What Off Campus Got Right (and Wrong) Translating the Books to Screen

When I heard Elle Kennedy's Off Campus series was getting the screen adaptation treatment, I had two immediate thoughts.

First: Finally.

Second: Oh no.

Book lovers know that both reactions can exist at the same time.

Adaptations are tricky. Readers spend hundreds of pages getting attached to characters, memorizing dialogue, and building entire worlds in their heads. By the time a screen version arrives, expectations are sky-high. Every casting choice, cut scene, and plot change gets scrutinized.

And every worry is valid.

The Off Campus books have built an incredibly loyal fanbase over the years. Garrett Graham, Hannah Wells, Logan, Dean, Tucker, and the rest of the Briar crew aren't just characters to readers. They're comfort characters. They're the reason many romance readers fell in love with college sports romance in the first place.

So while no adaptation was ever going to make everyone happy, there are definitely some things the screen version got right and a few things it missed entirely.

What the Adaptation Got Right

It Understood That the Characters Are the Real Draw

The biggest strength of the Off Campus series has never been hockey.

Sorry to the hockey fans.

The books work because of the relationships. The friendships between the guys feel just as important as the romances. Readers don't keep turning pages because they're dying to know the outcome of a game. They keep reading because they want to spend time with these people.

One thing the adaptation does well is recognizing that dynamic.

The banter matters. The friendships matter. The group scenes matter.

Too many romance adaptations focus exclusively on the central couple and forget that the supporting cast is what gives the story life. Off Campus has always felt like a found family story wrapped inside a romance series, and the adaptation largely understands that.

Hannah and Garrett Still Feel Like Hannah and Garrett

For many readers, The Deal is the crown jewel of the series.

It's funny, emotional, romantic, and surprisingly thoughtful beneath all the flirting.

What makes Hannah and Garrett work is that neither character exists solely to serve the other's story. Hannah has goals, insecurities, and trauma that shape her decisions. Garrett may be the star athlete, but he's not the stereotypical arrogant jock readers expect him to be.

The adaptation captures much of that dynamic.

Their chemistry feels earned rather than forced. Their relationship develops through conversation, trust, and friendship, which is exactly what made readers root for them in the first place.

It Modernizes Certain Elements

Let's be honest for a second.

The first Off Campus book came out in 2015.

That's not ancient history, but romance evolves quickly. Reader expectations evolve quickly too.

Some scenes that felt perfectly normal a decade ago land differently today. The adaptation makes a few adjustments that help the story feel more contemporary without completely changing its DNA.

That's a difficult balance to strike, and it's one many adaptations fail to achieve.

What the Adaptation Got Wrong

The Internal Monologue Problem

This is the biggest challenge facing almost every romance adaptation.

Books let us live inside a character's head.

Television doesn't.

A huge portion of what makes Off Campus work is being able to hear Garrett's insecurities, Hannah's self-doubt, Logan's struggles, and Dean's surprisingly complicated emotions.

Without that internal narration, some moments inevitably lose depth.

Readers know exactly why a character makes a certain decision because they've spent chapters inside that character's thoughts. Viewers only see the action itself.

As a result, some emotional moments feel faster or less impactful than they do on the page.

It's not necessarily the adaptation's fault. It's just one of the hardest things to translate from book to screen.

The Relationships Feel More Rushed

One of the luxuries books have is time.

A romance novel can spend multiple chapters building tension through study sessions, text messages, late-night conversations, and tiny moments that seem insignificant until you realize you're completely invested.

Screen adaptations don't have that luxury.

The result is that some relationships can feel accelerated compared to the books.

Readers remember every conversation that built Garrett and Hannah's connection. They remember every moment that made them fall for each other. On screen, many of those smaller interactions have to be condensed or cut entirely.

The destination remains the same.

The journey just feels shorter.

Some of the Emotional Weight Gets Lost

One thing Elle Kennedy does particularly well is balancing humor with vulnerability.

People often remember the witty banter and steamy scenes, but the books also tackle heavier topics including trauma, family pressure, grief, addiction, and self-worth.

Those quieter emotional layers are part of what elevated the series above a standard college romance.

The adaptation touches on many of these themes, but some inevitably receive less attention simply because of time constraints.

When you've only got a limited number of episodes, something has to give.

Unfortunately, it's often the emotional nuance that gets trimmed first.

The Impossible Job of Adapting a Beloved Romance

The older I get, the more sympathy I have for adaptation teams.

Readers want the adaptation to be exactly like the book.

They also want it to surprise them.

They want every scene included.

They also don't want it to feel too long.

They want faithfulness.

They want innovation.

It's an impossible checklist.

The truth is that the best adaptations aren't carbon copies. They're translations.

Just like translating a novel from one language into another, some things are gained and some things are lost.

The goal isn't perfection.

The goal is capturing the feeling readers had when they first fell in love with the story.

At its core, the Off Campus adaptation succeeds because it understands what made readers care in the first place.

It isn't really about hockey.

It's about friendship. It's about growth. It's about finding people who see you clearly and choosing to let them in anyway.

Does every scene hit as hard as it does in the books? No.

Do some relationships feel faster than they should? Absolutely.

But the heart of the story remains intact, and that's ultimately what matters most.

Because when readers talk about The Deal, The Mistake, The Score, and The Goal years after finishing them, they're not talking about game statistics or campus life.

They're talking about the characters who felt real enough to become old friends.

And that's something worth preserving, whether it's on the page or on the screen.

What did you think of the adaptation on Prime Video?