14 Books Like Off Campus for Everyone Who Finished the Show in One Weekend
Looking for books like Off Campus before the Prime Video show? These college sports romances bring the hockey boys, banter, emotional stakes, and found family vibes. Start here.
I’ve been recommending this series since before most readers knew it existed. Now that Prime Video’s Off Campus TV show is premiering on May 13, 2026, obviously this is our excuse to revisit the Briar universe and make a very important public service announcement… The reason readers love Elle Kennedy’s Off Campus series is not just the hockey. Although, yes, the hockey boys are part of the problem. Respectfully.
What makes this series so addictive is the full package: we’re talking sexy banter, a college romance setting, hot athletes, an awesome friend group, all the fun tropes, and some emotional damage hiding under all that smirking and flirting. Basically it’s the angst, the swoon, the spice, and a whole lot of found family.
So this list is not only just another college hockey romance roundup. If that’s what you’re looking for, I have a whole list of college hockey romance books waiting for you. This is for the readers who want books like Off Campus in vibes, if you want a series or a book that consumes you with that same angsty romance and not let go. Ready?
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Start Here If You Need a Place to Begin
Overwhelmed already? Honestly, same. If you want the closest possible reading experience to Off Campus (the campus energy, the steam, the banter, the emotional gut-punch) these three are where I’d send you first.
First Down by Grace Reilly: Start here if you want a modern college sports romance series with multiple sports, a friend group vibe (family), banter, spice, and everyone gets their book. The Beyond the Play series feels so much like the Off Campus reading experience that I would not skip it.
The Hook Up by Kristen Callihan: Start here if you want the football version of Off Campus: star athlete, reluctant heroine, big chemistry, and a full series worth digging into. Also, you absolutely need to meet Dex in book three, The Game Plan. I do not make the rules. Except here, where I sort of do.
Him by Sarina Bowen and Elle Kennedy: Start here if you want adult hockey, emotional tension, past and present storytelling so we get younger timeline, and a friends to lovers story with a little friends to enemies to friends to lovers. You get the point.
This is my short list of series for you to consume immediately after Off Campus. More details on these books later on in this post. But let’s get to all the recs now.
If You Love the College Hockey World
Maybe the hockey is non-negotiable for you. Fair. These three deliver the rink, the team brotherhood, and the campus shenanigans that makes Off Campus feel like its own universe.
Collide by Bal Khabra
This one is here because it gives you the honors student vs. hockey captain setup, and honestly, that is very Off Campus. Summer has a twenty-five-year plan. Aiden has hockey captain confidence and the general vibe of a man who has never met a life plan he could not casually disrupt. Their whole dynamic has that same tension that works so well in Elle Kennedy’s books. I also like that the sport psychology angle makes hockey feel important to the story. And if Collide hooks you, you have a series to dive into including Revolve. Same world, same energy.
Shameless King by Maya Hughes
Declan McAvoy has Dean Di Laurentis energy, and I mean that as both a compliment and a warning to you. He is cocky, flirty, good on the ice, and carrying more under the surface than people give him credit for. Also I liked that he isn’t a manwhore. Add in Makenna, their messy high school history, and the fact that they are now stuck together as lab partners, and you get exactly the kind of enemies with benefits chaos that you need to read if you love Off Campus. I do recommend reading the prequel novella before it.
Grab Shameless King on Amazon or read my Shameless King book review
Blindsided by Victoria Denault
This one sounds like it should not be an Off Campus comp at first. I get it. Vermont farm? Family feud? Romeo and Juliet but make it college hockey? And yet. The forbidden tension works because it gives you that same feeling, just from a totally different angle. Instead of teammate rules or campus gossip, it is a generations-long rivalry causing the mess. Add in scholarship pressure and a secret side job, and suddenly there are real stakes. Plus, the Moo U is a multi-author college hockey romance that delivers all kinds of great stories and the perfect sampler to see if you want to dive deeper into the authors’ work.
If you want to go even deeper on college hockey romance specifically, our full college hockey romance books list has you covered.
If You Love the Banter, Academic Forced Proximity, and Enemies Energy
Maybe you don’t specifically need hockey. Maybe you need two people who cannot stand each other, a forced academic situation, and approximately three hundred pages of terrible decisions. Also valid.
Smut by Karina Halle
Creative writing rivals forced to write erotica together? Peak Karina Halle. This is here because the banter is hot, the academic forced proximity is actually fun, and Blake has Dean Di Laurentis energy if Dean had an English accent and a writing workshop instead of a hockey rink. The rivals to lovers pipeline is funny, filthy, and genuinely charming. Karina Halle does not do boring.
Grab Smut on Amazon or read my review of Smut by Karina Halle
Attraction by Penny Reid
Kaitlyn Parker hiding in closets and cabinets to avoid people is the most relatable heroine behavior. This gives you invisible girl meets campus golden boy, chemistry lab partners, spring break forced proximity, and Martin Sandeke being insufferable. Penny Reid’s banter is drier and nerdier than Off Campus, but it scratches the same itch. Heads up: this is book one in a trilogy and ends on a cliffhanger, so have book two ready.
First Down by Grace Reilly
This series is the closest comp to Off Campus and in this book we get tutoring in exchange for fake dates, college campus, athlete hero. James Callahan has Garrett Graham energy. He’s confident, focused, and more emotionally available than he first appears. Bex has very valid reasons for avoiding athletes, which makes the fake dating setup hit even better..
The Beyond the Play series follows four siblings, three brothers and a sister, across four books and multiple sports. Bonus: you do get hockey in books two and four, although book three is my personal favorite.
