The Dare
Series: Briar U, #4
Author: Elle Kennedy
Publication Date: June 16, 2020
Genre: New Adult, Sports, Romance, Contemporary
Note: This review is for an ARC and is my unbiased opinion.
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Synopsis:
College was supposed to be my chance to get over my ugly-duckling complex and spread my wings. Instead, I wound up in a sorority full of mean girls. I already have a hard time fitting in, so when my Kappa Chi sisters issue the challenge, I can’t say no.
The dare: seduce the hottest new hockey player in the junior class.
Conor Edwards is a regular at Greek Row parties…and in Greek Row sorority beds. He’s the one you fall for before you learn that guys like him don’t give girls like me a second glance. Except Mr. Popular throws me for a loop—rather than laughing in my face, he does me a solid by letting me take him upstairs to pretend we’re getting busy.
Even crazier, now he wants to keep pretending. Turns out Conor loves games, and he thinks it’s fun to pull the wool over my frenemies’ eyes.
But resisting his easy charm and surfer-boy hotness is darn near impossible. Though I’m realizing there’s much more to Conor’s story than his fan club can see.
And the longer this silly ruse goes on, the greater the danger of it all blowing up in my face.
Elle Kennedy is one of my favorite authors and, while I eagerly anticipate every one of her new releases, I also hold her to a high standard when it comes to her books. With every new release, I’m holding my breath hoping she’s going to knock it out of the park. She’s always done that for me, and continued to do that with The Dare.
The Dare was one of those super swoony new adult sports romances. It had just the right amount of sports moments, teammate camaraderie, character chemistry, and character backstories to create problems. What really stood out in The Dare, though, were the characters themselves. Taylor and Conor were characters that were easy to love.
Taylor is one of my favorite Elle Kennedy characters ever. She is perfectly imperfect. She gets in her own way a lot. Taylor is a bigger girl. She has body issues that she lets crossover to every aspect of her life. The way they are portrayed resonated with me. I would have been able to identify with her as a college student, and I’m able to relate as an adult, too.
Conor also got added to my list of favorite characters. He was nicer than I was expecting from the get-go. I mean super nice. He was still a cocky hockey player, but he had layers and some deep insecurities of his own. I loved what his relationship with Taylor did for both of them.
That relationship…sigh. It was so sweet. I loved the pace at which everything progressed between them. The trust they built in each other was what I would expect in a real relationship, so to see it on the page was cool. Everything they went through together matured them from college kids to adults. I just really loved them as a couple.
What else can I say? As with all the other Briar U and Off Campus books, we get to see more of some of our favorite characters. They had special roles in this book, and it was fun to see them again. Other than that, I guess you’re just going to have to read The Dare for yourself. Trust me, you are going to want to! It was one of my favorites in this series.
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Limited time only — Until the end of June!
Ahh I want to read this ASAP now! I keep hearing great things!! Great review 🙂
Thanks! It was so good! I hope you enjoy it when you get to it.
I always tend to enjoy Elle Kennedy’s books so it’s good to see you enjoyed this one so much. It seems it’s Elle Kennedy in top form giving us a good romance with characters it’s easy to like.
She is!
I love Elle Kennedy so much <3 I'm so far behind though so it will be a while before I get here! Great review!!
LOL. You’ll get there eventually!
I’m so glad you enjoyed this, Deanna. I lost interest in the series after not enjoying the last two books, but I’m glad she’s continue to deliver for fans of the series.
I’m sorry she lost you. 🙁 But I get it.
I’m so glad this was such a hit for you! Taylor sounds super relatable and just reading what you shared about her makes me want to read this one. I am pitifully behind when it comes to the Off Campus series and really need to do a binge read to catch up!
I hope you love it as much as I do when you finally get to it!
I love how Elle keeps giving us heroes who are cocky but still super sweet! I agree that Taylor is amazing. 🙂
So this is REALLY late, but for some reason it ended up my Spam. 🙁 I also am glad that Elle gives us these kinds of heroes. 🙂
I’m so excited about this one!! And btw, so happy it was a 5 star for you! I can’t wait to find my next 5 star novel.
Well, I hope this one rates high for you as well!
This sounds fun. And sounds like their relationship really works too, which is nice. Glad it was good!
Thanks! It was exactly what I was hoping for.
Glad to hear the series ended on a high note.
Thanks! I thought it did. 🙂
I still need to start this series! I got the first couple books from the library, but ended up not being in the right mood for them. I’m going to try again, though. I’m glad this one lived up to your expectations!
The first one is FREE right now!!!
Ooh thanks!
You really have me wanting to get caught up with this series!!
You need to! LOL No pressure or anything. 😉
Hahahaha!
I need to read it ASAP, I pre-ordered it and still haven’t read it. I really loved the excerpt you shared a few posts ago and Connor did seem so nice in it, I was actually curious if he would be like that through their story. I’m glad you just confirmed that he is! 🙂
I hope you get to it soon. I would love to hear your thoughts on it.