2024 brings us sports fever! Everywhere you turn, you see a sports competition. You have the Euros, T20 Cricket World Cup, Copa America, Wimbledon, US Open…and lest not forget the crowning jewel, the Summer Olympics. 2024 is truly the summer of sports. But maybe you prefer to get your sports fix from books? Yes, sports fiction is a thing and there are so many great reads that revolve around your favorite sport, F1 racing to football (both European and American), this type of books has something for everyone. So, if you are looking to get your sports fix apart from the live competitions, then celebrate the summer of sports with these book recommendations:
Let the Games Begin by Rufaro Faith Mazarura
Athens, 2024. Olivia Nkomo has always been ambitious, smart, and an overall go-getter. Now that she’s graduated from university, she’s willing to do whatever it takes to land her dream job at the Summer Games. The first step? Securing her new internship, which will put her in the center of all the action, where she hopes to run into some of her favorite athletes.
Ezekiel “Zeke” Moyo, the heartthrob star runner of Team Great Britain, is more than ready to claim his title as the fastest man in the world, following in the footsteps of the greatest athletes of all time. His future to the finish line is looking bright–despite his recent breakup with celebrated gymnast Valentina Ross-Rodriguez constantly making headlines.
When Olivia and Zeke collide–literally–on the first day of training, sparks fly. As the games grow closer, so do Olivia and Zeke. But the competition starts stirring up uncomfortable memories from Zeke’s past . . . and Olivia’s internship doesn’t turn out to be what she expected. Will they be able to overcome these hurdles and achieve their dreams? Or will it come at the cost of their budding romance? (Credit: Flatiron Books)
Canary Girls by Jennifer Chiaverini
Early in the Great War, men left Britain’s factories in droves to enlist. Struggling to keep up production, arsenals hired women to build the weapons the military urgently needed. “Be the Girl Behind the Man Behind the Gun,” the recruitment posters beckoned.
Thousands of women–cooks, maids, shopgirls, and housewives–answered their nation’s call. These “munitionettes” worked grueling shifts often seven days a week, handling TNT and other explosives with little protective gear.
Among them is nineteen-year-old former housemaid April Tipton. Impressed by her friend Marjorie’s descriptions of higher wages, plentiful meals, and comfortable lodgings, she takes a job at Thornshire Arsenal near London, filling shells in the Danger Building–difficult, dangerous, and absolutely essential work.
Joining them is Lucy Dempsey, wife of Daniel Dempsey, Olympic gold medalist and star forward of Tottenham Hotspur. With Daniel away serving in the Footballers’ Battalion, Lucy resolves to do her bit to hasten the end of the war. When her coworkers learn she is a footballer’s wife, they invite her to join the arsenal ladies’ football club, the Thornshire Canaries.
The Canaries soon acquire an unexpected fan in the boss’s wife, Helen Purcell, who is deeply troubled by reports that Danger Building workers suffer from serious, unexplained illnesses. One common symptom, the lurid yellow hue of their skin, earns them the nickname “canary girls.” Suspecting a connection between the canary girls’ maladies and the chemicals they handle, Helen joins the arsenal administration as their staunchest, though often unappreciated, advocate.
The football pitch is the one place where class distinctions and fears for their men fall away. As the war grinds on and tragedy takes its toll, the Canary Girls persist despite the dangers, proud to serve, determined to outlive the war and rejoice in victory and peace. (Credit: William Morrow & Company)
Blue Lock Series by Muneyuki Kaneshiro
Are you the world’s top egoist?
After a disastrous defeat at the 2018 World Cup, Japan’s team struggles to regroup. But what’s mising? An absolute ace striker. The Football Union is hell-bent on creating a striker who hungers for goals and thirsts for victory, so Blue Lock — a rigorous training ground for 300 of Japan’s best and brightest youth players — is created. To survive this battle royale, the last striker standing will have to out-muscle and out-ego everyone who stands in his way! (Credit: Kodansha Comics)
Furia by Yamile Saied Méndez
In Rosario, Argentina, Camila Hassan lives a double life.
At home, she is a careful daughter, living within her mother’s narrow expectations, in her rising-soccer-star brother’s shadow, and under the abusive rule of her short-tempered father.
On the field, she is La Furia, a powerhouse of skill and talent. When her team qualifies for the South American tournament, Camila gets the chance to see just how far those talents can take her. In her wildest dreams, she’d get an athletic scholarship to a North American university.
