Baseball Fiction

Lachlan Downy was a lover, not a fighter. Okay, he wouldn't lie, he was a fighter, too. But nobody had to know that. Especially not Memphis Tennessee Conner and her stuffy attitude when it came to cops and "men like him". Memphis knew cops. Her daddy was a cop. He was also the president of a motorcycle club. Needless to say, he's about as alpha as they come, and she's tired of overbearing men who think they know how to run her life better than she does.

For Katie McKenna, passing out and landing in the arms of Washington DC Soaring Eagles baseball player AJ Williamson is one of those moments she'd rather forget. Embarrassed beyond belief, she tries to pretend the incident never happened. She puts the escapade behind her, choosing to spend the summer preparing for law school and admiring AJ safely from afar.

On Salmon Beach, magic happens: Mermaids speak in dreams and lives are transformed. Maddy believes she's lost her past. On Salmon Beach she rediscovers her desires. Nick has buried his feelings, and everything he cares about, deep within himself. On Salmon Beach he unearths his heart. Maddy Phillips, alone for the first time, comes to the hidden community of Salmon Beach - only accessible by sea, or 200 steps down a sheer cliff - to seek refuge from a broken relationship. What she won’t acknowledge is the loss of something - and someone - much more significant. Nick McKay moves to Salmon ...

Brayden: I'm the man with it all. The pinstriped jersey covering my back garners easy cash, flashy cars and fast women. My gilded name drapes over the city in neon. I have everything. Everything, except the thing I crave most. Ashley Foster. They say you can never go home again. I'm out to prove them wrong. But what if returning requires facing all the things you destroyed? To what lengths would you go to earn forgiveness? Would you beg? Would you borrow? Would you steal?

Tallulah is smart, vivacious, and studying to be a marine biologist. She’s also twenty-six and broke. So when Burgess, a battle-scarred hockey veteran and newly single dad, offers her a job as his live-in nanny, she jumps at the opportunity to get paid while living in a super fancy neighborhood and being around Lissa, his cool but introverted tween. Her tween charge isn’t the only one who could use some help fitting in, though. According to…well, everyone except Burgess, he needs to get back on the dating scene, and adventurous Tallulah is just the girl to show him how.

Ryan Bingham's job as a Career Transition Counselor - he fires people - has kept him airborne for years. Although he has come to despise his line of work, he has come to love the culture of what he calls "Airworld" - finding contentment within pressurized cabins, anonymous hotel rooms, and a wardrobe of wrinkle-free slacks.

Maggie doesn't know why she's in the small mountain town of Starrycard Creek. After a blow to the head leaves her with amnesia, all she has left is her name stitched onto an apron. And then there's him . . . the man who saved her life. Christian Starrycard was trying to drown his sorrows after an injury ended his baseball career. The last thing he expected to become was a woman's hero. But Maggie isn't just any woman. She's the woman he's been dreaming of—his dream girl he thought existed only in his mind.

Resisting the shortstop has never been my strong suit. I failed at it during my first spring training. It sure as hell looks like I'm about to fail at it again. The sport I love playing with my very soul hangs in the balance. But everything my heart craves lies with the guy I've got to resist. A guy who's asking me to make the toughest choice ever.

When I told my parents during my senior year that I wasn't going to college, they lost their minds. There was only one person that stood beside me, and that was my sister Sammie. I'd been working with computers since I was ten. Everyone laughed and joked about how much time I spent in my room. They had no idea that I'd been working on something great. Sammie listened when I told her I already knew more than I'd learn in college. She believed me when I told her what I was working on would make a difference, and she defended me every step of the way. I had big dreams, and nothing was going to...

Frank Ryder is unstoppable on the baseball field—his pitches arrive faster than a batter can swing, giving his opponents no chance. He’s being heralded as a game-changing pitcher. But within the maelstrom of press, adulation, and wild speculation, Frank is a man alone. Haunted by a tragic incident from years past, he yearns to be the best but cannot reconcile the guilt he carries with the man everyone believes him to be.

