Susan Renee writes contemporary romantic comedy and sports romance featuring professional hockey players, football and baseball athletes, small-town families, single parents, accidental pregnancies, friends who become lovers, and tightly connected found-family groups.
Her catalog has grown from emotional contemporary romance into several interconnected romantic-comedy series. Chicago Red Tails and Anaheim Stars are separate professional hockey worlds. Bardstown provides an important bridge into sports romance, while The Next Play follows four brothers whose careers cross multiple professional sports.
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Most Susan Renee series change couples with each book. The Village Duet is the principal exception because its two novels form one continuous story.
The Order in One Minute
For Susan Renee’s current sports-romance catalog, begin with Chicago Red Tails:
- Off Your Game
- Unfair Game
- Beyond the Game
- Forbidden Game
- Saving the Game
- Bonus Game
For Anaheim Stars, read the prequel What If We Do before the six numbered novels.
For Bardstown, begin with the earlier-set Seven, then continue with I Like Me Better. No One Needs to Know follows the Bardstown social circle and acts as a bridge toward hockey romance.
For The Next Play, begin with Fourth and Falling. The series is active, and its second book, Third Strike Smitten, is scheduled for August 2026.
The Camel Club and The Schmidt Load are completed romantic-comedy trilogies. The Village Duet must be read in strict order.
Chicago Red Tails Books in Order
Chicago Red Tails follows players and people connected to a professional hockey team. Each novel has a different central couple and complete romantic ending.
Team friendships, siblings, marriages, children, and previous couples continue throughout the six books. Publication order is strongly recommended.
1. Off Your Game
Off Your Game (2025 current edition): A professional hockey player clashes with the Chicago Red Tails’ new marketing representative, whose presence may be affecting both his concentration and his unexpected run of good luck.
The enemies-to-lovers romance introduces the team, its staff, and the close group that supports the later couples.
This is the safest entry point into Susan Renee’s current hockey catalog.
2. Unfair Game
Unfair Game (2025 current edition): A woman escaping an abusive past is brought into close proximity with a hockey player who becomes determined to protect her.
Their romance develops through safety, patience, and the difficult process of believing that a relationship can exist without control or fear.
The Red Tails and the first book’s established couple remain part of the surrounding team community.
3. Beyond the Game
Beyond the Game (2025 current edition): A hockey player discovers that a woman connected to his sister is pregnant after their encounter, forcing both characters to reconsider what their brief relationship means.
The surprise pregnancy pushes the couple beyond attraction and into questions about parenthood, trust, and building a family under unexpected circumstances.
This is one of the series’ most visible family-expansion stories.
4. Forbidden Game
Forbidden Game (2025 current edition): A Red Tails player becomes involved with his teammate’s sister, creating a romance constrained by loyalty, team rules, and the risk of damaging an important friendship.
The central couple must decide whether secrecy protects the people around them or simply delays an unavoidable confrontation.
Read the earlier books first for the full team and sibling context.
5. Saving the Game
Saving the Game (2025 current edition): Another Red Tails relationship begins through an unexpected personal crisis that places a player in the position of helping someone whose life has become unstable.
Protection and forced proximity gradually become an emotional commitment that neither character originally planned.
The later-series setting includes established couples and families from the first four books.
6. Bonus Game
Bonus Game (2025 current edition): One of the first Red Tails players to marry faces another major relationship development, giving the series a later-stage romance shaped by marriage, family, and the future beyond the rink.
The book closes the six-couple sequence while returning to the team community built across the series.
It should be saved for last because it assumes knowledge of the earlier relationships.
Chicago Red Tails Reading Order
- Off Your Game
- Unfair Game
- Beyond the Game
- Forbidden Game
- Saving the Game
- Bonus Game
The romances stand individually, but the emotional payoff is stronger when teammates move from supporting characters into their own books.
Anaheim Stars Hockey Books in Order
Anaheim Stars follows seven members of another professional hockey organization. The books are interconnected standalones, with a prequel novella followed by six main romances.
The prequel was previously published under another title, creating a possible duplicate purchase.
0.5. What If We Do
What If We Do (2024): Anaheim captain Oliver Magallan falls for a woman during what should have been her honeymoon, creating a relationship complicated by heartbreak, timing, and the life she expected to be living.
The story was previously published as Ghosted. The current edition is What If We Do.
Do not count Ghosted as an additional Anaheim Stars book.
