I love almost everything Emily Rath writes--the Jacksonville Rays series is so good (and majority poly--the books are MMFM, MF, MMF, MM, and FFM, respectively, with the fourth and fifth yet to be released).
The only hockey romances I’ve really enjoyed are queer ones. Recommend Ari Baran’s books - he has a M/M hockey series with a female NHL player as a recurrent side character
Super interesting dissection of hockey romances and why they're so popular. One of the things that troubles me about BookTok is that it is a very white space, so I'm glad you pointed that out. I recently went to a book signing with Kennedy Ryan and Abby Jiminez who both pointed out that the gains BIPOC authors had been making haven't kept their momentum, particularly in traditional publishing. I wonder if both Target and Barnes & Noble selling books popular on BookTok is part of the reason BIPOC authors are losing ground.
Interesting. She didn't claim to be a BIPOC author herself at the signing, she only commented on the problem. I think she's pretty quiet about her race, although I've read she's part Filipino. If she's white, I'm glad she's using her platform to promote BIPOC authors, and as the mother of biracial children, I imagine it's an important issue for her. But I can see how, by not being upfront about her race, she might be trading on her husband's name to imply she's a BIPOC author herself.
BookTok is definitely driving decreases in diversity - if you look at the Ripped Bodice diversity report, the percent of BIPOC creators at publishers peaked in 2021 or 2022 and dropped in 2023, sometimes dramatically. I’m trying to figure out how to defeat the whiteness of the algorithm - finding diverse content creators and writers and searching them out to follow so I can see them in the follow tab, etc. but it is remarkable how little that changes the content on my FYP.
Lovely post! I really agree the point where sports romance is leaning more towards younger age like collegiate levels . I also wanted to write something about this trend in the sports romance sub-genre. I agree that the sports romance is slightly moving towards Formula 1. Having read the Dirty Air series, it is important to add more depth in this sub-genre.
Rec for a queer sports (baseball) romance that also flips the script: Wild Pitch by Cat Geraldo. FMC gets called up to the majors and he’s the aging catcher (queer = they’re both bisexual).
I love almost everything Emily Rath writes--the Jacksonville Rays series is so good (and majority poly--the books are MMFM, MF, MMF, MM, and FFM, respectively, with the fourth and fifth yet to be released).
The only hockey romances I’ve really enjoyed are queer ones. Recommend Ari Baran’s books - he has a M/M hockey series with a female NHL player as a recurrent side character
ooo thank you, I haven't tried Ari Baran! I love Rachel Reid. I just read her March 2025 release and it was wonderful.
Love Rachel Reid L’s books too! I think you’ll like Ari Baran if you’re a fan of hers.
Super interesting dissection of hockey romances and why they're so popular. One of the things that troubles me about BookTok is that it is a very white space, so I'm glad you pointed that out. I recently went to a book signing with Kennedy Ryan and Abby Jiminez who both pointed out that the gains BIPOC authors had been making haven't kept their momentum, particularly in traditional publishing. I wonder if both Target and Barnes & Noble selling books popular on BookTok is part of the reason BIPOC authors are losing ground.
FYI I’ve been told that Abby Jimenez is white and not a BIPOC author (her husband is Latino).
thanks!
Interesting. She didn't claim to be a BIPOC author herself at the signing, she only commented on the problem. I think she's pretty quiet about her race, although I've read she's part Filipino. If she's white, I'm glad she's using her platform to promote BIPOC authors, and as the mother of biracial children, I imagine it's an important issue for her. But I can see how, by not being upfront about her race, she might be trading on her husband's name to imply she's a BIPOC author herself.
The sense I got was that some feel she’s not correcting the assumption.
BookTok is definitely driving decreases in diversity - if you look at the Ripped Bodice diversity report, the percent of BIPOC creators at publishers peaked in 2021 or 2022 and dropped in 2023, sometimes dramatically. I’m trying to figure out how to defeat the whiteness of the algorithm - finding diverse content creators and writers and searching them out to follow so I can see them in the follow tab, etc. but it is remarkable how little that changes the content on my FYP.
Lovely post! I really agree the point where sports romance is leaning more towards younger age like collegiate levels . I also wanted to write something about this trend in the sports romance sub-genre. I agree that the sports romance is slightly moving towards Formula 1. Having read the Dirty Air series, it is important to add more depth in this sub-genre.
Rec for a queer sports (baseball) romance that also flips the script: Wild Pitch by Cat Geraldo. FMC gets called up to the majors and he’s the aging catcher (queer = they’re both bisexual).