Need more 'Heated Rivalry'? Read these sexy sports romances by Chicago authors

Three weeks before the “Heated Rivalry” sports romance premiered on HBO Max and generated breathless buzz worldwide, K.C. Carmichael published her second novel, “The Kennedy Rule.”

It just so happens to follow two professional male athletes.

Who play on rival hockey teams.

And fall in love.

Unintentionally following the same beats as a hit TV show has yielded a boost in book sales for the Chicago author.

“It has been a wonderful surprise,” said Carmichael, of Austin, who is a former figure skater and self-described “hopeless romantic.”

“My publisher and I knew that ‘The Kennedy Rule’ was special. We knew that it was going to really touch a lot of readers, but thanks to ‘Heated Rivalry,’ it has brought more readers to the book that much faster.”

Based on the “Game Changers” novel series by Rachel Reid, "Heated Rivalry” takes place in Canada, while “The Kennedy Rule” (Storm Publishing) focuses on U.S. players during the Winter Olympics.

There is growing demand for such sports romances, and Chicago, home to several iconic professional teams, is producing an increasing number of authors willing to write them. Novelists are writing everything from hot hockey stories to steamy football fantasies. Enthusiasm is even spilling over into real life, with The Last Chapter Book Shop in Roscoe Village organizing a romance novelist meet-and-greet paired with an outing to a Blackhawks game next month.

“I'm glad that this genre is getting its moment in the sun,” Carmichael said.

Bellwood writer Nicole Falls, who centers Black characters in her books, said fans of the genre enjoy the high stakes involved in both sports and love.

“There are obstacles that you have to surpass for each," said Falls, whose catalog features two sports romance series, "Nymphs & Trojans" and "New Beginnings."

"You're communicating when things are good and bad. The best relationships are based on very good communication.”

A genre pioneer creates a fictional Chicago NFL team

The momentum around sports romance started to build decades ago, according to Phillips, who is recognized as a pioneer of the genre. In 1994, she launched her “Chicago Stars” series, named for a fictional professional football team whose players, coaches and staffers — and the people they love — have fueled 11 books. The latest, “And the Crowd Went Wild" (HarperCollins), was released on Feb. 10. It follows a former Hollywood star and a hotshot quarterback who rekindle their romance in an old railcar in the woods.

Phillips said readers will be drawn in by the “snarky, fun dialogue” and ups and downs of the story.

“I love a book where readers are going to laugh and then they're going to get tears in their eyes,” she said. “We've got two lost people who need each other very much, but they're not going to show it. And we also have a dog. It's always good to have a dog.”

Phillips' readers have also become engaged in the saga of the Chicago Stars. In the books, the author writes them as crosstown rivals of the Chicago Bears.

“My Stars have won either four or five Super Bowls, and the Bears have only won one,” she said. “My Stars are in a bit of a slump right now, but they'll recover. They always do.”

Phillips has been inspiring other writers to create their own sports-based love stories since she published the first "Chicago Stars" novel.

“Within the next few years, I remember seeing a baseball book and another football book, and it just kept progressing,” she said. “In the last 10 years, we've had wrestling and roller derby and a bunch of hockey books long before ‘Heated Rivalry.’ Sports romance has been going strong for a long time.”

Supercharging the queer romance space

But the steamy "Heated Rivalry" series will, no doubt, bolster the market for romance novels, said Jen Prokop, of Hyde Park, who co-hosts the "Fated Mates" romance novel podcast.

“Hopefully it will also supercharge the queer romance space,” she said.

In the past, queer romances in media often ended in death or some other form of tragedy, Prokop said. Bucking that trend is part of why "Heated Rivalry" was so successful.

“Embracing the radical idea that queer people deserve to find happiness and joy and love, and that that can be publicly celebrated, is the story of ‘Heated Rivalry,'" she said.

"It’s also what romance does best. It shows that you don't have to have a perfect life. Society doesn't have to be perfect. But people are going to fall in love and try to create happiness together.”

By writing "The Kennedy Rule" and planning more books in the series, K.C. Carmichael is helping to fill those gaps. She also published another LGBTQ+ romance, "300 New Year's Eves" (Rising Action) in December.

“I used to be a fantasy and dystopian reader, but that got to be really heavy,” Carmichael said. “Eventually romance caught me because it's fun. There's so much more room to play."

Those asking for more diversity in the romance genre include Falls. Her "Nymphs & Trojans" series, co-written with Alexandra Warren, follows characters on fictional WNBA and NBA teams in Nashville. Her "New Beginnings" series focuses on Black women playing baseball, soccer and golf.

Falls said it's important for her to portray Black love in a positive light.

“It is what I want to put on a pedestal, because a lot of media portrays broken images of Black people,” she said. 

And because the romance genre requires writers to pen happy endings, readers find comfort in their stories, Falls said.

“With everything that's happening in the world right now, people are just clinging to a little piece of something positive,” she said. “Sometimes you just need to escape into something that makes you feel good in order to forget everything else.”