Checking for Love: A Lesbian Sports Romance

by Reba Bale

They’re bitter rivals on the ice, but when they become roommates things get heated…

Toni
Despite the fact that Yvonne Volkova and I both come from hockey royalty, we’ve never liked each other. She’s the icy, controlled captain everyone respects. I’m the relentless forward who plays with heart and fire. Now the International Games have put us on the same team… and in the same room. I can handle the competition, but I wasn’t expecting the way the ice queen melts when the walls come down.

Yvonne
I’ve spent my career freezing out anyone who gets too close. Toni Lindstrom is everything I avoid -- bold, emotional, and with a sunshine smile that’s impossible to ignore. We’re complete opposites, but Toni is breaking through my defenses. We quickly go from enemies to friends to something more. But when the Games end, we’ll return to opposite sides of the rink -- and risking my heart might cost more than losing a game.

One night with a rival was supposed to mean nothing. The problem is, it changed everything.

“Checking for Love” is part of the “Playing to Win” lesbian sports romance series. Each romantic comedy is a standalone story centered around sapphic athletes who find love during the most important competition of their careers. If you like snarky enemies-to-lovers banter, competitive spirits, loving queer relationships, and a sweet happily ever after, download these WLW stories today.

Genres: Contemporary, Adult, LGBT, Romance

144 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 6, 2026

About the author

Reba Bale loves writing naughty stories where the characters are able to tap into their inner fantasies and experience spanking, bondage, humiliation, or other activities on the non-vanilla side of life.

When Reba is not writing she's reading the same naughty stories she likes to write.

Be sure to follow Reba's Amazon author page and sign up for her newsletter so you are first to hear about all the new releases. Sign up at: https://bit.ly/rebabooks.

Reviews

[Becca Thomas · Rating 1 out of 5]

Taking the time to at least proofread this once would have gone a long way. The typos kept pulling me out of the story.

Additionally, it's clear the author did minimal research, if any, on women's hockey. Basic research would reveal that Canada and the U.S. are the power houses in women's hockey so the U.S. team wouldn't need to rely on a lot of Russian born players who need the coaches instructions translated. Inconsistencies like this when it was clearly based on the 2026 Olympics

For anyone who enjoyed Heated Rivalry and is looking for queer hockey stories I would suggest checking out Like a Power Play (Sapphic), Check, Please! Book 1: #Hockey (Graphic Novel), Interference (YA), or Wake Up, Nat & Darcy (Sapphic).

[J.R. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Two hockey players, two different sets of parents and the guilt starts who wins?

Yvonne was in Vancouver and Toni was in Seattle. Chosen to go Milan for the championship games. Then they find out they are roommates. Oh Vey! What happens now? Toni's parents know what it means to raise children, Yvonne parents, well Yvonne left them and never wants to see them again. Oops! The two girls find out quickly how they seem to like each other. Enjoy!

[Olga Higb · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’m sorry to say but this book was very disappointing. It was presented to me as angsty and spicy and hockey. As a female “heated rivalry”. Other than the FMCs being hockey players, there was no hockey. There was 1.5 “spicy” scenes and they were over in less than a minute and weren’t hot at all. The plot was barely there and predictable as anything. No character growth or development, no unexpected twists. Just really disappointed.

[Jamie (TheRebelliousReader) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars. This was not a rivals to lovers romance like it's billed as. The characters don't even dislike each other. I’m disappointed in that aspect but I will say that this was easily the best book in this series. I liked Yvonne and Toni as characters and I liked their relationship. There’s no third act break up, and I appreciated that. I hated all of the time skipping though because it feels like a lot of the relationship development happens off page. And the sports element was disappointing as well a lot of telling instead of showing. Definitely not the best sports romance I’ve read recently but it was okay.

Spice: ❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥/❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥
Content Warning: Domestic abuse (mentioned, off page), Toxic parent, Verbal abuse