#kd casey

[queer-book-character-tournament]

Characters, book, and author names under the cut

Viv/Tandri - Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree

Jean Moreau/Jeremy Knox - The Sunshine Court by Nora Sakavic 

Sally-Anne/Sez - Beanstalk by E Jade Lomax

Christine Braxton/Stephanie - Fire Season by KD Casey

[lgbtqreads]

Fave Five: Softball/Baseball Romances

Playing for Keeps by Jennifer Dugan (f/f YA) The Prospects by KT Hoffman (m/m) Unwritten Rules by KD Casey (m/m series) Heart of the Game by Rachel Spangler (f/f) You Should Be So Lucky by Cat Sebastian (m/m Histrom) Bonus: These are all prose novels, but for a graphic novel series, check out Grand Slam Romance by Ollie Hicks and Emma Oosterhouse (f/f))

[notlayingroses]

honestly the one of the things that makes me the most sad about this hockey romance / booktok drama is that now so many hockey fans have a negative impression of hockey romances and sports romances. There are so, so many wonderful, queer romances out there that are doing wonderful, nuanced, and intentional things within the sports romance genre, and I hate that now people are looking down on them.

Here's some reasons that I love sports romances:

It’s a celebrity romance, but more of a niche celebrity romance. This isn’t a Hollywood super star that everyone in the world knows their name, BUT they often do have a dedicated fan base and are still in the public eye. It brings up really interesting discussions of fame and power and how much of yourself you keep private. So you get a lot of the good celebrity romance tropes and settings (like secret relationship, having to do interviews, traveling to new cities) but on a more niche and interesting scale

And bouncing off of that, with queer sports romances you get a lot of really interesting discussions of coming out, how you present your queerness to the world, how much of yourself is “owed” to the people around you vs yourself, which is very interesting when explored through a sports culture lense and I really enjoy the discussions of queer identity, culture, and community that come out of it. And particularly if it a romance between two players, there's a lot of really interesting queer nuances to explore

There are so many different pairings that can happen, but most of them kind of boil down to player/player, player/sports professional, player/normie, and each of these dynamics are interesting to me every time, especially when exploring teammate dynamics! And exploring how fame affects each of these things!

Found family! Your team is your family! And everyone has silly nicknames and rituals with each other and it makes me feel warm and fuzzy

With every romance, you pretty much know that it’s gonna end with a Happily Ever After, which is why we love the genre. But sometimes that can take the “surprise” out of a romance and its structure. Within sports romances, you don’t know how the game is going to go! They could win! They could lose! That affects the characters either way! And there’s been several sports romances that had me on the edge of my seat cause I genuinely had no idea which way the championship game was gonna go! I like that extra plot element to keep things interesting 

I also like it when you can tell the author is a big fan of their sport, and even if EYE don’t know anything about the sport, they’re generally good at writing things in a makes sense and makes the action interesting and keeps me hooked. It’s also just nice to step into the world the author loves!

Genuinely I just think that queer sports romances are doing so many interesting things, and have such interesting niches and nuances to the stories they’re telling! And they should not be looked down upon by hockey fans OR romance fans who have witnessed this booktok drama go down and now don’t want to touch hockey romances with a ten foot pole.

Here are some of the queer sports romances I recommend for anyone who wants to get into the genre:

[poisindonottouch]

Queer reads: KD Casey

For day 28: To round out the romance section, and the month of queer reads, I bring you the subcategory of Gay Sports Romances. I think I picked up KD Casey because Cat Sebastian recommended Diamond Ring on instagram, and that was it for my and this rabbit hole. 

So, first off, I must state that I do not care for sports. Like, I don’t hate them, because that’d be way more feelings toward a thing I do not care about. But for any given sport event happening on the TV, I’d rather be in the other room reading a book. Ironically, it might be a sports romance.

KD Casey does not hate sports. In fact, they care about them greatly. All the baseball fanning, all the baseball knowledge. When I explained my new-found interest in sport romance novels to my coworkers (all of us high school English teachers), one of them said, “Oh, so you read sport romances like it’s sci fi.” To which, yes, except I know way more about space ships in the far flung future (or a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away) than I do about baseball. 

