Request: Dark Themes/Sports

[deedlit50.livejournal.com]

Request: I just finished the entire Foxhole Court series- which was brilliant- but now I need something good to read as a follow up. I'm looking for something similar to Foxhole in its content and levels of awesome. Sports and/or crime focused with dark themes, overcoming physiological or physical abuse, morally ambiguous main characters, sociopathic characters a plus. Slow burns are also a favorite of mine. Thanks in advance.

Comments

[sophie84.livejournal.com]

I just finished the Foxhole court. Thank you. That was exceedingly addictive.

Last weekend, I finished the Captive Prince trilogy (http://www.amazon.com/Captive-Prince-Book-One-Trilogy/dp/0425274268/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1455560861&sr=1-1&keywords=captive+prince)(I've been waiting for years for the third book to finally come out... It started out as an online serial, but a publisher acquired it and that halted the progress for a few years). Filled with deceit and double-crosses, though not as harsh as Foxhole court. Regardless, you might find it of interest.

[deedlit50.livejournal.com]

Oh man, I love Captive Prince. I haven't read the third novel yet but I've been a long time fan of the series. I've been kind of putting off finishing it actually because I know it's going to break my heart once it's actually over. Thanks for the suggestion though! It's hard finding stories of that level of quality.

[deedlit50.livejournal.com]

Oh! And I'm really glad you liked The Foxhole Court. It's one of those stories that gets overlooked a lot because it is such a slow burn and very dark but it's one of my top favorites.

[sophie84.livejournal.com]

Partway through the first book, I sent a copy to my sister. Called her today to see how that was going. Her reply? "What have you done to me?!!" I told her that there was a reason I never got around to the sleeping part of Saturday night...

[deedlit50.livejournal.com]

Haha. Yeah, I think I powered through the first book in about two days. Who needs sleep? Not us! It was killer on me to wait for book 2 to come out, let alone book 3. I'm really sad there isn't any more. I so wasn't ready to say goodbye to those characters or their world.

Which character was your favorite? I fell completely in love with Andrew pretty early in but the series kept me guessing as to who the m/m pairing would be right up until somewhere in book 2. I have a real weakness for tortured characters and bad guys so Foxhole almost felt like it was written with me in mind.

Not to mention how badly I wish Exy was a real sport. All of the technical sports talk really worked for me because I'm a pretty big hockey fan. I'm just amazed by how much thought and effort she put into developing her own sport for these books. Wish I could see it played in real life.

[anialove.livejournal.com]

You might like Avery Cockburn's Glasgow Lads series. There are currently three novels,a novella, and a short story. They're centered around a football (soccer) team and deal with various social issues in Scotland like the class divide, the Catholic/Protestant divide, and sectarianism. Dark might be a bit of an exaggeration, but the first (for instance) deals with one of the hero's past in a hate group.

Straight Shooter by Heidi Belleau (part of a series, but you don't have to read the other books) is about a macho asshole hockey player who is actually suffering from internalized homophobia. He's also got a humiliation kink.

[evalangui.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the rec! I started Straight Shooter and I´m totally hooked!

[pyewacket4.livejournal.com]

I went searching for links to a few stories that came to mind, and found half of them here (special mention to Shadow of the Templar, perhaps my all-time favourite slash series):
http://theslashpile.tumblr.com/post/96533462213/original-slash-where-to-start

One more recent one, no longer a WIP, is the Fae Tales verse. If you like sociopathic characters, you should love it haha.
http://theslashpile.tumblr.com/post/126698007289/rec-fae-tales-verse

Oh, and a story I haven't seen recced much, but it's wonderful, is Return Ticket to Stockholm
http://original.adult-fanfiction.org/story.php?no=600104269
It's about a guy being taking hostage after witnessing a murder.

Most of these stories though, have the characters sleeping together early on. However, the romance aspects are well-done slow burns.