Riling Up the Rival

by Mara Townsend

What happens when you call your rival opponent Daddy?

Erik’s whole life is indoor volleyball. He wasn’t born a talented player, but through hard work he has honed himself into a great one. With a competitive streak a mile wide, he’ll go to any length to win—even flirt with his opponents to rile them up.

After losing the chance to compete in nationals, Erik enters college with a stronger drive, throwing himself into his passion for the sport. Head back in the game, he will follow his dreams all the way. He trains harder than he ever has before, pushes himself to the limit, and spares no time for distractions.

But summer break from college brings a surprise run-in with his old rival, Sam. Seeing him forces every bitter feeling about losing to Sam’s team to the surface and Erik can’t resist the opportunity to get some revenge. It’s only meant to be a joke, something to get under Sam’s skin and fluster him. Erik doesn’t expect interest to reflect in his rival’s eyes, or for the flirtatious prank to stir a serious need inside of him. It would be one thing if it happened once, but Erik and Sam’s paths keep crossing, making it impossible for Erik to ignore these urges.

Erik has no idea they are both playing with fire and if he isn’t careful, it may get him burned.

Riling Up the Rival is a steamy and fast-paced MM college sports romance featuring accidental kink discovery, flirting gone wrong (or very right), rivals to friends to lovers, a soft Dom, light daddy role play, a hot locker room encounter, and a HEA. This 22,000 word standalone short story contains explicit sex and strong language intended for 18+ readers only.

Genres: Sports, M M Romance, LGBT, Romance, BDSM, Novella, Short Stories

88 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 2, 2019

About the author

Mara Townsend is a bisexual indie author of LGBTQ+ romances. She loves to explore intimate relationship development of the feels-inducing variety to invoke the eternal just kiss plea from the reader, as well as crafting strong platonic friendships with heaps of heart and soul. Her stories showcase diverse representation, love stories with realistic emotions—never mindless fluff, a healthy dose of humor, and a side helping of her favorite tropes.

She hangs out in fan communities online and learned how to write the kind of stories that she’s passionate about through experimental character-driven fiction based in her favorite worlds. When not writing, she can be found soaking up sunshine at the beach, traveling the world to fill in her passport, perpetually collecting plants, and reading as many fake-dating romance books as she can find.

Reviews

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

This took a long time to progress for a novella, once it picked up the end was very sudden. Turn the page mid story and that was it. It was kinda cute but mostly disappointing.

This is inspired by a manga series called “Haikyu!!” So fans of that may enjoy this more than I did.

[Geralynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's so hard for me to want to get down with any kind of kinky writing because as a person who engages in a lot of kink in real life, I find that most authors go too far with the concept. Not everyone has a closet filled with bespoke paddles and riding crops. A lot of us have it hanging out in our closet with spare few under our favorite dresses.

So what I love about this is the way that it's a discovery story but also a discovery of kink. Erik and Sam are both college aged boys who were rivals in high school for opposite schools playing volleyball. Eventually they meet up again during their college tenure on their own sports teams, and Erik finds that if he flirts with his opponents it distracts them enough to miss the beat during a game.

That works all fine until he calls Sam Daddy and sees the reaction shift.

Daddy kink is so often portrayed in such a specific manner, but what Townsend does here is take it to a more realistic level. You're not reading about someone demanding to be called Daddy whilst wearing leather chaps. It's literally about two boys who are coming of age and finding attraction to each other and enjoying this newly discovered word that gets them both riled up.

What's sexy about that is how the emotions that play with this new discovery work on someone. And Townsend has done a fantastic job of showing the way that it affects Erik and how he discovers how he wants to do it more. What I find incredibly hot about that is the building anticipation of a character wanting to do it again, and how that makes them feel.

I really think the world needs more stories like this where we take a kink and bring it to a playing level that works in a day to day situation. Mara Townsend has gone above and beyond to show that, and given her audience a chance to really see how such a discovery can be possible without all the accouterments that we so often read elsewhere.

[Gaby · Rating 3 out of 5]

Accidentally discovering a daddy kink could be the subtitle of this book. I think the build up was very slow and by the end when things finally clicked between the MCs the book just ended? Like give us an epilogue or something!