If You Want the Off Campus Vibe Without the Hockey
Maybe you do not specifically need hockey. Maybe you need student athletes with too much confidence, friend groups with terrible ideas, and heroines who are absolutely not impressed.
Sacked by Jen Frederick
If you want basically the same Off Campus feeling but in a football package, Sacked is a great place to start.
Knox Masters is a star athlete with a reputation, but the virgin hero angle makes him stand out from the usual cocky sports romance lineup. He knows what he wants and that is Ellie, his teammate’s sister.
If you liked that The Goal had more going on beneath the college romance surface, this is the one I’d try.
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The Hook Up by Kristen Callihan
The Hook Up is for the football version of the Off Campus feeling. Drew Baylor is the star quarterback. Anna Jones is not interested in becoming another girl orbiting a campus football god.
This has athlete reputation, reluctant heroine, big chemistry, banter, college pressure, and feelings that were absolutely not part of the original plan.
Fun old-school indie romance note: when The Deal and The Hook Up were originally indie published, Elle Kennedy and Kristen Callihan had little nods to each other’s series. Drew Baylor was mentioned by Beau Maxwell as a teammate in the Off Campus world, and there was a Briar reference in Game On world. Those references have since been changed, but if you were reading them back then, it made these two series feel like cousins.
And the Game On series is diving in. Especially because book three gives us Dex in The Game Plan, and I am legally obligated to bring him up whenever possible because that’s my favorite.
Jock Row by Sara Ney
Scarlett is the jock-blocker heroine who is completely over student athletes. Rowdy Wade is the baseball player assigned to keep her out of the Baseball House, which means he is insufferable and charming in equal measure. The banter has that dry, sometimes annoyed, witty charm.
What makes this a good comp is that Sara Ney takes the campus social world seriously in the same way Elle Kennedy takes the hockey world seriously. The Baseball House has its own chaos, and Scarlett navigating it with zero patience for nonsense is Off Campus energy.
If You Love the Emotional Depth, Found Family, and Ambitious Characters
Off Campus would be a good series if it were just funny and hot. It’s a great series because the characters are actually going through something. These three books get that.
Deep End by Ali Hazelwood
This is here for the student-athlete pressure and the ambitious heroine who has no room in her life for feelings. Scarlett has major Sabrina Hayes energy: high-achieving, guarded, focused on med school, and absolutely not looking for a relationship. Lukas is the kind of disciplined golden boy who should be easy to keep at a distance, except that’s impossible in reality.
The Olympics pressure cooker gives this book the same kind of external stakes that hockey gives Off Campus. The romance is happening while careers, bodies, futures, and identities are also on the line.
Unsteady by Peyton Corinne
This is probably the most emotionally intense book in this section. Rhys is a college hockey captain dealing with panic attacks and trauma after a brutal hit. Sadie is a figure skater drowning in debt, family responsibility, and the pressure to keep going like she is not one second away from falling apart. Their comfort dynamic is what makes this work.
It has the same emotional DNA as The Goal: two people who need each other before they fully understand how much they need each other.
The Year We Fell Down by Sarina Bowen
Corey was supposed to arrive at college as a hockey player. Instead, she arrives in a wheelchair after an accident changes the entire shape of her life. Across the hall is Hartley, another injured hockey player with a broken leg, and their friendship becomes this kind of slow, quiet connection that sneaks up on you.
The identity shift here is the reason this belongs on the list. Like Off Campus, the sport is tied to who these characters thought they were going to be. Hartley has the kind of steady, gentle energy Tucker does. And yes, that is a compliment of the highest order.
Grab The Year We Fell Down on Amazon
Ready to Graduate? Elle Kennedy and Sarina Bowen’s Adult Hockey World
You’ve read Off Campus. You’ve read Briar U. You’ve read Campus Diaries. You finished Love Song and you’re still not over it. Here’s where you go next if you want more Elle Kennedy.
Him by Sarina Bowen and Elle Kennedy
This is the most direct bridge between the Briar world and adult hockey romance written by the same author.
Him gives you hockey, summer camp history, former best friends, years of unresolved tension, and the kind of second chance romance that makes you want to yell at everyone. Part of the story reaches into Jamie and Wes’s past, so you still get that younger love before the book pulls them into the adult sports world.
It is friends to lovers and emotionally repressed hockey boys. In some ways, it’s similar also to Heated Rivalry.
Good Boy by Sarina Bowen and Elle Kennedy
Good Boy is the funnier, warmer palate cleanser option. This has the same Bowen/Kennedy collaboration energy full of banter, spice, athlete found family but in a lighter adult contemporary package. We have a hockey player, a dog trainer, and the kind of romance that is sweet and a good time.
That is exactly why it works after the emotional marathon of the full Briar world. You still get the sports romance, a lot more humor, excellent chemistry, but it feels less heavy.
It also stands alone nicely, so you do not need to commit to a huge series right away. But if you want more after this, you have that too.
Final Thoughts
If you just finished the show and you’re not ready to leave Briar, that’s the correct response. But books are better and I will die on that hill. So dive into another world that captures that vibe. Start with whatever section matched what you loved most about Off Campus. If you’re not sure, start with First Down and work your way down.
If you haven’t read the original books yet and you got here from the show, definitely go back. The complete Off Campus and Briar U series guide has the full reading order, spicy chapters, and everything you need before you start.
And if you’ve read everything on this list and you need more, join us on Discord. Someone in there always knows what to read next.
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