Books Like All for the Game: 12 Found-Family MM Slow Burns for Foxes Fans (2026)
Books like All for the Game are a famously hard request, because nothing else reads quite like Nora Sakavic’s self-published cult series: a college sport that doesn’t exist, a team of damaged misfits, a mob family in the background and a slow burn between two boys who would rather die than admit they need anyone. The fandom got a second wind when Sakavic returned after a decade with The Sunshine Court in April 2024 and The Golden Raven in February 2025, both following Jean Moreau to the USC Trojans. If you’ve finished all five and need something that hits the same nerves, this list covers the books Foxes fans actually recommend to each other: found family with knives out, violent sports and secret rivalries, dark academia and the MM slow burns that take three books to arrive, with a heat rating on every pick and four Inferno-heat MM sports romances from our own shelf at the end.
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What Makes All for the Game Work
Neil Josten is the runaway son of a crime lord known as the Butcher, living under a false name, and the last thing he should do is join a televised college team. He does anyway: the Palmetto State Foxes, where the publicity could expose his lies and get him killed. Andrew is the teammate who stands in the way of everything, and Neil turns out to be the only one who can get through to him. Across The Foxhole Court, The Raven King and The King’s Men, the series becomes a story about a boy who expects to be dead by the end of the year learning that he’s allowed to stay, and the Foxes learning to be a family. The Sunshine Court then follows Jean Moreau, taken from Edgar Allan University and recovering from nearly a decade of abuse, to the USC Trojans, a team famous for its sportsmanship, and The Golden Raven hands the narration to their captain, Jeremy Knox. Readers want what it does best: found family, violence that has consequences, loyalty you have to bleed for and love that’s never said out loud until it has to be.
The All for the Game Books in Order
The Foxhole Court (2013), The Raven King (2013), The King’s Men (2014), then The Sunshine Court (2024) and The Golden Raven (2025). The first three are Neil’s story; the last two pick up Jean at USC. No sixth book had been announced as of October 2026.
Books Like All for the Game: Damaged Boys and Slow Burns
Captive Prince by C.S. Pacat
The book Foxes fans are told to read first, and the other way round. Damen, rightful heir to Akielos, is betrayed by his half-brother and sent to the enemy kingdom of Vere as a slave to Prince Laurent, a cold, brilliant prince of a corrupt court who has every reason to hate him. Laurent is Andrew with a crown: armored, cruel when it’s useful, and impossible to read until he decides you’ve earned it. The trilogy is dark and its first book deals with slavery and sexual coercion, but the slow burn across Prince’s Gambit and Kings Rising is one of the best in the genre. Our list of books like Captive Prince goes further.
Heat: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ Explicit
See Captive Prince on Amazon →
A Strange and Stubborn Endurance by Foz Meadows
For readers who loved The Sunshine Court most. Lord Velasin vin Aaro is outed by an abusive ex, disowned by his father and still recovering from a rape when his arranged marriage to a foreign noblewoman is swapped for a marriage to her brother, Caethari. Someone is trying to kill his new husband, and Velasin has to learn, slowly, that kindness isn’t a trap. Jean’s recovery arc, set in a fantasy court, with a husband as patient as Jeremy.
Heat: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ Explicit
See A Strange and Stubborn Endurance on Amazon →
Dark Rise by C.S. Pacat
Pacat again, in YA mode. England, 1821: Will, a dock laborer on the run from the men who killed his mother, is taken in by the Stewards, an ancient order sworn against the return of the Dark King. James St. Clair is their most dangerous enemy, raised among them before he fled to the other side at eleven. An orphan with a hidden identity, a secret war and an enemy who decides to follow him: Neil’s situation with magic. Dark Heir is out; book three is still undated.
Heat: 🌶️ Closed door
See Dark Rise on Amazon →
The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
Patroclus, exiled for an accidental killing, grows up beside Achilles, the golden boy everyone already knows will die young, and follows him all the way to Troy. A love that is never quite allowed to be said in public and a fate that hangs over every page: the same dread Neil carries through The King’s Men, written as Greek tragedy. Winner of the 2012 Orange Prize.