But these were fun. The series actually is called Unwritten Rules, and it starts with Unwritten Rules, but I think I read them Fire Season, Unwritten Rules, Diamond Ring, which is 2, 1, 3? Anyway, there’s some flashback stuff going on, so it wasn’t too far off. There’s lots of sporting happening in these books, but also very gorgeous men with lots of feelings and internalized homophobia. Actually half of the characters have no internalized homophobia, but that’s part of the angst. Sports, as we can imagine, whether we like sports or not, is not a world that’s super open for gay people of any stripe, and part of sports as the setting presents some built-in conflict for the characters. If you’d like your romances without homophobia, these probably aren’t for you, but I think I mentioned how much I like angst, and these deliver on that. 

KD Casey makes writes some great tension, steamy sex, and compelling characters who all have some serious baggage. There’s also stuff about recovery, injury, and physical disabilities (one of the MC in Unwritten Rules is hard of hearing, which is always present but isn’t actually part of the conflict of the story.) 

If you like sports, check these out. If you don’t like sports, but you think Cat Sebastian has some good recommendations (or you think I do), check these out. 

[clarounette]

Currently reading: Diamond ring by KD Casey

Because I had a busy schedule, I couldn’t read Diamond ring by KD Casey before release. I have a little time, so I’m catching up now, and I’m excited.

[sorrellegiance]

summer reading challenge progress 91% bitches!!

[mooncello]

Get to know me tag game 🍂

Thanks for the tags @drowninginships and @ileadacharmedlife!

Favorite color: obsessed with that golden yellow of candlelight. I can basically stare at fire all day and not get bored.

Last song: I've been digging 70s vibes synth stuff lately, so La femme d'argent by Air.

Currently reading: I just finished the Unwritten Rules series by KD Casey (baseball m/m romance let's goooo) and the Penalty Box series by Ari Baran. Next up: The Prospects by KT Hoffman and The Pairing by Casey McQuiston. Tons of manga, can't list them all (tho My Noisy Roommate is getting a special shout-out).

Currently watching: Baseball division series! ⚾️ NHL season just started, and I'm somehow watching hockey again after, like, two decades. It's entirely @fatalfangirl 's fault, and Shane and Ilya, and I'm not complaining.

Currently craving: gender euphoria, and in this exact moment maybe some peanut butter straight from the jar

Coffee or tea: nope, not choosing. I'm a both/and maximalist bro. (Sidenote: why the FUCK is the pumpkin creme cold brew from sbux so good??)

Hobby to try: I've had a pair of roller skates chilling in my closet for two years, and a coworker that plays roller derby. I won't go that hard but I wanna go skating. 🛼

Current AU: ok, so I'm like @valeffelees with my brain having 500 AUs running around my brain at any given moment. The ones in actual writing stage: DeNiall (my beloveds), dark weird Neverland, celebrity snowbaz. I've also got a lavashipping AU which is gonna crack 100k words soon. 😬

no pressure tags @best--dress @iamamythologicalcreature @artsyunderstudy @brilla-brilla-estrellita @monbons

@you-remind-me-of-the-babe @bookish-bogwitch @skeedelvee

[thatmexisaurusrex]

So, I saw a weird ask going around and thought - good idea, sad and pathetic execution. So, new tag game! Tell me what you're currently reading and watching as well as what's been your favorite books, films, and shows this year!

CURRENTLY WATCHING: I'm currently watching Make Some Noise, which has been fun to binge. Highly rec it if you or a kind friend has Dropout. Also watching Evil which is such a highly underrated show.

CURRENTLY READING: To be completely honest, I'm in a bit of a reading slump. I had my reading binge at the beginning of the year. Buuut I am at the very beginning of both The Legacy of Yangchen by F.C. Yee as well as Diamond Ring by KD Casey.

