Best HOCKEY M/M Romance Books
Hockey M/M romance books have me in a chokehold lately.
More and more hockey books are dropping each month, and I cannot get enough.
At this point, if a hockey M/M romance book has been released, I have probably read it.
So, to help narrow the field for you, I am going to share my absolute favorites.
These will be the absolute best hockey M/M romance books out there.
Let me know in the comments below if you think there is one that I missed!
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Best Hockey M/M Romance Books of All Time
Jamie Canning has never been able to figure out how he lost his closest friend. Four years ago, his tattooed, wise-cracking, rule-breaking roommate cut him off without an explanation. So what if things got a little weird on the last night of hockey camp the summer they were eighteen? It was just a little drunken foolishness. Nobody died.
Ryan Wesley’s biggest regret is coaxing his very straight friend into a bet that pushed the boundaries of their relationship. Now, with their college teams set to face off at the national championship, he’ll finally get a chance to apologize. But all it takes is one look at his longtime crush, and the ache is stronger than ever.
Jamie has waited a long time for answers, but walks away with only more questions—can one night of sex ruin a friendship? If not, how about six more weeks of it? When Wesley turns up to coach alongside Jamie for one more hot summer at camp, Jamie has a few things to discover about his old friend…and a big one to learn about himself.
You can’t be surprised to see this at the top of my list.
Him by Sarina Bowen and Elle Kennedy is one of the most popular M/M romances out there, and for good reason!
This spicy, friends-to-lovers book gets an easy five stars from me. Wes and Jamie will always be one of my favorite couples of all time.
The entire Him series is something that you do not want to miss!
Ishir is happy when his best friend Zane is traded to his team, the Brooklyn Cats. Why wouldn’t he be? They’ve known each other since they were kids. Zane was the first person he came out to as gay—an Alpha who’s attracted to other Alphas. Zane has been there for him every step of the way.
Oh, and Ishir is madly in love with him.
Ishir isn’t going to make it a problem, though. Sure, they’re living together, so he has to see Zane strut around shirtless. And, okay, Zane knows about Ishir’s weird little superstition—
Ishir can only come when he scores a goal. It’s his thing, okay?
But when Zane starts involving himself in who Ishir can sleep with…in how he gets himself off…well, things start getting a little more complicated.
Zane likes to tell him what to do, and Ishir likes listening.
They’re just best friends, though. Nothing more.
Ishir is just going to have to accept that…or break his heart trying.
Overtime is a little wild, but in all the best ways.
Yes, this is an omegaverse romance. However, the magician that is Marina Vivancos has made Overtime read as if omegaverse is the norm in reality. Never once while reading this book did the omegaverse aspects come across as cheesy or off-putting. She is so freaking good.
Zane and Ishir really bring the heat together in this best friends-to-lovers romance. Their brand of foreplay is a little outside of the norm, but it’s also ridiculously hot.
There isn’t a whole lot of on-screen hockey that takes place in Overtime. The character development is definitely the focus over hockey, but I think it works really well here. This might be a great pick if you don’t feel like spending half a book reading about the biscuit finding the back of the net.
The entire Alpha Omega Hockey series is worth a read, but Overtime is on another level entirely.
A freak accident during the Stanley Cup Playoffs put an end to Max Ashford’s hockey career. Despite everything, Max gets back into the game he loves—only this time, behind the bench as an assistant coach of the Spartanburg Spitfires, the worst team in the entire league. But nothing prepares him for the shock when he learns the new head coach is Misha Samarin, the man who caused Max’s accident.
After spending years guilt ridden for his part in Max’s accident, Russian native Misha Samarin has no idea what to do when he’s confronted with Max’s presence. Max’s optimism plays havoc with Misha’s equilibrium—as does the fierce attraction that springs up between them.
Not only must they navigate Misha’s remorse and a past he’s spent a lifetime trying to forget, but also a sleazy GM who is determined to use their history as a marketing hook. But when an unwelcome visitor targets a player, Misha revisits his darkest days, and that might cost him and Max the beginning they’ve worked so hard to build.
Power Play is such a good book!
I love Misha so much. He is a brooding, grumpy Russian with a huge amount of guilt weighing him down.
The entire time you read, you can’t help but be incredibly invested in Misha’s happiness. That fact that it comes in the form of Max Ashford, a ridiculously kind man whose career he ended, just adds to the complexity and depth of this story.
These two have the perfect dynamic in this grumpy/sunshine, hurt/comfort romance.
The Scoring Chances series by Avon Gale is hugely underrated. I just don’t see it getting the appreciation I think it deserves. I love every single book in this series.
