Books like 'Taking Him Down'

Readers who enjoyed Taking Him Down by Meg Maguire also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.

contemporary  athletes  fighters  friends to lovers  bad boys  latinx-mc  sports  working class hero  mma-boxing  insta-love 

  • The Legend by Shey Stahl

    The Legend by Shey Stahl

    Rated: 4.46 of 5 stars
    · 17 ratings
    In a lifestyle of speed, adrenaline and desire, one racer has sacrificed everything for the sport he loved. In turn, he will fight for his name, his family and now his life to be the legend he’s been portrayed to be. You can be everything you set out to be if you want it bad enough. You can be that record breaker you said you’d be. You can be that hero you always thought you would be...
  • Cole by Nyssa Kathryn

    Cole by Nyssa Kathryn

    Rated: 4.24 of 5 stars
    · 29 ratings
    She’s a single mom with a secret. He’s a former Delta who doesn’t let people too close.Aria Callas understands struggle and sacrifice. Getting pregnant at sixteen, she’s spent more than a decade and a half ensuring her and her son’s safety the only way she knows how—by staying on the move...
  • Sponsored links
  • Path To Realization by TheFeveredBookaholic

    Path To Realization by TheFeveredBookaholic

    Rated: 4.46 of 5 stars
    · 15 ratings
    Asher Pryce hides behind a wall of secrets he's spent most of his life building up. How else is the adopted child whose birth parents run a drug cartel supposed to fit in? He's notorious for his overconfident swagger and total lack of patience for bullshit - a master of masks. The one thing in his life he can't fake? His feelings for his best friend's twin sister...
  • Hard To Handle by Lori Foster

    Hard To Handle by Lori Foster

    Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars
    · 36 ratings
    Sometimes Fate delivers a left hook. After Fate deals Supreme Battle Challenge (SBC) fighter Harley Handleman a sucker punch, his uncle secretly hires a pretty lifecoach to get Harley back in the ring of life. Anastasia Kelley has actually known Harley for years, but never as well as she's going to now...
  • Dump and Chase by Toni Aleo

    Dump and Chase by Toni Aleo

    Rated: 4.26 of 5 stars
    · 27 ratings
    Shelli Adler has known what she wanted since she was eleven years old. Aiden Brooks. But Aiden has always had other ideas. After spending the early years of his life without his dad, hockey legend Lucas Brooks, Aiden is determined not to settle for anything less than true love. When he’s ready. Now he’s living the fast life of an NHL bachelor...
  • Born to Sin by Rosalind James

    Born to Sin by Rosalind James

    Rated: 4.63 of 5 stars
    · 8 ratings
    Being sentenced by a woman in a black robe is not a meet-cute.Quinn Jeffries follows the rules. A judge in small-town Sinful, Montana, doesn’t have much room for missteps, and when you spend your childhood training for the Olympics, you don’t have time for anything but discipline anyway. And, see? It’s worked! Her life is just fine...
  • Tame The Player by Hope Ford

    Tame The Player by Hope Ford

    Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars
    · 10 ratings
    Holden is a professional baseball player on the injured list. His only goal is getting back on the field… until he meets me.Everyone knows about Holden Gray's reputation.He goes through women faster than most baseball players go through sunflower seeds.When he becomes my next physical therapy patient, I'm determined to keep things professional...
  • A Callahan Wedding by Monica Murphy

    A Callahan Wedding by Monica Murphy

    Rated: 4.47 of 5 stars
    · 10 ratings
    The sweet and sexy conclusion to New York Times bestselling author, Monica Murphy’s standalone Callahan series, bringing readers along for the ride as fan favorites, Jake and Hannah get married! Hannah Walsh. Gorgeous. Intelligent. My first love. My high school sweetheart. My everything. And now my fiancée...
  • Fighting for Control by Melynda Price

    Fighting for Control by Melynda Price

    Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars
    · Steam rating: 5 of 5
    Explicit and plentiful [?] · 13 ratings
    For Nikko “the Bull” Del Toro, an ex-marine turned MMA fighter, only two things quiet the demons raging inside him—facing an opponent in the cage…and the memory of his hottest one-night stand. But when his PTSD resurfaces, causing him to lose control at a CFA press party, it’s his career that may be KO’d. Dr...
  • Trading Paint by Shey Stahl

    Trading Paint by Shey Stahl

    Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars
    · 17 ratings
    A must have companion to Happy Hour that give you an inside look into the characters of the Racing on the Edge series. Step into the magic where the clay met rubber and desire defined greatness. Trading Paint takes you inside the hasty driver’s mind to what led him to a decision that changed the path of two souls...
  • Final Play by Eden Finley

