The Ultimate C.E. Ricci Guide

Enclave Playlists

Leighton U

Leighton U Books in Order

Book 1: Iced Out

Book 2: Caught Stealing

Book 3: Fair Catch

Book 4: Playing Dirty

Book 5: Fake Shot

Leighton U is for readers who enjoy:

College Romance
Enemies-to-Lovers
Hockey Players
MM Romance
Opposites Attract

Leighton U Books Descriptions

Iced Out

All’s fair in hate and hockey.

My path to success never included an enemy as a teammate, especially one as infuriating as Quinton de Haas.

Clawing under my skin is his favorite pastime, only feeding the animosity between us as the years pass.

We’re as completely opposite as two people can be; the golden boy and the black sheep.

Constantly at odds or at each other’s throats.

The only thing we can agree on is hockey is our true love, and we’ll do whatever it takes to come out on top.

I never imagined that drive would lead me to do the unthinkable: falling into bed with my not-so-straight rival.

But athletes are a superstitious bunch, and when our hook-ups lead to victories, we tell ourselves we can’t stop.

Besides, it’s all for the sake of the team, right?

Caught Stealing

It’s not stealing if he’s meant to be mine.

Let me tell you how Holden Sykes operates.

As the campus playboy and one-and-done king, he doesn’t do strings.

Or repeats.

Or names, for that matter.

So when he tries making my best friend the next notch on his bedpost, I react poorly.

Some would call it jealousy or an unrequited crush,

but friends protect each other from making mistakes.

The same ones I’ve already made.

Which is why driving Holden away seems like my only option.

Too bad he’s not giving up without a fight.

Each prank leads to another

until he turns this into a game far more precarious than intended.

One filled with stolen moments and heated glances,

drawing me into his orbit.

But the undeniable attraction simmering between us

leaves me caught in the crosshairs of an impossible decision.

Loyalty…or love.

January 2024 Reading Wrap Up

Fair Catch

This is Hayes and Kason’s story.

Release date, cover, and blurb TBA at a later time.

Playing Dirty

Book four in the Leighton U series.

Cover, blurb, and release date TBA.

Fake Shot

Final books in the Leighton U series.

Cover, blurb, and release date TBA.

Booklists that feature Leighton U

Leighton U Playlists

You Might Also Enjoy 9 Hockey Romances That Will Melt Ice

River of Rain

River of Rain Books in Order

Book 1: Follow the River

Book 2: After Rain Falls

River of Rain is for readers who enjoy:

Bully Romance
College Romance
Grumpy/Sunshine
Mental Health Rep
Slow Burns

River of Rain Books Descriptions

Follow the River

I’ve never been one to back down from a challenge.

Rather than shy away, I grit my teeth and use it as an opportunity to prove myself.

Not just in football, but also in life.

Even when I was thrown through a loop in discovering I was bisexual, I embraced it. Owning it so no one can use it as ammunition against me.

But when Ciaráin Grady comes barreling into my life with his venomous tongue and amber eyes brimming with disdain, I realize every test of my character and strength could never have prepared me for the trial he holds.

One that toes the line of love and hate.

It’s all-consuming and toxic.

Yet under the layers of revulsion he masks his face with, I see it. A glimmer of lust from deep within his secretive, broken soul.

And when we’re thrown together under heinous circumstances, the distinction between enemy and lover begins to blur.

So…what is Ciaráin Grady to me?

I’m only certain that he is the greatest challenge of my life.

After Rain Falls

Love has never been important to me. Not because I didn’t want it, I just never imagined feeling something so powerful.

There was a point where I thought I felt it years ago for the person I trusted most in the world, only to have it shatter in a thousand pieces.

But now he’s back in my life and I’m certain I was wrong.

Because nothing compares to the way I feel about River Lennox.

Nothing could have prepared me for the war we waged against one another to turn into a battle to not only find ourselves, but each other.

Our prison sentence became our sanctuary from anything–or anyone–who dared to rip us apart.

He crawled under my skin, into my heart, and made a home for himself there despite my efforts to stop him.

But it doesn’t matter now. Not when I find myself being thrown into a chess game I never asked to play with decisions forced on me that no one should have to make.

It’s not just life and death.

It’s love and hate.

The past and the future.

Except…when my past comes knocking with a thirst for vengeance, I start to question if I have a future at all.

River of Rain Playlists

Need more book recs? Get the latest BWBH updates, exclusive content, and more straight to your inbox!

Standalone Books by C.E. Ricci

Don’t You Dare

Don’t You Dare by C.E. Ricci is for readers who enjoy:

Baseball Players
A Bi-Awakening
College Romance
Friends with Benefits
Roommates

Book Description

It was never meant to be more than a dare.