FAVORITE MOVIES AND SHOWS SO FAR THIS YEAR: Can't recommend Challengers enough. Truly, probably my favorite movie of the year so far? Twisters was really fun too. I know this came out last year, but I'm pretty sure I watched Bottoms this year and I can't recommend that enough either, it's so good. I think I also got around to watching Sense8 for the first time this year and wow I really missed out. That show fucking rocks. I watched House of the Dragon and while it was a slow build-up season, I'm excited to see what happens next? While the latest season of The Bear was a bit all over the place, I still loved it dearly. The latest season of The Dragon Prince was so good too. Also started watching RWBY for the first time (RIP Rooster Teeth).

FAVORITE BOOKS SO FAR THIS YEAR: Oooh I told y'all I had a reading binge at the beginning of the year. Most Ardently by Gabe Cole Novoa was great, as well as So Let Them Burn by Kamilah Cole, Escaping Mr. Rochester by L.L. McKinney, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves: The Druid's Call by E.K. Johnston, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves: The Road to Neverwinter by Jaleigh Johnson, The Bewitching Hour: A Tara Prequel by Ashley Poston, The Pomegranate Gate by Ariel Kaplan, and okay I'm cheating a bit but I read it in December last year, Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao. Also reread the most of Rick Riordon's demigod universe. All the Greek, Roman, and Norse demigod series in the universe, at least. I highly recommend The Trials of Apollo series as well as The Sun and The Star which is actually written by both Mark Oshiro and Rick Riordan (like the book somehow gets away with a MONTERO reference, how can you not love that?). The Magnus Chase books, while imperfect, hold a special place in my heart too.

No Pressure Tags For: @lavenderleahy @dadbodbuck @ohithankyou @buckhastwohands @half-oz-eddie

@katatonicimpression @jemgirl86 @funsized-loser @siancore @six2vii and whoever wants to do this! I want recs! 🥰

[displayheartcode]

Omg plz let us know what you think if you watch the sandlot

Just watched the movie for the first time since…2005(?) and you’re definitely onto something!

Here are some queer baseball books!

the prospects by kt hoffman

you should be so lucky by cat sebastian

kd casey’s entire backlog

playing for keeps by jennifer dugan

[dvar-trek]

February Romance Roundup

what a fucking month! most of these books were bad, but the good ones were so fucking good that i got scared to read anything else in case i had to knock them out of the top spots. mostly what i did instead was learn too much about real hockey players. i, uh. i don't want to talk about what my wikipedia history looks like right now. ANYWAY!

the best of:

there's a tie for first place. sorry. it's my roundup and i make the rules.

Season's Change by Cait Nary- book one in the Trade Season series. if i can convince you to read one hockey romance book, please let it be this one. the yearning. the fucking tenderness. fuck. a veteran player (who is Going Thru It after having been harassed off his previous team) catches feelings for his roommate/teammate, who is. definitely for sure straight don't even worry about it. they help each other, like, grow as people and rebuild their lives, and it's funny and fond and it made my fucking chest hurt. it is really nothing like the captive prince trilogy, but the vibes are the same. i always read my faves multiple times, but i don't even want to tell you how many times i've already re-read this book. i am so fucking soft for these characters i can't even tell you.

Unwritten Rules by KD Casey- bounced off of this twice before i got sucked in, and then it rocketed to the top of the list. another one that is so fuckign tender. two guys who love each so goddamned much, but break up because one of them is entirely unable to stomach the idea of anyone else in the entire world knowing that he's gay (like, including other gay people), and the other one is suffocating under the pressure of not being able to be out to even his family or closest friends. and then a year and a half after the breakup, they see each other again and it is. exquisitely painful. and they have to decide how to work through it. yes this is another sports romance. don't @me. (also, pro tip, pretty reliable way to make me cry: give me a story with people who are so fucking in love, but the love isn't enough. whether or not it has a happy ending, i will cry every time i talk about it forever.)