[fishreads (on indefinite hiatus) · Rating 3 out of 5]

(2,5 stars rated up) Erik Moore and Sam Yoon both play on their respective opposing high school's volleyball teams. When Sam's team pulls an unexpected win over Erik's team in the Regional High School Volleyball Championship to advance to nationals Erik feels bitter about the loss but optimistic about his future of playing college volleyball after hearing about some college scouts attending their match.

The two of them meet again on a beach over summer break and when Erik flirts with Sam in order to ruffle his feathers Sam's possible interest surprises him. The two meet again at college summer training camp, where Erik starts flirtatiously calling Sam Daddy to get him off his game, only to find Sam blushing and amused by Erik's antics. They exchange numbers and keep messaging each other all through the rest of their summer and beginning of the new semester, sharing an unexpected train ride back home for winter break and growing closer the more they get to know each other. When their college teams meet for practice match and Erick finds Sam alone in the visiting locker room after their match they finally give into the desires simmering between them for months.

I found this story less exciting than the summary made me believe it would be, I expected explosive rivalry and shameless flirting, but the rivalry was far less explosive and flirting more low key than shameless. The story is also advertised as fast paced while I actually found it quite slow paced. Erik and Sam's path from rivals to friends to something more spanned months and was more of a gradual slow burn. While the first half felt really slow going and not that interesting, the second half made me feel more engaged with the story as Erik starts thinking more and more about Sam and his craving to call Sam daddy for real instead of a tease it started out as initially. The daddy kink itself was very light and focused on the care taking aspect which I found enjoyable as I'm not that big into kink most of the time.

Themes: single POV, rivals to friends to lovers, college, accidental kink discovery, daddy kink

[Alex (HEABookNerd) · Rating 3 out of 5]

RILING UP THE RIVAL was a cute read and I liked it. Erik and Sam were both great characters and the book covers a surprising amount of time as it jumps ahead by several months between each chapter. I wasn't really expecting the MCs to spend so much time apart and that their relationship would spend so much time in the friends zone before anything happened. Considering this was such a short novella I think it would have been stronger if they got together sooner in the book and we saw them as a couple for longer so we could really believe their relationship would last.

[Smut Librarian · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you like the ‘Enemies to Lovers’ trope – this is the book for you!  It’s super hot and a delightful ‘accidentally in love’ story with a bit of kink to keep things spicy.

[Ashley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sweet and Spicy

This was an amazing book! It had all of my favorite tropes and kinks in one very well written story. It also features plenty of humor, the right amount of slow burn, and the hottest sex scene I've read in a while just made this one of my new favorite books. I highly recommend it!

[Ana Miranda · Rating 1 out of 5]

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Alicia · Rating 3 out of 5]

2 1/2. Short and yet it takes a really long time to get anywhere.

[AlitaConejita · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 rounded up

This story was surprisingly well done. I say “surprisingly” because the author managed to make a kink discovery story sweet and realistic, I don’t read that often. Usually, kink stories are fairly hardcore erotica with characters and backgrounds written in as flimsy window dressing.

I’m not into kink, but I’ll read just about anything labeled romance and i have KU, so that means I end up with a bunch of stuff that falls in the kink category frequently - especially bdsm and daddy stories that have been so popular since 50 shades of gray.

This story isn’t like that at all. There isn’t a domineering alpha-hole and a cringy simp or spoiled brat. It’s two young guys getting to know each other past an existing rivalry and discovering how much they like to play certain roles with each other. It is rather sweet and nothing either hardcore or insta-lust about it. It’s an HFN that could become a HEA.

I ended the story smiling, so two-thumbs up from me. If you are looking for porn in words and hot smut, you’ll be quite disappointed. But if you are looking for romance and sweet beginnings (and don’t mind a sex scene or two) I think you’ll enjoy it.

