Ballers and Babes
sports romance
Series · romance
The Briar U series by Elle Kennedy has 4 known books (4 published) and is best read in publication order, starting with The Chase (2018). The latest book with a fully recorded publication date is The Dare. The next announced book, Bad Idea, is due 16 March 2027.
Start here: The Chase (2018) — then read straight through in publication order.
The date order of published books and any announced future entries — the default way to read the series.
The Chase launches the Briar U series, written by Elle Kennedy and first published in August 2018. At 419 pages, it is a full-length entry in the series. From here the series continues with The Risk. Briar U is an ongoing series, 4 books in so far.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of The ChaseThe Risk is the second book in Elle Kennedy's Briar U series, published in February 2019. It runs 1576 pages. In the reading order it follows The Chase and precedes The Play.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of The RiskThe Play is Briar U's third entry, written by Elle Kennedy and published in October 2019. The book is 1576 pages long. It sits between The Risk and The Dare in the series' reading order.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of The PlayThe Dare is the fourth installment of the Briar U series by Elle Kennedy, published in June 2020. At 360 pages, it is a full-length entry in the series. Following The Play, it is the newest addition to the series so far.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of The DareBriar U is Elle Kennedy's second trip to fictional Briar University, catching up with the hockey team a few years after the Off-Campus series and handing the spotlight to a new set of players and the women who match them shot for shot in banter. The Chase opens with a grumpy/sunshine pairing between hardened team captain Colin Fitzgerald and the effortlessly outgoing Sabrina, and the series works through classic New Adult college-romance tropes from there: a fake relationship in The Risk, forbidden roommate's-sibling tension in The Play, and a slow-burn friends-to-lovers arc in The Dare. Each book pairs a hockey player (or adjacent Briar athlete) with a strong-willed love interest, delivered in Kennedy's trademark voice: filthy-funny banter, dual first-person POV, and enough heat to earn her reputation as one of the writers who defined the modern college-sports-romance boom.
You don't need to have read Off-Campus first — Briar U is set in the same world and a couple of familiar names cameo, but the timeline has moved on and the new leads carry the story on their own. It's for readers who want low-angst, high-banter New Adult romance: campus parties, locker-room camaraderie, jealousy plots, and hockey players who are surprisingly soft for the right girl.
Four: The Chase, The Risk, The Play, and The Dare.
Publication order: The Chase, The Risk, The Play, The Dare. Each is a standalone romance with a new central couple.
No. Briar U is set at the same fictional university several years after Off-Campus and a few characters cameo, but it's written to be read independently.
The Dare (2020) is the fourth published book. A fifth, Bad Idea, following Ivy DiLaurentis and AJ Connelly (children of earlier Off-Campus/Briar U couples), is scheduled for March 16, 2027.
Yes — Briar U keeps the same explicit heat level and dual first-person narration that made Off-Campus a hit, just with a new cast of Briar athletes and love interests.
Reading order last verified .