(Exclusive)! Ana Huang's Steamy Sports Romance The Striker Is Not to Miss — See the Cover Here

If you can’t get enough of sports romance — real or fictional — Ana Huang has got you covered.The Striker, a new novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling author, is hitting shelves later this year via Bloom Books — and PEOPLE has an exclusive first look at the cover.To write The Striker, Huang tapped into her love of Premier League football, or soccer for U.S. fans, per a statement shared with PEOPLE. Asher Donovan is a football legend, though he often finds that his antics can lead to controversy. When a feud with his rival, and now teammate, causes their team to lose a championship game, the two are forced to make amends during the off-season.

For Asher, complications ensue when he’s introduced to the duo’s new trainer, Scarlett DuBois, a former ballerina, and his rival’s sister. As tensions rise, Asher and Scarlett must navigate a new kind of relationship in this classic “brother’s rival” tale.

Huang, who is also the author of the hit Twisted and King of Sin series, previously spoke with PEOPLE about her writing career, ahead of the publication of her novel King of Sloth. The author says that writing her books originally started as a way to learn English."I grew up in an immigrant household, so I didn't speak English that well and I had to take English as a second la -

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nguage class. And then my mom came to me and she was like, 'You know, why don't you just write me a short story in English every day,' " Huang said. "And at the time, I thought she just really liked to read my stories. I had no idea it was for language learning, but it kind of got me hooked and she really encouraged that habit of reading and writing."

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The BookTok sensation also noted that seeing how popular her books have become has taken some getting used to. "It's been pretty surreal," Huang said. "I'm still pretty new in terms of being in the author world. So sometimes there are still moments where I'm like, 'Wow, I can't believe someone is reading something that I wrote and created.' I'm always just very grateful to everyone that has shared and loved the books, and I love how much it's doing for indie authors."

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The Striker will hit shelves on Oct. 22, 2024 and is now available for preorder, wherever books are sold.

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