Lauren Fraser writes steamy contemporary romance, with stories involving professional baseball, cowboys, mature heroines, friends who become lovers, and relationships involving three partners.
Her bibliography has two distinct phases. Her earlier books are mostly compact contemporary, Western, ménage, and reverse-age-gap romances. Her newer Playing for Keeps books form a connected professional baseball series with recurring teammates and couples.
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Most Lauren Fraser books have a complete romantic ending and can be read independently. Series order is still useful in Playing for Keeps because the San Diego Hawks players move from supporting roles into their own books.
Pick a Reading Lane
Readers do not need to combine every Lauren Fraser book into one long sequence.
- Choose Playing for Keeps for professional baseball romance.
- Choose Cowboy Code for Western romance and rodeo settings.
- Choose Best Things Are Three for MFM or MMF relationships involving three central partners.
- Choose Flirty Forties for older-woman and younger-man romance.
- Choose Off Limits in Hollow Peak for a short mountain-man romance in a multi-author shared world.
The remaining books are independent contemporary romances and can be read in any order.
Playing for Keeps Books in Order
Playing for Keeps follows professional baseball players, their friends, and people connected to the San Diego Hawks.
The books change couples, so they are interconnected standalones rather than one continuous romance. Reading them in order preserves teammate introductions and allows earlier couples to return without revealing their endings prematurely.
Two prequel novellas require special handling. Too Far introduces the first athlete connected to the series but is not itself primarily a sports romance. Protecting the Plate is also identified as a prequel, although it was released after several main books.
Prequel: Too Far
Too Far (2022): Married couple Lia and Jaxon Dahl confront the emotional distance that has developed during six years of marriage, using a drastic experiment to decide whether their relationship can be rebuilt.
The story contains an MFM encounter as part of Lia and Jaxon’s attempt to understand what has gone wrong between them.
Jaxon introduces an athlete connection that leads into the wider Playing for Keeps group, but the central story is a marriage-in-crisis romance rather than a baseball novel.
Placement: Read first for full publication context, or begin with Everything to Me when baseball is the main attraction.
Prequel: Protecting the Plate
Protecting the Plate (2026): A baseball-connected second-chance romance provides earlier background within the Playing for Keeps world before the main team sequence.
The official author catalog identifies it as a prequel novella. Its publication after the numbered books does not make it a sequel.
Placement: Optional before Everything to Me. Readers who prefer release order can save it until after Sleighing the Game.
1. Everything to Me
Everything to Me (2022): Kendall Graves stays with professional baseball player Pete Saunders, her brother’s friend and teammate, and finally challenges him to see her as an adult rather than an off-limits younger sister.
Pete is willing to consider a temporary arrangement, but his disbelief in lasting love becomes a larger obstacle than the unwritten rule against dating a teammate’s sister.
This is the first numbered Playing for Keeps novel and the most direct introduction to the San Diego Hawks.
2. Throwing the Curve
Throwing the Curve (2023): Peyton Sharp discovers that the man she has been seeing is married, then becomes caught in a fake relationship with star pitcher Ryan Graves as he tries to protect a teammate from exposure.
Peyton dislikes Ryan and resents the situation, while Ryan has spent his career placing team loyalty ahead of personal relationships.
Their false romance gradually forces both characters to question whether protecting the team is worth sacrificing their own happiness.
3. Sliding into Home
Sliding into Home (2023): Single mother and tattoo artist Kia Kamen encounters Jeff “Smitty” Smith, the one-night stand from six years earlier who does not know he fathered her son.
Smitty is now a San Diego Hawks centerfielder and unexpectedly becomes the child’s T-ball coach, making the secret impossible to maintain.
The romance follows his attempt to become a father while convincing Kia that he wants a permanent family rather than another temporary encounter.
4. Hitting the Gap
Hitting the Gap (2024): Bailey Reynolds moves across the country for her fiancé, only to discover that he has been unfaithful and leave herself homeless in an unfamiliar city.
Her childhood best friend, Hawks third baseman Ramon “Gonzo” Gonzalez, offers her his spare room despite enjoying a life without commitments.
Close proximity changes the friendship when Ramon begins to see that the woman he has always protected may also be the person he wants to keep.
