12 Best Hockey Romance Books Like Off Campus
- Joao Nsita
- Jul 10
- 22 min read
You finished Off Campus on Prime Video, you devoured all five Elle Kennedy books, and now you are standing in the middle of a Briar University-shaped hole in your life with absolutely no idea what to read next.
That feeling is real. And this article is your answer.
Hockey romance is one of the most addictive subgenres in contemporary fiction — and right now, in 2026, it is at the absolute peak of its cultural moment. From BookTok to Goodreads to Pinterest boards with names like "books that ruined me in the best possible way," hockey romance is everywhere. And the reason is simple: no other subgenre combines the intensity of athletic competition, the forced-proximity magic of shared ice time and locker rooms, and the specific emotional vulnerability of athletes who have built their entire identities around performance and then have to figure out how to be actual people in love.
If Off Campus left you hungry for more of that exact combination — the banter, the slow burn, the found family of a hockey team, the moment when the deal becomes real — you are going to find your next obsession in this ranking.
Twelve books. Every major trope. College hockey, professional hockey, figure skating, rivalry romance, fake dating, enemies to lovers, grumpy sunshine, and the most addictive slow burn you will read this year. All ranked from twelfth to first, so you know exactly which one to pick up right now.
Let's get into it. 👇
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If you love this, check out: All 5 Off Campus Books Ranked From Best to Most Addictive
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Six articles to save alongside this reading list:
Why Hockey Romance Is the Most Addictive Sports Romance Subgenre
The hockey romance explosion did not happen by accident. There is something about the specific combination of this sport and this genre that generates a particular kind of reading intensity — and understanding it helps you find exactly the right book for your current mood.
Hockey players in romance fiction carry a specific mythology: physical size and aggression on the ice that completely dissolves in private; a team culture that creates found-family dynamics more convincingly than almost any other sport; a training environment that generates natural forced proximity and shared intensity; and a world where performance is public and vulnerability is private, which creates exactly the kind of internal conflict that romance fiction feeds on.
Elle Kennedy's Off-Campus series recognized all of this when she published The Deal in 2015 and used it to build a college hockey world so richly developed that readers have been living in it for over a decade. The series that followed — from Hannah Grace's Icebreaker to Rachel Reid's Heated Rivalry to Becka Mack's Consider Me — have each built on that foundation in their own direction, expanding the genre's reach from college arenas to professional stadiums, from fake-dating deals to enemies-to-lovers enemies who share more than a rivalry.
This ranking covers the twelve best of them — the books that Off Campus fans are most likely to love, listed from twelfth to first.
12. The Chase by Elle Kennedy (Briar U, #1) — Published 2018
Tropes: Friends with benefits, forbidden-adjacent, found family, college hockey Heat Level: High | Series: Briar U #1
If you have finished the Off-Campus series and you simply cannot leave Briar University yet — if the thought of never seeing Dean or Logan or Tucker again is actively distressing — The Chase is your bridge.
The first book in Kennedy's Briar U spin-off series follows Summer Di Laurentis, Dean's younger sister, as she navigates her own Briar University experience and her growing feelings for Colin Fitzgerald, a hockey player whose controlled, focused exterior is the specific kind of challenge that Summer's warm, effortless energy keeps accidentally penetrating. Their dynamic is different from the central Off-Campus couples — less explosive chemistry, more gradual warming — but the Briar world is fully intact, and the cameos from Dean, Hannah, Garrett, and the rest of the original ensemble will make long-time Off-Campus readers extremely happy.
The Chase ranks twelfth on this list not because it is a weak book — it is not — but because it is best understood as a continuation of the Off-Campus world rather than a genuinely independent reading experience. Its satisfactions are richest for readers who already know and love the world Kennedy has built. For those readers, it is essential. For newcomers to the universe, start with The Deal first.
Who this book is for: Off-Campus fans who have finished all five books and need one more visit to Briar. Also: readers who love warm heroines matched with quietly intense heroes.
