DULUTH — Romance fiction has boomed in recent years, and Minnesota’s signature sport has provided the backdrop for a surprisingly large number of those novels.
“There was even a Sports Romance Con,” said Jennifer Jubenville about a
that will return to the Twin Cities in 2026. “I think more than 50% of it was devoted to hockey.”
As manager of The Bookstore at Fitger’s in Duluth, Jubenville has been busy stocking her shelves with romance novels involving ice time. Jubenville started skating at a young age and was always drawn toward hockey stories, eventually realizing she was far from alone in that.
Jennifer Jubenville speaks about hockey romance novels Sept. 2 at The Bookstore at Fitger’s in Duluth.
Clint Austin / Duluth Media Group
“When I started really noticing the trend was after I started working here, and I saw the influence of social media on what sells versus what doesn’t sell in the romance genre,” said Jubenville.
Scrolling online, Jubenville saw that readers did not need to live in ice-friendly areas to swoon for skaters. “People in Texas are all about the hockey romance,” she continued. “So that was when I really started paying attention to it, and started doing some research on which authors were hot.”
Lexi LaFleur Brown also grew up on skates, then married a professional hockey player: J.T. Brown, previously
a star of the University of Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs’ 2011 NCAA championship team.
After playing in the National Hockey League for nearly a decade (including a stint with the Minnesota Wild), Brown moved into the Seattle Kraken broadcast booth in 2021.
Lexi LaFleur Brown, author of “Shoot Your Shot,” grew up playing hockey.
Contributed / Liv Lyons
Some hockey fans started telling Lexi LaFleur Brown that they were introduced to the sport not by playing and watching it, as she was, but through romance novels.
“People were telling me that they fell in love with hockey because of these books,” Brown remembered. “I almost didn’t believe that. I was like, really? How entertaining are these books?”
Brown started reading hockey romances for herself and talking on social media about the books from her expert perspective. While the novels’ quality varied, she grew to appreciate what they were doing for the sport she loves.
“There are a lot of really great hockey romances that are written accurately, and it really pulls you into the sport,” said Brown. That could be especially valuable for people who don’t live in hockey towns like Duluth.
“Hockey is intimidating to get into right off the rip, because it is so niche,” Brown continued, “but this gives readers this chance to be like, ‘Well, I kind of know what’s happening, and now I feel comfortable saying I’m a hockey fan, or turning on a hockey game and not feeling so out of place.'”
J.T. Brown (23) plays with the UMD Bulldogs at Amsoil Arena in 2011.
Clint Austin / File / Duluth Media Group
Eventually, Brown was inspired to write a hockey romance of her own. In “Shoot Your Shot”
Brown strove not only to tell a compelling story, but also to get the hockey details right. That included writing game action scenes, which are not a feature of all hockey romances.
“I really love when there is hockey on the page, and that’s challenging to do if you don’t know what you’re talking about,” explained Brown.
“The other thing that is tough to get right is just tiny (collective bargaining agreement) stuff like contracts, if (players are) in college and being drafted,” the author continued. “Some of that really nitpicky stuff. Not everybody picks up on that, but obviously that’s something that I notice.”
The realm of sports generally lends itself to romance storytelling. Cassandra Medcalf, a Duluth romance author and audiobook narrator, wrote
involving competitive cornhole.
Cassandra Medcalf talks about hockey romance novels at The Bookstore at Fitger’s.
Clint Austin / Duluth Media Group
“They go through the cornhole season, and each major game is also a major moment for the characters’ romance in some way,” Medcalf explained. “There are those sports tropes that can be superimposed on the romance genre, and that gives you those little twists and extra-heightened moments.”
OK, but how did hockey — a sport with
than football, baseball or basketball — come to dominate romance bookshelves? In some ways, hockey being less ubiquitous may work in its favor.
Cassandra Medcalf, left, and Jennifer Jubenville laugh together while talking about hockey romance novels.
Clint Austin / Duluth Media Group
“Football definitely has the macho appeal. Baseball has the macho appeal. But there’s not quite the mystique,” said Jubenville. “Around here, a lot of people can skate, but (elsewhere) not everybody can skate.”
That said, hockey is still … well, a sport.
Lexi LaFleur Brown, wife of then-Minnesota Wild player J.T. Brown, with the couple’s children at a game in 2019.
Contributed / Lexi LaFleur Brown
“It’s a lot more likely that the guy on the hockey team is going to have an eight-pack,” Medcalf pointed out, “than it is that your boss, who sits at his desk eight hours a day, is going to have an eight-pack.”
