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Author
Elle Kennedy is an author from Toronto, Ontario with a Bachelor of Arts in English. She’s currently a New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal bestselling author. She’s also currently working with Amazon Prime to turn the Off Campus book series into a TV show. They’re currently casting and planning to start filming in June 2025 in Vancouver BC so hopefully we will see something on our screens sometime in 2026.
There are quite a few books in this hockey romance universe. All can be read as standalone’s but it makes the most sense to read them in order to understand all the characters better and follow all of their stories accurately. The Elle Kennedy books in order to make the most sense would be the Off-Campus series (The Deal, The Mistake, The Score and The Goal), then the Briar U series (The Chase, The Risk, The Play, The Dare), then Legacy, and finally the Campus Diaries series (The Graham Effect, The Dixon Rule, The Charlie Method).
The Graham Effect
Gigi Graham has three goals for her life: qualify for the women’s national hockey league team, win an Olympic gold medal, and step out of her father, Garrett Graham’s shadow. She has her plans in place to succeed but needs help to perform better behind the net. And the person she needs to help her is grumpy Luke Ryder.
Briar’s new hockey co-captain has his reasons for being grumpy. His men’s hockey team just merged with Briar’s and everyone hates each other. To make matter’s worse, the summer coaching spot he wants with his idol Garrett Graham is out of reach due to a bad first impression. So, helping Gigi improve her game for her to put in a good word with her dad is a win-win. The only problem is the intense chemistry they have that is so hard to ignore.
The Dixon Rule
Diana Dixon has a busy summer. She’s rehearsing for a ballroom dance competition, working two jobs, and dealing with an ex-boyfriend who can’t take the hint that it’s over. Even with all this going on, she still has time to tell Shane Lindley to screw off.
Shane just into her apartment building and is using is time to sleep his way through her cheerleading squad. He’s a tall, gorgeous hockey player but Diana won’t stand for this. She call’s for some ground rules. No parties in her apartment, leave her squad alone, and leave her alone most of all.
What Diana doesn’t know is that Shane’s over hookups that came after his long-term girlfriend broke up with him. He wants a girlfriend again. When Shane’s ex-girlfriend comes back into the picture he pretends he has a new girlfriend, his neighbor Diana.
Despite Diana’s reluctance to spend anytime with Shane. This would be a perfect solution for her ex-boyfriend issues as well. But soon she can’t deny there’s something between her a Shane that she never saw coming.
The Charlie Method
Charlotte Kingston is nailing her two lives. By day, she’s the perfect sorority girl, STEM student, and adopted daughter of an overachieving family. By night, she’s risk taking Charlie who’s chatting with two anonymous guys on a dating app.
Will Larsen may seem like the hockey playing boy next door but his congressman father is a constant thorn in his side. After a scandal hits another hockey program, Will’s dad forces Will and his team to let a journalist into their lives to show how squeaky clean they are. Which means the last thing he wants to reporter to find out is that him and his best friend Beckett Dunn-a laid back Australian hockey player-sometimes share girls in the bedroom.
When Charlie finally meets the anonymous guys in person things get steamy fast. But with all their secrets piling up fast, real life threatens to shatter the fantasy.
Quotes
“Always. You fall, I pick you up. Always.”
“Garrett Graham’s daughter is hot. She was hot when I met her six years ago, and she’s even hotter now.”
“If you love someone, you should always tell them. Life is too short, and you never know what tomorrow will bring.”
“Diana and I have a love-hate relationship. As in, she hates me, and I love to annoy her.”
“You shouldn’t have to change to keep anyone around. That’s not love. That’s…control.”
“We want to see all of you. The good, the bad, the wild.”
My Review
The Graham Effect started this series off so strong. I absolutely loved it more than I hoped. I loved Gigi as a character with her personality and her being a female hockey player looking for Olympic gold. I also loved her relationship with Ryder, it was everything I wanted it to be. A big love for me was seeing mentions of characters from the Off-Campus series and continuing their relationships and learning about their lives with their kids. This one is an easy 5/5 stars for me and I would easily recommend it to lovers of this series and will most likely re-read in the future.
The Dixon Rule was another great one for me. Being introduced to Diana and Shane in the first book I wasn’t sure if I’d like this book as much but I absolutely did. It had some hard things they had to go through and I loved how that brought the characters together. I’m also a sucker for an enemies to lovers story line so this was right up my alley. This was another easy 5/5 stars for me.
I was a little unsure how I’d feel about feel about The Charlie Method as I’d never read a MFM romance before but I really liked it. I think part of the reason is due to having Will and Beckett moments in the previous two books and getting attached to their characters. I did also love the aspect of Charlie having her double life and seeing how that played out separately and when merged. I’m still not a big fan of MFM romance because I prefer a male main character who doesn’t want anyone else to look at his girl. I would still rate this 4/5 stars though.
That’s the end of my Campus Diaries by Elle Kennedy book series review. If you read any books by Elle Kennedy be sure to let me know in the comments what you thought about them and which book is your favorite. She has lots of books so there’s a hockey romance book for everyone. If you’re looking for other books to read check out these reviews: Off-Campus book series, Briar U book series, and Meet Me At The Lake.
