Heated Rivalry vs Off Campus – or rather, a celebration of both. For some reason (coughs *homophobia*), the internet has decided to pit these two romance novel adaptions against each other. Well, my bisexual self will tell you that it’s completely bullshit.

First, let’s get my literally imposter syndrome out of the way. I have no qualifications in literary critiquing. I’m a scientist by training, I’m a self-taught writer, and I work as a journalist (but in a niche field where niche knowledge is more important than journalism training).

So take my reviews with a grain of salt.

There should be no rivalry between these two shows. It is freaking awesome that two romance novels have been given beautiful tv treatment and become popular. It’s amazing that writers are making money (gives hope to the rest of us).

Both shows are filled with pretty people. I did find the gaze in Off Campus to be more gratuitously ‘sex for sex sake’ than in Heated Rivalry where the sex scenes more clearly demonstrate the emotional state of the characters. Off Campus obviously has a much bigger budget – there are more expensive songs, more expensive settings, more characters. It, delightfully, follows the romance novel system of setting up the next pair of characters for the next book/season. Heated Rivalry has achieved a huge amount with a tiny budget and brilliant actors.

Both of them made me cry.

Both of them have characters with difficult backstories that were dealt with in a way that felt careful and respectful.

Heated Rivalry is always going to be my favourite – I read that book when it released back in 2019 and it’s been my comfort re-read for a long, long time. I haven’t read the books behind Off Campus, but the story was excellent. It hit all the romance beats.

Give me all the romance, more of it. Adapt more romance. I want to see my books on screen (Her Lady’s Honor would be particularly visually appealing with a setting in Wales and historical outfits and horses!). I want to see my favourite authors get adapted. I want romance authors to get more money. And not just the hockey authors, because honestly, the reason both of these shows were great had nothing to do with hockey and everything to do with the romance.