Mara J. Ova

Fast lines. Hard falls. Hot love.

Romance that refuses to play it safe.

My Books

The carved series #01

Carve My Heart

Racing at deadly speeds, this star skier treats women as glittery distractions, until one night with a stranger tastes better than Olympic gold.

Thomas Kern has won everything there is to win, except the Olympics. As the pressure mounts and his motivation slips, one unforgettable night with a sharp, stunning journalist cuts through the emptiness and reignites his drive.

When he discovers she’s joined the team as their new PR manager, Thomas struggles to balance the pull of her admiring eyes with the ruthless focus Olympic glory demands.

Watching her mother sacrifice her ambitions for an athlete’s career, Katharina Berger swore she’d never make the same mistake. But after crashing into Austria’s golden boy, she decides—just once—to grab her desire.

When she lands her dream job on his team, she faces the choice between love and everything she’s built.

One celebrity skier. One journalist with lethal ambition. Will they dare the risk their passion demands—or keep winning and let something essential die?

Carve My Heart is a steamy, slow-burn sports romance packed with raw chemistry, forbidden tension, and elite athletes pushed past control. If you crave passion, power play, and love that sneaks up when defenses are down, Carve My Heart is for you.

Buy Carve My Heart and follow their desire past the finish line.

the prequel to the carve series

The Crash Course

Before the Olympics. Before the glory. One crash changed everything.

She crashed into his life, then vanished, leaving behind nothing but the memory of a night that burned through reason and refused to fade. He was everything she swore to stay away from, yet every look between them set fire to the rules she lived by.

Thomas Kern isn’t just an elite skier; he’s the elite skier. Flying downhill at 140 km/h, pulling three g in every turn, he lives for control, speed, and the approval of a nation. He’s won it all: globes, races, adoration. Everything except Olympic gold. Everything except the fire that once made winning matter.

Katharina Berger is ambitious, talented, and dangerously perceptive, the kind of journalist who sees through heroes instead of worshipping them. She writes about athletes but never lets herself love one, having watched her mother disappear into the shadow of a racer’s career. Until one collision makes her want something she never planned.

When their worlds collide—athlete and journalist, golden boy and woman with her own future to protect—their connection is instant, electric, and unmistakably off-limits. Falling for him could cost her everything she’s built. Wanting her could cost him the focus he needs to chase Olympic gold.

The Crash Course is a steamy short prequel to Carve My Heart, revealing how Thomas and Katharina first collided—on the slope and off it. It’s the spark before the fire, the night that changed the rules, and the moment neither of them ever truly left behind.

Buy The Crash Course and step into the first descent that started it all in this short, steamy prequel.

Who is Mara

my story into maraverse

I’ve been spinning stories in my head for as long as I can remember. As a child, they were pure adventure. But once I became a teenager, love slipped in. A glance. A kiss. A man. And with him — heat.

is this happily ever after after all?

Then I did what seemed smart: I played it cool. I went for the safe path. A PhD in history. A career that looked steady on the outside. But life has a way of surprising you — and mine came in the shape of my own sexy skier. He was my happily ever after, though in real life those don’t look like fairy tales. Sometimes they sound more like that song from Tangled: Is this happily ever after after all…

who i really am?

There were detours, struggles, things I had to heal. Two years of therapy showed my who I really was. But when I finally turned back to writing, something shifted. Out on a run, Show Yourself from Frozen 2 in my ears, I realized this was what I was meant to do. What I was born to do.

I’ve always read romance, because what else is life really about? The big achievements are wonderful, but without love, without a real relationship — and yes, without a working sex life — happiness slips away. Even psychiatrists will tell you: they always ask about intimacy when you sit down with them, because it matters that much.

maraverse is born

That’s why I believe in the healing potential of spicy romance. It helps women reclaim their sexuality, gives us permission to feel the heat, to want more, to demand more. It empowers us. And we need that.

Newsletter from the Maraverse

enter the Maraverse: Where Love is Always on the Line

You’re invited to step into the Maraverse — my world of bold athletes, reckless dreamers, and the people wild enough to love them. Here, the stakes are high, the emotions run hotter than the snow is cold, and every story is tied together by one thing: passion that refuses to play it safe.

And a bonus short story: The night they met

For those who want to taste my style, skip the story and dive right into the heat.