Bryce:
Hockey is my life. This game pulled me from my tiny Quebec hometown all the way to the NHL, and now? I’m the number one player in the league. Team capitane for the Montréal Étoiles. I’m shattering records and packing arenas every night, and I’ve promised my team: we’re going to win the Stanley Cup this year.
But I’m keeping big secrets. I’m thinking dangerous thoughts, and dreaming about impossible things. Like how a man’s lips might taste, or how his body might feel in my arms.
I can’t go there. I’ve got to focus. Team. Hockey. Cup. What my heart wants doesn’t matter.
So why am I falling head over heels at the NHL’s All-Star Weekend?
I can’t do this. I can’t fall for Hunter Lacey. He’s a hockey player. We’re both in the NHL. He’s on a different team. And, oh yeah, he’s straight.
Hunter:
I’m a middle-of-the-road, nothing-special hockey player. Good enough to be drafted into the NHL, and I’ve been on the roster for the past two years, but I’ll never make the Hall of Fame. I’m just trying to keep my head up and get through each day, until this wild ride comes to an end.
Deep thinking isn’t really my thing. Look inside myself? Lotta beer and burgers there.
I never thought I’d be invited to the All-Star Weekend, but here I am. And there’s my hero: Bryce Michel, league superstar.
Saying hello to Bryce turns into hours spent together on the ice, and then an invite to dinner, and then days at each other’s side. I’m in heaven. He’s my hero, and this is the coolest—
Then Bryce’s lips land on mine, and the world turns upside down.
Tal Bauer wrote what might be my favorite book ever, You & Me. So, when I saw that he was jumping on the M/M hockey romance bandwagon, I immediately grabbed this book.
Luckily, I was not disappointed!
This story has friends to lovers, bi awakenings, and a Québécois hockey capitane. So, basically the whole package.
The chemistry between Bryce and Hunter is so hot. Make sure that you check this one out!
Mike knew he was making a mistake when he let the rookie climb into bed with him. He just didn’t know it’d be a mistake that would follow him for the rest of his life.
Thrown Off the Ice has a lot working against it.
Between the cover, the hints at major character death, and the shortest summary known to man you may be tempted to pass on reading this book. But, that would be a huge mistake.
Mike and Liam are everything together. The age gap and the grumpy/sunshine and the ‘rough hockey’ work together to produce one seriously fantastic book.
Thrown Off the Ice is so much more than a hockey book. This is a book that will change your life. You will think about it so long after turning the last page. I feel lucky to have ever had the chance to read it.
Also, you can read any other book by Taylor Fitzpatrick and it will probably also be amazing and about hockey.
Adam Caron has everything he could want. A brand-new contract with an NHL team, a nice apartment, the life he’s dreamed about since he was a little boy. He has everything, except the name of the man he shared a drunken, blistering hot night with. Etienne Brideau can’t stop thinking about the night he spent with Adam, but he knows better than to think Adam will want him sober. People don’t fall in love with gawky, rawboned, awkward Etienne, especially not men like Adam Caron, rising hockey star, with his stunning good looks and charismatic personality.
When Adam gets back in contact with him, Etienne doesn’t let himself hope that they’ll ever be more than friends. But the more entangled he becomes in Adam’s life, the more he can’t imagine letting him go, and when an injury threatens Adam’s career, Etienne knows he’s in too deep to walk away. But Adam has secrets of his own, and more than just their life as a couple may be at stake.
Blindside Hit really works for me.
I love Etienne so much. Someone has to, because it certainly won’t be him.
Etienne is so confused why someone as handsome, successful, and kind as Adam would ever want anything to do with him.
It breaks your heart, but it also makes you want to follow Etienne’s story to cheer for him as he finds love.
Adam is just the guy to convince Etienne he is worthy of being loved.
This is a great start to the M/M hockey world that Tierney Rose is building.
Elliot Cowell spent his entire life training to become a superstar. A prodigy on the ice, likely the future captain of his team, there’s no room for mistakes when it comes to Elliot’s career, but knowing all that didn’t keep him from falling in love with Blake Samuels.
When they break up the day before they’re drafted, they go their separate ways and even though they both knew that they weren’t meant to last, forgetting each other is the hardest thing they’ve ever had to do. While they drift further and further apart, their paths keep crossing on and off the ice and both Elliot and Blake have to admit to themselves that they aren’t as done with each other as they’re pretending to be.
This is such a sweet second chance romance.
Elliot and Blake work so hard to not need each other, but they just can’t fight the pull.
