Books Like Collide by Bal Khabra: 17 College Hockey Romances to Read Next (2026)
Books like Collide by Bal Khabra are the most requested thing in college hockey romance right now, and the timing is good: Embrace, the fourth and final Off the Ice book, landed on August 4, 2026, and Khabra’s next novel, Last Call, is already dated for May 2027. If what hooked you was Summer Preston, the honors student who wants nothing to do with hockey, being handed Dalton University’s captain Aiden Crawford as her thesis subject, this list is built around that exact engine: a smart heroine with a plan, a cocky captain who turns out to be carrying more than he lets on, a deal neither of them wanted and a whole team watching it go sideways. Every pick below has a heat rating, the trad list runs from Hannah Grace to Rachel Reid, and the last section hands you the hockey romances from our own shelf that leave the door wide open.
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What Makes Collide Work
Collide is a bargain book. Summer Preston is a Dalton University senior with a sport psychology career mapped out, and her thesis advisor gives her an ultimatum that lands her with the one sport she can’t stand. Aiden Crawford is the captain who would rather be anywhere else, until a reckless mistake puts his team’s season at risk and his coach orders him to become Summer’s research subject or the team faces NCAA probation. Collide first came out in 2023, Berkley published it as a trade paperback in May 2024, and the appeal never changed: dual POV, bickering that curdles into banter, a captain who falls first and hides it badly, a heroine who is good at her job and refuses to be charmed on schedule. The heat is open door and warm rather than filthy, the team is a real found family, and the whole thing runs on the gap between the version of Aiden the campus sees and the one Summer has to write about. The best readalikes keep three things: a project or deal that forces proximity, a captain with a soft center, and a heroine whose ambition is the plot, not an accessory.
The Rest of the Off the Ice Series
Spiral by Bal Khabra
Book two swaps the campus for the pros. Elias Westbrook is newly drafted to the Toronto Thunder and drowning in tabloid attention, with every woman he’s photographed near turned into a headline. Sage Beaumont is an aspiring ballerina whose tiny online following is costing her roles. A fake relationship fixes both problems, until the loose rules they agreed on start coming apart and the two of them have to decide whether to commit or end it. Same banter, same soft hockey boy, more cameras.
Heat: 🌶️🌶️🌶️ Open door
See Spiral on Amazon →
Revolve by Bal Khabra
The third Off the Ice book came out in 2025, between Spiral and the finale. It’s the bridge book: read it in order before Embrace, which closes out the series.
Heat: 🌶️🌶️🌶️ Open door
See Revolve on Amazon →
Embrace by Bal Khabra
The finale, out August 4, 2026, and the closest of the sequels to Collide’s setup. Scarlett Kilner is the coach’s daughter, determined to spend senior year repairing her reputation and earning her father’s pride. Kian Ishida is one of her dad’s star players, happy with parties and hockey until he realizes he’ll make the NHL without the degree his late father asked him to finish. She tutors him. The study sessions stop being about studying. The question is whether he picks the dream he’s worked for his whole life or the girl he never saw coming. If the research-project premise of Collide is the thing you miss, start here.
Heat: 🌶️🌶️🌶️ Open door
See Embrace on Amazon →
College Hockey Books Like Collide: The Deal, the Project, the Tutor
Icebreaker by Hannah Grace
The book most readers find right before or right after Collide. A facilities mess at Maple Hills forces the hockey team and the figure skaters to share a rink, which is how Anastasia Allen, a skater with Olympic plans and no patience, ends up needing captain Nate Hawkins when her partner’s future goes wobbly. Grace’s heat is a full step up from Khabra’s, the found family is enormous and the hero is pure golden retriever rather than grump, but the shape is identical: an ambitious heroine, a captain she doesn’t want to need, a rink they can’t avoid. Wildfire and Daydream continue the world.
Heat: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ Explicit
See Icebreaker on Amazon →
The Deal by Elle Kennedy
The blueprint. Hannah Wells needs a fake boyfriend to make the guy she likes jealous; Garrett Graham, Briar University’s hockey captain, needs a tutor to keep his grade up and his spot on the ice. They make a deal, it stops being a deal after one kiss, and a decade later the book is still the first title anyone names when you say “college hockey romance.” Collide is openly working in its shadow, with a thesis in place of a philosophy exam. Our books like The Deal list and the full Elle Kennedy reading order cover the rest of Briar.
Heat: 🌶️🌶️🌶️ Open door
See The Deal on Amazon →
Daydream by Hannah Grace
Henry Turner is the new Maple Hills captain and he is failing a class he can’t afford to fail. Halle Jacobs is the academic standout he hires to tutor him, and they agree on rules to keep it from turning into anything else, which tells you exactly how that goes. The tutor-and-captain arrangement is the Collide dynamic flipped, with the student holding the power, and Henry is one of the gentlest heroes on this list.