5. Catching the Fly
Catching the Fly (2025): Hawks left fielder Brandon Sims enjoys arranging romantic opportunities for his teammates while carefully avoiding a serious relationship of his own.
His resistance begins to fail when his concern for rescue dogs brings him into the orbit of a veterinarian who has little patience for an arrogant professional athlete.
The romance gives the team’s habitual matchmaker a reason to reconsider the rules he has applied only to himself.
6. Sleighing the Game
Sleighing the Game (2025): Former baseball player Carter Daye retreats to a small town after an accident costs him part of his leg and the career that defined his identity.
His cheerful neighbor, diner owner Kelsey Danvers, loves Christmas and refuses to accept his belief that life beyond baseball has nothing meaningful to offer.
The holiday novella shifts away from the active Hawks roster while continuing the series’ interest in athletes rebuilding their lives after major change.
Best Playing for Keeps Reading Order
Readers seeking the full series experience should use:
- Too Far
- Protecting the Plate
- Everything to Me
- Throwing the Curve
- Sliding into Home
- Hitting the Gap
- Catching the Fly
- Sleighing the Game
There is also a valid publication-style alternative:
- Too Far
- Everything to Me
- Throwing the Curve
- Sliding into Home
- Hitting the Gap
- Catching the Fly
- Sleighing the Game
- Protecting the Plate
The first arrangement prioritizes story labels because both novellas are described as prequels. The second preserves the order in which readers originally encountered the characters.
For most new readers, beginning with Too Far and then continuing through the numbered novels is the simplest choice. Protecting the Plate can be added as optional background.
Can Playing for Keeps Be Read as Standalones?
Yes. Each numbered novel follows a different couple and provides its own romantic resolution.
Publication order still adds value because Hawks teammates appear before receiving their central stories. Later books also show previous couples as established relationships.
Everything to Me is the safest starting point for readers who want only the baseball novels.
Cowboy Code Books in Order
Cowboy Code is a Western romance trilogy involving rodeo competitors, ranch settings, friendship groups, and relationships that do not always follow traditional pairings.
Each book has a new central relationship. The shared cowboy world makes publication order preferable, but the stories can be understood independently.
1. Rode Hard
Rode Hard (2012): A city woman enters a rodeo and ranch environment where her attraction to a confident cowboy challenges her assumptions about both Western life and uncomplicated desire.
The story introduces the friends and personal code surrounding the series’ cowboys.
Its relationship includes multiple partners, placing it closer to Fraser’s ménage romances than to a conventional one-couple Western.
2. Rough Stock
Rough Stock (2012): Another couple within the rodeo circle moves from conflict toward attraction while professional competition and strong personalities make emotional compromise difficult.
The title refers to the demanding rodeo events as well as a relationship that begins without a smooth or predictable path.
Characters from Rode Hard help preserve the sense of a shared Western community.
3. Round Up
Round Up (2022): A woman becomes involved with two men connected to the Cowboy Code group, turning friendship and shared attraction into a relationship that must work beyond a temporary encounter.
The story returns to the Western continuity years after the first two releases.
It completes the currently published Cowboy Code trilogy and retains the series’ interest in nontraditional relationships.
Cowboy Code Boxed Set
Cowboy Code Boxed Set: This edition collects Rode Hard, Rough Stock, and Round Up.
It does not contain a fourth numbered Cowboy Code romance unless a particular edition explicitly identifies additional bonus material.
Status: Optional format.
Best Things Are Three Books in Order
Best Things Are Three is a collection of ménage romances. The books do not follow one continuing relationship and may be read independently.
The official series description identifies both as standalone romances with happily-ever-after endings.
1. Dani’s Duo
Dani’s Duo (2017): Dani becomes the center of an MFM relationship with two men whose connection to her develops into more than a temporary shared encounter.
The story focuses on how three people negotiate attraction, emotional commitment, and the practical question of building one relationship together.
It introduces the series theme rather than an ongoing cast that readers must remember.
2. Longing for Kayla
Longing for Kayla (2010): After ending her relationship during a birthday ski trip, Kayla turns to her best friends Jesse and Chris and admits that she has fantasized about being with both of them.