But the path ahead isn’t easy. Her parents don’t know about her passion. They wouldn’t allow a girl to play fútbol–and she needs their permission to go any farther. And the boy she once loved is back in town. Since he left, Diego has become an international star, playing in Italy for the renowned team Juventus. Camila doesn’t have time to be distracted by her feelings for him. Things aren’t the same as when he left: she has her own passions and ambitions now, and La Furia cannot be denied. As her life becomes more complicated, Camila is forced to face her secrets and make her way in a world with no place for the dreams and ambition of a girl like her. (Credit: Algonquin Young Readers)
World Class by Jay Sandlin and illustrated by Patrick Mulholland
Football is a religion where Adrian “The Colombian Cannon” Molina comes from and with his wicked right leg, he has a clear shot to the promised land of the European Junior Leagues. But when a football scout offers him a full scholarship to an elite prep school in London, the news seems too good to be true. His enrollment hits a snag upon meeting the team’s star striker, Titan Evans. Titan is everything Adrian is not; rich, powerful, connected, and with a hunger to dominate the school as well as the pitch. The constant fighting, teasing, and bullying, brings about crippling anxiety of losing his spot on the team. That’s until Luciano DeSilva takes him under his wing, and gives Adrian the confidence to be himself and value his position on the team. From visionary writer and podcaster Jay Sandlin (Over the Ropes), illustrator Patrick Mulholland (Power Rangers), and superstar colorist Rebecca Nalty (GLOW) comes a foot- ball story, that blends the energy and heart of Shonen manga with a story about finding the right people in your life to not only make you a better player, but a better person. (Credit: Maverick)
The Arsenal Stadium Mystery by Leonard Gribble
The 1939 Arsenal side is firing on all cylinders and celebrating a string of victories. They appear unstoppable, but the Trojans–a side of amateurs who are on a winning streak of their own–may be about to silence the Gunners.
Moments into the second half the whistle blows, but not for a goal or penalty. One of the Trojans has collapsed on the pitch. By the end of the day, he is dead.
Gribble’s unique mystery, featuring the actual Arsenal squad of 1939, sends Inspector Anthony Slade into the world of professional football to investigate a case of deadly foul play on and off the pitch. (Credit: Poisoned Pen Press)
Saturday Bloody Saturday by Alastair Campbell and Paul Fletcher
Football manager Charlie Gordon is struggling with one defeat after another at the club he loves. Only a decent Cup run is keeping him in work, but tensions are running close to the surface ahead of the next round: Chelsea away.
Footballers fall into two categories: artists or assassins. Soon Charlie is going to find out which players can deliver – and just how much pressure they can all stand.
Meanwhile, as the country prepares for a general election, one of the most dangerous political assassinations in the IRA’s history is being planned in London. An active service unit await the critical signal to proceed…
Both sides will converge on the capital for a result that will shake everyone’s lives, with consequences far beyond football. (Credit: Orion Publishing Co)
Bad Machinery Vol. 1: The Case of the Team Spirit by John Allison
The Case of the Team Spirit introduces readers to Jack, Linton, Sonny, Shauna, Charlotte, and Mildred: six kids navigating the treacherous waters of school and adolescence while also exploring the strange mysteries that abound in their peculiar English town of Tackleford.
Jack, Linton, and Sonny look for cures to their football club’s unexplainable woes, while Shauna, Charlotte, and Mildred try to find a way for compassion and justice to triumph in the face of die-hard sports fanaticism. But all of them should probably be more concerned with keeping on the good side of their history teacher, Mr. Bough. That is, if he has a good side…(Credit: Oni Press)
Cross the Line by Simone Soltani
Her brother’s best friend sends her heart racing in this sparkling Formula 1 romance.
Formula 1 driver Dev Anderson’s career is on the line. After a social media disaster leaves him with an angry team and sponsors threatening to jump ship, he needs someone to help save his image. At a party in Monaco, he bumps into the woman who can fix it all. There’s just one problem: she’s his best friend’s little sister. And, okay, maybe there’s another problem–he kissed her last year and hasn’t been able to stop thinking about it since.
Recent college grad Willow Williams needs a job. She may have a talent for seeing the bright side of any bad situation, but it’s hard to stay positive when she’s struggling to get hired. So when Dev offers her a temporary solution, she can’t help but say yes. Even if it means ignoring the crush she’s had on him since childhood.
Willow and Dev are determined to keep things strictly professional, regardless of old feelings and the blazing chemistry between them. But in the glittering and high-stakes world of Formula 1, some lines are meant to be crossed…(Credit: Berkley Books)
The Wrong Mr. Darcy by Evelyn Lozada with Holly Lorincz
Hara Isari has big ambitions and they won’t be sidetracked by her mother’s insisting that she settle down soon. She dreams of leaving her small-town newspaper behind, as well as her felon father, and building a career as a sports writer, so when she is chosen to exclusively interview a basketball superstar, she jumps at the chance. It’s time to show the bigwigs what she’s truly made of.