    Final Play by Eden Finley

    Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars
    · Steam rating: 4 of 5
    Explicit open door [?] · 33 ratings
    It’s a vacation none of them will forget. Before their futures become the present, Noah convinces his friends they need a group vacation—a final play before they’re all tied down by responsibility and unyielding schedules. Everything is changing. Marriage. Kids. Careers. A trip to Fiji is the last hurrah to end all hurrahs...
  • Close Contact by Lori Foster

    Close Contact by Lori Foster

    Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars
    · 23 ratings
    There’s no resisting a desire like this…MMA fighter Miles Dartman’s casual arrangement with personal shopper Maxi Nevar would be many men’s fantasy. She seeks him out, they have mindblowing sex, she leaves. Rinse, repeat. Yet lately, Miles wants more...
  • Causing Havoc by Lori Foster

    Causing Havoc by Lori Foster

    Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars
    · 35 ratings
    Orphaned and torn from his sisters as a boy, sexy extreme wrestler Dean "Havoc" Conor gets a letter revealing how much his siblings want him back in Harmony, Kentucky. To stop his sister from marrying a sleazeball, Dean finds himself teaming up with her pretty-but-smart-mouthed friend Eve-who's heard of Havoc's reputation and doesn't need some hunk trampling on her heart...
  • Cruz by H.J. Bellus

    Cruz by H.J. Bellus

    Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars
    · 15 ratings
    She hates fighting. He lives for it.Layla’s vicious past drove her away from her hometown. She couldn’t live with all the reminders surrounding her, so she ran.Cruz Felix found a new home. A place where he could get his head on straight, train, and fight match after match toward the end goal: the championship in Las Vegas...
  • Unbreak This Heart by Betty Shreffler

    Unbreak This Heart by Betty Shreffler

    Rated: 4.27 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    Ever since that horrific night, I’d shut men completely out of my life. I’d gone from the spunky, fun, Alex DeMarco to a broken woman terrified of intimacy. Easing me back into dating, my best friend sets me up with kickboxing lessons from my charming and perfectly sculpted instructor—Carter Maxwell...
  • Tapout by J.C. Valentine

    Tapout by J.C. Valentine

    Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars
    · 22 ratings
    History brought them together. Circumstances may keep them apart. Alyson Blake’s past left her with scars. Scars that she tried to fix the only way she knew how—by helping others. But actions have consequences, and Alyson is about to find out that being naïve is no excuse. Fighting is Jamison Weston’s passion. Alyson is his obsession...
  • Aftersome by Remi Rose

    Aftersome by Remi Rose

    Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars
    · 9 ratings
    Ten years ago, I lost the love of my life.In a blink of an eye, he was gone and to this day, I still seem to be picking up the pieces of my broken heart.But in losing Hayes, we had also lost Mal. The misunderstood hockey player who wished more than anything that he could turn back time and trade places with his best friend. So, in his grief and guilt, he left. Without a goodbye...
  • Caged by Brittany Crowley

    Caged by Brittany Crowley

    Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars
    · 8 ratings
    Savannah I was perfectly content with my life, or at least I thought I was. Then Zander ‘The Hitman’ Cage walked into my bar with those hypnotizing blue eyes and everything I ever thought I wanted flew out the window. Giving him a chance was the easiest decision I ever made. He ripped apart my safe little existence and took me along for the ride of my life...
  • Undisputed by Aimee Nicole Walker, Nicholas Bella

    Undisputed by Aimee Nicole Walker, Nicholas Bella

    Rated: 4.16 of 5 stars
    · 17 ratings
    There was once a time in my life where the only thing that mattered to me was fighting and winning. I’d step into that octagon with all the confidence in the world that I’d leave the victor. There was no challenge too great that I couldn’t handle. That was until I met a sassy and sexy reporter by the name of Aiden James and he flipped my world upside down...
  • Memphis by Ginger Scott

    Memphis by Ginger Scott

    Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars
    · 13 ratings
    My mom always said it was just something about the way he moved. The same swagger Archie Valentine wore in the ring when he took his opponents down followed him like a halo everywhere he went. But make no mistake about it—he was no angel. He was like a drug. My mother was his addict. I never understood it…how love could make you blind and convince you to drink the poison...
  • In Jack's Arms by Roxie Rivera

