Bench Press review
Bench Press makes it easy to choose a sports romance by the relationship you want to read about. Its book list has links for tropes such as fake relationships, and the individual pages get more specific about the couple, the sport and the story’s difficult subjects.
Pick the relationship before the next book in the series
“Sharp Edges” pairs a hockey player with the team’s equipment manager. Its page lists slow burn and forced proximity. “Hockey Royalty” brings a player into conflict with the woman who runs a youth hockey programme at his team’s borrowed rink. Both belong to Olivia North’s Fresh Ice series. On her own site, North describes the books as standalone stories in the same team’s world, so I’d choose the couple that interests me first. Harper Robson’s hockey romance catalogue gives you another team to look at when you’ve settled on the sport.
Read below the blurb before buying
The “Sharp Edges” page has a separate content-warning line that includes chronic pain and animal injury. It also offers a book-club reading guide and links to booksellers. I’d read the warnings before choosing it for a group, then use the seller’s listing to check the format I wanted.
Anabel’s take
I’d look at “Sharp Edges” first. I’m interested in how a player and someone working around the team handle the same sport from different positions. I’d keep “Hockey Royalty” for the day I wanted the fake-relationship setup. That distinction tells me more about what to pick than the book number.