The Dare

The Briar U series just keeps getting better!
I loved Taylor and Coner. They were so funny together and for 2 people who are fairly different they worked really well. If you have read the other books in this series you will remeber Coner from The Play and it was really great to get to know him better. He has much more going on that what appears and insecurities that you maybe wouldn't nessecearly associate with a Hocky player.
Taylor has all the regular girl hang ups, insecure with her body because she doesn't have the text book skinny girl look. I think how Coner was with her was lovely - always reassuring and telling her she was beautiful, even though she didn't believe him half the time.
There are lots of funny moments in this book - all the guys on the Hockey team are hilarious, one particular scene pops to mind, wher they are all shopping in the Mall to help Taylor pick out a new outfit, she comes out of the dressing room and all the guys are randomly trying on tux's! Just Brilliant! I loved that we got more of Hunter - he is my favourite from this whole series.

Elle Kennedy is back to deliver her last book in the Briar U series! In The Dare we follow Conor Edwards, a member of the Briar U hockey team who we met in the previous book of the series. Conor has been shown as a big ladies man, always hooking up with different girls and being the talk of the campus because of it. His reputation definitely precedes him when it comes to the ladies. Much to the point where he feels he's basically became more of a conquest to them than an actual person. And he's getting pretty bored of it all. Enter Taylor Marsh - a sorority girl with a major case of body insecurities. Her fuller figure makes her stand out amongst the other girls around and some of the girls in her sorority don't let her forget it, always finding a way to humiliate her. Which is why they dare her to seduce the notorious Conor Edwards - because why would a gorgeous guy like him even give her the time of the day? But to everyone's surprise, one dare turns into something neither Conor nor Taylor ever expected - love. I went into this with low expectations. Sad to say, but overall this spin off series hasn't really lived up to it's predecessor - the Off Campus series. Especially the last book was a big let down for me. However, this book was big step up from that and I genuinely did enjoy it. This gave me the same feelings I got while reading The Risk and Off Campus. I think this is one of the better books in this series. It really surprised me. First of all, I didn't expect Conor to be so sweet. I kinda expected him to be a sort of Dean clone. More cockiness in his personality than anything else. But in reality he was just very misunderstood, struggling to find who he was in the world, and full with so much love to give. He was the perfect guy for Taylor, no doubt about it. He loved her unconditionally with all her faults and despite her insecurities which he could not see at all. To him, Taylor Marsh is his perfect match. I loved him for being a great guy and always doing the right thing in the end and supporting/loving Taylor through everything she goes through in this story. Which brings me to talk about Taylor. It's crazy how much I could relate to her. Being a bigger girl myself, I could totally see where she was coming from on a bunch of things. Not wanting to show off her body by her clothing choices, getting fat shamed, and not thinking you're good enough to be with a good looking guy...the list goes on. I liked the journey she went on in this. From letting the mean girls get to her, to in the end being fed up with it and standing up for herself. And with the help of her friends and Conor, she's learning to accept herself the way she is - that she is beautiful and desirable and is worthy of Conor's affections. In the end, she and Conor made one another better people. They both had issues of not thinking the other was good enough for each other. Conor with his identity crisis because of actions/choices he made in the past and Taylor because of her insecurities. I liked how they were both dealing with the same things, just in different ways. And sadly these things did tear them apart more than once in the story (which is why I deducted a star), but they did find their way back to one another. Overall, it was a wonderful love story between them. So, what should you expect? - Fake Dating - Friends To Lovers - Curvy Heroine - Ladies Man with a Heart Of Gold Also TW for: body/fat shaming & body insecurities. If this sounds like something you'd enjoy, don't hesitate to pick this one up!

The character growth really astonished me in this one. Elle Kennedy does amazing in all her stories. Not just love interests but also the enemies and friends and any adjacent character. In The Dare, Taylor and Conor were utterly adorable and their sexual tension was off the charts. But I loved them more when they weren’t being sexy and were instead being vulnerable and real and adorable together. Conor had a bit of a past to him. Illegal not women though that was there too. He had trust issues and it showed with nearly everyone except Taylor. Taylor had confidence issues as well as body issues and Conor went out of his way to get rid of those. Those moments were my favorite. The villain I thought it was going to be, wasn’t who I thought it was going to be. And the issues that were a bit of a surprise. But they were super timely and something that needs to be discussed. The way the characters all bonded together to help Taylor at the end was what should constantly be happening. The plot moved along nicely and like every book that briefly mentions Briar U, it makes me want to read them all over again.