    In Jack's Arms by Roxie Rivera

    Rated: 4.09 of 5 stars
    · 25 ratings
    When pawn broker Abby Kirkwood discovers the evidence of a chilling drug cartel hit on one of the video cameras hocked in her store, she turns to the only man she can trust—Jack Connolly. The smolderingly sexy former Marine runs a successful gym down the street and coaches her brother's special needs baseball team. He's the one man who is always there when she needs him...
  • Naked Choke by Vanessa Dare

    Naked Choke by Vanessa Dare

    Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars
    · 15 ratings
    Trapped at the bar during her best friend's engagement party, Emory finds herself with Mr. Dud and his obnoxious pick-up lines. That is, until sexy Grayson Green steps in to rescue her. She's been out of the game so long that she's practically a dating virgin. With her son off to college and her husband now an ex, Emory is learning how to be not a wife, not a mom, but a single woman...
  • Uncaged Love, Volume 1 by J.J. Knight

    Uncaged Love, Volume 1 by J.J. Knight

    Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars
    · Steam rating: 1 of 5
    Glimpses and kisses [?] · 25 ratings
    Colt McClure is a rising MMA fighter out to prove that he has what it takes to be a champion. Jo is on the run from her one terrible mistake. When Colt drags Jo from a brawl with street thugs, he recognizes her potential as a female fighter. But as they begin her training, their desire for each other sparks a love affair that could jeopardize them both. Uncaged Love is a five-part series...
  • Redemption by Tia Lewis

    Redemption by Tia Lewis

    Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars
    · 10 ratings
    I won't stop until I have my title back and Hannah Collin's is mine. Owning Chicago's best MMA gym, the Warrior Zone, doesn't compare to the high I got from being inside the octagon—the lights, the screaming fans, the women. I used to be the top MMA fighter until a near fatal injury forced me to retire and stripped me of that title...
  • Dropkick My Heart by Winter Travers

    Dropkick My Heart by Winter Travers

    Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars
    · 10 ratings
    Kellan Countless hours of practice, and enough determination to succeed no matter the cost is what has brought Kellan to standing at the door to his life coming full circle. Life on the competition circuit was fast-paced, and exciting, but now Kellan is ready to settle down, and stay in his own bed for longer than a week...
  • Fighting for Honor by Dani Wyatt

    Fighting for Honor by Dani Wyatt

    Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars
    · 11 ratings
    BOOK FIVE IN THE WORTH THE FIGHT SERIES OF STANDALONES! . Five minutes was all it took. Five minutes with the beast off its leash and three guys were sprawled and bloody on the floor of my parents’ bar. Next thing I know, I’m a viral sensation with a professional fighting contract. But even as I landed each punch, all I could see was her face. All I could think about was her kiss...
  • Seal The Deal: A Second Chance Hockey Romance by Hailey Rodger

    Seal The Deal: A Second Chance Hockey Romance by Hailey Rodger

    Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars
    · 10 ratings
    Twelve years. Two hearts. One love that refuses to fade. Jake Twelve years ago, I let her walk away.For one unforgettable summer, Charlie and I were inseparable—camp counselors sharing stolen laughs, late-night talks, and a bond so rare it left a mark. But when the summer ended, we said goodbye, thinking the world was too big for us to hold onto each other...
  • Fighting Dirty by Stacey Lynn

    Fighting Dirty by Stacey Lynn

    Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars
    · 10 ratings
    The Raleigh Rough Riders are back, and this time Super Bowl Quarterback Beaux Hale finds himself playing the most important game of his life. Every woman knows Beaux Hale is nothing but a player. Yet the first time he walks into Paige Halloway’s restaurant and flashes his sexy grin, she feels a heat between them spark. Too bad he opens his mouth and ruins it...
  • Stacked Up by Sidney Halston

    Stacked Up by Sidney Halston

    Rated: 4.16 of 5 stars
    · 12 ratings
    Opposites attract in this seductive novel from the author of Against the Cage (“Funny, steamy, scorching.”—Toni Aleo), with a chiseled MMA fighter falling for a single mom who could use a real man in her corner...
  • Paradise Fought: Abel by L.B. Dunbar

    Paradise Fought: Abel by L.B. Dunbar

    Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars
    · 9 ratings
    I'm not a fighter. I was born into a fighting family. As the middle child, I was overlooked in favor of my older brother. He took the negative attention, too. In comparison, there's nothing special about me. I’m not as big as Cobra. I’m not as strong as Cobra. He's the alpha. I'm a beta. The second son. The lesser one...
  • Bodychecking: Seattle Sockeyes Hockey by Jami Davenport

