"The many broken hearts in the Pacific Northwest this week, in the aftermath of the Seattle Mariners' Game 7 loss in the American League Championship Series to the Toronto Blue Jays, offer a reminder that it's easy to get romantic about sports. But that doesn't quite explain the seemingly unstoppable wave of sports-related romance novels with titles like Icebreaker, Pitcher Perfect, and Home Safe. Seriously, have you been in a bookstore lately?"
"The trend might have more to do with the fact that athletes tend to be young, in their physical prime, and, if they're men in a pro league, generally without financial concerns and thus able to, say, pay off their paramour's college loans. So it's refreshing that the would-be lovers in Play You for It (Penguin Random House, October 21), an Oregon-set sporty romance from a former KGW producer, are two underpaid women."
Play You for It centers on two underpaid Oregon women whose lives orbit sports: Jordan D'Amato, a former WNBA player newly named head coach of a men's college basketball team, and Caroline Beck, a Portland sports reporter balancing financial and familial pressures. Jordan faces a trial period and lower pay compared with her male predecessor and resistance from the athletic director and alumni. Caroline juggles a reporting career, shared rent, and the physical toll of on-site work while worrying that her parents undervalue her sports beat. The novel highlights gender, pay inequality, and the romanticization of athletes.
Read at Portland Monthly
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