Status: Included prequel novella.
1. What If I Told You
What If I Told You (2024): A friendship or familiar connection changes after a failed date gives an Anaheim player the opportunity to reveal feelings he has not previously admitted.
The romance uses rescue, hidden attraction, and the risk of saying something that could permanently alter an established bond.
This is the first numbered Anaheim Stars novel.
2. What If I Knew You
What If I Knew You (2024): An unexpected encounter with someone connected to a player’s personal life exposes how little the central couple truly knows about each other.
Attraction becomes complicated by family, reputation, and the consequences of learning the truth after emotional boundaries have already been crossed.
The book expands the Anaheim team’s connected social group.
3. What If I See You
What If I See You (2025): A drunken decision involving marriage or a wedding brings two characters together under circumstances neither expected to make permanent.
What begins with impulsive commitment becomes a test of whether the relationship can survive once both people are sober and facing ordinary life.
Previous Anaheim couples continue around the romance.
4. What If It’s Us
What If It’s Us (2025): An Anaheim player and a woman facing an unexpected pregnancy must decide whether their connection can become the foundation of a shared family.
The romance moves from uncertainty toward commitment while the player confronts what fatherhood would require from him.
Read the earlier books first for the full team context.
5. What If I Hate You
What If I Hate You (2025): Barrett meets Blakely Rivers, a woman fully capable of opposing him, creating a romance built around conflict, sharp banter, and attraction neither can dismiss.
The title reflects the couple’s attempt to label their intensity as dislike rather than acknowledge a more vulnerable connection.
This later installment assumes that several Anaheim players are already settled.
6. What If It’s Too Late
What If It’s Too Late (2025): A former or interrupted relationship receives another chance when time, regret, and returning feelings force the couple to reconsider why they separated.
The second-chance romance brings the current Anaheim Stars sequence to a close.
It belongs after What If I Hate You.
Anaheim Stars Reading Order
- What If We Do
- What If I Told You
- What If I Knew You
- What If I See You
- What If It’s Us
- What If I Hate You
- What If It’s Too Late
Readers who want only the full-length team sequence may begin with What If I Told You, but the prequel supplies Oliver’s romance and the earliest Anaheim introduction.
Ghosted and What If We Do
Ghosted is the earlier version of What If We Do.
The current edition expands or republishes the same central story within Anaheim Stars. Readers should buy one version rather than counting both titles.
Recommended edition: What If We Do.
Bardstown Books in Order
Bardstown follows friends, relatives, and couples connected to a Kentucky community. The series begins with a novel that was published years before the numbered books but was later incorporated as their prequel.
The romances change couples, although the town and friendship circle continue.
0. Seven
Seven (2016): A man returns to town after the woman he let go is left hurt, giving them another opportunity to confront the relationship they lost.
The novel establishes people and emotional history later associated with Bardstown.
It can be read independently, but current series lists place it before I Like Me Better.
1. I Like Me Better
I Like Me Better (2021): A confident heroine whose personality does not fit a quiet or traditionally agreeable mold becomes involved with a man who must accept her without asking her to become easier to handle.
The romantic comedy formally introduces the principal Bardstown group.
Characters from this book later support the spin-off No One Needs to Know.
2. You Are the Reason
You Are the Reason (2021): Another Bardstown couple faces a relationship shaped by choices, friendship, and the realization that one person has become the reason behind decisions neither expected to make.
The town’s earlier couples remain visible while a supporting character moves into the central romance.
3. Beautiful Crazy
Beautiful Crazy (2021): Best friends cross a romantic boundary after a kiss exposes feelings that have been hidden beneath their familiar relationship.
The friends-to-lovers story asks whether acknowledging attraction will strengthen their bond or destroy the part of their lives they trusted most.
Read it after the first two numbered books for the full group dynamic.
4. Take You Home
Take You Home (2022): A man who has been quietly interested in a woman receives the opportunity to turn his long-running crush into a real relationship after her circumstances change.
The book closes the main Bardstown sequence while gathering the established community around its final couple.
Connected Spin-Off: No One Needs to Know
No One Needs to Know (2022): A man discovers that the woman from his memorable one-night encounter is pregnant after an ultrasound photograph is mistakenly attributed to another couple.
The heroine is connected to the Bardstown social group, particularly I Like Me Better.
The book acts as a bridge from Bardstown’s romantic comedy into Susan Renee’s later sports-romance phase.
