Alexa Martin Books in Order

Alexa Martin writes romance and women’s fiction about messy lives, close friendships, hard-earned fresh starts, and people who are trying to figure things out without losing their sense of humor. She lives in Dallas with her husband, four children, and German Shepherd.

Martin married her high school sweetheart, Derrick, when she was 20. His career took him to the NFL, and her years around professional football later gave her plenty to work with on the page. The glamour of the game is part of the picture, but so are the wives, girlfriends, families, gossip, pressure, and plain old everyday complications that happen off the field.

Writing began during a move to Green Bay, when Martin was home with a one-year-old and a newborn and did not yet have a local circle of friends. She started a blog partly as a way to have somewhere to put her thoughts instead of talking to herself around the house all day.

That small outlet turned into something bigger.

Reading romance helped make the next step feel possible. Martin has said that Fifty Shades of Grey pulled her into the genre, while Kristen Ashley’s books kept her reading. She began drafting what would become Intercepted in 2012, finished it in 2016, and then rewrote it during Pitch Wars. The novel arrived in 2018 as the first book in the Playbook series.

The Playbook books take place around the fictional Denver Mustangs football team. Intercepted follows Marlee Harper after a devastating breakup and a new chance with quarterback Gavin Pope. Fumbled brings together single mother Poppy Patterson and her high school sweetheart, NFL receiver T.K. Moore. In Blitzed, bar owner Brynn Larson has no intention of dating another athlete, even when Maxwell Lewis makes it difficult to stick to that rule. Snapped shifts toward workplace pressure, public protest, and a romance between team communications manager Elliot Reed and quarterback Quinton Howard Jr.

Her later books widen the lens beyond football. Mom Jeans and Other Mistakes centers on longtime friends Jude and Lauren, who move in together while navigating motherhood, money problems, family baggage, and an uncertain future. Better Than Fiction pairs a reluctant bookstore owner with a romance novelist. Next-Door Nemesis turns an HOA election into a very personal rivalry between former friends. In How to Sell a Romance, a kindergarten teacher gets caught up in a sketchy skincare sales company and crosses paths with an investigative reporter.

The common thread is people learning that a restart rarely goes as neatly as planned.

Martin’s characters can be funny, defensive, overwhelmed, stubborn, and very loyal. Her stories make room for romance, but friendship, family, work, grief, and identity matter too. She often builds a big life problem around the love story, then lets her characters make mistakes while they try to sort it out.

When she is not writing, Martin has said she enjoys keeping up with The Real Housewives and filling her Etsy cart with things she probably does not need. With four kids, a dog, and a busy household, she also knows something about chaos, which helps explain why her fictional worlds feel lived-in rather than picture-perfect.