I was at college and finally free of the Pirates and their issues. Everything was perfect. I was still going to watch James at the home games. He didn't know it. Neither did my dad. There was no way I wanted them to think they still had any hold on me. It was my secret. When I showed up at the last game of the season, I saw something that broke my heart. It made me realize things needed to change. My dreams weren't going to come true. I wasn't going to get my man. I'd finally taken a step to move on with my life. I was going to a party to get James out of my mind for good. It was happening....

Dean Evers, an elderly widower, sits in front of the television with nothing better to do than waste his leftover evenings watching baseball. It’s Rays/Mariners, and David Price is breezing through the line-up. Suddenly, in a seat a few rows up beyond the batter, Evers sees the face of someone from decades past, someone who shouldn’t be at the ballgame, shouldn’t be on the planet. And so begins a parade of people from Evers’s past, all of them occupying that seat behind home plate. Until one day Dean Evers sees someone even eerier….

Liza B.—the only DJ who gives a jam—wants to take her neighborhood back from the soulless property developer dropping unaffordable condos on every street corner in DC. But her planned protest at a corporate event takes a turn after she mistakes the smoldering-hot CEO for the waitstaff. When they go toe-to-toe, the sparks fly—but her impossible-to-ignore family thwarts her every move. Liza wants Dorsey Fitzgerald out of her hood, but she’ll settle for getting him out of her head.

It was my home run ball that shattered her face. Right along with her modeling career. Now it's my mission to help her rebuild her life. And get her to love the game that she hates. The game that dictates my life both on and off the field. But when the lines of our friendship become blurred, I worry she'll just be another casualty of my three-strikes rule. The rule I have to protect my money, my future, my heart. No girl has ever broken it. I've never wanted one to. Until now.

Though Mary Yoder longs to marry someday, she finds caring for her community's injured and sick is much easier than courting. But when Englischer Clay Markham crashes his car nearby, Mary's nursing shows her his hidden wounds are more painful than his injuries. Though she's irresistibly drawn to his kind nature, can she risk letting him into her heart? On the run from his troubled past, ex-pro baseball player Clay can't believe the quiet sanctuary he's found under Mary's care. Her gentle faith and knowledge are somehow giving him hope he can change his life.

Embracing teamwork, they welcome troubled players Ty and Savannah, hoping to give them a second chance after they were kicked off a former team. Can the Manatees learn to accept the newcomers? Can they teach Ty and Savannah to be good teammates? And can they all work together to beat the best team in the league, the Dragons?

In these 11 stories, Gary Soto scores again. With a sensitivity and humor born from his own experiences while growing up in California's Central Valley, the author brings to the surface issues such as success and failure, honesty and deceit, love and friendship.

Lane Hamilton takes stock of his life and doesn’t like what he finds. His friends are all chasing their dreams, while he’s working for a goose-stepping bully on the middle-management track to nowhere. When Lane is fired for sleeping through an important meeting, a high school buddy lands him a job with the Durham Bulls. Despite the grueling hours, it doesn’t take him long to realize even a bad day at the yard beats a good one in Corporate America. But is his new gig worth risking his magazine-cover girlfriend? And between jealous co-workers and psychotic relief pitchers, will he ...

My name is Lux Weston, and I’m a matter of national security... apparently. All I did was meet a beautiful girl in a bookstore and then rescue her. Once… twice… and maybe a third time—from a creeper. The problem? The creeper turned out to be Secret Service, and the girl… well, she’s Radley Andrews—the President’s only daughter. It has disaster written all over it. I should stay away. She’s a student, I’m a Major League Baseball player. She’s trying to hide from the spotlight, I’m standing underneath it. Not to mention I’ve never had a relationship, and Radley has her own demons to battle.

IN THE NAME OF LOVE is a coming-out romance novel between a baseball player named Steve and a theater star named Aaron. An LGBTQ romance novel. The two meet up after years apart and rekindle their friendship. Now, with love in the air, their relationship grows more complex. Steve realizes that what he feels for Aaron is something very special. But does Aaron feel the same way about Steve? Graduation day is approaching and Steve avoids the jocks, but they’re not backing off. Now, Steve must decide if he will stand up for himself and for Aaron. But will he risk everything and come out? What...