the rest of:

loved | liked | okay | didn't like

hockey

 ●Contract Season by Cait Nary (second book in the Trade Season series. obviously had high hopes, considering, as discussed above, the first one wrecked me, but it is simply not as good. country singer and hockey player who hooked up one time get outed. in order to try and keep this from torpedoing their careers, they agree to pretend to be dating for the cameras. the plot had some weird back-and-forths, like, they both just kept fucking up the relationship in the same ways over and over. also, one of them was named Seamus, went by "Shay" for short, but spelled it "Sea". authors, please do not fucking do this. i have 25+ years of practice reading the word "sea" and it was so much work to get my brain to read this with the intended pronunciation.)  ●Game Changer by Rachel Reid (book 1 in the Game Changers series. i had high hopes for this one too, because book 2 of this series is one of the most beloved stories in m/m hockey romance. however. it's not great. closeted hockey player fucks his way into a relationship for the first time in his life. but then after like, 2 fucking months, the boyfriend is like "if you don't come out, you have no integrity and also i will need to break up with you because i'm suffocating" which! the narrative treats as being the straightforwardly correct opinion! like, i'm sorry, queer couples have been dealing with not being out, or not being out to everyone, since forever. and the disagreement is not handled anywhere near as well as it is in Unwritten Rules. very difficult to take it seriously. idk. the writing is. fine. still on the waitlist for book 2, but 😕)  ●Winging It (2015 edition) by Ashlyn Kane and Morgan James (i'm giving myself credit for this even though i read the 2022 edition last month because it is essentially an entirely different book. the sex scenes are hotter than in the new edition, but it is otherwise weaker in every way. i give you permission to just skip this one.)  ●Crushed Ice by Ashlyn Kane and Morgan James (the newly released Hockey Ever After book 4. not as good as the first 3, but still basically enjoyable and funny. just features way too many things that are extremely unlikely. this one is about an incredibly uptight veteran player and his rookie who is. uh. well, his nickname is Trouble, if that gives you an idea. loved the characters, did not love the romance.)  ●Road Rules by Brigham Vaughn (nothing really wrong with it, but also nothing in particular to recommend it. novella-length story about best friends/teammates/roommates who start sleeping together even though they are both straight. and then it takes them basically the entire book to figure out that they're probably not straight, and also that everyone already thought they were dating anyway.)  ●Hockey Guys by Sarina Bowen (these books feature very different characters, but have basically the same premise (closeted nhl player starts an ill-advised secret relationship with another man that they maintain is casual even though they catch feelings way too fast) and the same weaknesses (incredibly awkward and unnatural dialogue, and sex that's still hot enough but pretty formulaic). every time i start a sarina bowen book, i think it's going to be so much better than it is. i don't know why i'm still doing this to myself either.)     ○The New Guy     ○I'm Your Guy

sports that are not hockey

 ●Dirty Players by KD Casey and Lauren Blakely (two baseball short stories in the same universe as Unwritten Rules. first one is about players on rival teams in the same city that have long-standing sexual tension. second one is about players in different divisions who have a one-night stand, and then end up traded to the same team. it is incredibly rare ime to find original romance novellas/short stories that still have good pacing, especially if there are sex scenes, and these both fucking nail it. not exactly groundbreaking works of fiction, but top marks for what they are.)     ○Dirty Slide     ○Dirty Steal  ●Top of Her Game by M. Ullrich (y'all i tried so fucking hard to give this a fair chance because i know how embarrassingly little femslash i have on these lists, but i only made it halfway through. which is better than i did on any of the other femslash books i tried to pick up this month. it's not even that bad, it's just not any fun. at all. Kenzie is a rookie soccer player who ends up on the same professional team as Sutton, her idol/celebrity crush. Sutton already has a girlfriend, and also has a bad habit of falling for rookies who worship her, but ? it's different this time ??? because Kenzie's not like other girls????? i don't know, man.)  ●Playing for Keeps by Riley Hart and Neve Wilder (story time: my mom grew up in china during the cultural revolution. foreign literature and anything that wasn't communist enough was illegal, and having it in your possession could get you arrested or worse. but my mom had a classmate whose dad had been a bookseller, and had a secret personal collection of great literature that he couldn't bear to part with, including shakespeare, tolstoy, dostoevsky, and verne. and this classmate used to smuggle in books that she would lend to my mom for one day at a time, and then return them before her dad noticed they were missing. so my mom read a lot of classics really really fast. the way she finished war and peace in one day was, in her words, by "skipping all the war". similarly, the way i got through a mediocre gay (american) football romance series was by skipping all the football. anyway, these are fine, but the writing quality takes a dive in the third.)     ○Rookie Move (rookie player ends up on the same football team as his older brother's best friend, on whom he has a long-standing crush. they get assigned to be road roommates—which, side note, football players make hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars a year, there is no way they make standard-contract players have road roommates—and start having casual sex, which obviously leads to no complications or emotions whatsoever.)     ○False Start (mid-career player gets traded to the city his ex used to play for (and still lives in). ends up moving in to his spare room until he can find a new place, and they start having casual sex, which is always a good idea, and of course leads to no complications or emotions whatsoever.)     ○Illegal Contact (rival players who grew up in the same town have hate sex that gets very intense and possessive very fast. and. as you might guess. definitely leads to no complications or emotions whatsoever.)