This is about as slow burn of a book as they come, and often it’s sad, but the hard fought love story here is well worth your time.
Ollie
Word of advice: don’t come out to random guys in public restrooms. Even if they’re charming and adorably nerdy and offer to help.
My family believe I can’t be happy if I’m not out to the world. I have a bitter ex-boyfriend and an unstable NHL career to show for it. A fake boyfriend seems like an easy and quick solution to get my family off my back, and this guy is volunteering. I take him up on it without asking his name.
I really should’ve asked for his name.
Lennon
Word of advice: learn how to introduce yourself properly. In my defense, I don’t recognize Ollie Strömberg right away. I cover football, not hockey. I’m not supposed to see him again, and he’s never supposed to find out I’m a reporter. That all changes when my editor reassigns me.
It’s a lesson I should’ve learned by now. Nothing’s changed since high school. Jocks still hate nerds. But even worse, athletes hate journalists. Especially ones who know their secret.
Deke is a part of the ridiculously popular (but for good reason) Fake Boyfriend series from Eden Finley.
This is book three in the series, but the first hockey centric story.
I recommend the entire series, but you could probably read Deke as a stand alone without too much trouble. I am not traditionally the biggest fan of the fake relationship trope, but this book (the whole series, really) does it so well.
Ollie’s family is so funny and full of great characters. Lennon is sweet and likeable. You can’t help but read this book with a smile on your face.
JACOBS: For the last three years, I’ve lived and breathed hockey with one goal: team captain. There’s only one thing standing in my way. TJ Beckett. Beck is irresponsible and immature, and I’ve hated him since the moment we met freshman year. Yet, the coaches see something in him I obviously can’t, and they refuse to choose between us. The captain spot is going to a team vote. And the team thinks that what we need are a bunch of challenges to prove our worth. Challenges that have nothing to do with hockey. Challenges that are throwing me and Beck together. And he’s still as infuriating as ever.
BECK: I have no idea why Christopher Jacobs hates me, and I can’t say I care. I like pushing his buttons, but the guy needs to loosen up. I’m going to win these stupid challenges easily and spend my senior year as hockey king on this campus. Tormenting Jacobs at the same time will just be a bonus. Even if I’m getting confusing feelings toward him, I won’t let it hold me back. When it comes to competing, I’m all in, and nothing will get between me and the W.
Speaking of Eden Finley…
Face Offs & Cheap Shots is not the first book in the CU Hockey series by Eden Finley and Saxon James, but it is by far my favorite.
This is enemies to lovers done perfectly. The chemistry between Beck and Jacobs is the only thing more powerful than their animosity.
These two playing gay chicken as a part of a competition to see who should be the captain of their hockey team falls just on the right side of ridiculous. (This makes sense coming from Saxon James, the author of the Frat Wars series. The vibes there are so similar to this book.)
Beck and Jacobs stay true to character throughout the story. The end of this book is perfection. I love where we leave these two.
Nothing interferes with pro hockey star Shane Hollander’s game.
Now that he’s captain of the Montreal Voyageurs, he won’t let anything jeopardize that—definitely not the sexy rival he loves to hate.
Boston Bears captain Ilya Rozanov is everything Shane’s not. The self-proclaimed king of the ice, he’s as cocky as he is talented. No one can beat him—except Shane. Publicly, they’re enemies. Privately, they can’t stop touching each other.
The smart thing to do? Walk away, once a few secret hookups turn into a struggle to keep their relationship out of the press. The truth could ruin them both. But for Shane and Ilya, secrecy is soon no longer an option…
Heated Rivalry is the second book in the Game Changers series by Rachel Reid and one of the most popular M/M romance books in existence. But it is 100% worth the hype.
Shane and Ilya are easily one of my all time favorite couples. Apparently I am a sucker for grumpy Russians and earnest do-gooders falling in love. (See Power Play above.)
The sequel to Heated Rivalry, The Long Game, is technically book six in the series, but you could just read these two books from the series and be happy as pie.
In fact, for as amazing as Shane and Ilya’s two books are, the rest of the series is kind of a bummer. The one exception is that I do highly recommend book five, Role Model. It too can easily be read as a stand alone.
My path to success never included an enemy as a teammate, especially one as infuriating as Quinton de Haas.
Clawing under my skin is his favorite pastime, only feeding the animosity between us as the years pass.
We’re as completely opposite as two people can be; the golden boy and the black sheep.
Constantly at odds or at each other’s throats.
The only thing we can agree on is hockey is our true love, and we’ll do whatever it takes to come out on top.
