Balls in Play
sports romance
Series · romance
The Brooklyn Bruisers series by Sarina Bowen has 3 known books (3 published) and is best read in publication order, starting with Rookie Move (2016). The latest book with a fully recorded publication date is Hard Hitter.
Start here: Rookie Move (2016) — then read straight through in publication order.
The date order of published books and any announced future entries — the default way to read the series.
Rookie Move is the novel that opens Brooklyn Bruisers, Sarina Bowen's series, first published in 2016. It's the natural place to begin, in a series that runs to 3 books in this catalogue and continues here with Hard Hitter.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Rookie MoveHard Hitter is the 2nd book in Brooklyn Bruisers by Sarina Bowen, published in 2017 at 161 pages. In the reading order it follows Rookie Move and precedes Pipe Dreams.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Hard HitterPipe Dreams is the 3rd book in Brooklyn Bruisers by Sarina Bowen, published in 2017 at 322 pages. It follows Hard Hitter in this catalogue's reading order.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Pipe DreamsThe Brooklyn Bruisers is Sarina Bowen's original trilogy about a fictional NHL expansion team finding its footing on and off the ice. Rookie Move pairs a green rookie with the general manager's daughter — his ex, and the one person he's contractually not supposed to get involved with again — for a workplace-adjacent, second-chance romance under real career pressure. Hard Hitter and Pipe Dreams stay with the same team through one season, following the Bruisers' captain and goalie into their own high-stakes, sports-world love stories. Bowen writes hockey with genuine insider texture (grueling travel schedules, front-office politics, the specific loneliness of professional athletes) alongside the swoony, committed-hero romance she's known for.
This origin trilogy plays out over a single season and sets up the team, city and front-office cast that Bowen would return to and expand in the later, longer-running Brooklyn Hockey series (Brooklynaire onward). Read as a self-contained set, Brooklyn Bruisers is for readers who want professional (not college) sports romance: real stakes for grown adults with careers, second-chance and workplace-proximity tropes, and a found-family locker room that makes every book feel connected.
Three: Rookie Move, Hard Hitter, and Pipe Dreams.
Publication order: Rookie Move, Hard Hitter, Pipe Dreams. They cover one hockey season for the same team, with earlier couples reappearing in later books.
They're related but distinct: Brooklyn Bruisers (this three-book set) is the original trilogy, while Brooklyn Hockey (starting with Brooklynaire) is a separate, longer continuation with the same team in later seasons.
No. A couple of Ivy Years characters appear in supporting roles here, but Brooklyn Bruisers reads perfectly well without any prior Sarina Bowen books.
Yes, this trilogy is complete at three books. Bowen has continued the same hockey world in the separate Brooklyn Hockey series.
Reading order last verified .