    Bodychecking: Seattle Sockeyes Hockey by Jami Davenport

    Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars
    · 9 ratings
    As the wild child of the family, Bellani Maxwell isn’t interested in settling down. Between a fledgling party crashing business, teaching self-defense at a martial arts studio, and hitting the bar every night, she has her hands full. She doesn’t need the added responsibility or commitment of a relationship...
  • Curveball by Kate Angell

    Curveball by Kate Angell

    Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars
    · 30 ratings
    The bad boys of baseball, they are the top power hitters of the Richmond Rogues, and the team's best hope for a shot at the World Series. But when all three have to be benched for brawling, it's the beginning of a whole new ball game, and the opposing team could win something more than a trophy--these ladies are after their hearts...
  • The Effects of Falling by Mariah Dietz

    The Effects of Falling by Mariah Dietz

    Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars
    · 8 ratings
    I have loved my best friend for eleven years. Eleven years of celebrations. Eleven years of victories and losses. Eleven years of inside jokes and shared smiles. Eleven years of helping him raise his daughter as a single father. He smiles at me and my world brightens. He ignores me and I forget how to function. He holds my hand and takes more of my heart...
  • Bring The Heat by K.B. Winters

    Bring The Heat by K.B. Winters

    Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars
    · 8 ratings
    Steamy, Sexy Bad Boys Of Summer! Can It Get Any Hotter? I never claimed to be the greatest pitcher in the world—then again, maybe I did—but I was probably drunk off my ass trying to seduce some chick. I had no intention of ever becoming Cody Wright, the best—or the greatest. That was more my old man’s dream. The REAL Mr. Wright...
  • Undefeated by Stuart Reardon, Jane Harvey-Berrick

    Undefeated by Stuart Reardon, Jane Harvey-Berrick

    Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars
    · 8 ratings
    A Rugby RomanceWhen your world crashes downWhen they all say you’re outWhen your body is brokenI will rise.I will return.And I will be undefeated. Nick Renshaw is the golden boy of British rugby. When a serious injury threatens his career, he starts to spiral downwards, a broken man.Feeling abandoned and betrayed by those closest to him, he fights to restart his life...
  • Field of Pleasure by Farrah Rochon

    Field of Pleasure by Farrah Rochon

    Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars
    · 8 ratings
    Originally Published by Harlequin Kimani Romance – September 2011 Jared Dawson is used to taking big hits on the football field, but nothing could have prepared the New York Sabers star cornerback for the blow he experiences when he catches his long-time girlfriend in bed with an ex-teammate. Seeking a balm to soothe his wounded ego, Jared decides a no-strings-attached fling is the way to go...
  • The Art of Falling in Love with Your Fake Fiancé by Anne Kemp

    The Art of Falling in Love with Your Fake Fiancé by Anne Kemp

    Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars
    · 8 ratings
    All’s fair in love and war…until you agree to be your best friend’s fake fiancé.Levi: Life as an NFL player has always been fast-paced, but nothing prepared me for becoming the guardian of my godson, Duncan. With his grandmother contesting custody, I need to prove that I’m a steadfast influence who’s not going anywhere and there’s one sure-fire way to show that: get engaged...
  • Make You Keep Me by L.A. Shaw

    Make You Keep Me by L.A. Shaw

    Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars
    · 8 ratings
    Book Two in the Fight for me duet.She disappeared without a trace. Leaving me with a piece of paper and a shattered heart.We grew up in a world full of demons, but I never expected her to become one of mine.The ghost of her haunted me for over two years.I was finally moving on with my life in more ways than one...
  • Fighting Love by Abby Niles

    Fighting Love by Abby Niles

    Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars
    · 27 ratings
    Fighting Love by Abby Niles Talk about kicking a fighter while he’s down. Former Middleweight champion and confirmed bachelor Tommy "Lightning" Sparks has lost it all: his belt, his career, and now his home. After the devastating fire, he moves in with his drama-free best friend, Julie...
  • Doomsday Love by Shanora Williams

    Doomsday Love by Shanora Williams

    Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars
    · Steam rating: 4 of 5
    Explicit open door [?] · 15 ratings
    **LIMITED TIME SALE OF $0.99! Regular Price $3.99** If you're thinking this is the typical MMA romance...you're wrong. When we were ten, he treated me like a friend. When we were eighteen, he wanted nothing to do with me. And now that we are twenty-two, he longs to claim every single inch of me. He was wild--untamed. And I, a reckless girl, who loved too hard...
  • Curveball by Kate Angell

    Curveball by Kate Angell

    Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars
    · 27 ratings
    The bad boys of baseball, they are the top power hitters of the Richmond Rogues, and the team's best hope for a shot at the World Series. But when all three have to be benched for brawling, it's the beginning of a whole new ball game, and the opposing team could win something more than a trophy--these ladies are after their hearts...
  • Slap Shot: A Marriage of Convenience Hockey Romance by Maria Luis