Heat: 🌶️🌶️🌶️ Open door
See Daydream on Amazon →
The Graham Effect by Elle Kennedy
Gigi Graham is a Briar hockey player chasing Team USA with a famous surname she’d rather not lean on. Luke Ryder is the brooding captain of a rival program forced into a merger with hers. She needs someone to sharpen her game; he needs access to the connections around her family; the bargain is pure Collide with the ambition split evenly between them. The first Campus Diaries book and the strongest Kennedy in years. Our books like The Graham Effect guide goes deeper on the rival-athlete angle.
Heat: 🌶️🌶️🌶️ Open door
See The Graham Effect on Amazon →
Boyfriend Bargain by Ilsa Madden-Mills
Sugar Ryan is broke and out of options at Hawthorne University; Zack Morgan is the hockey star who needs a girlfriend on paper. The fake-relationship bargain is older-school than Khabra, with a bigger grovel and hotter hookups, but the campus-hockey-deal bones are the same and the pacing is relentless.
Heat: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ Explicit
See Boyfriend Bargain on Amazon →
Wildfire by Hannah Grace
Russ Callaghan and Aurora Roberts have a one-night stand at a Maple Hills party and then meet again as counselors at the same summer camp, where staff relationships are forbidden. Russ is carrying the fallout of his father’s gambling addiction the way Aiden carries his family pressure in Collide, quietly and badly. Less hockey on the page than the others here, more of the hurt-comfort undertow that makes Khabra’s captain land. See our books like Wildfire list for more of that summer-camp energy.
Heat: 🌶️🌶️🌶️ Open door
See Wildfire on Amazon →
Blindsided by Victoria Denault
A Vermont college hockey romance with a Romeo-and-Juliet twist: Tate Adler and Maggie Todd come from families that hate each other, and Tate has a hidden side job that could cost him his scholarship. The Moo U series is less famous than Briar or Maple Hills, which is the point. If you’ve read the big names, this is the next shelf.
Heat: 🌶️🌶️🌶️ Open door
See Blindsided on Amazon →
If You Loved Aiden: Grumpy Captains and Pro Hockey
Behind the Net by Stephanie Archer
Jamie Streicher is the Vancouver Storm’s goalie and he barely speaks. Pippa Hartley is the sunshine assistant who moves into his life (and his guest room) and slowly turns his monosyllables into sentences meant only for her. Archer writes the grumpy-athlete-falls-first dynamic with more specificity than almost anyone, and if Aiden’s quiet devotion was your favorite part of Collide, this is the book. Archer’s next release, Bedside Manner, is due December 8, 2026. Our books like Behind the Net list has the rest of the Vancouver Storm shelf.
Heat: 🌶️🌶️🌶️ Open door
See Behind the Net on Amazon →
Mile High by Liz Tomforde
Stevie takes a job as a flight attendant on a Chicago hockey team’s private plane and immediately decides Evan Zanders, the league’s most arrogant defenseman, is the worst person on it. He agrees, loudly, and then spends the rest of the book proving otherwise. The first Windy City novel and the forced-proximity enemies-to-lovers entry on this list, with the heat turned up well past Khabra. Rewind It Back (2025) brings the series back to hockey.
Heat: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ Explicit
See Mile High on Amazon →
Consider Me by Becka Mack
Carter Beckett is a Vancouver star who decides, very early and very loudly, that Olivia is his person, and spends the book being devoted to her before she has finished deciding anything. Where Aiden hides what he feels, Carter broadcasts it; if you wanted Collide’s captain with the volume up, this is him. Our books like Consider Me list covers the golden-retriever shelf.
Heat: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ Explicit
See Consider Me on Amazon →
Pucking Wild by Emily Rath
Tess Owens is a lawyer leaving a bad marriage after a public scandal at her best friend’s wedding, and Ryan Langley is the younger Jacksonville Rays forward recovering from an injury who ends up as her roommate. A reverse age gap, a woman rebuilding her life and a hockey player who is kinder than anyone expects. The sweetest book in a very spicy series. Our books like Pucking Wild guide sorts the rest of the Rays.
Heat: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ Explicit
See Pucking Wild on Amazon →
Pucked Over by Helena Hunting
Lily LeBlanc and Randy Ballistic start as a casual fling (he is her best friend’s boyfriend’s best friend, which is how these things go) and end up somewhere neither planned. Hunting’s Pucked series is the loud, raunchy comedy wing of hockey romance, and it is the right next step if Collide’s humor mattered more to you than its angst.
Heat: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ Explicit
See Pucked Over on Amazon →
MM Hockey Romance for Collide Readers
Heated Rivalry by Rachel Reid
Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov are rival captains who have been secretly hooking up for years while the league sells their feud. The 2026 TV adaptation turned a beloved MM hockey novel into a phenomenon, and the book is still better: a decade of pining compressed into hotel rooms and one very long game. Our full books like Heated Rivalry guide is the place to go after.
