Elle Kennedy

Elle Kennedy grew up in the Toronto suburbs and studied English at York University before building one of romance's most prolific careers, with more than fifty novels spanning contemporary romance, sports romance and romantic suspense. She's best known for putting college hockey romance on the map with Off-Campus, following Briar University's hockey players through fake-dating, grumpy-sunshine and slow-burn plots defined by dual first-person narration and dialogue sharp enough to have made the series a defining influence on an entire wave of BookTok-driven sports romance — years after The Deal, its first book, originally published in 2015. Kennedy returned to the same fictional university with Briar U, a spin-off following a new generation of players several years later, written to stand fully on its own without requiring Off-Campus first. Both series share her signature formula: banter-heavy dual POV, low-angst plotting, and hockey players who turn out to be far softer than their locker-room swagger suggests. New readers should start with The Deal, the book that launched the Briar University world and remains the most-read entry point, though Briar U works equally well as a first taste of her style. A RITA Award winner and New York Times, USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestseller, Kennedy continues to write across multiple romance subgenres beyond the Briar books.