Placement: Read after Take You Home.
Bardstown Reading Order
- Seven
- I Like Me Better
- You Are the Reason
- Beautiful Crazy
- Take You Home
- No One Needs to Know, connected spin-off
Readers may begin the formal numbered sequence with I Like Me Better, but Seven is the preferred completionist starting point.
The Next Play Books in Order
The Next Play follows the Haynes brothers: Shepherd, Killian, Bishop, and Sebastian.
Three brothers are professional athletes, and three are identical triplets. The series crosses football, baseball, and other parts of the family’s professional-sports world.
It is an active series.
1. Fourth and Falling
Fourth and Falling (2026): Portland Rush quarterback Shepherd Haynes is accustomed to making immediate decisions under pressure, but his personal life presents a situation that cannot be solved with a practiced play.
The romance introduces the four Haynes brothers and establishes the sibling relationships that will carry through the series.
It was released on June 3, 2026 and is the correct Next Play starting point.
2. Third Strike Smitten
Third Strike Smitten (2026): A baseball player with a bad-boy reputation and private anxiety becomes involved with a flight attendant who sees more than his public confidence.
Their romance shifts the series from professional football to baseball while continuing the Haynes family.
It is scheduled for August 2026.
Status as of August 4, 2026: Upcoming.
Announced Later Books
Second Base Swoon has appeared in preliminary catalog records as another Next Play title.
A final release date and stable official position were not sufficiently confirmed for it to be numbered as published.
The family premise suggests four principal romances, but only Fourth and Falling and Third Strike Smitten had firm current placement as of this update.
The Camel Club Books in Order
The Camel Club follows three best friends through romantic-comedy situations and the search for lasting relationships.
Each book changes couples. Publication order preserves the friendship group and the joke behind the club’s name.
1. Smooch
Smooch (2020): A one-night encounter develops into an unexpected romantic complication for the first member of the Camel Club.
The heroine’s friends remain closely involved, introducing the trio whose own romances follow.
2. Smooches
Smooches (2021): A dream-board plan or carefully imagined future brings the second friend into a relationship that does not unfold as neatly as she expected.
The romantic comedy continues the friendship established in Smooch.
Read it second so the first couple’s outcome appears in its intended place.
3. Smooched
Smooched (2021): A woman contacts or becomes involved with Dr. McKay under unusual circumstances, bringing the final Camel Club friend into her own romance.
The book completes the three-friend sequence and returns to the couples established earlier.
The Camel Club Reading Order
- Smooch
- Smooches
- Smooched
The books are interconnected standalones rather than one continuous couple’s story.
The Schmidt Load Books in Order
The Schmidt Load is a family-centered romantic-comedy trilogy built around Schmidt siblings or relatives.
The central couple changes with each book, but the family remains active throughout the series.
1. You Don’t Know Jack Schmidt
You Don’t Know Jack Schmidt (2017): A social and outwardly confident heroine enters a romance that reveals how much she has hidden beneath the personality everyone assumes they understand.
The book introduces the Schmidt family and the wordplay used throughout the trilogy.
2. Schmidt Happens
Schmidt Happens (2018): One attempt to leave a comfort zone creates a romantic situation that grows beyond the central character’s control.
Family involvement and returning characters connect the second couple to the first novel.
3. My Schmidt Smells Like Roses
My Schmidt Smells Like Roses (2018): A character who does not believe in lasting love or conventional happy endings meets someone capable of challenging that position.
The romance completes the family trilogy.
A Hole Punch of Schmidt Boxed Set
A Hole Punch of Schmidt Boxed Set: This omnibus contains the three Schmidt Load stories.
It is an alternate format, not a fourth romance.
The Village Duet Books in Order
The Village Duet follows one continuing emotional story. These books should be read consecutively.
1. I’m Fine
I’m Fine (2019): A woman who moved across the country believing she had escaped her earlier life is forced to confront the pain, relationships, and secrets she left behind.
The novel begins an emotional contemporary story rather than providing a complete standalone resolution.
Read it before Save Me.
2. Save Me
Save Me (2020): The consequences of one life-changing night continue as the central characters face trauma, hidden truths, and the possibility that love may not be enough without honesty and healing.
The second book completes the duet.
Starting here would expose important developments from I’m Fine.
Solving Us Books in Order
Solving Us contains one principal novel and a short follow-up.
