Thank you so much for the extended chapter sampler from these Sports Romance books! I really enjoyed reading them. I will request that the library orders the ebooks so I can read the rest of the stories. Thanks again!

Thanks Netgalley for allowing me to read this book! The title and this beautiful cover drew me in and i was excited to read this book! I will be recommending this book to others for readers advisory.

I’m very interested in this genre right now, so it was so nice getting a taste of these three stories! Though, I think I preferred unexpected goals, they were all so good and I can’t wait to read the. Rest. They all come out this fall (oct, nov, and then dec), so keep your eyes peeled!

I received an arc of this title from NetGalley for an honest review. I love a good sports romance, especially a hockey one, so I did enjoy these.

A great samplers of sports romances. I was interested in reading a few of them as they seemed good. I really liked how there was an F/F romance showcased as I feel that f/f sports romances are hard to find (or perhaps I have not looked hard enough).

This was a nice, easy, cute collection of romances set in sporting worlds! Really enjoyed some of these.

I'm such a big fan of sports romances. So what better way to dive into some new stories than with this sampler of three different books!

Get ready for some second chance romance in KD Casey's Unwritten Rules when two baseball stars reunite, or there's a grumpy former hockey player and a barista who clash upon meeting, but love wins the day in Too Much Man, Katy James's debut novel, or how about some FF enemies-to-lovers romance when two rivals are suddenly part of the same pro team in Kelly Farmer's Unexpected Goals.

This sampler is great to get a feel for the books. They all include great LGBTQ+ representation, and each book is a great place to escape to for a few hours. All full books are available now, and I highly recommend them.

Thanks to NetGalley and Carina Press for the chance to sample these sports romances!

I read the first novel included in this sample. Based on my experience with that story, I am fairly sure that the other two samples give you a good idea of what to expect from the full stories.

My favourite out of the three has to be the final one, the F/F ice hockey romance. The characters really spoke to me and in an ocean of M/F and M/M ice hockey romances, it's nice to finally see a F/F one pop up.

As I mentioned, I read the first novel in its entirety and that one sadly didn't work for me. But I'm sure there are plenty of people around who'd love the story.

I'm a bit hesitant about the second story. I love seeing bisexual characters in romance novels, more of that please, but I grew incredibly frustrated with that character by the end of the sample. She seemed needlessly suspicious of the guy and was quite unnecessarily rude. I'm less likely to pick that one up, I'm sad to say.

I love a good sports romance!! This sampler was a great way to get a little more into each of these stories beyond reading the synopsis. I like that each of them have different tropes and relationships. Definitely going to check them out!!

This sampler was a great way to introduce these 3 novels. Although I must say the impatient side of me hates having to wait to read the completed stories. I am not big on unfinished business.
Reading these queer stories did warm my heart. I'm not a sport person but I do enjoy reading about it and seeing people passionate about something they do. It will be a joy to get my hands on these 3 books once they are out.

Thank you to NetGalley and Carina Press for the chance to sample these sports romances!

I'm never going to pick up a book simply because it's got sports in it, but I can never resist a sampler, and I'm glad I gave this a try because I found a new read I'm excited about.

UNWRITTEN RULES by KD Casey - This took me a bit to get into, as the opening chapter didn't grab me, the third person present took some time to adjust to, and I'm always skeptical of flashback structure. But the care and details in the story about the details of baseball (even if I have no idea, it certainly SEEMS real), plus the little bits of diversity and nuance, like the incorporation of Zach's hearing aid and Judaism, really grabbed me. I'm buying this book (the link says preorder, but it came out in mid-October) and I can't wait to read more.

The other two books didn't really grab me. TOO MUCH MAN has too much of a grumpy hero, there was a really clunky expository paragraph about the definition of "cisgender" that made me wonder who the audience was, and the "he's grumpy, she's bisexual" structure in the cover copy was kind of weird because sexuality isn't a personality trait. And UNEXPECTED GOALS takes "enemies to lovers" into straight up animosity territory. So maybe fans of the tropes will be into these books, but it was too much for me.

Overall I enjoyed the chance to read three samples of books I wouldn't have encountered otherwise.

A great taste of a few stories I was interesting in maybe picking up! Definitely helpful in making my decision on what to request.

I LOVED getting the chance to read the first three chapters of three upcoming sports romances from Carina Press in this Fall in love with Sports Romance - SAMPLER!

Unwritten Rules by KD Casey (eBook on sale October 12, 2021) - second chance romance featuring a Jewish baseball player? Cannot wait to read the full book!

Too Much Man by Katy James (eBook on sale December 7, 2021) - enemies-to-lovers vibes between a coffee shop owner and former hockey player, yes please!

Unexpected Goals by Kelly Farmer (eBook on sale November 2, 2021) - rivals turned teammates with an Olympic past, sign me up!

Thank you NetGalley, Carina Press, and the authors for the chance to read these previews.

This was quite a promising sampler!

I look forward to reading these books in its entirety.

All 3 samplers were amazing. Definitely recommend reading this to get an idea if a particular book holds your interest

I enjoyed this sampler! I love sports novels, and especially sports romance novels. Add in queer characters and you've ticked pretty much all my boxes! All three of these novels are ones I'm going to have my eye on when they are released. The one that personally excited me the most was Unexpected Goals, as there are not many sapphic sports novels that I've seen and I love the tension between the two main characters. That being said, the other two look really good too! Can't wait to get my hands on these when they're released!