Jesse and Chris have shared women before, but their feelings for Kayla and growing attraction to each other make this relationship fundamentally different.
The MMF romance follows three longtime friends as they reconsider identity, friendship, jealousy, and whether their new bond can survive outside the bedroom.
Which Best Things Are Three Book Comes First?
The current series presentation places Dani’s Duo first and Longing for Kayla second.
Longing for Kayla was originally published earlier, so completionists may encounter catalogs that reverse the apparent publication sequence.
Because the couples are separate, either order is understandable. The official series order is:
- Dani’s Duo
- Longing for Kayla
Flirty Forties Books in Order
Flirty Forties features mature heroines and younger heroes. The books share a reverse-age-gap theme rather than one continuous cast.
They can be read in either order, but the current series sequence begins with Aged to Perfection.
1. Aged to Perfection
Aged to Perfection (2022): A woman emerging from a marriage shaped by her husband’s expectations decides to rebuild her identity and accepts the possibility of a fling with a younger man.
The relationship challenges her belief that age should determine what she can want or how other people are permitted to see her.
The story opens the series through reinvention rather than a connection to later characters.
2. Sun, Sin and Surf
Sun, Sin and Surf (2014): Celeste Kopp travels to Mexico with her friends and promises to break out of the routine that has defined her middle-aged life.
Her attraction to a younger surf instructor turns a vacation experiment into a relationship that may be harder to leave behind than she expected.
The story combines holiday romance, self-discovery, and the tension between a temporary escape and a meaningful future.
Lauren Fraser Standalone Books
The following stories do not belong to one confirmed continuous series. They can be read in any order.
Undercover Attraction
Undercover Attraction (2009): An undercover situation places the central couple together under false impressions, making attraction dangerous when honesty could compromise both the assignment and the relationship.
The romantic suspense framework separates it from Fraser’s later sports and Western books.
Continuity status: Standalone.
Letting Go
Letting Go (2010): Thirty-year-old Samantha Marks attends a fetish party to escape her predictable life and acts on her attraction to a mysterious bad-boy stranger named Jake.
The fantasy becomes more complicated when she later discovers that Jake is connected to an important professional opportunity.
Jake refuses to remain an anonymous encounter, forcing Samantha to decide whether the confidence she found for one night can survive in her ordinary life.
Continuity status: Standalone.
Yielding for Him
Yielding for Him (2013): A woman accustomed to maintaining control enters a relationship with a man who challenges her to trust him with both her desires and emotional vulnerability.
The story explores power exchange inside a committed contemporary romance rather than a continuing series.
Continuity status: Standalone.
The Geek Next Door
The Geek Next Door (2014): Computer specialist Dylan Crane has loved his neighbor Erin for two years, but she sees him only as the reliable friend who looks after her home and listens after bad dates.
A failed evening with another man changes how Erin views Dylan, turning their comfortable friendship into a physical relationship.
Her career ambitions then force her to choose whether the future she planned matters more than the man who has quietly supported her.
Continuity status: Standalone.
Too Hot
Too Hot (2016): A firefighter romance places attraction against the dangers and demands of emergency work, where a hero accustomed to running toward risk must decide whether emotional commitment is the one danger he cannot manage.
The book is independent of Playing for Keeps despite its professional-hero setting.
Continuity status: Standalone.
Off Limits in Hollow Peak
Off Limits in Hollow Peak (2026): A prima ballerina who has organized her life around discipline and career arrives in Hollow Peak and becomes attracted to the mountain man she should avoid, her best friend’s brother.
The romance contrasts her rootless professional life with a hero and community offering stability she has never allowed herself to pursue.
It was published on May 20, 2026 as part of Hollow Peak Mountain Men, a multi-author shared-world series.
Continuity status: Separate multi-author continuity.
Do the Hollow Peak Mountain Men Books Need to Be Read in Order?
No. The series contains books by different authors, with each contribution focusing on its own central couple.
Off Limits in Hollow Peak can be read without the other Hollow Peak Mountain Men novels.
Readers completing the entire shared world may follow the project’s series order, but that order is separate from Lauren Fraser’s personal bibliography.
Complete Lauren Fraser Publication Order
Some early works have been reissued, which can cause different retailer pages to show later edition dates. The order below uses the earliest reliably identified publication year where possible.
