Heart of the Game

Sometimes baseball is just a metaphor for life, and sometimes it works the other way around. All Sarah Duke ever cared about was baseball, and she's finally earned her shot as a full-time sports writer. She loves the work, she loves being one of the few women to ever gain access to a man's world, but most of all, she loves the game. When Duke meets Molly Grettano and her two sons at the ballpark, she instantly connects with the young family, but Molly isn't sure Duke's ready for something more. Molly wants someone softer, more feminine, and more importantly, someone steady. She and her boys have been abandoned before, and she's vowed never to put them in that position again. If she were ever to trust anyone, it would have to be someone fully dedicated to her and her children. Duke has a lot of heart, but neither woman is sure there's enough room left in it for anything other than baseball.

Every skier knows that anything can happen when trails merge.

After a devastating ultimatum from her lover, Campbell Carson returns to her childhood home, Bear Run Ski Resort, seeking her family's unconditional solace and support. Parker Riley escapes to the mountain after the high-powered world of Chicago's political machine leaves her questioning her judgment in both life and love. Despite their initial wariness, the women find their budding friendship snowballing toward romance. The idyllic mountain resort is the perfect setting for them to learn to rebuild trust, and perhaps to find a second chance at love. However, when Parker's past resurfaces, Campbell is forced to face her own hard truths. As barely healed wounds reopen, the unexpected obstacles in their path threaten any hope for a future together.

Competitive barrel racer Lacey Bishop has worked her way from homelessness and poverty to needing only a few points to qualify for the National Rodeo Finals when her only horse suffers a career-ending injury. Without the money to buy a new horse, Lacey has no choice but to trust an offer from Two Rivers Ranch to lease one of their best barrel-racing horses.

Horse trainer Wil Rivers is working hard to get her family’s ranch profitable again after the coronavirus pandemic shut them down for more than a year. Her best chance to save the ranch from foreclosure is a million-dollar-plus offer to buy the one barrel horse that could defeat the mare she’s leased to the bewitching Lacey Bishop.

When Lacey discovers Wil’s plan to sell the Two Rivers “money” horse to her fiercest competitor, she sees their chance for a future together and her chance to qualify for the finals disappearing in the rodeo arena dust.

Grace Cook left her small hometown after high school with a free ride to college and a pulverized heart. Now, years later her father’s death brings her back to town. As long as she can settle his affairs quickly and avoid interacting with Bonnie Whitlock, maybe she’ll survive the trip.

Bonnie was at Mr. Cook’s bedside the night he died. She knows Grace Cook,the only woman she’s ever loved, will be back in town for the funeral. Since Bonnie was the cause of Grace leaving all those years ago, the least she can do is let Grace mourn her father in peace.

However, distance is impossible when the will is read and the Cook family house is left jointly to Bonnie and Grace. A cruel joke or a second chance at a love that was always meant to be? To find out, Bonnie and Grace must forgive their past selves and embrace the future together in the town that built them.

Maxine Terrell lurches into adulthood madly in love with a woman and her child. Unfortunately, Daphne Polk is someone else’s wife, and her daughter Lena is someone else’s child. But Daphne’s been there for her ever since Max and her father weathered a terrible tragedy, one that’s still whispered about in their small Texas town. After years of hope and heartbreak, and too many lies to count, Max seems poised to settle for the various "friends with benefits" she encounters.

Unexpectedly wealthy after her father’s death and emotionally adrift with no idea what she really wants from life, Max decides to take to the road and signs up to become a truck driver. During her training in Lubbock, she meets Trillian—“Thrill”—and manages to screw things up from the start. After another chance encounter and a sweet kiss she can’t forget, Max begins to rethink not only what, but who she really wants.

As Max traverses the open road, her journey of impossible love, loss, and courage mirrors her voyage of self-discovery. But before she can look to the future, she must come to terms with the history she’d rather forget.

Asher Evans is living her dreams eight seconds at a time. She’s finally at the top of the rankings and headed for the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas, and she owes it all to the man who taught her everything, Silas Wilson.

Reagan Wilson vowed she’d never return to Louisiana. Her father, Silas, had been a world champion rodeo rider until an accident destroyed his career, then killed him. Now she’s interning at a sports clinic in New Orleans, and her first patient is Asher Evans. Seeing her childhood neighbor and teenage crush brings all those painful memories rushing back.

Asher and Reagan are from different worlds, even if they grew up side by side. Reagan doesn’t understand why anyone would risk their life for a title and belt buckle, and Asher doesn’t do safe and predictable. Falling in love makes no sense, but as the spark between them ignites they may have more in common than they think.