1. Solving Us
Solving Us (2015): A young woman who was once part of a popular social group confronts a changed life and a relationship capable of challenging how she understands herself.
The novel is Susan Renee’s earliest confirmed published book.
It provides a complete central romance.
1.5. Surprising Us
Surprising Us (2015): The characters from Solving Us return for a shorter continuation involving an unexpected development in their relationship.
Read it after the main novel.
Status: Optional follow-up story.
Susan Renee Standalone Romantic Comedies
These books are not part of one required series and can be selected by premise.
Hole Punched
Hole Punched (2017): An office or workplace romance develops through awkward encounters, humor, and a heroine whose ordinary routine is disrupted by unexpected attraction.
The title later inspired the playful name of the Schmidt Load boxed set, but the novel is not another Schmidt-family installment.
Continuity status: Standalone.
Total Ship Show
Total Ship Show (2022): A cruise or travel-based romantic comedy brings two characters together while the isolation and chaos of a ship make avoiding each other impossible.
The vacation framework allows a temporary encounter to develop into something intended to last beyond the trip.
Continuity status: Standalone.
Kamana Wanalaya for the Holidays
Kamana Wanalaya for the Holidays (2022): A tropical or destination Christmas romance gives its couple an escape from ordinary holiday expectations.
The story combines warm-weather travel, romantic comedy, and a seasonal connection.
Continuity status: Standalone holiday romance.
No Egrets
No Egrets: A romantic comedy uses an unusual title, animal-related wordplay, and a central relationship built around circumstances neither character expected.
Current listings treat it as a standalone rather than a Bardstown or Camel Club installment.
Continuity status: Standalone.
Jingle Bell Fling
Jingle Bell Fling (2025): A holiday fling develops into a relationship that becomes more emotionally significant than the couple’s temporary Christmas arrangement suggests.
It is a complete seasonal romance and does not require another Susan Renee book.
Continuity status: Standalone holiday romance.
Separate Contemporary Titles
Susan Renee’s older catalog also includes emotional contemporary stories that do not fit her later sports-romantic-comedy series.
Some editions are less visible than the current hockey books. They should be treated as independent works unless a current official series page assigns them elsewhere.
Collections, bonus scenes, coloring books, and illustrated special editions do not create additional fictional installments.
Complete Series Guide
Solving Us
- Solving Us
- Surprising Us
Bardstown
- Seven
- I Like Me Better
- You Are the Reason
- Beautiful Crazy
- Take You Home
- No One Needs to Know, connected spin-off
The Schmidt Load
- You Don’t Know Jack Schmidt
- Schmidt Happens
- My Schmidt Smells Like Roses
The Village Duet
- I’m Fine
- Save Me
The Camel Club
- Smooch
- Smooches
- Smooched
Chicago Red Tails
- Off Your Game
- Unfair Game
- Beyond the Game
- Forbidden Game
- Saving the Game
- Bonus Game
Anaheim Stars Hockey
- What If We Do
- What If I Told You
- What If I Knew You
- What If I See You
- What If It’s Us
- What If I Hate You
- What If It’s Too Late
The Next Play
- Fourth and Falling
- Third Strike Smitten, upcoming
Chronological Order
A universal chronological order is not useful across Susan Renee’s bibliography.
Chicago Red Tails and Anaheim Stars are separate professional hockey series. The Schmidt Load, The Camel Club, and The Village Duet also have their own casts.
Bardstown has the clearest internal adjustment. Seven was published before the main numbered sequence and now functions as its prequel.
No One Needs to Know should be read after the Bardstown novels because it uses their friendship circle and acts as a transition toward sports romance.
Within every other named series, publication order is the most reliable timeline.
Retitled Books and Duplicate Editions
Ghosted and What If We Do
These titles represent the same central Anaheim Stars prequel romance.
Use What If We Do in a current reading order.
Trade Editions of Chicago Red Tails
The Chicago Red Tails novels have received newer publisher editions.
A new cover, ISBN, paperback date, or illustrated edition does not create another story. Count each title once.
Boxed Sets
The following are alternate formats:
- Chicago Red Tails complete collections
- Anaheim Stars complete collections
- A Hole Punch of Schmidt
- Series bundles containing Bardstown or Camel Club books
- Illustrated special editions
Check the contents before buying individual books and collections together.
