Sports and romance may seem like an unlikely pair, but for these authors, the playing field is the perfect place for passion and ambition. In this exclusive interview, we sit down with three writers who have mastered the art of the ever-growing sports romance. From locker room banter to life-changing victories, they share how they balance competitive energy with connection, what inspires their characters, and why love stories set in the world of sports continue to captivate readers everywhere.
The Authors
Madge Maril
Madge Maril is a writer and Byronic hero enthusiast whose work has been published by Harper’s Bazaar, Cosmopolitan, and more. Previously a beauty and fashion journalist, Madge fell back in love with fiction through fandom and has been writing stories about big feelings ever since. She lives in Ohio with her husband and cat. Her debut novel, Slipstream, is out now.
Emily Rath
Emily Rath is a New York Times, USA Today, and #1 Amazon bestselling author of romance and fantasy. Her books include the Second Sons Regency romance series, the Finnish mythology-inspired Tuonela fantasy duet, and the Jacksonville Rays hockey romance series. Emily started her career as an indie author, self-publishing books with little more than a hope and prayer. Now, on Amazon alone, she’s had over 600 million pages read of her books. Her works have been translated into twelve languages and counting.
Ellie K. Wilde
Ellie K. Wilde is a Canadian writer of contemporary romance and romantic comedies that make you laugh, swoon… and maybe require a cold shower or two to recover. She enjoys writing stories with dirty-mouthed cinnamon roll heroes and the fiery women who bring them to their knees. When she’s not daydreaming about her next book, you’ll find her devouring other romance novels, bingeing reality TV, and snuggling with fur babies.
The Questions
What initially inspired you to write sports romance, and how has your craft evolved with each new story you write?
Madge: The inspiration to write a sports romance struck at a football game, which probably isn’t that much of a surprise! Real-world sports offer built-in narratives, character-driven stories from the athletes, and excellent pacing for us writers. Each season can act as a container, and there’s always a big game at the end, or a championship to beat, or a seat to win back on a team if you’re writing about Formula 1 like I am. Really, writing sports romance has already made me a better writer; choosing between which parts of the sport to show or tell, learning how to weave together the action of racing with the romance plot.
Emily: I first got inspired to write a sports romance because I was reading so much of it! During the pandemic was the first time I got a Kindle and enrolled in KU. I found so many amazing hockey romance series that I could binge-read while working on my own projects. At the time, I was writing mostly fantasy, and something about the interconnected standalone hockey series I was reading kept pulling my interest. I thought, “How fun would it be to write something like this, with a huge cast of characters and all these interconnected stories within the same universe?” I put it on the back burner for a while, just letting it mull, waiting for the right idea to hit me.
It was when I started getting active on TikTok that I saw how intense hockey romance readers were about promoting their favorite books. As an independent author (at the time), having a rabid cohort of readers ready to help you promote a book was golden. I felt like this was my chance! I got the idea for book one in my Jacksonville Rays hockey romance series, and I haven’t looked back.
And I’d say my craft has improved tremendously. With each new book I write, each new set of characters I explore, I get better. My storytelling feels cleaner, the plots feel tighter, and the stakes feel higher. It’s always a compliment to me when readers breeze through the four books in the hockey series and say things like, “Is it just me, or do these just keep getting better?” I really think it’s true. I think the Jax Rays series is this fun kind of time capsule project showing the evolution of my craft.
Ellie: If you’re in my house any time from September to February, you’re pretty much guaranteed to find football on TV, between the NFL and college games (you’ll also catch the MLB playoffs and a sprinkle of NBA and NHL games). My mind definitely starts to wander after a while of watching games, as it tends to do as a writer. I’d find myself wondering about these players and coaches, what their lives and relationships might be like, and drew inspiration from this daydreaming for my Oakwood Bay series, which features a college football coach in Only in Your Dreams, an NFL player fighting to make a comeback in Only Between Us, and a female competitive surfer in If Only You Knew.
Every book explores a different aspect of sports, from coaching to playing within a team to individual competition, which keeps things fun and fresh!
Sports romance is unique as it blends the adrenaline of the game with deep emotional arcs. How do you balance the intensity of the sport with the growth of the central romantic relationships?
Madge: Since Slipstream is about a documentarian filming a movie about a Formula 1 driver, I felt like the first time she recorded him racing would have to hit or nothing would work. I tried to give that chapter a larger-than-life feeling, and space around it that magnified its importance. After that, each subsequent race was given less space, (hopefully) showing the shift between viewing him as an intriguing film subject to viewing him as a potential life partner. Eventually, there’s even a race where she forgets to film something important because she’s so wrapped up in the moment.
Emily: I’ve always seen myself as more of a fantasy writer. Fantasy was my first love, and the first seven books I wrote were all fantasies. I think I sort of took a fantasy mindset to my hockey romances. I don’t think mine reads like a typical 80,000-word contemporary sports romance. My stories are these sweeping epics with all the action and adventure of a cinematic fantasy series. I love going deep into character with my books, showing rich arcs of self-growth and toe-curling romance. As a ‘why choose’ author, the length of my books simply has to be longer. I’m telling richer stories with more characters, more arcs, and there’s more romance plots to weave.