At the same time, she meets a rookie on the rise, Derek Darcy. Darcy is incredibly handsome, obnoxiously proud, and has a major chip on his shoulder. Hara can’t think of a man more arrogant and infuriating. However, fate keeps bringing them together–from locker rooms to elegant parties, to the storm of the century–and what begins as a clash might just be more complicated than Hara anticipated. When she begins to see Darcy in a new light, Hara is not quite sure if she should drop the ball or play the love game. (Credit: St. Martin’s Griffin)
Cleat Cute by Meryl Wilsner
Grace Henderson has been a star of the US Women’s National Team for ten years, even though she’s only 26. But when she’s sidelined with an injury, a bold new upstart, Phoebe Matthews, takes her spot. 22-year-old Phoebe is everything Grace isn’t–a gregarious jokester who plays with a joy that Grace lost somewhere along the way. The last thing Grace expects is to become teammates with benefits with this class clown she sees as her rival.
Phoebe Matthews is too focused on her first season as a professional soccer player to think about seducing her longtime idol. But when Grace ends up making the first move, they can’t keep their hands off of each other.
As the World Cup approaches and Grace works her way back from injury, a miscommunication leaves the women with hilariously different perspectives on their relationship. But they’re on the same page on the field, realizing they can play together instead of vying for the same position. With every tackle the tension between them grows, and both players soon have to decide what’s more important–being together or making the roster. (Credit: St. Martin’s Griffin)
Lapse by Sarah Thornton
All it took was a lapse…a momentary lapse…to bring Clementine Jones’ world crashing down. Now she’s living like a hermit in small-town Katinga, coaching the local footy club. She’s supposed to be lying low, but here she is, with her team on the cusp of their first premiership in fifty years—and the whole bloody town counting on her, cheering her on.
So why the hell would her star player quit on the eve of the finals?
It’s a question she wishes she’d left alone. Others are starting to ask questions too—questions about her. Clem’s not the only one with a secret, and as tension builds, the dark violence just below the town’s surface threatens to erupt. Pretty soon there’ll be nowhere left for Clem to hide. (Credit: Text Publishing)
Willowman by Inga Simpson
Allan Reader, one of the last traditional batmakers in the country, keeps his family business alive in a small workshop in Melbourne.
When Todd Harrow, a gifted young batter, catches Allan’s eye, a spark is lit and Allan decides to make a Reader bat for him, selecting the best piece of willow he’s harvested in years to do so.
As Harrow charts a meteoric rise to the highest echelons of the sport, Allan’s bat takes centre stage as well, awakening something in him. But can Allan’s fledgling renaissance – hanging as it does on the magic of that bat – carry on after Harrow is stricken by injury and a strained personal life? (Credit: Hachette Australia)
Josephine Against the Sea by Shakirah Bourne
Eleven-year-old Josephine knows that no one is good enough for her daddy. That’s why she makes a habit of scaring his new girlfriends away. She’s desperate to make it onto her school’s cricket team because she’ll get to play her favorite sport AND use the cricket matches to distract Daddy from dating.
But when Coach Broomes announces that girls can’t try out for the team, the frustrated Josephine cuts into a powerful silk cotton tree and accidentally summons a bigger problem into her life . . .
The next day, Daddy brings home a new catch, a beautiful woman named Mariss. And unlike the other girlfriends, this one doesn’t scare easily. Josephine knows there’s something fishy about Mariss but she never expected her to be a vengeful sea creature eager to take her place as her father’s first love! Can Josephine convince her friends to help her and use her cricket skills to save Daddy from Mariss’s clutches before it’s too late? (Credit: Scholastic Press)
Run for Your Life by Jane Mitchell
Azari’s life has been split in two and the halves are as different as lemons and mangoes. Running links the two parts of her life: sometimes when she runs it is because she wants to, because she feels strong and free. But sometimes it is because she has no other choice.