I never imagined that drive would lead me to do the unthinkable: falling into bed with my not-so-straight rival.
But athletes are a superstitious bunch, and when our hook-ups lead to victories, we tell ourselves we can’t stop.
Besides, it’s all for the sake of the team, right?
Oak and Quinn are quintessential enemies to lovers.
The animosity they have for each other combusts into one of the steamiest reads on this list. I love the idea that good old fashion hockey superstition is what initially forces them together.
The rest of the Leighton U series is not hocky based, but it is definitely worth a read.
You can check out my review of the second book in the series Caught Stealing, another M/M sports romance, here.
My name is Hudson Newgate, but my teammates call me New Guy.
That was my nickname in Chicago, too. And Vancouver. That’s what happens when you keep getting traded. Brooklyn is my last chance, especially after my poor performance last season.
But I can make this work. The new guy knows to keep his head down and shoot the puck. The new guy puts the game first.
What he doesn’t do is hook up with the other new guy—a hot athletic trainer who lives in my building. Gavin needs this job with my team. He’s a single dad with responsibilities.
We can’t be a couple. My arrogant agent–who’s also my father–will lose his mind if I’m dating a dude. And my team needs me to score goals, not whip up a media circus.
Too bad Gavin and I are terrible at resisting each other…
The New Guy is a sweet read.
It is much more serious than a lot of Sarina Bowen’s books, but it still brings the same feels.
This book is one of the few times where my favorite MC was not the hockey player. Gavin really had my heart here. He cares so much about his daughter and his job. He is an absolute professional. I loved hearing about his competence as an athletic trainer.
Hockey is Gabe Martin’s life. Dante Baltierra just wants to have some fun on his way to the Hockey Hall of Fame. Falling for a teammate isn’t in either game plan.
But plans change.
When Gabe gets outed, it turns his careful life upside-down. The chaos messes with his game and sends his team headlong into a losing streak. The last person he expects to pull him through it is Dante.
This season isn’t going the way Dante thought it would. Gabe’s sexuality doesn’t faze him, but his own does. Dante’s always been a “what you see is what you get” kind of guy, and having to hide his attraction to Gabe sucks. But so does losing, and his teammate needs him, so he puts in the effort to snap Gabe out of his funk.
He doesn’t mean to fall in love with the guy.
Getting involved with a teammate is a bad idea, but Dante is shameless, funny, and brilliant at hockey. Gabe can’t resist. Unfortunately, he struggles to share part of himself that he’s hidden for years, and Dante chafes at hiding their relationship. Can they find their feet before the ice slips out from under them?
Winging It is the first book in the hot, hilarious, heartfelt Hockey Ever After series. If you like witty banter, friends to lovers, and sports romance, you’ll love Winging It.
Winging It is hilarious. I laughed out loud many times while reading it.
Dante (A.K.A. Baller) is such a great character. I loved that this book, while being about a man who is outed, is relatively low angst.
This book is a part of the Hockey Ever After series. What I enjoy about this whole series is that it really has a lot of hockey content. These aren’t romance books where the characters happen to play hockey. These are hockey forward books with tons of believable detail.
EZRA
Partying, dudes, and hockey. What more could a gay NHL player want? If it weren’t for Anton Hayes, my life would be perfect. Not that he affects my life in any way. At all. That would imply I care what the winger from Philly thinks of me. Which I don’t.
Not even a one-night stand with him can thaw his misplaced animosity toward me. He says I’m the one with the ego, but he can talk. He rivals me for most egotistical puck boy in the league. I hate him as much as he hates me. Even if I crave a repeat.
ANTON
When it comes to hockey, I’m all about the game. I’ve worked for years to be one of the best in the league, and l’ve done it without splashing my orientation all over the tabloids. My hockey image is one I’ve carefully cultivated, and after one night with Ezra Palaszczuk, I risk it all.
He’s cocky, obnoxious, and has an ego bigger than Massachusetts. And okay, maybe he’s the sexiest man I’ve ever known. We’ll never get along. Not when we sleep together. Not even when my possessive streak awakens. That doesn’t stop us from falling into bed together over and over again.
Egotistical Puckboy is another hockey romance from the dynamic duo of Eden Finley and Saxon James.
I really like Ezra and Anton together. They are the perfect example of opposites attracting. I loved how these two rivals were forced to be teammates and figure out how to play nice.
This is the first book in the ongoing Puckboys series., but many others are amazing as well. Check them out!
Hey, I’m Heather!
I read M/M romance books exclusively, and I help other readers find their next great M/M romance read.
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