Recommended Reading Plans
For Hockey Romance
Begin with Chicago Red Tails:
- Off Your Game
- Unfair Game
- Beyond the Game
- Forbidden Game
- Saving the Game
- Bonus Game
Then begin Anaheim Stars with What If We Do.
The two team series do not need to be interleaved.
For Romantic Comedy
Read:
- The Camel Club
- The Schmidt Load
- Bardstown
These are separate continuities, but each emphasizes friendship groups, family involvement, and humorous relationship complications.
For One Continuing Story
Read I’m Fine, followed immediately by Save Me.
The Village Duet is the least flexible portion of the bibliography because the same emotional storyline continues across both books.
For Susan Renee’s Newest Sports Series
- Fourth and Falling
- Third Strike Smitten, after publication
The Next Play moves across sports while following the Haynes brothers.
Latest Susan Renee Book
As of August 4, 2026, Susan Renee’s latest published novel is Fourth and Falling.
Fourth and Falling (2026): Portland Rush quarterback Shepherd Haynes leads the first romance in a series about four brothers, three professional athletes, and three identical triplets.
It was released on June 3, 2026.
Upcoming Susan Renee Book
Third Strike Smitten (2026): A baseball player known for bad behavior but privately dealing with anxiety becomes involved with a flight attendant.
The book is scheduled for August 2026 as The Next Play book two.
Because August 4 arrived before its announced release point, it should remain labeled upcoming until the final edition is available.
Frequently Asked Questions
What was Susan Renee’s first book?
Solving Us (2015): A young woman whose life has changed from the social identity she once knew enters a relationship that forces her to confront who she has become.
It is followed by the shorter story Surprising Us.
What is the best Susan Renee book to start with?
Begin with Off Your Game for her current hockey-romance catalog.
Begin with I Like Me Better for small-town romantic comedy, or Fourth and Falling for her newest multi-sport family series.
Do the Chicago Red Tails books need to be read in order?
Each novel follows a different couple and has its own ending.
Publication order is still strongly recommended because teammates, partners, marriages, and family developments continue throughout the series.
Are Chicago Red Tails and Anaheim Stars connected?
They are separate named hockey series.
Readers can begin with either Off Your Game or What If We Do without completing the other team’s books.
Is What If We Do required?
It is a prequel novella and can be skipped by readers who want only the six numbered Anaheim novels.
It remains part of the official team sequence and introduces captain Oliver Magallan.
Is Ghosted a separate Anaheim Stars book?
No.
Ghosted is the earlier version of What If We Do. Count the story once.
How many Anaheim Stars books are there?
There are six main novels plus the prequel novella What If We Do.
The current complete sequence therefore contains seven stories.
Where does Seven belong?
Read Seven before I Like Me Better.
It was published earlier and is now commonly listed as Bardstown book zero.
Where does No One Needs to Know fit?
Read it after the main Bardstown sequence.
It spins out of the social circle established in I Like Me Better and helps bridge the catalog toward later sports romance.
Do the Village Duet books stand alone?
No.
I’m Fine begins the story, and Save Me completes it.
What is the correct Camel Club order?
Read Smooch, Smooches, then Smooched.
The trilogy follows three best friends and changes couples with each book.
Is A Hole Punch of Schmidt a fourth book?
No.
It is a boxed set containing You Don’t Know Jack Schmidt, Schmidt Happens, and My Schmidt Smells Like Roses.
Is Fourth and Falling part of a series?
Yes.
It is The Next Play book one and introduces the Haynes brothers.
Is Third Strike Smitten published?
Not as of August 4, 2026.
It is announced for August 2026 as The Next Play book two.
What is Susan Renee’s latest book?
The latest confirmed published novel is Fourth and Falling, released June 3, 2026.
Conclusion
Susan Renee’s most reliable starting point is Off Your Game, followed by the remaining Chicago Red Tails novels in order.
For Anaheim Stars, begin with What If We Do and continue through What If It’s Too Late. For small-town romantic comedy, read Seven before the main Bardstown sequence and save No One Needs to Know for afterward.
Readers wanting a continuous two-book story should choose I’m Fine and Save Me. Readers following the newest releases should begin The Next Play with Fourth and Falling, then continue with Third Strike Smitten after publication.
Across the interconnected series, publication order gives the clearest introductions and prevents later couples, marriages, and family developments from appearing before their original stories.
Frank is the editor of BookSeries.blog, focusing on publication order, chronological timelines, and spoiler-free reading guides for book series and fictional universes.