everything else

 ●String Theory by Ashlyn Kane and Morgan James (i'm just gonna link you the goodreads description because i honestly don't know what else to say about this book. it's fine. the sex scenes are nothing special. there's a fair amount of therapy-speak. honestly not sure how these writers produce romances of such incredibly variable quality.)  ●His Leading Man by Ashlyn Kane (tbh i have the exact same comments as above. here's the summary. nothing major to complain about or compliment.)  ●Winner Bakes All by Alexis Hall     ○Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake (single mom competes on what is, for legal reasons, not the great british bake off. about what you expect from an Alexis Hall romance. sweet, so fucking funny, and a little awkward. the characters that suck really fucking suck, and the characters that you like are imperfect and lovable. doesn't quite measure up to my other Alexis Hall faves, but it's been a rough month. i'm grading on a curve.)     ○Paris Daillencourt is About to Crumble (takes place on the following season of not-bake-off. uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. this book is very funny and well-written, but i found it so incredibly painful to read. the pov character has the kind of undiagnosed, untreated anxiety that results in him constantly crying and apologizing profusely for how much he sucks, while continuing to make life very difficult for the people around him. when i got past the halfway point and he still wasn't in therapy, i seriously considered stopping. if you are a better and more patient person than i am, you may still love this book.)  ●Roommate by Sarina Bowen (two guys in a small farm town rent a house together and fall in love. simply not very good! i don't think the author knows anything about the jobs she gave her main characters. it also does the thing where they both know they're into each other, but they won't just be together because ??? hand-wavey reasons ?? and then for other inexplicable hand-wavey reasons, they decide to just go for it. this is infuriating to me.)

thank you for participating in this roundup of highly variable quality! as a reward, please accept this special-edition photo of polwygle.

[pertinax--loculos]

Last Line Tag

I was tagged by the ever-wonderful @artdecosupernova-writing recently; thank you, friend! ^_^ Great motivation to get me off my ass and looking at some words at the very least.

I'm gonna tag back @artdecosupernova-writing, and also tag @kd-holloman, @winterandwords, @thegreatobsesso, @drippingmoon, @junypr-camus, @pumpkinsplots and @constellationsandcompendiums. Let's hear your last line! (Or paragraphs, or paragraphs, whatever takes your fancy. :D)

So this is the most recent part of my zero outline that I'm able to relatively quickly get into readable shape. Words I got down today, in fact! This is in the second half of the WIP, so don't mind the lack of context. :P (Always happy to take questions if any arise. ;))

Ira POV Ally leaned sideways on the couch, filling the spot Casey had just left. Her martini glass tipped precariously in her hand. "Y'know what's wild?" She was slurring, which was a start. Ira glanced into the crowd behind him, where Casey had disappeared, and said, distractedly, "What?" "Olives." Ally removed the toothpick from her glass and fixed the offending fruits with a hard glare. "Fucking wild, man." "Uh-huh." Ira glanced at his watch. Still two hours to closing, and she was well on her way to hopefully forgetting the entire night. Perfect. "You know what else is wild?" Ira shuddered to think. "What?" "That Joshua is your brother." Tension snapped down Ira's spine. He leaned towards her, getting right up in her face, and couldn't stop the growl in the back of his voice as he said, "What the fuck do you know about Joshua?"

