup. Now, they're playing against big-money teams with big talent and even bigger attitudes. And the elite aren't about to let some smart-aleck, fast-talking upstart and his underdog lads make the powerhouse clubs look like fools. Unfortunately for them, that's precisely what Max lives for.

Once in a great while a writer comes along who can truly capture the drama and passion of the life of a family. David James Duncan, author of the novel The River Why and the collection River Teeth, is just such a writer. And in The Brothers K he tells a story both striking and in its originality and poignant in its universality.

The catastrophe that killed the Pittsburgh Titans changed my entire world. My teammates were more than my friends—they were my brothers. I mourned their loss with the rest of the nation but then I did as I’ve been taught… I moved on. I focused on returning to the ice with the newly rebuilt team and put the tragedy behind me. Considering the circumstances, I adjusted well. Or so I thought. Now I’m plagued by nightmares of the crash and my play has suffered as a result. Facing the possibility of losing my place on the team, I need to pull myself together and fast.

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?

Jensen Monroe is a unicorn. As handsome as any model, as polite as can be, a goalie of unmatched skill, and the best friend anyone could ask for. But he longs for a particular special someone to make his life complete. He's been in love with Wren since he was a teenager, but as his best friend's sister, she's always been off-limits. Wren Lemiere has prided herself on being a love 'em and leave 'em girl her whole life. She's all about equal opportunity in the battle of the sexes.

Set in a lethal pro football league 700 years in the future, THE ROOKIE is a story that combines the intense gridiron action of "Any Given Sunday" with the space opera style of "Star Wars" and the criminal underworld of "The Godfather." Aliens and humans alike play positions based on physiology, creating receivers that jump 25 feet into the air, linemen that bench-press 1,200 pounds, and linebackers that literally want to eat you. Organized crime runs every franchise, games are fixed and rival players are assassinated.