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When a romance story puts you someplace unfamiliar, and offers you an array of characters who are unlike anyone you know, even the most conventional tale of love and redemption becomes a journey.

The first of her “Glasgow Lads�� series, Avery Cockburn’s “Playing for Keeps�� shows us a side of Scotland that few travelers ever see. This book is full of barriers: the barriers gay football (soccer) players face in the amateur leagues that form a crucial social element in Scotland’s life; the barriers Scots-Irish Catholics face in a country whose Protestant majority is sometimes still deeply tied to the anti-Catholic movement in Northern Ireland; the barriers LGBT refugees from homophobic nations face when confronted with unfeeling UK government policies and uncaring bureaucracy; and finally, the social and economic barriers that underemployed blue-collar Glaswegians face in a country where industry is declining. This is still the Glasgow of Charles Rennie MacIntosh, but it’s not what tourists see. And that’s what makes this story special and vivid.

Fergus Taylor, country-raised and highly educated, is still reeling from the deceit and betrayal of his ex. John Burns, born and schooled in Glasgow’s toughest neighborhood, is smarting from the constant pressure of his father to participate in the anti-Catholic Orange Man walks. The football pitch becomes a place where these two men find each other unhindered by the barriers that, off the pitch, threaten to impede their paths to happiness, individually or together.

Cockburn gives us marvelous Glaswegian patois and an insider’s look at gay life in the UK’s unromantic industrial north. She focuses on Fergus and John, but surrounds them with wonderful, funny, loving, sometimes difficult people. She presents a challenging social reality and doesn’t take the easy way out.

The sex is integral and passionate, interwoven with the burgeoning emotional ties these two men develop for each other. There is the usual m/m romanctic emphasis on beautiful bodies and ample endowment (pause to roll my eyes), but that is balanced by the richly detailed personalities of both Fergus (a redhead too boot, swoon) and John. Cockburn gives the romance reader what he/she wants, but also gives us a chance to expand our experience of the world and understand something new.

I’ve already bought the second book in this series, which focuses on two other characters who were significant sideline players in this book. That’s the way to sell your work.