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11. Collide by Bal Khabra — Published 2023
Buy it: Collide by Bal Khabra on Amazon
Tropes: Enemies to lovers, sports psychology, college hockey, academic setting Heat Level: Medium-High | Series: Standalone (connected universe)
Collide is one of the most intelligently constructed college hockey romances to emerge from the BookTok era, and it earns its place on this list by doing something that most sports romance does not attempt: grounding the central conflict in genuine professional ethics.
Summer Preston is a sports psychology student who is assigned to work with Aiden Crawford, the hockey team captain at her university — a man she has specifically been avoiding since a previous complicated encounter. Their forced professional proximity is the engine of the romance, and Khabra uses it with more sophistication than the setup initially suggests. The enemies-to-lovers dynamic here is built on genuine intellectual friction rather than simple personal dislike — they challenge each other in ways that make both of them better at their work, which gives the eventual romance a foundation that feels more substantial than most.
Aiden is a particularly well-drawn hockey hero. He is competitive and focused in the way elite athletes are, but Khabra is careful to show that his intensity is not the same as emotional unavailability. The specific way his feelings for Summer manifest — as professional respect that gradually becomes something he cannot categorize within his existing frameworks — is one of the book's most quietly effective character choices.
Collide sits at eleventh because its pacing in the middle section occasionally slows in ways that slightly dilute the central chemistry, and some readers find the professional ethics framework creates distance rather than tension. But for fans of Off Campus who loved the academic setting and the campus-world specificity, it delivers considerably more depth than most comparable novels.
Who this book is for: Readers who love enemies-to-lovers with genuine intellectual content, fans of college hockey set in an academic world where the sport actually matters to the characters' futures.
10. Pucked by Helena Hunting — Published 2015
Tropes: Humor-forward romance, professional hockey, accidental connection, found family Heat Level: High — with a comedic delivery that makes the heat even more enjoyable Series: Pucked #1
If The Score was your favourite Off-Campus book because of the banter and the comedy — if you spent half the book laughing and the other half devastated — Pucked is your next read.
Violet Hall never planned to fall for professional hockey player Alex Waters. She was not looking for a hockey player. She was actively trying to avoid becoming a cliché. And then Alex Waters happened, which is exactly the kind of problem that comes from being in the same room as someone who is determined, charming, and absolutely impossible to ignore.
Helena Hunting writes comedy that is genuinely, specifically funny rather than broadly performative — the kind of humor that comes from deeply understood character rather than from set-up jokes. Violet's voice as a narrator is one of the great pleasures of the Pucked series: self-aware, occasionally horrified by herself, wildly entertaining. Her relationship with Alex develops through a sequence of escalating disasters that are both hilarious and, underneath the comedy, genuinely emotionally resonant.
The Pucked series launched a whole extended universe of hockey romances, and the found-family ensemble of Alex's team becomes increasingly important as the series progresses. But the first book stands completely alone as one of the funniest and most purely enjoyable sports romances on this list — the book you recommend to someone who is new to the genre and needs to be shown exactly how entertaining it can be.
Who this book is for: Readers who prioritize banter and comedy alongside heat and heart, fans of professional hockey romance with a light touch, and anyone who wants the Off Campus energy at pro level.
You'll also love: 10 Best Elle Kennedy Books Ranked for Romance Fans
9. The Risk by Elle Kennedy (Briar U, #2) — Published 2019
Tropes: Forbidden romance, coach's daughter, rivals, slow burn Heat Level: The highest in Kennedy's catalogue — and every bit of it worth it Series: Briar U #2 | Goodreads Rating: 4.22
The Risk is Elle Kennedy's highest-rated book on Goodreads, and it earns that distinction by taking the forbidden romance trope and executing it with a level of emotional precision that the genre rarely achieves.
Brenna Jensen is the daughter of Briar University's hockey coach. Jake Connelly is the captain of Harvard's rival hockey team — her father's professional nemesis. They should never be in the same room. They definitely should not be in the same room alone. And the specific, electric, completely inconvenient chemistry between them is the kind that makes every single should not feel irrelevant.
