cyphomandra

More m/m sports romance, but in this case it’s a) book 2 of a series, by which the athlete half of the pair has retired from professional sports and b) Australian. In book 1, Tigers and Devils, narrator Simon, a snarky film festival manager and passionate football fan, meets (and insults) Declan, closeted AFL star, at a party; they get together and, eventually, Dec comes out, with a climactic sequence at the Brownlow awards (for the best and fairest player of the season; big thing in Australia).

In this book they’re together, but a vindictive ex and fellow AFL player is also going public, and teaming up with Simon’s nemesis to do so in a way designed to tear Simon and Dec apart; it’s not the most convincing plot, but what makes this series is the genuine sense of community (often, sadly, missing from m/m, apart from characters showing up to audition for their part in the next linked book) and the great cast - Simon’s friends Roger & Fran, Dec’s friends Lisa and Abe, Simon’s assistants Nyssa and Coby (former and current, respectively). There’s also a lot of Melbourne and three people fall into the Yarra river at the end (inadvisable!). The sex is fade-to-black, but it’s the characters I’m reading for - this is Simon:

"We’re super,” I said, and internally winced. Why on earth did I keep coming out with that? Soon I’d be riding on bicycles with the Famous Five, enjoying lashings of ginger beer and racially profiling gypsies.

and here’s Roger, his best friend, reassuring Dec:

“Simon isn’t going anywhere. He’s too lazy, for a start.”

There are also quite a few pointed comments about Australia's lack of recognition of same-sex marriages - finally done in 2017, but Kennedy appears to now be focussing on YA spinoffs of the Tiger novels (Dec does charity work with teenage GLBT athletes), so I don't know if he'll update his adult characters. Two more in the series to go.