The Dare
Briar U, #4

by Elle Kennedy

 

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Blurb

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.

Find The Dare on GOODREADS

 

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Review

3.5 stars!

It all starts with a dare…

When Taylor is dared to hook up with the guy of her sorority sisters choosing, she surprises them all when she actually goes through with it. At least it looks like she does. Not only does she convince Conor to pretend they hook up, he surprises her when he wants to pretend to be a couple. What starts as a game to get back at her bitchy sorority sisters turns into a romance no one saw coming.

The Dare is an entertaining fake romance that takes you on a wild ride. Conor and Taylor give us a fun, sweet, and emotional romance as they go from friends to lovers.

Taylor is sweet, curvy, smart girl who has been trying to overcome the insecurities that have plagued her since she was young. They play a big part in the story and are part of the reason she accepts the dare. What she doesn’t expect is Conor and the fact that he doesn’t see her so-called flaws and genuinely enjoys her company.

Conor used to hook up all the time and isn’t into relationships. He tends to get bored with girls because they don’t keep his attention. Yet, there is nothing boring about Taylor and she intrigues him from the get go when she is brave enough to approach him. He goes with the flow and though they keep their hands to their selves, they open up and enjoy each other’s company.

As they spend time pretending to be a couple to stick it to the mean girls, a friendship forms. They have more in common then they think and I love the growth they go through as the story progresses. They can be themselves around each other and genuinely enjoy having out together.

Their friendship starts out as platonic and they are so fun together, but there is no denying it’s laced with sexual tension and attraction, and when they take a chance, they are good together and accepting of each other. However, they both are fighting personal issues and they have to work hard if they want to be together.

There is some drama and angst, and even though it wasn’t over the top, I felt like some of it was repetitive. I do like that they learn to trust and they grow throughout the story but they have more issues at the end of the book than I liked. They get over one problem and I think phew, now they can be happy only to be stuck with another issue at the very end. Things are resolved fairly quickly and there is a sweet epilogue but it was one too many problems at the end of the book.

Overall, I did enjoy The Dare and I thought the pretend boyfriend trope was well done.  I also enjoyed seeing more of the Briar U gang because they always make me laugh.

*ARC generously provided by the author and Bocci PR*

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Briar U

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Off-Campus