When Azari and her mother flee for their lives to Ireland they are put in a centre for asylum seekers. They must share a room with a stranger, eat food they don’t know the name of and answer intrusive questions from authorities. Azari’s life has secrets. Will she ever be able to stop running? (Credit: Little Island Books)
Run on Your New Legs Series by Wataru Midori
Shouta Kikuzato’s hopes of starting on his school’s prestigious soccer team are derailed when a terrible incident costs him his leg. Now in his first year of high school (again), Kikuzato has resigned himself to never reaching his athletic dreams. But when Chidori, a passing prosthetist, notices Kikuzato’s artificial limb- and speed-as he races through the train station, the specialist proposes a partnership: Chidori will build Kikuzato a brand-new leg designed solely for speed. All Kikuzato has to do is run! (Credit: Yen Press)
Settling Scores: Sporting Mysteries edited by Martin Edwards
Talented sportsmen inexplicably go absent without leave, crafty gamblers conspire in the hope of making a killing, and personal rivalries and jealousies come to a head on fields of play…
The links between sport and fictional crime were celebrated in Ellery Queen’s anthology Sporting Blood (1942), although that book also included such activities as poker, chess, and the collecting of coins and butterflies. This collection is the first major attempt in the UK to gather together short mysteries with a sporting theme. Each story features a different sport and each is written by a different author. The sports covered include golf, cricket, soccer, rugby, running, swimming, boxing, archery, rowing, tennis and squash. The classic stories in this new British Library anthology show that crime is a game for all seasons. (Credit: British Library Publishing)
Hook Shot by Kennedy Ryan
She’s not the plan he made, but she’s the risk he has to take.
A single, divorced dad in the final years of his basketball career, Kenan Ross’s perfect life has blown up in his face. He’s still picking up the pieces when he meets Lotus DuPree. A wildflower. A storm. A kick to his gut and a wrench in his plans from the moment their eyes meet. He promised himself he’d never trust a woman again, but he’s never wanted anyone the way he wants Lo.
At twenty-five, Lotus is finally living out her dream, becoming a force in New York’s fashion scene. Focused on her future and not looking for love, she’s seen where trusting a man leaves you. Kenan is the last thing she needs. But from the moment they meet, she’s drawn in, even if he’s eleven years her senior and her opposite in every way.
When Kenan moves to New York for the summer to be near his daughter, Lotus can no longer avoid the attraction that pulses between them–but she still won’t let him in. Not after what she’s been through. Except Kenan wants her so badly, he’ll do anything to knock down her defenses.
He won’t give up on her…and soon, she’s no longer sure she wants him to. (Credit: Bloom Books)
Fence Vol. 1 by C. S. Pacat and Rebecca Nalty and illustrated by Johanna The Mad
Nicholas, the illegitimate son of a retired fencing champion, is a scrappy fencing wunderkind, and dreams of getting the chance and the training to actually compete. After getting accepted to the prodigious Kings Row private school, Nicholas is thrust into a cut-throat world, and finds himself facing not only his golden-boy half-brother, but the unbeatable, mysterious Seiji Katayama…Through clashes, rivalries, and romance between teammates, Nicholas and the boys of Kings Row will discover there’s much more to fencing than just foils and lunges. From acclaimed writer C.S. Pacat (The Captive Prince) and fan-favorite artist Johanna the Mad. (Credit: Boom Box)
Ping Pong, Vol. 1 by Taiyo Matsumoto
Makoto “Smile” Tsukimoto doesn’t smile even though he’s got a natural talent for playing ping pong. As one of the best players in school, all hopes are on him to win the regional high school tournament, but winning is not what Smile really wants to do. Will the fierce competition to be number one bring out his best or drive him away from the game? Ping Pong is Taiyo Matsumoto’s masterwork reflection on friendship and self-discovery, presented here in two volumes, featuring color art, the bonus story “Tamura” and an afterword by the original Japanese series editor. (Credit: Viz Media)
Brooklynaire by Sarina Bowen
You’d think a billion dollars, a professional hockey team and a six-bedroom mansion on the Promenade would satisfy a guy. You’d be wrong.
For seven years Rebecca has brightened my office with her wit and her smile. She manages both my hockey team and my sanity. I don’t know when I started waking in the night, craving her. All I know is that one whiff of her perfume ruins my concentration. And her laugh makes me hard.
When Rebecca gets hurt, I step in to help. It’s what friends do. But what friends don’t do is rip off each others’ clothes for a single, wild night together.
Now she’s avoiding me. She says we’re too different, and it can never happen again. So why can’t we keep our hands off each other? (Credit:Tuxbury Publishing LLC)
Haikyu!! Series by Haruichi Furudate
Shoyo Hinata is out to prove that in volleyball you don’t need to be tall to fly!
Ever since he saw the legendary player known as “the Little Giant” compete at the national volleyball finals, Shoyo Hinata has been aiming to be the best volleyball player ever! Who says you need to be tall to play volleyball when you can jump higher than anyone else?After losing his first and last volleyball match against Tobio Kageyama, “the King of the Court,” Shoyo Hinata swears to become his rival after graduating middle school. But what happens when the guy he wants to defeat ends up being his teammate?! (Credit: Viz Media)
Disclosure: This blog is a member of affiliate programs. If you buy through links on this site, it will receive a small commission. Don’t worry…we only link books that we really love!
Leave a Reply