- Undercover Attraction (2009): An undercover assignment complicates a relationship built on incomplete identities and dangerous attraction.
- Letting Go (2010): Samantha’s encounter with Jake at a fetish party follows her into an important professional meeting.
- Longing for Kayla (2010): Kayla and her two best friends move from fantasy into an MMF relationship involving love among all three partners.
- Rode Hard (2012): A city woman enters a steamy Western relationship within the rodeo world.
- Rough Stock (2012): Conflict and attraction bring another couple together inside the Cowboy Code circle.
- Yielding for Him (2013): Trust and control become central to an independent power-exchange romance.
- The Geek Next Door (2014): Erin finally recognizes the romantic potential in Dylan, her intelligent and dependable neighbor.
- Sun, Sin and Surf (2014): Celeste’s Mexican vacation leads to a reverse-age-gap romance with her younger surf instructor.
- Too Hot (2016): A firefighter faces a relationship that demands emotional risk as well as physical courage.
- Dani’s Duo (2017): Dani builds an MFM relationship with two men rather than choosing between them.
- Round Up (2022): Cowboy Code returns with another multi-partner Western romance.
- Aged to Perfection (2022): A mature heroine rebuilds her identity through a relationship with a younger man.
- Too Far (2022): Lia and Jaxon attempt to rescue their six-year marriage through a drastic change.
- Everything to Me (2022): Kendall pursues her brother’s friend, Hawks player Pete Saunders.
- Throwing the Curve (2023): Peyton and pitcher Ryan enter a fake relationship created by a teammate’s infidelity.
- Sliding into Home (2023): Kia reveals that centerfielder Smitty is the father of her six-year-old son.
- Hitting the Gap (2024): Bailey moves in with her childhood best friend Ramon after discovering her fiancé’s betrayal.
- Catching the Fly (2025): Matchmaking left fielder Brandon falls for a veterinarian connected to his rescue efforts.
- Sleighing the Game (2025): Former player Carter rebuilds after losing part of his leg with help from Christmas-loving Kelsey.
- Protecting the Plate (2026): A second-chance sports-romance novella adds prequel material to Playing for Keeps.
- Off Limits in Hollow Peak (2026): A ballerina falls for her best friend’s mountain-man brother in the Hollow Peak shared world.
Exact dates for older books can differ between original and revised editions. Series placement is more dependable than the date attached to a current retailer file.
Chronological Order
A universal chronological order is not useful because Lauren Fraser’s series occupy separate settings and relationship groups.
Playing for Keeps is the only sequence with a meaningful internal progression. Even there, the numbered books already unfold in the clearest practical order.
Too Far and Protecting the Plate are both labeled prequels. They can be read before Everything to Me, although Protecting the Plate was released much later.
Cowboy Code, Best Things Are Three, and Flirty Forties contain separate couples. Rearranging those books according to character ages or implied timelines would not improve the reading experience.
Recommended Lauren Fraser Reading Order
For Baseball Romance
- Too Far, optional series introduction
- Protecting the Plate, optional prequel
- Everything to Me
- Throwing the Curve
- Sliding into Home
- Hitting the Gap
- Catching the Fly
- Sleighing the Game
Readers who want to reach the active baseball team immediately should begin with Everything to Me.
For Western Romance
- Rode Hard
- Rough Stock
- Round Up
This route keeps the shared Cowboy Code setting together.
For Ménage Romance
- Dani’s Duo
- Longing for Kayla
- Rode Hard
- Round Up
This is a theme-based route rather than one continuity. Longing for Kayla is the clearest choice for readers looking specifically for an MMF relationship in which attraction develops among all three partners.
For Mature Heroines
- Aged to Perfection
- Sun, Sin and Surf
Both books focus on older heroines reconsidering how age, past relationships, and other people’s expectations have limited their choices.
For Short Standalone Romance
Choose The Geek Next Door for friends to lovers, Letting Go for a fantasy encounter that enters the workplace, Too Hot for a firefighter, or Off Limits in Hollow Peak for a best-friend’s-brother mountain romance.
Latest Lauren Fraser Book
As of August 4, 2026, Lauren Fraser’s latest published book is Off Limits in Hollow Peak.
