Off-Campus Series Reading Guide

One of my favorite romance series of all time is the Off-Campus series by Elle Kennedy. 🥰 Besides being well written, Elle Kennedy has me falling in love with the heroes every single time I pick these books up. Earlier in October, Prime Video announced that they would be adapting the Off-Campus series into a TV show! And like so many other fans, I was so excited but also nervous because we know the casting of these characters will make or break the show (so keeping our fingers crossed 🤞).

Below is a reading guide for this series for you all. It’s going to be a bit different from the fantasy ones I’ve written before since many elements in the romance genre don’t intertwine with the fantasy genre. I will try, as always, to keep everything as spoiler-free as possible about the content of the books, but just an FYI—every single book is a happily ever after, so there’s no mystery about who will end up together. 🤭

Off-Campus Series Reading Order Recommendation ✅

Elle Kennedy wrote the Off-Campus series before the Briar U series, but both series are connected, and many of the Off-Campus characters are mentioned in Briar U.

I’d recommend reading the Off-Campus book series first since it will make more sense. But remember that every book is a standalone, so you don’t have to read them as a series. 😉

Here’s my recommended reading order for the Off-Campus book series:

The Deal (Off-Campus Book #1)—Garrett and Hannah couple
The Mistake (Off-Campus Book #2)—John Logan and Grace couple
The Score (Off-Campus Book #3)—Dean and Allie couple
The Goal (Off-Campus Book #4)—Sabrina and John Tucker couple
The Legacy (Off-Campus Book #5)—novella collection of all four couples

Off-Campus Series Breakdown 📖

Trigger Warnings ⚠️

❗☝️ Beware of some mentioned SA, child abuse, alcoholism, death, and drug abuse.

Tropes 🥰

The series’ main trope is college hockey romance. I’ve included a list of every trope I found in each book, so choose which ones you think you’ll enjoy the most!

The Deal (Book #1): Fake dating, reformed player;
The Mistake (Book #2): Second chance, reformed player, innocent girl/experienced guy;
The Score (Book #3): Reformed player, secret relationship;
The Goal (Book #4): Surprise pregnancy, slow burn;

List of Characters 📃

Here is a list of some important characters throughout the book series and a short description.

🎭 Garrett Graham: Male protagonist in The Deal and love interest of Hannah Wells.💘 He is a talented hockey player at Briar University. He has brown hair and gray eyes and is known for being kind and loyal. His mother passed away when he was young and was raised by his abusive, superstar hockey-playing dad. With no siblings, Garrett nerds out over history, which he majors in, specifically World War 2 history.

🎭 Hannah Wells: Female protagonist in The Deal and love interest of Garrett Graham. 💘 She is a talented singer and has a music major at Briar University. She has brown hair and green eyes and is known for being smart and generous. Hannah moved from her small town in Indiana because of the backlash she received by going to the police about being assaulted by a classmate. Her parents still live in Indiana and struggle with being outcasts of the town.

🎭 John Logan: Male protagonist in The Mistake and love interest of Grace Ivers. He is a talented Briar University hockey player and Garrett’s teammate. He has brown hair and blue eyes and is usually called Logan instead of John. 😅 He has divorced parents and a father who struggles with alcoholism. He has an older brother and loves cheesy horror movies.

🎭 Grace Ivers: Female protagonist in The Mistake and love interest of John Logan. She is a psychology major at Briar University. She has light brown hair and brown eyes and has divorced parents but they have a good relationship. She has no siblings and is known for being open and sweet.

🎭 Dean Heyward-Di Laurentis: Male protagonist in The Score and love interest of Allie Hayes. He is a hockey player at Briar University and on the same team as Garrett and Logan. He mainly plays hockey because he enjoys it. He has short blonde hair and green eyes and is known for being light-hearted and a bit reckless. He has two siblings: one younger sister and an older brother.