Heat: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ Explicit
See Heated Rivalry on Amazon →
Him by Sarina Bowen and Elle Kennedy
Jamie Canning and Ryan Wesley were best friends at hockey camp until one night ended the friendship. Years later they meet again at a college national championship, and Wes has one summer to find out whether Jamie remembers. The college setting, the captain energy and the friends-to-lovers ache make it the MM book Collide readers finish fastest.
Heat: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ Explicit
See Him on Amazon →
Read Next: Hotter Picks From Fractal Enigma
Khabra keeps the door open but the lights low. The hockey romances below keep her ingredients, a competent woman with a job to do, a captain who has to earn her, a locker room full of witnesses, and run them at Inferno heat. Two MF, two MM, all standalones with a guaranteed HEA.
Return to Contact — Tessa Valehart
The closest thing on our shelf to Summer’s research project, with the stakes raised. Elise is the surgeon who rebuilt veteran captain Grant Ellison’s shoulder, and the return-to-play study he volunteers for puts him back in her exam room every week, cleared to play and not cleared to touch her. A silver-fox captain on a comeback, a doctor who wrote the rules, phone calls that cross the line before their hands do and a slow build that detonates. MF, standalone, with a bonus chapter on the site.
Heat: Inferno 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
Tropes: Surgeon × Hockey Captain, Forbidden Romance, Professional Boundaries, Injured Athlete, Comeback Story, Competence Kink, He Falls First, Mutual Pining
Start reading Return to Contact →
Goalie Problems — Tessa Valehart
Alexei Volkov gets beaten by the same goal forty-two times, and Wren Cassidy is the only person in the building who thinks that’s good news. The Northbridge Wolves hire her for eight weeks to fix the league’s most expensive goaltender, and the job comes with a grumpy hero who doesn’t take instruction, a coach who gives it anyway and a forbidden workplace line both of them step over. If Summer analyzing Aiden was your favorite part of Collide, this is the same dynamic with a whistle and a whole lot less restraint.
Heat: Inferno 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
Tropes: Coach × Goalie, Forbidden Workplace Romance, Grumpy Hero, Competence Kink, Praise Kink, Injured Athlete, He Falls First, Size Difference
Start reading Goalie Problems →
Off the Ice — Chase Power
Yes, it shares a name with Khabra’s series, and it earns it. Rafe Donnelly is the league’s golden boy, the one who grins for the camera and hands everybody the version of him they paid for, until his knee goes in a contract year. The only place to recover is the spare room of an older ex-player with no stairs and a contract clause that says he can’t lay a finger on him for six weeks. Nobody said he couldn’t tell him what to do. MM, age gap, and the softest grumpy caretaker we’ve published.
Heat: Inferno 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
Tropes: Injured Athlete, Age Gap, Forced Proximity, Roommates to Lovers, Forbidden Romance, Praise Kink, Brat/Tamer, Hurt/Comfort, Comeback Story
Puck Bros — Jace Wilder
The college one. Declan “Deck” Hayes captains the Northern Pines Lumberjacks, a team on the edge of its first Frozen Four run, and he is a man on the edge of a breakdown he won’t admit to. Brody is his best friend, his linemate and the only person whose hands make his body stop listening to him. Three feet between their beds in a basement apartment, a no-kissing rule, a motel where the lamp stayed on and a secret that could end the season. Free with Kindle Unlimited.
Heat: Inferno 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
Tropes: Best Friends to Lovers, Bi-Awakening, Forced Proximity, One Bed, Secret Relationship, Teammates to Lovers, He Falls First, Found Family
FAQ: Books Like Collide
Do you need to read the Off the Ice series in order?
Each book follows a different couple, so you can jump in anywhere, but the order is Collide, Spiral, Revolve, Embrace, and the side characters make more sense if you follow it. Collide is the right starting point.
Which book should I read first after Collide?
Icebreaker if you want the same campus energy with more heat, The Deal if you want the original tutor-and-captain bargain, Behind the Net if Aiden’s quiet side was the draw. For MM, start with Heated Rivalry.
How spicy is Collide?
Open door, around a three on our five-chili scale: several on-page scenes, warm rather than graphic. Icebreaker, Mile High and Consider Me run hotter; the Fractal Enigma picks above are Inferno. Our romance spice levels guide explains the scale.
Is there a Collide movie or TV show?
Not that we can point you to. The college hockey romance that did make it to screen is Elle Kennedy’s Off-Campus, which became a Prime Video series, and Heated Rivalry’s 2026 adaptation is the one everyone is talking about. Khabra’s next book, Last Call, is scheduled for May 4, 2027.
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