    Slap Shot: A Marriage of Convenience Hockey Romance by Maria Luis

    Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars
    · 10 ratings
    He’ll do anything for his best friend…even marry her. I live by two universal truths: When I step onto the ice, I’m a god. Daisy Hall is the other half of my soul. My teammates joke that I’m too co-dependent with the coach’s daughter, and maybe that’s true. We’ve been thick as thieves since college, and even when I got drafted to the Boston Blades, Daisy followed me across state lines...
  • Change Up: An Out For You Gay Sports Romance by Quinn Ward

    Change Up: An Out For You Gay Sports Romance by Quinn Ward

    Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars
    · 11 ratings
    No one expected the loudmouth of the team to be hiding in the biggest closet of them all. When he’s paired with someone who just wants to keep his head down and play the game, sparks are going to fly.Kevin Green has always been the life of the party. He’s the one everyone turns to for a bit of comic relief...
  • Fighting Blind by C.M. Seabrook

    Fighting Blind by C.M. Seabrook

    Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars
    · 10 ratings
    Mackenzie Brooks is everything I've ever wanted. Three years ago, she walked out of my life. No explanation. Just gone. With the biggest fight of my career only weeks away, she walked back in. I'll do anything to protect her. Destroy anyone who tries to hurt her. When it comes to Mac, there isn't a line I won't cross...
  • Fly by Molly McLain

    Fly by Molly McLain

    Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    Meet Colton Wade, FMX rider... I’m just a small town guy who caught a lucky break. Now I’m living the dream, on the brink of high-flying super-stardom. But something’s missing. That something is Taylor. She’s my best friend. The one who makes me want to push harder and higher. The one I fall back on when shit gets tough. The one I’d give it all up for. I’d do anything to protect her...
  • Misadventures in the Cage by Sarah Robinson

    Misadventures in the Cage by Sarah Robinson

    Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars
    · 10 ratings
    Callan Walsh kicks ass. In fact, he’s famous for it. As one of the brightest up-and-coming stars on the MMA scene, he’s an absolute beast in the cage…and out. Everything he’s trained for has brought him to this moment. Going toe-to-toe with reigning champ Xavier Gray will make or break his career. Nothing can distract him from his lifelong goal. Nothing...
  • Full Contact by Sidney Halston

    Full Contact by Sidney Halston

    Rated: 4.02 of 5 stars
    · 21 ratings
    Sidney Halston returns to steamy Tarpon Springs, Florida, where a hell-raising bad boy prepares to get down and dirty for the woman he loves.   How could she have been so stupid? When Jessica Cross decides to give her violently jealous boyfriend—the otherwise influential and charming Dennis Stavros—a second chance, she very nearly becomes a statistic...
  • Fighting For Faith by Aria Cole, Mila Crawford

    Fighting For Faith by Aria Cole, Mila Crawford

    Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars
    · 12 ratings
    Being infatuated with my childhood best friend was a beautiful curse. Our lives were an uphill struggle against every odd, but as long as we had each other…we had everything. Then it was all gone. Now I've built my life to perfection yet still yearning for that boy I used to know. Then one night, through a chance encounter, I see him. Riot James...
  • Married Into Love by Rochelle Paige

    Married Into Love by Rochelle Paige

    Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars
    · 7 ratings
    What happens in Vegas doesn’t always stay there... Alec Rourke wasn’t going to waste a night out on the Strip, not even if his friends skipped their own co-ed bachelor-and-ette party. But he never expected to find a plus-one for their wedding—his new wife. And sometimes you find yourself married to a stranger... Alessia Valenti was having the worst day ever. Fired from her job...
  • Down and Dirty by Christine Bell

    Down and Dirty by Christine Bell

    Rated: 3.99 of 5 stars
    · 28 ratings
    A sexy category romance from Entangled's Brazen imprint... He was a dare she’d never been able to resist… Cat Thomas has never been the kind of girl to stick. A self-professed infatuation junky, she latches on the newest, hottest guy on the block, then finds a reason—real or imagined—to dump him...
Fantastic book recommendations by romance book lovers for romance book lovers.
Find out more about romance.io.


Get recommendations by genres & tropes

Use the romance book finder to mix and match over 100 content keywords to find the books that match your preferences

romance book finder

Looking for more inspiration? Enter another book title to get more suggestions on what to read next.


Or - use our amazing romance book finder to get recommendations based on your favorite content tropes and themes. Mix and match at will.