I do my best to balance all this with the hockey, but a lot of times, the balance is determined by the needs of the plot. For example, book one of my series, PUCKING AROUND, features four characters who all work for an NHL team. They meet at work, fall in love at work, and build their separate relationships largely at work. So, in book one, we get a LOT of hockey. On and off the ice. But book two, PUCKING WILD, features a hockey player and a non-profit coordinator. And one of the first actions that happens in the book is that he gets injured on the ice. So the plot of the book is largely him dealing with injury recovery. There’s necessarily less hockey in that book. I think the balance makes sense so long as it’s relevant to the plot.
Ellie: At its core, sports romances are romances, which means that the growing relationship between the two leads is always central to the story. In my books, every game, training session, success, and failure within a coach or athlete’s story impacts the romantic arc in some way — as it would in real life. How does a bad game or surf event bleed into their relationship when they arrive home? How would an injury affect their home life? How would they celebrate a big win with their loved one?
Our careers rarely operate in complete isolation from our personal lives, and I love to represent this impact in my stories. It makes every arc and relationship that much more realistic!
Writing often requires deep research to ensure accuracy. How do you ensure authenticity when writing about the athletic world? Can you share any memorable research experiences?
Madge: Going to my first Formula 1 grand prix was by far the most memorable (and delightful) research. It really is similar to what we see on TV, though it was fascinating to spot the little background details that aren’t shown.
Emily: Here’s where I can thank YouTube… and the NHL. Many of the teams have prolific caches of videos that offer hockey lovers deep dives into the behind-the-scenes of travel and game days. I watched hours of footage from equipment managers, team doctors, recruiters, and chefs. And I watched hours and hours of gameplay. All this content was golden for me to feel like I could step off the ice and behind the scenes to get a feel for what the hockey world is really like.
I also had a ton of fun supporting my local minor league hockey team, the Jacksonville Icemen. I went to a ton of games in person and took note of everything — the concessions, the feel of being in the stands, the sounds and smells. I was able to bring all that to the scenes to make them feel more cinematic and real.
One of my favorite experiences was doing an Instagram live session with a former professional goalie-turned-coach. He was so incredibly generous with his time, and I got to ask a ton of questions. My readers asked insightful questions, too, and I got to really feel like I was able to appreciate hockey as a lifestyle and a true science, not just a sport.
But do I take some liberties? Of course. You have to sometimes to tell a good story. For example, I got a lot of pushback from people in the hockey world for letting my team doctor sit next to the goalie on the plane. They were like, “That would never happen!!!” But little things like that? You just have to let go. How else was I going to get a little forced proximity between my characters if I didn’t put her next to him on the plane?
Ellie: A TON of research, and the method will depend on the sport I’m writing about. Football is constantly on at home, and my football-loving husband, who played the sport all the way through university, was often a sounding board for game play accuracy.
I also spent several weeks deep in research about surfing, studying basic body mechanics, learning how to read waves, and watching competition footage from past World Surf League events. Social media was an absolute goldmine, too. Tons of surfers will hit the water with a wearable camera and post the footage online, which was incredibly helpful in being able to write a surf session through my character’s eyes.
In what ways do your characters’ identities — be their gender, cultural, or otherwise — influence their relationships, goals, emotional journeys, or the sport they play?
Madge: That’s such a great question. The book’s hero, Arthur Bianco, was born to an F1 family. To him, his identity is intertwined with racing, and the culture’s attitudes and expression of masculinity: winning is everything, always put racing first, hide your emotions so you don’t end up in the press or kicked off a team. Lilah, the documentarian, is shaped more by what her small-town birth family didn’t embrace; she’s queer, she has ADHD, and she’s really passionate about film and art. They’re kind of two sides of the same coin — both of them want to be seen and accepted, Arthur for who he is outside of racing and Lilah for who she is because of documentaries.
Emily: My gosh — can I say in all ways, haha! The identity of my characters influences them in all ways. I try to let each of my characters live and breathe on the page as full characters with their own arcs, goals, dreams, and struggles. No character in one of my romances exists merely to move the romance plot of another character. I want them to each stand on their own as people before romance ever enters the equation. So yes, their rich and layered identities absolutely inform their relationships, goals, and the sports they play.
For example, Ilmari in PUCKING AROUND is a Finnish man who comes from the heart of Finnish hockey culture. He was raised on the ice. And he feels this enormous pressure to be selected for the Finnish National Team, representing them at the next Winter Olympics. The only problem is that he’s injured and hiding it. So his need to be chosen leads him to make choices that compromise his medical health and his future as a hockey player. I’m able to weave in real drama from the hockey world, especially this pressure to perform, no matter the cost. I watched countless hours of footage of NHL players recounting their many injuries, like it was a badge of honor to play through the pain — broken fingers, broken toes, missing teeth, head trauma, lacerations. Nothing could stop them. In some cases, playing through the pain and not letting themselves heal ended their careers early. That was real pressure I could bring to Ilmari’s story. And in walks Rachel Price, this doctor he doesn’t know and doesn’t trust, who sees through him, sees the injury, and dares to help on his terms.