What separates The Risk from other forbidden romance novels is the depth of the obstacle. This is not an obstacle that can be removed by convenience or a well-timed speech. Jake and Brenna's situation is genuinely complicated — her father's relationship with Jake is real, specific, and deeply personal — and Kennedy manages it with a patience and a honesty that keeps the central tension alive across the entire novel without ever manufacturing false drama. The slow burn here is among the finest in Kennedy's catalogue, and the payoff — when it finally, completely arrives — is everything four hundred pages of careful construction deserve.
The Risk ranks ninth rather than higher because it requires knowledge of the Briar U world to have its maximum impact, and Off Campus newcomers will get more from the original series first. For readers who have already fallen for Kennedy's world and want her at her most formally accomplished — this is the book.
Who this book is for: Readers who loved the forbidden-adjacent energy in Off Campus, anyone who wants slow burn done with maximum emotional control, and every reader who wants to understand why Kennedy's Goodreads ratings are as high as they are.
8. Wildfire by Hannah Grace (Maple Hills, #2) — Published 2023
Tropes: Summer camp romance, grumpy sunshine, hockey player, forced proximity Heat Level: High — with more emotional depth than the first book Series: Maple Hills #2
Wildfire is, for many readers, the book that confirms Hannah Grace as more than a one-hit wonder — the novel that proves Icebreaker was not a lucky accident but the beginning of a sustained creative streak.
Following Henry Turner, a Maple Hills hockey player with a gentle, protective warmth that is very different from Nate Hawkins's captain energy, and Halle, a bookish, studious woman who ends up at the same summer camp as the hockey team, Wildfire leans into the slower, sweeter end of the college hockey romance spectrum. The summer camp setting provides both the forced proximity and the temporal bubble that romance fiction uses so effectively — a world slightly outside ordinary life where the normal rules of caution feel less binding.
Henry is one of the most purely loveable hockey heroes in recent romance fiction. He is not complicated or tormented or performing emotional unavailability. He is simply — consistently, warmly, with genuine determination — exactly who he is, and who he is happens to be someone who sees Halle with a clarity and a care that she has not been accustomed to. Watching her adjust to being seen that clearly, and watching Henry navigate the gap between his feelings and his willingness to act on them, is the central pleasure of the book.
Wildfire ranks slightly below Icebreaker on this list because its lower intensity occasionally becomes lower momentum, and the book's gentler energy will suit some readers better than others. But for Off Campus fans who want the emotional depth without the competitive aggression, it is precisely the right temperature.
Who this book is for: Readers who want sweet-to-steamy rather than steamy-first, fans of genuinely kind hockey heroes, and anyone who loved Icebreaker and wants more of the Maple Hills world.
7. Pucking Around by Emily Rath — Published 2022
Tropes: Why-choose / reverse harem, sports medicine, professional hockey, spicy Heat Level: Very high — this is among the spiciest books on this list Series: Jacksonville Rays #1
Pucking Around earns its place on this list by doing something genuinely unusual: delivering a why-choose romance set in professional hockey that is both extremely spicy and genuinely emotionally sophisticated about what the central setup requires from its heroine.
Rachel Price is a sports medicine practitioner who joins the staff of the Jacksonville Rays, a new NHL franchise. There she finds herself in the orbit of multiple hockey players — including, complicating things significantly, someone she already has history with who definitely does not remember her. The why-choose structure (one heroine, multiple romantic interests) is handled with more emotional intelligence than the premise might suggest. Emily Rath is careful to make Rachel's feelings specific and earned rather than generic and convenient, which separates Pucking Around from the more formulaic entries in its subgenre.
The novel is very aware of what it is and consistently delivers on its promises. The spice is extraordinary. The hockey world is rendered with authenticity and enthusiasm. The found-family dynamic of the Jacksonville Rays team is one of the warmest and most appealing ensemble dynamics in recent sports romance. And Rachel is a heroine with genuine professional ambition and emotional intelligence, which grounds the more fantastical elements of the premise.
For Off Campus fans who loved the ensemble energy and the heat level and want to explore what professional hockey romance looks like when it is willing to go considerably further — Pucking Around is essential reading.
Who this book is for: Readers with high spice tolerances who want their hockey romance at professional level, fans of why-choose who want it done with emotional care, and anyone who wants found family alongside their heat.