A party game. A dare. A single kiss.

That’s all it took to flip my world upside down.

I’ve always classified myself as straight, and as far as I can tell, so has he.

I didn’t think one kiss would change that, but I was so wrong.

Now, I can’t stop thinking about him. In all the ways I shouldn’t.

My best friend.

Aspen.

His taste is branded in my memory, his touch seared in my skin.

And I want more.

This simmering attraction I feel only grows with passing time.

Which is why I start tossing out new dares.

Riskier ones that toe lines we never thought we’d cross.

I’m gambling with our friendship, knowing it could ruin us.

But there’s so much more at stake here.

Like my heart.

Don’t You Dare Playlist

Head Above Water

Head Above Water by C.E. Ricci is for readers who enjoy:

Enemies-to-Lovers
Mental Health Rep
MM Romance
Slow Burns
Stepsiblings

Book Description

That’s the thing about hearts—

Like waves, they break too.

Grief.

I’ve never battled with the raw, debilitating pain that comes with it.

Then a twist of fate hits me out of nowhere, and I can barely keep from drowning.

It’s like weights tied to my ankles in the middle of a raging ocean.

I’m helpless, with no way to swim back to the surface.

But fate is crueler still, bringing my stepbrother back for the first time in years.

Cannon never wanted this family. Especially me.

Still, he’s always been my greatest desire. And my biggest weakness.

He’s unattainable.

Straight, engaged, and with a seemingly perfect life on the other side of the country.

It’s something I’d do well to remember, yet when he stays, it’s so easy to forget.

In finding solace together, we mend what once was broken.

This loss bonds us. Changes us.

He’s become more than a brother or a lover.

He’s my anchor.

So how am I supposed to keep my head above water when I’ll eventually lose him too?

Head Above Water Playlist

Collaborations with C.E. Ricci

Want You Still by C.E. Ricci and Marley Valentine

Want You Still by C.E. Ricci and Marley Valentine is for readers who enjoy:

Emotional Stories
Forbidden Romance
Military Men
MM Romance
Second Chances

Book Description

The heart always wants what it can’t have…

Duty, honor, and sacrifice. Dedicating my life to these elements, for family and country, leaves little for myself in return. It’s why I indulge in a no-strings hookup with a handsome stranger mere days before heading half-a-world away. Except one night turns into a week-long fling, creating a connection at the most inopportune time. And neither of us want it to end. Staying in touch is easy at first, but dwindles to radio silence and distant memories as time passes. I didn’t expect him to reemerge in my life months later, now belonging to someone else. It should be enough for us both to walk away. To push down this relentless, aching want. But we don’t… We can’t. Because the heart always wants what it can’t have.

Want You Still Playlist

FMC? PNR? DP? What does it mean?

Check out the BWBH Romance Dictionary and discover all things related to romance novels!

Anthologies featuring C.E. Ricci

Anti-Valentine

Anti-Valentine is for readers who enjoy:

Bully Romance
Enemies-to-Lovers
Forced Proximity
Friends-to-Lovers
MM Romance

Book Description

This Valentine’s Day…the bad boys come out to play…

Get ready for an anti-Valentine to remember in this limited release M/M romance anthology. Sixteen authors have come together to bring you a collection of brand-new short stories with a combination of dark, enemies to lovers, and bully themes.

Participating Andi Jaxon, Ashley James, Ashlyn Drewek, Bailey Nicole, Becca Steele, Bethany Winters, C. Lymari, CE Ricci, Hayden Hall, Isabel Lucero, J.R. Gray, Jessie Walker, Misty Walker, Nicole Dykes, Riley Nash, T. Ashleigh

All eBook proceeds from this anthology will benefit LGBTQ+ mental health organizations.

5 Authors like C.E. Ricci

Hidden Scars by Andi Jaxon

Darby U Hockey Boys, Book One

Hidden Scars by Andi Jaxon is for readers who enjoy:

College Romance
Enemies-to-Lovers
Hockey Players
MM Romance
Roommates

Book Description

Charles Preston Carmichael is the most infuriating man I’ve ever met.

I want to sock the golden boy of college hockey right in the mouth.

He enjoys telling me everything I’m messing up. Publicly.

And since he’s my roommate for the next year, I can’t avoid him.

Yet there’s something about him that makes me watch him.

Something dark.

A secret I want to uncover.

When he returns from a weekend away, broken and haunted, I can’t keep my distance anymore.

He needs someone and I’ll be damned if it’s not me.

Soon my life no longer revolves around hockey, but the nightmares he’s living with.

Desperately I want to save him but I can’t, not yet. The timing has to be just right.

Can I watch him destroy himself as he tries to hold tight to the things that matter or will I be the final hit in the destruction of his life?

