Title Troubles

Carina Press wants me to change the title of my hockey book(s). I had titled it HARD TO RESIST. The rest of the series would follow the HARD TO ___ pattern. They didn't like that. They want me to inject more of a sports feel into the titles.

Hm. 

I spent hours Thursday and Friday brainstorming. I went to Amazon and Carina Press to look at the hockey romance/sports romance titles that had already been used. 

Here's what I found:  Offside, Offsides, Collide, Hat Trick, Taking Shots, Trying to Score, Blue Lines, Empty Net, Off Her Game, Play the Man, Fresh Ice, Face Off of the Heart, Jilted.

Face Off of the Heart amused me.

My goal was to end up with a title idea that could be used for the entire series so that readers could tell the book was part of the Barracuda series, just by looking at the title.

I brainstormed a bunch of words I thought I might be able to use:  Play, Ice, Shot, Stick, Score, Win, Skate, Game. Some of them were hockey specific, some were just sports-y.

Then I started really brainstorming. Here's the list I ended up with on my Evernotes app. I wrote everything down, even the stupid ones. 

Playing to Win

At All Costs

Hard Won Victory

Stick Work

Crossing the Line

Game Winner

Power Play

Playing the System

On the Breakaway

Dropping the Gloves

82 Games

Head Up, Stick Down

Home Ice

On the Stick

Tape to Tape

Odd Man Rush

Roughing

__ On Ice

Fear on Ice 

Pride on Ice

Love on Ice 

Against ____

Against the Odds

Against the Boards

Against the Wall

Against the Glass 

Too late to make a long story short, but I ended up liking the idea of using prepositional phrases, with each title adapted to fit that particular story. When I'm introduced to my editor, Melissa Johnson, I will propose that HARD TO RESIST be changed to IN THE ZONE. I'll also suggest that the next two books be called OUT OF THE GAME and AGAINST THE BOARDS. 

I'd love to hear what people think.