[queer-book-character-tournament]

Characters, book, and author names under the cut

Walt Stone/Anubis/Sadie Kane - The Kane Chronicles by Rick Riordan

Alec Campion/Richard St Vier - Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner

Delilah Green/Claire Sutherland - Delilah Green Doesn’t Care by Ashley Herring Blake

Zach Glasser/Eugenio Morales - Unwritten Rules by KD Casey

[lgbtqreads]

Fave Five: Adult Queer Jewish Romance

The Intimacy Experiment by Rosie Danan (bi m/f) Unwritten Rules by KD Casey (m/m) Knit One, Girl Two by Shira Glassman (f/f) A Shot in the Dark by Victoria Lee (trans m/pan f) Season of Love by Helena Greer (f/f) Bonus: For an entire series dedicated to Sapphic romances set during Jewish holidays, check out Roz Alexander’s Hot for the Holidays series

[sophsicle]

So glad to see you back. Can’t wait to read the new chapter of Chosen!

Also, I just finished Coming in First Place and And Then (I read Thrown Off the Ice last week). LOVED THESE. The adorableness in the first book did not prepare me for the angst of the second, but I soaked it up like a sponge and loved every minute. Thanks again for the recommendations.

Not sure how much time you have for reading, but I recently read KD Casey’s Unwritten Rules series. All three were good but Unwritten Rules was my fave. They have a very similar vibe and style to Taylor Fitzpatrick’s books, except baseball (a sport I admittedly don’t like but it didn’t bother me). Anyway, if you ever have time, I highly recommend.

Hope you’re well!

YAY! I am so glad you read those books and liked them because i am OBSESSED like the "And Then" story fucks me up, everything about it, the heart break, the friendships, it's SO i am incredibly excited for the last book! Also will check out the Unwritten Rules Series! Thank you for the Rec!!!!! <3

[poisindonottouch]

Queer reads: a month of links

Here are the 30 books/authors I’ve recommended for the month of June.

Science Fiction

1: The Locked Tomb, by Tamsyn Muir

2: Provenance, by Ann Leckie 

3: A Memory Called Empire, by Arkady Martine 

4: The Left Hand Of Darkness, by Ursula K LeGuin 

5: The Roads of Heaven, by Melissa Scott 

6: Winter’s Orbit & Ocean’s Echo, by Everina Maxwell

7: Murderbot Diaries, by Martha Wells 

8: Stars In My Pocket Like Grains of Sand, by Samuel R Delany

9: The Vorkosigan Saga, by Lois McMaster Bujold

Horror 

(I don’t really read too much horror, because I’m a scaredy-cat, but these were both so good!) 

10: The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling

11: Summer Sons, by Lee Mandelo 

Fantasy

12: The Greenhollow Duology, by Emily Tesh 

13: The Manifold Worlds, by Foz Meadows

14:  Paladin’s Hope, by T Kingfisher

15: The Last Binding, by Freya Marske

16: The Scholomance trilogy, by Naomi Novik

17:  Rain Wild Chronicle, by Robin Hobb

18: The Cemeteries of Amalo, by Katherine Addison

19: My Real Children, by Jo Walton

20: The Amberlough Dossier, by Lara Elena Donnelly

21: The Broken Earth trilogy, by N.K. Jemisin

Romance! 

22: K.J. Charles

23: Cat Sebastian

24: Alexis Hall

25: AJ Demas

26: Elin Gregory

27: Roan Parrish

Sport Romances! 

28: KD Casey

29: Rachel Reid

30: Avon Gale & Piper Vaughn

Go enjoy some queer books! 

[clarounette]

REVIEW: Dirty slide by Lauren Blakely and KD Casey

Click the image to buy on Amazon Summary Don’t play dirty.That’s the code I live by on and off the field.The other?Don’t get distracted.Not by the media, not by hookups, and definitely not by our rival team’s ridiculously charming star player, who loves to whisper dirty nothings to me every time we play ball.And sure, his offers are tempting, but he’s the love ‘em and leave ‘em type, and I want…