This was a great sampler that did its work very well, namely left me desperate to read two of the books, and keen to read the third!

UNWRITTEN RULES by KD Casey is one of the books I am now desperate to read. In the first three chapters KD Casey sets up a really compelling narrative voice.in Zach Glasser. He grabbed me from the first page and I am incredibly excited to see how the flashback builds into the present day, and how it will unravel from then on. I also especially enjoyed the kind of quietness and the moments of downtime that this sample was peppered with, where the sport in offseason is seen in a series of repetitive practice punctuated with a strong sense of both solitude and loneliness, and how this contrasted with the concept and portrayal of the team hijinks. 5* for the gorgeous and compelling writing in this extract!

TOO MUCH MAN by Katy James didn't grab me right from the start in the same way. There is that awkward line between grumpiness and arseholeness and both characters at times in the first chapter seemed to teeter a little on that line. However they both won me over by the end, mainly through their relationships with their respective friend/s and especially through Gavin's willingness to apologise and own his behaviour. I am definitely interested in reading this in the future, although not as desperately as the other two. 4* for this opening few chapters!

UNEXPECTED GOALS by Kelly Farmer is my other must read! I'm a sucker for enemies-to-lovers and this ticked all my boxes from the off. I loved the team dynamics and the way it showed how the addition of a new player can affect the existing relationships as well. Both Jen and Maisie captured my attention for all the right reasons, with Farmer's use of POV deftly revealing vulnerabilities and motivations that currently conflict whilst providing the promise of happiness in the future. I was so disappointed when the sample ended, and cannot wait to see their relationship develops in the rest of the book. 5* for this fiery and captivating sample!

These were all so deliciously cute! I can't wait to pick up a copy of the books I sampled. I encourage you all to do the same.

This sampler has me so excited for these upcoming sports romances! All three feature queer characters, and two of them—UNWRITTEN RULES and TWO MUCH MAN—are by debut authors.

UNWRITTEN RULES is a m/m baseball romance about former teammates and exes who reunite at the All-Star Game. I really liked the author's voice in this excerpt and will definitely be checking this book out.

TOO MUCH MAN is a m/f romance with a former hockey player and a cafe owner. I love a story set in a cafe. I also love a grump, and this hero is super grumpy. I'm looking forward to seeing the progression of the romance between Gavin and Piper!

UNEXPECTED GOALS is the second book in Kelly Farmer's "Out on the Ice" series that follows female hockey players. This one is about American and Canadian rivals turned teammates, which is a promising premise and one I've been hoping someone would write. I enjoyed OUT ON THE ICE, so I'm looking forward to this book.

These samplers were great, excited to read the f/f hockey playing novel! I enjoyed these intros to the books, and they definitely gave me a clearer view as to which I will be requesting.

I read the first three chapters of the following books: Unwritten Rules by K.D. Casey, Too Much Man by Katy James, and Unexpected Goals by Kelly Farmer. With the caveat that any of these books could go off the rails at any point after chapter three, I am excited about each of them.

Unwritten Rules by K.D. Casey - Semi-professional baseball players, Zach Glasser and Eugenio Morales were teammates and lovers. Zach wasn't willing to come out, so Eugenio moved to another team and ended the relationship. Now they are on the same all star team. What we see in the first three chapters is from Zach's perspective - arriving at the all star game, realizing Eugenio is his teammate, and then flashing back to when they first met at Spring Training. At the end of the snippet, I felt badly for Zach. He seems lonely and disconnected. Part of the disconnect might be because he wears a hearing aid, but there might be more to it as well. The Eugenio in Zach's memories is charming and wonderful We don't see how their relationship started in the snippet, but I am very invested in seeing Zach fix things with Eugenio, because Eugenio deserves to have a lover who is openly proud of him.

Too Much Man by Katy James - Gavin Williams' life was turned upside down when a serious knee injury ends his pro hockey career. Two months later he is trying to get off prescription pain medication and has just moved into a new house in Philadelphia. On a bad morning, hungover and in pain, he goes to a local coffee shop where bad day meets bad day. Piper Welborn, the coffee shop owner is having a rough morning, and when the big grumpy guy insults her coffee, she meets him grump for grump. By the end of the third chapter, Gavin has apologized to Piper, and I'm interested to see how they go from antagonists to a couple. Piper and her coffee shop are part of the local queer community. I can't wait to read about Gavin being folded into Piper's life and found family.

Unexpected Goals is the second book in Kelly Farmer's f/f hockey series. I read and enjoyed Out on the Ice last year. Maisy Goode and Jen Donato loath each other, and now they are playing on the same team. Through alternating POVs we see how they view each other. By the end of chapter three, I don't particularly like either woman, and I'm interested in seeing how they resolve a fundamental difference to become lovers, and how they win me as a reader. To be clear, I am ok with not finding the protagonists likeable early in the book. To me that means that Farmer has written a dynamic in which both women are partly wrong, and in working through that will build a better relationship and make me love them.