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6. Consider Me by Becka Mack (Playing for Keeps, #1) — Published 2022
Tropes: Player-falls-first, will-they-won't-they, professional hockey, comedy Heat Level: High — with emotional warmth that balances every steamy scene Series: Playing for Keeps #1
Consider Me is the book that made Becka Mack one of the most talked-about names in hockey romance fiction, and the reason is immediately apparent from the opening chapters: Carter Beckett, NHL superstar, is absolutely, completely, entirely gone for Olivia Parker. She is the one who is not interested. For possibly the first time in his professional and personal life, Carter is doing the chasing.
The player-falls-first dynamic is one of romance fiction's great pleasures when it is done properly — and Becka Mack does it properly. Carter's pursuit of Olivia is relentless but never pushy, enthusiastic but never overwhelming, and his feelings for her are present in every scene he occupies with a clarity and a commitment that makes him immediately one of the most appealing hockey heroes in recent fiction. Watching a man who has never had to try anything become genuinely determined to earn someone's attention — and then, gradually, her affection — is one of the most satisfying arcs in the genre.
Olivia's resistance is not manufactured stubbornness but genuine self-protection: she has been in athlete-adjacent situations before and knows how they tend to go. Her eventual capitulation to her feelings for Carter is earned through sustained observation of who he actually is rather than who his reputation suggests — which gives their romance a solidity and a specificity that makes the payoff deeply satisfying.
The Playing for Keeps series has become one of the most beloved professional hockey romance series on BookTok since Consider Me broke through in 2022, and the first book is the reason why.
Who this book is for: Readers who love player-falls-first dynamics where the hero's feelings are completely clear from the start, fans of will-they-won't-they that earns its resolution, and anyone who wants professional hockey romance with genuine warmth.
5. The Graham Effect by Elle Kennedy (Campus Diaries, #1) — Published 2023
Tropes: Enemies to lovers, grumpy sunshine, FWB, dual-POV hockey players Heat Level: High | Goodreads Rating: 4.18 Series: Campus Diaries #1
For Off Campus fans specifically, The Graham Effect delivers something no other book on this list can: the return to Briar University with Hannah and Garrett's daughter as the heroine.
Gigi Graham has grown up in the shadow of a legendary father and is determined to make the Women's Olympic Ice Hockey team entirely on her own terms. Luke Ryder is the new hockey co-captain at Briar — grumpy, intense, and initially resistant to everything Gigi represents. Their deal — she helps him with her father, he helps her improve her game — is a structural echo of The Deal that Kennedy deploys with enough originality to feel like tribute rather than repetition.
What distinguishes The Graham Effect from everything else in the Campus Diaries series is the dual-hockey-player central dynamic. Both Gigi and Ryder are elite athletes in the same sport, which creates a competitive equality and a shared intensity that gives their romance a different texture from the typical Kennedy setup. They challenge each other across dimensions that most romance couples never reach — athletically, professionally, emotionally — and the specific way their competition becomes attraction is one of Kennedy's most elegantly constructed central arcs.
The cameos from Garrett, Hannah, Dean, Allie, and the rest of the original Off-Campus ensemble make The Graham Effect essential reading for long-time Kennedy fans — a genuine reunion that rewards years of investment in the world.
Who this book is for: Off-Campus fans who want to return to Briar with familiar characters in new configurations, readers who love grumpy-sunshine done with genuine emotional depth, and anyone who has been wondering what happened to Garrett and Hannah's kid.
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4. Heated Rivalry by Rachel Reid (Game Changers, #2) — Published 2019
Tropes: Rivals to lovers, secret relationship, LGBTQ+ romance, professional hockey, enemies to lovers Heat Level: Very high — and emotionally devastating in the best possible way Series: Game Changers #2
Heated Rivalry is the book that is currently having its full cultural moment — the HBO Max adaptation premiered in November 2025 — and everything the cultural conversation has been saying about it is correct.
Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov are the two best hockey players in the NHL and each other's greatest on-ice rivals. They have been competing since their teenage years, and the animosity between them is real, public, and entirely believed by everyone who watches them. What nobody knows — and what the novel explores across a decade of secret meetings in hotel rooms between cities — is that the competition and the desire have always been the same thing.
Heated Rivalry is one of the most emotionally complex hockey romances ever written because it is asking questions that go considerably beyond the standard will-they-won't-they. The secrecy of Shane and Ilya's relationship is not just a convenient plot device — it is the central question of the book. What do you owe yourself when the person you love exists in a world that has not yet made space for you to love them publicly? What does it cost to keep something real inside a performance of something that is not?
Rachel Reid writes hockey with genuine athletic authenticity — her game scenes are among the most convincing in sports romance fiction — and the specific dynamic between Shane and Ilya, two men who understand each other's ambitions and limitations more clearly than anyone else in their lives, is rendered with a depth and a specificity that makes the romance feel genuinely, completely real.
For Off Campus fans ready to experience hockey romance at its most emotionally ambitious, Heated Rivalry is essential.
Who this book is for: Readers ready for LGBTQ+ hockey romance at the highest possible level, fans of long-burn rivals-to-lovers with genuine emotional stakes, and anyone who wants their sports romance to carry real thematic weight alongside the heat.
3. From Lukov With Love by Mariana Zapata — Published 2018
Tropes: Enemies to lovers, slow burn, forced partnership, figure skating/ice sports, frenemy romance Heat Level: Lower — but the slow burn is so expertly constructed that the eventual payoff is extraordinary Spice Level: 2/5 — this is about the journey, not the destination
If you loved the slow, patient construction of The Deal — the way Elle Kennedy never rushed the moment when the transaction became something real — From Lukov With Love is the book you need.
Mariana Zapata is widely recognised as the queen of slow-burn romance, and From Lukov With Love is the novel that most purely expresses her gift. Jasmine Santos is a twenty-six-year-old figure skater at the end of her competitive window — seventeen years of broken bones and broken promises, and one more shot at a partnership that might finally get her to the Olympics. Ivan Lukov is the arrogant champion figure skater she has spent a decade dreaming about pushing in front of a moving bus. Her offer of partnership from him is both the best opportunity of her career and the most inconvenient possible complication.
Jasmine is one of the great heroines in sports romance fiction — competitive, fiercely determined, covered in walls she has built for specific and understandable reasons, and possessed of a voice that is so specific and so alive that readers report missing her conversations after finishing the book. Ivan's gradual, patient revelation of who he actually is beneath the arrogant exterior — the specific way he shows up for Jasmine without ever announcing that he is showing up — is the slow-burn mechanics at their most masterfully handled.
From Lukov With Love is longer and slower than most books on this list. Readers who need high heat and fast pacing should go elsewhere. Readers who want the most satisfying slow burn in the genre — the one where the payoff is so complete because every single page has been earning it — will find exactly that here.
Who this book is for: Off Campus fans who loved The Deal's patient construction and want it extended across five hundred pages, readers who prioritise emotional depth over spice, and anyone who wants the enemies-to-lovers arc done at its maximum potential.
2. Icebreaker by Hannah Grace (Maple Hills, #1) — Published 2022
Goodreads Rating: 4.12 | Series: Maple Hills #1 Tropes: Enemies to lovers, figure skating meets hockey, forced proximity, grumpy sunshine reversed, college romance Heat Level: High — with genuine emotional depth alongside every spicy scene
Icebreaker is the book that reignited the BookTok hockey romance explosion in 2022, and spent over forty weeks on the New York Times bestseller list for very good reason. This is the novel that brought millions of new readers to the genre — and it is still one of the best entry points for anyone coming to hockey romance via the Prime Video Off Campus adaptation.
Anastasia Allen is a driven, Olympic-focused figure skater at Maple Hills University who has built her life around discipline, schedules, and the ruthless management of anything that might interfere with her goals. Nate Hawkins is the captain of the Maple Hills hockey team — charming, six feet four, and accidentally placed into direct conflict with Anastasia when a facilities crisis forces the hockey team and the figure skaters to share ice time.