Heat: 🌶️🌶️ Mild
See The Song of Achilles on Amazon →
Sports, Rivals and Secret Relationships
Heated Rivalry by Rachel Reid
Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov are the two biggest stars in professional hockey and bitter public rivals, meeting in secret for years because being found out would end everything. A violent sport, a relationship that can’t exist on camera and two men who show love by fighting: the rivalry side of the Exy world, grown up and with the door open. The TV adaptation turned it into the MM book of the decade. Our guide to books like Heated Rivalry has more.
Heat: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ Explicit
See Heated Rivalry on Amazon →
The Long Game by Rachel Reid
Ten years into their secret, Shane is still afraid of what going public would do to his career, and Ilya is tired of hiding. Reid has said this one is Ilya’s book, about a man adjusting to a new life and deciding what he’s willing to keep losing. If The Golden Raven was your favorite, for its question of what happens after you survive, this is the sports-romance version. We have a full list of books like The Long Game.
Heat: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ Explicit
See The Long Game on Amazon →
Him by Sarina Bowen and Elle Kennedy
Jamie Canning and Ryan Wesley roomed together for six summers at an elite hockey camp in Lake Placid, until one bet on their last night ended with Wes disappearing from Jamie’s life without explanation. Four years later, at the college Frozen Four, Wes leaves a gag gift at Jamie’s door and the two end up coaching together at the old camp. College hockey, a secret that could cost an NHL career and a bisexual awakening: the warm, hopeful end of the sports-romance shelf. Us continues their story.
Heat: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ Explicit
See Him on Amazon →
Found Family With Knives Out
Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
Kaz Brekker, criminal mastermind of Ketterdam, assembles a crew of six outcasts, a spy, a sharpshooter, a Grisha Heartrender, a former witch hunter and a merchant’s son, to break into the Ice Court, a fortress nobody has ever breached. A ruthless leader, a team of people nobody else wanted and loyalty that has to survive everyone’s worst secrets: the Foxes, with a heist instead of a season. Crooked Kingdom finishes the duology, and the novella A Darker Shore arrived in June 2026.
Heat: 🌶️ Closed door
See Six of Crows on Amazon →
The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater
Blue Sargent, from a house of psychics in Henrietta, Virginia, has been told that if she kisses her true love he’ll die. Then she falls in with four boys from Aglionby Academy hunting for a sleeping Welsh king: rich, earnest Gansey, Ronan Lynch, who can pull things out of his dreams and is as dangerous as a shark, Adam Parrish, the scholarship kid escaping an abusive father, and quiet Noah. Ronan and Adam’s slow, charged relationship is the reason half the AFTG fandom reads the series. Four books, then the Dreamer trilogy for more Ronan.
Heat: 🌶️ Closed door
See The Raven Boys on Amazon →
Carry On by Rainbow Rowell
Simon Snow is the Chosen One at the Watford School of Magicks, and his roommate Baz, a vampire, has been his sworn enemy for seven years. In their last year, the war between them turns into something else. Lighter than anything else here, but if the Neil-and-Andrew “I hate you, don’t leave” energy was your favorite part, Simon and Baz have it. Wayward Son and Any Way the Wind Blows finish the trilogy.
Heat: 🌶️ Closed door
See Carry On on Amazon →
Dark Academia for the Raven in You
If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio
Oliver Marks walks out of prison after ten years for a murder at the Dellecher Classical Conservatory, where seven fourth-year Shakespeare actors lived together and played the same roles on stage and off: hero, villain, tyrant, temptress. When Richard, the tyrant, turns violent, the group closes ranks, and Oliver’s feelings for James, the hero, are at the center of what happened. A closed circle, a violent leader, loyalty that becomes complicity and a love that only gets said too late: the Ravens, with Shakespeare.
Heat: 🌶️🌶️ Mild
See If We Were Villains on Amazon →
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
Richard Papen, a transfer student from California who lies about his background, talks his way into an exclusive Greek class at a Vermont college run by the charismatic Julian Morrow. The five students already in it are brilliant, rich and hiding something, and by the opening page Richard has told you they killed their friend Bunny. The 1992 original of dark academia: an insular group with its own rules, a leader who decides who lives and an outsider who wants in at any cost. If the Ravens fascinated you more than they frightened you, start here.
