Sooo many horny hockey players. And fans.

Barely a day goes by that I don’t open Publishers Lunch and see yet another book deal for a hockey romance.

This is, of course, in the wake of the success of “Heated Rivalry,” the Canadian sports romance series about two hockey players who have an ongoing romantic and sexual relationship while playing on opposing teams. The series got a ton of views and a ton of publicity when it aired on streaming a few months ago.

It’s been interesting to see the book industry’s response to the popularity of the series, which is itself based on one book in a series called GAME CHANGERS written by Rachel Reid.

Oddly – or probably not oddly – of the half-a-dozen hockey romance books I’ve seen announced in the two or three months I’ve been subscribing to Publishers Lunch and Publishers Marketplace, most of the new novels are straight romance as opposed to gay romance like the popular streaming series.

The latest book to win a contract, the one I saw today, is, as Publishers Lunch reported:

Sunday Times-bestselling author Freya Marske’s THE OFFSEASON, the author’s first contemporary queer sports romance, pitched as for fans of HEATED RIVALRY and YURI ON ICE, in which a former figure skater who walked away from the sport returns home, where reconnecting with his infuriatingly gorgeous childhood rival, now the current national champion, reignites his passion for the ice—and more, to Ruoxi Chen at Putnam, in a two-book deal, for publication in summer 2027.

For all I know, each of the novels I’ve seen announced were in the works for years and are getting publishing contracts only now, after HEATED RIVALRY has made the subject popular for mass audiences.

It’s like another genre of books that I’m seeing announced regularly, the Western.

Who’ll get published first? Who will best meet the demands of readers? Will a half-dozen hockey romance books all be successful or will some corner the market? Or will each one inspire readers to seek out more?

After all, romantasy books – the trend, that is, not just the genre – kicked off somewhere and they’re still going strong.