Ellie: My goal is always to write deeply relatable and realistic characters. The same way that our own real-life experiences, cultures, and traumas bleed into how we navigate our relationships and careers, every character arc in my stories is impacted by these factors. No two characters will ever make the same decision within a story, because of that, be it on their paths to making a comeback to the NFL or competitive surfing, or putting their hearts on the line in a new romantic relationship.
Sports romance often resonates with readers because it taps into universal themes like passion, perseverance, and growth. What do you hope readers take away from your stories beyond the romance?
Madge: Right after I finished Slipstream’s first draft, I had a pretty freaky knee accident that required surgery and months of physical therapy. My orthopedic surgeon was an old-school football guy, same with my physical therapist, and there were moments where they had to give me those “you can’t let this beat you” speeches. Hope like that can fuel you physically. It gets you through the worst hours. Learning that first-hand changed how I wrote Arthur, and made hope the driving force in Slipstream: hope to win, hope to overcome your past, hope to connect with others, hope for a love worthy of a big Hollywood movie.
Emily: As a queer person writing queer love stories in a professional hockey setting, the one theme that resonates across my series is: LOVE IS LOVE. That’s it. Pretty simple. Just let people love who they want to love, how they want to love them.
And I want the hockey world to feel like a safer and more inclusive space. According to statistics, almost 10% of U.S. adults now identify as LGBTQIA+. Do you know how many players are out in the NHL today? Zero. Luke Prokop was the first player to come out as gay in NHL history, and that was only back in 2021. At this point, the anti-queer sentiment is so strong that, across the NHL, players can’t even wrap their sticks with rainbow tape. The League cancelled all “theme nights” because of the backlash from a few teams’ Pride Nights.
In a country where queer people are under attack by the government at the state and federal levels, we deserve to find safety, community, and support in our hobbies. The real NHL can’t be that safe space for queer people. So I’m working hard to make my fictional version of the NHL a place where all readers (and lovers of hockey) feel loved, welcome, and accepted.
Ellie: At the core of my stories are balanced, healthy relationships where each character’s goals and aspirations are loudly supported by their partner. That’s what I hope is taken away from any of my books — that the strongest romantic relationships are really partnerships, where personal autonomy is celebrated, sacrifices are made for the good of your loved one, and goals are a team effort, no matter what they are.
Bonus Questions
What book or author have you been obsessed with lately, and think the world needs to know about?
Madge: I’m currently rereading Alexis Daria’s Primas of Power series, and if you haven’t hopped on the wave yet — get into it. So romantic, so fun, so empowering!
Emily: Oooo, okay, so I was really lucky to get an early proof copy of a new romantasy book from a debut author. She’s a friend of mine and her book comes out next year. The book is called Steelborn and the author is Taylor Larue. Coming next summer! Add it to your TBRs.
And if you’re looking for a fun, spooky read for right now, check out another Laroux. This time, Harley Laroux and their amazing sapphic gothic horror, House of Reyne. It’s sooo steamy, spooky, and delicious!
Ellie: Speaking of sports romances, I read The Jock by Tal Bauer several months ago, and it’s still stuck in my head. It’s a beautiful (and heartbreaking) story that perfectly weaves those themes of perseverance and passion with the romance, and how a sport can so deeply impact an athlete and their partner’s lives.
If your stories had a signature drink (cocktail or mocktail), what would it be called and why?
Madge: Slipstream’s signature cocktail would probably be a non-alcoholic Shoey… or a Kentucky mule, also served in a shoe.
Emily: I actually play around with drinks a lot in my stories, both alcoholic and nonalcoholic. I like giving my characters a signature drink. Rachel Price from PUCKING AROUND likes a good old-fashioned. Teddy from PUCKING STRONG has an insane coffee order he calls “an orgasm in a cup.” And Tess can usually be found holding a glass of wine.
I tend to slow-sip wine whenever I do late-night writing/editing sessions, and I’ll often go live to sit and chat with readers. They know I love a good chilled chardonnay.
Ellie: It would be the Sweetly Spicy, balancing softness and heat the way my stories do.
These authors shared incredible insight into what makes sports romance so fun to write — and so easy to fall in love with. We hope their advice and behind-the-scenes insights inspired you to pick up your next favorite read. Huge thanks to Madge Maril, Emily Rath, and Ellie K. Wilde for sitting down with us and being a part of this interview!
Find Madge Maril here.
Find Emily Rath here.
Find Ellie K. Wilde here.
Check out our article on these fall romance novels set in bookstores for more cozy reads.
Check out our bookshelf for more contemporary romances on Bookshop.