Heat: 🌶️🌶️ Mild
See The Secret History on Amazon →
Read Next: Hotter Picks From Fractal Enigma
Sakavic keeps the door mostly shut. Chase Power doesn’t. His MM sports romances run on the same engine as the Foxes: a team that becomes a family, men who have been taught that love is a liability and the one teammate who refuses to leave. Every pick is Inferno heat with a guaranteed happy ending. See the Chase Power reading guide for the whole catalog.
Cold Wars — Chase Power
He’s the captain who hasn’t smiled in six years. He’s the trade who won’t stop talking. Vance “Reaper” Hall, captain of the Portland Reapers, was raised by a father who taught him that love is a defensive liability. The new trade writes “still here” on his own ribs because nobody ever stayed. Andrew’s armor and Neil’s survival instinct, sharing one shower for a whole season, with a secret relationship and a found family on the other side. Free with Kindle Unlimited.
Heat: Inferno 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
Tropes: Enemies to Lovers, Secret Relationship, Forced Proximity, Grumpy/Sunshine, He Falls First, Hurt/Comfort, Praise Kink, Found Family
Farm Team, Found Family — Chase Power
Mason Cole was supposed to be a star: two sixty-point NHL seasons, a first-round pedigree and a face built for endorsements. Then the slump hit, and the GM sent him down to Millhaven, a small town with a farmhouse, a rink and a grumpy rink manager who sees straight through him. A golden boy demoted to the last-chance team, and the people who become home: the Palmetto State premise, with hockey and a bi awakening.
Heat: Inferno 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
Tropes: Forced Proximity, Bi Awakening, Found Family, Grumpy/Sunshine, Slow Burn, Secret Relationship, Hurt/Comfort, Small Town
Start reading Farm Team, Found Family →
Gloves Off — Chase Power
The enforcer spent fifteen years in the closet. The rookie spent nine years waiting for him. Brant “Brick” Maddox is thirty-four, six-foot-five and the meanest man in professional hockey, the alternate captain who has stayed closeted since his first love, a junior teammate. The most violent man on the ice, the one person he lets close, and a team that turns out to be family: for every Andrew fan. Free with Kindle Unlimited.
Heat: Inferno 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
Tropes: Enemies to Lovers, Grumpy/Sunshine, Age Gap, Closeted, Size Difference, Hurt/Comfort, Found Family, Secret Relationship, Coming Out
Off the Ice — Chase Power
He can’t touch him for six weeks. Nobody said he couldn’t tell him what to do. Rafe Donnelly is the league’s golden boy, until his knee goes. The older ex-player with a spare room and no stairs takes him in, under a contract clause that forbids exactly what both of them want. An injured athlete, a caretaker who won’t let him fall apart and a comeback built one day at a time: Jean at USC, with heat. Also in audiobook.
Heat: Inferno 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
Tropes: Injured Athlete, Age Gap, Forced Proximity, Forbidden Romance, Secret Relationship, Brat/Tamer, Caretaking, Hurt/Comfort, Found Family, Comeback Story
For more, our complete hockey romance reading guide maps every MM sports list we’ve published.
FAQ: Books Like All for the Game
Do you need to read All for the Game in order?
Yes. The Foxhole Court, The Raven King and The King’s Men are one continuous story, and The Sunshine Court and The Golden Raven assume you’ve read them, since they follow Jean Moreau after the events of the trilogy.
Will there be another All for the Game book?
Nothing has been announced. The Golden Raven, published February 2025, is the latest. No film or TV adaptation has been announced either.
How spicy is All for the Game?
Barely. The series has violence, abuse and trauma on the page, but the romance stays almost entirely off it. On this list, Heated Rivalry, Him and Captive Prince are explicit; for Inferno heat with the same found family, start with Cold Wars. Our romance spice levels guide explains the chili scale used above.
Which book should I read first after the Foxes?
Captive Prince if Andrew and Neil’s dynamic was the draw, Heated Rivalry if it was the sport and the secrecy, If We Were Villains if it was the Ravens.
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