[Max C. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I started reading this and at some point it just felt so familiar, and my thoughts immediately jumped to Haikyuu fanfiction. The MC (Erik) just reminds me of Oikawa (kind of a main side-character from the anime that I didn't actually like that much) and the shorter, stockier Sam could have been Oikawa's BFF (Iwaizumi) the two are a popular ship in the anime's fandom with a lot of fanfics (that I mostly ignored, but I did cave and read a few.)

So I get to the acknowledgments at the end and nearly screamed "I KNEW IT!!!!" even though it's close to 4am in the morning because it is totally inspired by Haikyuu. I never did finish the anime, and I don't think I'm going to, they're not even a ship I like, but this story is really good (aside from a lot of info dumping, which I skimmed.)

[Bibliophilic Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story is enjoyable and passionate. I love how the author details the characters' emotions. One thing I have to say though is that the story feels too short that several in-between moments feel glossed over. Character-wise, I enjoy Erik's feistiness and Sam's laid-back attitude. While I prefer Sam as a character, I cannot deny their chemistry. Overall, this book is a quick and fun read that'll make you long for their kind of romance.

[P3 · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is not a romance book

This books spans from high school to university. The main characters are Erik and Sam. I did not like Erik. I think the writer was going for clever and funny with his character. I just found his character immature and annoying. This book did not do it for me. I did not enjoy it, and would not recommend it to anyone.

[Jessica Duet · Rating 4 out of 5]

good quick read

This was a good quick read. Rivals to lovers slow burn. I liked that the became friends after the one sided rivalry. And the built something together. It was a slow burn but fast paced everywhere else. I wanted a few more chapters for them to explore their discovered kink together. All around it was a good read.

[Kim Stone · Rating 3 out of 5]

New to me, author. This is an MM romance that starts in high school and goes through to college. The main characters are Erik and Sam. Told from Eric’s point of you they start as rivals and always on opposition teams. This is a slow burn but ends with some intimacy in the locker room at the end.

[Jill · Rating 4 out of 5]

I appreciate the slow burn of this relationship. Well done.

[Brooke · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.75⭐️

[Babii · Rating 5 out of 5]

QUERIA MAIS 😭😭

[Queen Talk Talk · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hot

I found this MM enemies to lovers romance beautiful. The build up to friends felt natural. The characters, dialogue, editing and sexy times deserve Five stars.

[Suze Fields · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a well paced story that concentrates on two college volleyball players and how the teasing of one of them gets them from rivals to more. The pace could be considered as slow, if you are one to pick a book like this for the "smut", but the characters are well built and presented, with no unnecesary rounding up or extra details that would only hung off the frame of the story like dead weight.

There were a few misshaps - in my opinion - that might be a momentary catch in the story, but doesn't derail it. There is a lot of depictions and explaining of the game. It's not excesive, but does push the reader to think if this is all there will be. Then, the smut scenes help themselves with a lot of rehearsed formulas. Up to that point, there are things about Erik's previous experience that remained hidden the rest of the story, and suddenly are dumped on you that can take you a bit off. I wonder if that was necessary for this development, and why couldn't it be added since the begining.

[Danielle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super cute short story. Wish it was longer and more developed because I would have liked to see more of the characters personalities but they were well done in the page time we did have. I liked that Erik wasn’t naturally the best at volleyball and to work hard to be good. Rivals to friends to lovers is one of my favorite tropes so you had me there. Like I said I just wish it was a full length novel cause it would have been super great.

[Patdbooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

Got this book as a freebie for a promise of a review. Loved the short story of these two rivals at start, well at least from Eric's side, but who eventually let the walls down to open their hearts to each other. The daddy thing I did not really get, maybe it was as I preferred Eric but overall a great short read

[Annie ~ Queer Books Unbound · Rating 4 out of 5]

OMG this is cute and lovely and I wish it was a full-length novel!

I loved how both characters explored their new found kink and how the relationship progressed. Definitely looking forward to more from this author.

[KerriLee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sizzling and sexy. I really had a fun time with this one!

[Lene · Rating 4 out of 5]

MM romance.

[Lyndsay Baker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Have read this at least twice

It’s so much fun! And the boys are utterly ridiculous and sexy as hell, it’s just a lovely exploration of how attraction can build into something real