Soapy, spicy and incredibly moreish, there’s a new hockey romance in town and I love it. Move over, Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie!
Off Campus is, in all senses, a straight copy of Heated Rivalry. The latter was based on the wildly popular gay romance novel series by Rachel Reid. The former is an adaptation of the wildly popular heterosexual romance novel series by Elle Kennedy. It’s a slick, soapy, spicy load of fun set in the world of hot twentysomething hockey-playing college students instead of pro-hockey teams and their hot twentysomething rising stars. I can recommend it to all who appreciate hot twentysomethings, bums, boobs, hockey (though as with Heated Rivalry there’s only a bit of that and mostly to get them naked in the showers again) and perfectly made trash TV. Sit back with your beverage of choice, turn off your brain and relax. As with its progenitor-competitor, Off Campus knows exactly what it’s doing, where it’s going and why – and so do you. It is deeply soothing and incredibly moreish.
First protagonist up is Garrett Graham (Belmont Cameli), captain of the Briar University hockey team and son of a hockey legend, Phil Graham (Steve Howey). He appears to have it all – but does he? He has his quota of sex but refuses to let anyone become his girlfriend. Is he a playa as opposed to a player, simply being fair to them as he claims, because his heart belongs to hockey, or could there be a deeper reason for his emotional unavailability? Is it to do with his mother, who died from cancer years ago? What are we to make of the hostility he has towards his father? Or the flashbacks to a childhood full of raised voices and bruised knuckles? Hmm. Maybe he’ll have another shower while we ponder. What a handsome – I mean complicated – young man.