Maybe there’s just something about being on ice.
“You can go on a date and you can be on skates, and you can be nice and romantic,” said Jubenville. “You don’t get that with football. Maybe you’ll go to the park and throw the football around, but that’s not quite the same thing.”
The fact that the Stanley Cup isn’t on the same level as the Super Bowl or the World Series can also make hockey feel more down-to-earth.
“The sport isn’t so big that these guys feel unattainable, or feel like these huge celebrities with, maybe, huge egos,” said Brown. Not to mention, “I think the sport itself is really exciting. That’s maybe a biased take, but hockey is just a really fun and exciting sport and maybe a little bit different.”
Some readers, however, may be biased in a different way — hockey
than other major sports.
Author Lexi LaFleur Brown, right, at one of her “beer league” hockey games with husband J.T. Brown.
Contributed / Lexi LaFleur Brown
“Romance readers who are white read a lot of these books,” said Medcalf. “The hockey games that they go to match that idea that they’ve built up in their head, because more of the players look like what they would have imagined, whereas if you turn on the NFL, it’s much more diverse.”
“I have heard that take, and I agree with it,” said Brown about the idea that some readers may be drawn to hockey’s relative lack of diversity. When writing “Shoot Your Shot,” she wanted to be sure not to perpetuate the cycle.
“I just wanted to write something that reflected the world that I live in and the diversity that I see around me in Seattle,” said Brown. Regarding her novel’s characters, “he’s a player of color and she’s bisexual, and she’s got this found family of queer friends.”
On the page as on the ice, representation is gradually increasing for players (and partners) who don’t fit the straight, white image that has dominated the sport.
“Rachel Reid is one of the top writers” in hockey romance, said Jubenville. “I think there’s a lot of people that probably are hesitant to pick these up, because it is two males, but I think there’s some of the best character development, some of the best writing.”
Reid’s books, like Brown’s novel, are frank about the intolerance players can face.
Jennifer Jubenville holds a copy of Rachel Reid’s “Heated Rivalry.”
Clint Austin / Duluth Media Group
“Ilya is very, very confident,” said Jubenville, describing Reed’s characters. “Shane is very intellectual, very internal with hockey, and yet they just click, and they really work as a couple, and they break the hockey world apart when word of their relationship comes out.”
Brown also recommends Reid. She also suggested authors Deanna Grey (“Team Players”), Bal Khabra (“Collide”) and Emily Rath (“Pucking Around”).
“Lasairiona McMaster is the author that I recommend,” said Medcalf. “She has the ‘Cedar Rapids Raccoons’ series. ‘Freezing the Puck’ is book one.”
A stack of hockey romance novels displayed at The Bookstore at Fitger’s.
Clint Austin / Duluth Media Group
Medcalf narrated an audiobook for one hockey romance, “Strictly for Now,” by Carrie Elks.
“It was a really fun book,” said Medcalf. “I had to do a Swedish accent for a hockey player. I remember being so surprised, because I was just like, what? They literally said, ‘a sexy Swedish accent.'”
The fun has stopped, in some cases, when readers have transferred their steamy dreams onto real players — and been explicit about their ardor.
“The first hockey romance videos I saw on TikTok,” remembered Medcalf, involved things like “showing (an actual) team stretching on the ice, and then (romance readers) would clip it and be like, ‘It makes me think of this scene.'”
Cassandra Medcalf talks about hockey romance novels.
Clint Austin / Duluth Media Group
The Kraken made
in 2023 after thirst for player Alex Wennberg crossed the line into inappropriate sexual comments. The team, which had previously courted romance readers with posts featuring actual players, changed its social media strategy.
Brown said she takes pains to make clear that her characters are fictional. “It’s really important for me to never project my fake, made-up characters, to portray them as, ‘Maybe it’s about this real player.’ That’s a really hard line I draw.”
Meanwhile, the made-up teams have developed fans of their own. “There are websites and Etsy shops where they make the hockey jerseys for these fictitious teams,” Jubenville pointed out.
In “Shoot Your Shot,” players skate for the fictional Seattle Rainiers. Brown’s next book, set for publication in May, will be set in the state where her husband grew up.
It’s “another hockey romance” with a “little bit of revenge” in the plot, said Brown. The book is set “in the Twin Cities, with a Minnesota NHL team.”
So one romantic lead plays pro hockey. What does his romantic interest do? “She’s a mascot.”