What makes Icebreaker so effective is the specific reversal of the grumpy-sunshine dynamic. Anastasia is the serious, closed-off, schedule-obsessed partner. Nate is warm, patient, and relentlessly understanding — a hockey captain who could easily dismiss the figure skater with the territorial attitude and instead chooses, consistently and with evident commitment, to be the person who stays. That role reversal gives the romance a texture that Off Campus fans will recognise and appreciate: a central couple whose dynamic is slightly unexpected, where the athlete-hero is the emotionally available one and the heroine's arc is about learning to receive care as much as about falling in love.
Hannah Grace's writing is fast, funny, and warm in ways that make the reading experience genuinely pleasurable from the first chapter. The campus ensemble — Nate's hockey team, Anastasia's figure skating world, the friends who function as the found family of the novel — is richly drawn and consistently entertaining. And the central chemistry between Nate and Stassie is electric, specific, and genuinely moving by the final act.
Icebreaker is second on this list rather than first because From Lukov With Love's construction is technically more ambitious and its emotional payoff more formally extraordinary. But for pure reading pleasure — for the combination of entertainment, heat, warmth, and character investment that makes a great hockey romance — Icebreaker is one of the finest examples of the genre ever produced.
Who this book is for: Every romance reader who has not yet read it. Specifically: Off Campus fans who want the college hockey energy, the found-family ensemble, and the slow burn that delivers — just from a fresh angle.
1. The Score by Elle Kennedy (Off-Campus, #3) — Published 2016
Goodreads Rating: 4.15 | Series: Off-Campus #3 Tropes: Playboy redemption, friends with benefits turned real, college hockey, sharp banter, slow emotional burn Heat Level: The highest in the Off-Campus series — and the most emotionally satisfying
Yes — the number one hockey romance book like Off Campus is an Off Campus book. Specifically, it is the Off Campus book that is most consistently described, by readers who have read everything on this list, as the one that destroyed them the most.
The Score is Dean Di Laurentis and Allie Hayes's story — the third book in Elle Kennedy's original series — and it sits at the top of this ranking because it does everything great hockey romance should do and does it with a completeness and a skill that no other book on this list matches.
Dean is the playboy of the Off-Campus core four. Charming, wealthy, deeply experienced at being wanted without being known. His arrangement with Allie begins as something he can control — a mutual convenience with clear terms and a clear end date. What he does not account for, and what Allie systematically demonstrates without trying to, is that wanting someone specifically is a completely different experience from wanting someone generically. Dean has been wanted generically his entire life. Allie wants him specifically — or rather, she stops wanting him entirely when he fails to be the person she actually saw in him — and that distinction is what breaks every defensive pattern he has ever built.
The banter between Dean and Allie is the sharpest in the series. Their central dynamic — the specific chemical reaction of his practiced charm meeting her complete lack of interest in being charmed — is the most addictive in the Off-Campus universe. And Kennedy's construction of Dean's emotional arc — the careful, patient, devastating dismantling of every wall the character has spent years perfecting — is her finest character work in the entire franchise.
Whether you are starting here or returning here after reading everything else on this list, The Score remains the most addictive hockey romance ever written. No other book delivers this specific combination of sharp comedy, extraordinary chemistry, emotional depth, and romantic payoff with the same consistency, the same confidence, and the same completely irresistible energy.
Who this book is for: Every romance reader. Come for the banter. Stay for Dean Di Laurentis being completely, irreversibly undone.
Conclusion: Your Complete Hockey Romance Reading Roadmap
The twelve books on this list represent the full range of what hockey romance can do in 2026 — from Elle Kennedy's foundational college hockey universe to Rachel Reid's emotionally ambitious LGBTQ+ professional romance, from Mariana Zapata's extraordinary slow burn to Hannah Grace's warm, campus-world charm.
Start with The Score if you have already read the Off-Campus series. Start with Icebreaker if you have not. Add Heated Rivalry for emotional ambition. Add From Lukov With Love for the most patient slow burn in the genre. Add Consider Me for the best player-falls-first dynamic in professional hockey romance.