Little Bird Lost by Jessie Walker

Little Bird Lost by Jessie Walker is for readers who enjoy:

Angsty
Dub-Con/Non-Con
Enemies-to-Lovers
Slow Burns
Why Choose

Book Description

I’m the one they’ve been waiting for…

Tick, tick, tick…

He calls himself the Fowler, and this is his Aviary—

a lavish mansion buried deep within an endless wintry forest,

where the wicked elite gather to play their depraved games. He calls us his Flock—

Me and his three sons, Corvin, Ezio, and Aquillus.

My jailers.

My tormentors.

My salvation. They hold the keys to my cage.

They keep me sane. I can’t let this place get to me. I can’t let them into my head.

But when the line between good and evil blurs in this never-ending nightmare—

Who will be left standing?

The girl I was…

Or the Firebird they turned me into. “There is only one way out of the Aviary, my dear.

Be it by wings or ash.”

Wrath by Ellis James

Sinful Secrets, Book Four

Wrath by Ella James is for readers who enjoy:

Mental Health Rep
MM Romance
Second Chances
Sports Romance
Stepsiblings

Book Description

Josh Miller.

That’s his name, but I just call him DG for Do Gooder.

This guy is relentless. All-American, baby-faced, blue-eyed band dork who’s not a band dork at all, because you can’t be a dork when you’re getting scouted to play college soccer. When he’s not doing music or sports, DG is counting up his Boy Scout badges or front-rowing it at the First Baptist church.

DG is my new stepbrother. Little brother. I’m a whole year older, not that he knows. I don’t think he knows I’m starting senior year a whole year late. And he definitely doesn’t know why. I’ve got secrets I’m taking with me to the grave.

Everyone thinks I came to play varsity football, but I’ve got other plans, and DG’s trying to thwart them all. He’s making my life worse than it already is.

Having him around is a damn plague. But I can fight back. I found out a little secret about Mr. Perfect. He plays for the “other” team. That ball bat he’s got stuffed into his gray sweatpants—it swings “that” way. The best part about this twisted game is when I find out it gets hard for me.

The Do Gooder…he wants me. I don’t know why. But I know how to make him pay.

Fake Out by Eden Finley

Fake Boyfriend, Book One

Fake Out by Eden Finley is for readers who enjoy:

A Bi-Awakening
Fake Dating
Friends-to-Lovers
MM Romance
Sports Romance

Book Description

MADDOX

The reason I rarely go home is three simple words: I’m a liar.

When the pressure to marry my childhood sweetheart became too much, I told her I was gay and then fled to New York like my ass was on fire.

Now, five years later and after a drunken encounter, I find myself invited to her wedding. And I have to bring my boyfriend—the boyfriend who doesn’t exist because I’m straight.

At least, I think I am. Meeting the guy I’m bribing to be my boyfriend for the weekend makes me question everything about myself.

DAMON

When my sister asks me to pretend to be some straight guy’s boyfriend, my automatic response is to say no. It’s because of guys like him people don’t believe me when I tell them I’m gay.

But Maddox has something I need.

After an injury that cost me my baseball career, I’m trying to leave my playing days behind and focus on being the best sports agent I can be. Forty-eight hours with my sister’s best friend in exchange for a meeting with a possible client. I can do this.

I just wish he wasn’t so hot. Or that he didn’t kiss like he means it.

Wait … why is the straight guy kissing me?

For the Fans by Nyla K.

For the Fans by Nyla K. is for readers who enjoy:

College Romance
Football Players
Forced Proximity
MM Romance
Stepsiblings

Book Description

Kyran Harbor is everything I’m not.

Rich. Popular. A superstar football player who’s awfully broody for someone who has it all. Basically, he’s a preppy jock who hates me. Oh, and he’s also my stepbrother.

That’s right. We’re stuck together, sharing a school, a house… A bathroom. Honestly, I wouldn’t care… If he wasn’t such an uptight control-freak who messes with me just because we’re different.

I had every intention of avoiding him when we got to college… Until abrupt misfortune forces us both into a compromising position.

Now the grouchy jerk I was hoping to evade might be the only person who can help me out of it.

Avi Vega is everything I despise.

A dreamer. A flake. An artist who smokes too much weed and thinks aliens exist. And by some sick cosmic joke, he’s now my stepbrother, following me on what should’ve been my escape plan.

It was already a disaster. Add a sudden financial disruption to the mix, and let’s just say my options are heavily limited.

If I want to stay an all-star quarterback on the way to the NFL, I’ll need to do something drastic. Unfortunately for me, and my desperate desire for control, the perpetually smiling stoner has a plan.

Maybe we can stop hating each other just enough to pull this off. As long as we remember we’re only doing it… for the fans.