Off Limits in Hollow Peak (2026): A career-focused ballerina becomes involved with her best friend’s mountain-man brother after arriving in a community that offers the roots and emotional distraction she has always avoided.
The book was released on May 20, 2026.
Protecting the Plate also appears in the current catalog as a Playing for Keeps prequel novella. Retailer records for that title have not been fully consistent, so its exact publication date should be checked against the edition being purchased.
No later full-length Lauren Fraser novel had a stable official title and release date as of August 4, 2026.
Frequently Asked Questions
What was Lauren Fraser’s first book?
Undercover Attraction (2009): An undercover assignment places romance against deception and professional danger.
It is the earliest title consistently listed in her current backlist.
What is the best Lauren Fraser book to start with?
Everything to Me is the best starting point for readers who want her current professional baseball romances.
Rode Hard is the entry to Cowboy Code, while Dani’s Duo opens the official Best Things Are Three order.
Do the Playing for Keeps books need to be read in order?
They have different central couples and can be understood independently.
Reading in order is still recommended because the San Diego Hawks players recur, supporting characters become later protagonists, and earlier couples return.
Is Too Far a baseball romance?
Not primarily.
Too Far follows a married couple trying to repair their relationship. It introduces the first athlete connected to Playing for Keeps, but the numbered baseball sequence begins with Everything to Me.
Where does Protecting the Plate fit?
The author identifies Protecting the Plate as a Playing for Keeps prequel novella.
It can be read before Everything to Me. Because it was released after much of the main series, reading it later as additional background is also valid.
Can I start Playing for Keeps with Everything to Me?
Yes.
Everything to Me (2022): Kendall stays with professional baseball player Pete, her brother’s friend, and challenges the rule that has always made her off limits.
It introduces the Hawks clearly enough to work without either prequel.
Does Sliding into Home contain a secret child?
Yes.
Sliding into Home (2023): Kia discovers that her six-year-old son’s new T-ball coach is Smitty, the professional player who does not know he is the boy’s father.
The secret is revealed near the beginning rather than being withheld for the entire novel.
Is Sleighing the Game part of Playing for Keeps?
Yes. It is a connected holiday novella.
The hero is a former ballplayer rather than an active Hawks player, but the book remains part of the Playing for Keeps catalog.
Are the Cowboy Code books standalones?
Each book has its own central relationship and ending.
Reading Rode Hard, Rough Stock, and Round Up in order provides the clearest shared-world experience.
Are Dani’s Duo and Longing for Kayla connected?
They belong to the same themed series but follow separate characters.
Both involve relationships with three central partners and can be read independently.
Is Longing for Kayla MFM or MMF?
It is an MMF romance.
Kayla is involved with Jesse and Chris, while the two men also explore attraction and intimacy with each other.
Why do some catalogs place Longing for Kayla first?
Longing for Kayla was originally published before Dani’s Duo.
The current official series presentation places Dani’s Duo first. Because the couples are unrelated, the difference does not affect continuity.
Are the Flirty Forties books connected?
They are connected by theme rather than one shared storyline.
Both feature older women and younger men, but the couples and settings are separate.
Is Off Limits in Hollow Peak part of a Lauren Fraser series?
It belongs to Hollow Peak Mountain Men, a multi-author shared-world project.
It is not connected to Playing for Keeps, Cowboy Code, or Flirty Forties.
What is Lauren Fraser’s latest book?
The latest confirmed release is Off Limits in Hollow Peak, published on May 20, 2026.
It follows a ballerina and her best friend’s mountain-man brother.
Conclusion
Lauren Fraser’s books divide into several independent romance lanes, so readers do not need one universal order.
Begin with Everything to Me for the central Playing for Keeps baseball sequence. Add Too Far and Protecting the Plate when you want the prequel material. Begin with Rode Hard for Cowboy Code, Dani’s Duo for the official Best Things Are Three order, or Aged to Perfection for Flirty Forties.
Playing for Keeps benefits most from publication order because teammates and couples recur. The other series are more flexible, with each book providing its own complete relationship.
Frank is the editor of BookSeries.blog, focusing on publication order, chronological timelines, and spoiler-free reading guides for book series and fictional universes.