If you love College Romance Books, I have two amazing book lists for you: My favorite New Adult College Romance Books, many of which were spicy romance, AND my favorite Young Adult Books Set in College. Check them all out below!
Disclosure: as an Amazon Affiliate I may receive a small percentage of qualifying purchases.
My Favorite College Romance Books
This book list will have two different types of books. You may like one more than the other. You may like both.
- YA (young adult) books set in college
- NA (new adult) books set in college
What’s the difference between YA and NA? YA books are going to be a bit more focused on the transition to college, friendships, and even mental health and family issues, with PG rated romance. NA books set in college will be much more spicy and could have explicit content. They are both great!
Young Adult Romance Books Set in College
New in 2025!
The Rival by Emma Lord
As she starts college, Sadie FINALLY ditches her lifelong academic rival. But then her incredibly irritating neighbor Seb gets off the waitlist at her new school. Now Sadie has to compete with him all over again. But is she hiding other feelings for See, feelings that could be more than friendly?
Check out my post on the NYC World of Emma Lord!
True Love and Other Impossible Odds by Christina Li
Grace arrived at college hoping to start fresh after a grief-stricken senior year. When Grace comes up with an algorithm to pair students with their perfect romantic partners, she keeps trying to make things work with her match, a guy named Jamie. But Grace is really drawn to Julia, making her question everything.
A Báhn Mí for Two by Trinity Nguyen
A sapphic romance about female foodies in love! Vietnamese-American Vivi is studying abroad in Vietnam when she meets Lan, a food blogger whose family owns a bánh mì stall. Together, they discuss their families’ histories and fall in love, all while eating street food in Sài Gòn.
Wild About You by Kaitlin Hill
A grumpy-sunshine teen romance that takes place during the filming of a popular outdoorsy reality show.
College freshman Natalie competes in challenges against other students with Finn, her outdoorsy teammate. Could falling in love be the wildest adventure of all….
Begin Again by Emma Lord
Begin Again is a really charming YA book about family and grief, about a young woman learning to understand her worth rather than being a people-pleaser, and also a sweet romance. I really enjoyed this one and you can read my Review of Begin Again here!
Unnecessary Drama by Nina Kenwood
Responsible Brooke always follows the rules―and she plans to keep it that way during her first year of college.Her student housing only has one rule: “no unnecessary drama.” But when one of her roommates turns out to be Jesse, her high-school nemesis, Jesse isn’t so easy to ignore.
Rent a Boyfriend by Gloria Chao
This cute fauxmance is about a college student who hires a fellow student to pretend to be her boyfriend in order to get her meddling parents off her back. Rent a Boyfriend is on my list of Best YA Books With Fake Romance!
Finding Felicity by Stacey Kade
Finding Felicity is for all those out there who remember the 1990s. Did you watch the Keri Russell show about Felicity, a J.J. Abrams show about Felicity Porter, who arrives in Manhattan to attend the University of New York? Remember her narrating the episodes into her tape recorder. And her famous haircut?
In this book, main character Caroline is obsessed with the show and uses it to navigate her first year at college.
Frat Girl by Kiley Roache
When a psychology student decides to go undercover at a fraternity and expose all their misogyny, she finds the job harder than she expected.
Freshmen by Tom Ellison and Lucy Iverson
Fellow fresh people Phoebe and Luke navigate their first year at a British university. Even though this was somewhat Americanized, (the original title was “Freshers,” I loved the British perspective. You can read my review of Freshmen!
Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
Twins Cath and Wren are both fanatical Simon Snow fans. But when they head to college, Wren shocks Cath by telling her she doesn’t want to room together. This poignant, funny story of sisterhood and college is a YA classic.
Again But Better by Christine Riccio
Shane feels like she’s in a college rut, so she signs up for a semester abroad in London. There, she meets an amazing boy with a girlfriend. Haven’t read this but it’s giving me Anna and the French Kiss vibes.
Loveless by Alice Oseman
As Georgia heads to college far from home, she’s ready for adventure and especially romance. Why is the latter so hard for her? Loveless is a journey of self-discovery as Georgia transitions to adulthood.
American Panda by Gloria Chao
Mei is a young freshman at MIT whose intense parents encouraged her to skip a grade in school. Now on her own, she reconnects with her brother, who is estranged from her family for falling in love with the wrong person.
Required Reading for the Disenfranchised Freshman
Savannah sacrificed her social life to get into a school like Wooddale University. It’s a top school and she has a full scholarship, but she’s quickly confronted by the racism and elitism of other students. Will she pay the price for standing up against bigotry?