Every book on this list will make you cancel plans. Several of them will keep you up until 3am. All of them deliver exactly what the best hockey romance promises: the specific, intoxicating combination of athletic intensity and genuine vulnerability that makes the genre unlike anything else in contemporary fiction.
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10 FAQs About Hockey Romance Books Like Off Campus
1. What is the best hockey romance book for someone who just finished Off Campus? The Score (Off-Campus #3) is the consensus recommendation for readers who have just finished the series and want more of the same energy at its peak. If you want something outside the Elle Kennedy universe, Icebreaker by Hannah Grace is the most natural next read — a college hockey romance with comparable banter, chemistry, and emotional depth.
2. Is Icebreaker actually about hockey or mostly about figure skating? It is primarily set in the intersection of both — Anastasia is a figure skater, Nate is a hockey player, and they are forced to share ice time. Hannah Grace uses the sports primarily as setting and character context rather than as detailed athletic content. If you want more actual hockey detail and less figure skating, Consider Me by Becka Mack or Heated Rivalry by Rachel Reid would better suit your preference.
3. Which hockey romance books are appropriate for younger readers? Most hockey romance, including the Off-Campus series and Icebreaker, is written for adult audiences with high heat levels and mature themes. From Lukov With Love by Mariana Zapata has a significantly lower spice level (2/5) while maintaining excellent emotional content, making it the most accessible for readers who want the romance without the explicit content.
4. What is Heated Rivalry about and should I read it before watching the HBO Max show? Heated Rivalry follows rival NHL stars Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov in a secret romantic relationship that develops over a decade. The HBO Max adaptation premiered in November 2025. Reading the book before watching the show will give you the full internal emotional landscape of both characters — particularly Shane's — that the visual medium cannot fully replicate.
5. What is the spiciest hockey romance on this list? Pucking Around by Emily Rath consistently receives the highest heat ratings among the books on this list, followed closely by Heated Rivalry and Consider Me. The Score and Icebreaker are both high-heat reads. From Lukov With Love is notably lower spice than the rest of the list.
6. Are there any hockey romance books on Kindle Unlimited? Yes. Several of the books on this list are available on Kindle Unlimited, including Pucking Around by Emily Rath and Consider Me by Becka Mack. Check current KU availability at the time of reading, as catalogue availability changes. The Elle Kennedy books and Hannah Grace's Maple Hills series are available for purchase on Kindle and in paperback.
7. What comes after Icebreaker in the Maple Hills series? The Maple Hills series by Hannah Grace continues with Wildfire (Book 2, following Henry Turner) and Daydream (Book 3), which focuses on another member of the Maple Hills hockey ensemble. Both are best read in order, though each stands alone as a complete romance.
8. Is From Lukov With Love actually a hockey romance? From Lukov With Love is set in the world of competitive figure skating rather than ice hockey, making it technically a figure skating romance. It is included here because it is the most recommended book by hockey romance readers looking for the same slow-burn, enemies-to-lovers energy in an ice sports setting. Readers who specifically want hockey rather than figure skating should start with Icebreaker or The Score instead.
9. Which of these books has the best found family element? Pucking Around by Emily Rath and Consider Me by Becka Mack both have particularly strong found-family ensemble dynamics, drawing on the camaraderie of professional hockey teams. Icebreaker's Maple Hills ensemble is also frequently praised. The Off-Campus series built the gold standard of found-family hockey romance with the original Briar University core four.
10. Where can I buy all the books on this list? All twelve books are available on Amazon, Waterstones, Barnes & Noble, and as digital editions on Kindle, Kobo, and Google Play Books. Several are also available through Audible and Libro.fm in audiobook format, with strong narrator performances that make the commute version genuinely excellent.
External Resources for More Hockey Romance Recommendations:
Goodreads — Best Hockey Romance List — Community-curated rankings of the best hockey romance novels, with thousands of reader votes and reviews.
Smart Bitches, Trashy Books — In-depth romance reviews and discussion with extensive sports romance coverage.
Book Riot — Sports Romance Reading Lists — Features and curated lists covering hockey romance and the broader sports romance genre.
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