🎭 Allie Hayes: Female protagonist in The Score and love interest of Dean Heyward-Di Laurentis. She is a drama major at Briar University and Hannah’s best friend and roommate. She has blonde hair and blue eyes. She has a father who struggles with his health after being diagnosed with MS, and her mother passed away when she was younger. She has no siblings and is known for being a firecracker and loyal. She loves this one French soap opera and is learning how to speak French from it. 🤭

🎭 John Tucker: Male protagonist in The Goal and love interest of Sabrina James. He is a hockey player at Briar University and a teammate to Logan, Garrett, and Dean. He usually goes by Tucker and has red hair and brown eyes. His father passed away, and only has his mother, who he adores. 🥰 He has no other siblings and is known for being sweet and a gentleman.

🎭 Sabrina James: Female protagonist in The Goal and love interest of John Tucker. She is a law major at Briar University. She has brown hair and brown eyes. Her father abandoned her mother after getting her pregnant with Sabrina, and her mother then abandoned Sabrina and only talked to her occasionally. Sabrina is known for being stunning, intelligent, and hardheaded.

🎭 Beau Maxwell: Briar University quarterback and best friend to Dean. Grace Ivers points out how much he and Logan look alike. He casually dated Sabrina for a time. 👀

Setting 🏙

Briar University: A fictional Ivy League University created by the author in Massachusetts just outside Boston.

The Guys House: Where Tucker, Logan, Garrett, and Dean live together throughout college.

Timeline 🌌

The overall timeline is set over a two-year span during most of the characters’ junior and senior years of college. Here is the timeline of each book:

The Deal (Book #1): Set during Hannah and Garrett’s junior year of college. We follow them from the beginning of their fall semester into the spring semester.
The Mistake (Book #2): Slight overlap with The Deal during Logan’s junior year of college and Grace’s first year. There is a time jump over the summer where the characters reconnect during Grace’s sophomore year and Logan’s senior year.
The Score (Book #3): Set directly after the events of The Mistake with some overlap. Allie and Dean are both in their senior years of college. This book goes from the winter until the spring when both characters graduate.
The Goal (Book #4): Set during Tucker and Sabrina’s senior year of college. There is an overlap between The Score and The Goal, where some of the same events occur but from different perspectives.
The Legacy (Book #5): The story takes place three years after most characters graduate college. The major event that this book surrounds is Sabrina and Tucker’s wedding. Some of the short stories occur before, during, and after.

My Personal Ranking of the Off-Campus Book Series📋

The Deal (Book #1): Garrett stole my heart and just so happens to be my EXACT type. He and Hannah together were just perfect. 🥰

The Score (Book #2): While players are usually my sworn enemies, I was glad that Dean could set that aside once he found his forever girl.

The Legacy (Book #3): I loved reading about these little slices of the characters’ lives after their books.

The Mistake (Book #4): While I loved John and Grace, the plot of this book was a little boring. I was way more interested in the characters.

The Goal (Book #5): I liked Sabrina and Tucker together but didn’t love them. This book is definitely more of a slow-burn romance, and I wanted a faster-paced one like the other books.

So here’s my short but sweet reading guide for the Off-Campus series by Elle Kennedy! ⭐

I recommend this series for my fellow lover guys, gals, and theys out there who love romance books as much as I do. 🥰 I also recommend it to readers who are new to the romance genre. What I love about this series so much is that each character has their own background and story that makes them so unique. I also love that there is so much humor ingrained within the story—especially the interactions between the guys. There are some truly boyish moments that made me laugh out loud (literally)! 😅 There is also a lot of exciting dialogue within these books that I’m glad the author created for the readers to enjoy.

I hope you guys enjoyed this reading guide and are as excited for the upcoming TV series as I am! 🤭 Catch you guys next time.

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This reading guide was written by our Bookly Pro Reader, The Rose Post 💙

Looking For Some More Reading Guides To Up Your Series Game? 📖💪

If you’d like to explore more book series and don’t know where to start, we suggest checking out our other reading guides on our blog. If you’re intrigued by The Poppy War Trilogy, Priory Of The Orange Tree, or if you want to dive head-first into Sarah J. Mass’s ACOTAR universe or Crescent City series, we’ve got you!

Don’t miss out on any detail about the timeline, setting, and characters in the story, and remember to keep track of your notes while reading 😊

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