The Lies We Tell by Katie Zhao
This is technically a mystery, but I think it also presents a realistic depiction of the struggles of a freshman at college. The book addresses anti-Asian violence in this college community, as well as the fetishization of Asian women. You can read my full review of The Lies We Tell on my sister blog, YA All Day! And if you like YA Dark Academia, be sure to check out my book list!
New Adult Books Set In College
What are New Adult books?
In 2009, St Martin’s Press announced that they were looking to publish books with main characters in their twenties and coined the term “new adult.” (Many of us were like, “oh, rebranded 90s chick lit.”)
By the mid 2010s, these “NA” books (especially those set in college) became HUGELY popular. These books focus a LOT on the steamier side of college. They typically feature main characters who are studious and shy and then meet up with hot college athletes. If you are on TikTok, you’ll recognize a lot of these authors!
These are high on the angst, with good girls swept off their feet by bad boys (who are often athletes).
The Ivy Years by Sarina Bowen (2014-19)
The Year We Fell Down by Sarina Bowen (Ivy Years #1)
I was supposed to start college on the Harkness Women’s hockey team. Now I’m showing up in a wheelchair instead.
There’s only one person who understands. Across the hall, in the other handicapped-accessible dorm room, lives the too-delicious-to-be real Adam Hartley. He’s a hockey player too, but his leg is broken in two places.
We bond over broken elevators and video games. We’re just friends, of course, until one night when things fall apart. Or fall together. All I know is that I’m falling. Hard. But can Hartley love someone as broken as me? His deep brown eyes hold their own demons. While my troubles are visible for everyone to see, his are hidden deep inside…
Rusk University by Cora Carmack (2014-15)
All Lined Up by by Cora Carmack (Rusk University #1)
Dallas Cole loathes football. That’s what happens when you spend your whole childhood coming in second to a sport. College is her time to step out of the bleachers, and put the playing field (and the players) in her past.
But life doesn’t always go as planned. As if going to the same college as her football star ex wasn’t bad enough, her father, a Texas high school coaching phenom, has decided to make the jump to college ball… as the new head coach at Rusk University. Dallas finds herself in the shadows of her father and football all over again.
Carson McClain is determined to go from second-string quarterback to the starting line-up. He needs the scholarship and the future that football provides. But when a beautiful redhead literally falls into his life, his focus is more than tested. It’s obliterated.
Dallas doesn’t know Carson is on the team. Carson doesn’t know that Dallas is his new coach’s daughter.
And neither of them know how to walk away from the attraction they feel.
After series by Anna Todd (2014-15)
Tessa is a good girl with a sweet, reliable boyfriend back home. She’s got direction, ambition, and a mother who’s intent on keeping her that way.
But she’s barely moved into her freshman dorm when she runs into Hardin. With his tousled brown hair, cocky British accent, and tattoos, Hardin is cute and different from what she’s used to.
But he’s also rude—to the point of cruelty, even. For all his attitude, Tessa should hate Hardin. And she does—until she finds herself alone with him in his room. Something about his dark mood grabs her, and when they kiss it ignites within her a passion she’s never known before.
He’ll call her beautiful, then insist he isn’t the one for her and disappear again and again. Despite the reckless way he treats her, Tessa is compelled to dig deeper and find the real Hardin beneath all his lies. He pushes her away again and again, yet every time she pushes back, he only pulls her in deeper.
After was made into a movie in 2019. Yes, really!
The Off Campus series by Elle Kennedy (2015-16)
The Deal by Elle Kennedy (The Off-Campus Series #1)
Hannah might be confident in every other area of her life, she’s carting around a full set of baggage when it comes to seduction.
If she wants to get her crush’s attention, she’ll have to step out of her comfort zone and make him take notice…even if it means tutoring the annoying, childish, cocky captain of the hockey team in exchange for a pretend date.
All Garrett Graham has ever wanted is to play professional hockey after graduation, but his plummeting GPA is threatening everything he’s worked so hard for.
If helping a sarcastic brunette make another guy jealous will help him secure his position on the team, he’s all for it. But when one unexpected kiss leads to the wildest sex of both their lives, it doesn’t take long for Garrett to realize that pretend isn’t going to cut it. Now he just has to convince Hannah that the man she wants looks a lot like him.
The Briar U series by Elle Kennedy (2018-2020)
The Chase by Elle Kennedy (Briar U #1)
There’s no logical reason why I’m so drawn to Colin Fitzgerald. I don’t usually go for tattoo-covered, video-gaming, hockey-playing nerd-jocks who think I’m flighty and superficial. His narrow view of me is the first strike against him. It doesn’t help that he’s buddy-buddy with my brother.
And that his best friend has a crush on me. And that I just moved in with them.Oh, did I not mention we’re roommates?
I suppose it doesn’t matter. Fitzy has made it clear he’s not interested in me, even though the sparks between us are liable to burn our house down. I’m not the kind of girl who chases after a man, though, and I’m not about to start. I’ve got my hands full dealing with a new school, a sleazy professor, and an uncertain future. So if my sexy brooding roomie wises up and realizes what he’s missing? He knows where to find me.
Fulton U by Maya Hughes (2019-20)
The Perfect First by Maya Hughes
Persephone Alexander. Math genius. Lover of blazers. The only girl I know who can make Heidi braids look sexy as hell. And she’s on a mission. Lose her virginity by the end of the semester.
I walked in on her interview session for potential candidates (who even does that?) and saw straight through her brave front. She’s got a list of Firsts to accomplish like she’s only got months to live. I’ve decided to be her guide for all her firsts except one. Someone’s got to keep her out of trouble. I have one rule, no sex. We even shook on it.
I’ll help her find the right guy for the job. Someone like her doesn’t need someone like me and my massive…baggage for her first time.
She’s unlike anyone I’ve ever met. The walls I’d put up around my heart are slowly crumbling with each touch that sets fire to my soul.
I’m the first to bend the rules. One electrifying kiss changes everything and suddenly I don’t want to be her first, I want to be her only. She wrote her plan before I came onto the scene and now I’m determined to re-write her future with me.
Maybe Someday by Colleen Hoover
At twenty-two years old, Sydney is enjoying a great life: She’s in college, working a steady job, in love with her wonderful boyfriend, Hunter, and rooming with her best friend, Tori.
But everything changes when she discovers that Hunter is cheating on her—and she’s forced to decide what her next move should be.
Soon, Sydney finds herself captivated by her mysterious and attractive neighbor, Ridge. She can’t take her eyes off him or stop listening to the passionate way he plays his guitar every evening out on his balcony.
And there’s something about Sydney that Ridge can’t ignore, either. They soon find themselves needing each other in more ways than one.
Adult Fiction and Romance Set in College
As I said above, these aren’t much of a thing, but I could think of a few. If you have any other suggestions, let me know in comments!
The Avalon Bay series by Elle Kennedy
So this series was interesting to me, because it took the Elle Kennedy concept from above and toned the explicit scenes way down. The love interest was covers feel more like rom com covers. No man abs to be found.
I reviewed Good Girl Complex by Elle Kennedy. I didn’t quite know what to make of it. It wasn’t a rom com (too much angst) but wasn’t really New Adult either. No athletes. The plot is Girl Boss meets tattooed bad boy.
People on Goodreads say that GGC uses the exact plot of After by Anna Todd (see that book above). Based on the synopses, I don’t see the similarity, but I haven’t read After. I also haven’t read the other books in the Avalon Bay series, so if you have thoughts, let me know. It seems like only books one and three feature college students.
If you love New Adult College Romance, check out The Sex Lives of College Girls on HBO
The show was created by Mindy Kaling (who went to Dartmouth btw) and Justin Noble. It’s the story of four first year roommates at Essex College, a small liberal arts school in the Northeast.
The four main characters: Leighton, a rich girl from New York whose father also went to Essex; Whitney, a Black student athlete and the daughter of a congresswoman; Kimberly, an earnest yet socially awkward scholarship student from Arizona; and Bela, an Indian-American student from New Jersey who has single-minded dreams of being a comedy writer.
The show’s setting is gorgeous and this article says most of those scenes on campus were filmed at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York.
Hope you enjoyed reading about my Favorite College Romance Books. If you have books for my list or thoughts on the show, please tell me in the comments!
I have not watched this show as it really isn’t the type of show that I would watch. My taste in shows is more horror and paranormal. Kinda like the books that I read. Throw a vampire in there and I’ll watch it. lol
I recently saw this show popping all over my social media and I was confused as I’d never heard of it before and everyone seemed to have been watching it forever but it does look good and I want to watch more based on some of the books you’ve said are similar as I enjoyed so many of them. That college period appears often in NA books but I feel like publishers really struggled on finding the best books with a college setting so it’s nice to see more books coming out as well.
I agree – it’s such a good fit for YA books and I’m not sure why the publishers struggle to find a way to market these stories!
A lot of the shows you’ve posted about I’ve never seen. The books are new to me too.