Author: Elle Kennedy
Kindle Editions and Audiobooks, Audible
Narrators: Several (mentioned in the review after each book, if applicable)
OFF CAMPUS SERIES
BOOK #1 THE DEAL
Garret and Hannah – Garret is the captain of the hockey team and he screwed up in his Ethics midterm and he needs tutoring badly so that he can do well in the make-up test and not be benched. Hannah is one of the few students in the class that aced the test and Garret basically stalks her to convince her to tutor him. Since nothing seems to convince her, he proposes a pact: they will fake date for a week and this way she will catch the eye of the football player she’s been crushing on.
Classic fake dating and forced proximity romance. The difference here is that Garret is, although, very cocky and arrogant, a sweetie on the inside. Hannah is a complex girl – a survivor of rape, she refuses to be the victim but she still has some hangups that Garret can definitely help her with. It’s a sweet story and I love how non-toxic at all their relationship is. I confess that I thought, considering his stalkerish ways in the beginning, that Garret was going to be overbearing and jealous, but he turned out to be kind of adorable. And Hannah aka Wellsy, is a badass heroine.
Narration: Lorelei Avalon and Christian Fox. I really loved Christian Fox’s narration but I really couldn’t stand Lorelei Avalon’s: she sounds too old, too nasal and I switched to reading in the Hannah chapters. (Apparently they brought in CF to read the male POV in a second launch of the audiobook. I wonder why…#not.)
Possible triggers for this one: rape (prior to story), parental physical and mental abuse
BOOK #2 THE MISTAKE
Logan and Grace – Logan is Garret’s best friend… that unfortunately is in love with Hannah. Or so he thinks until he has a chance encounter with Grace, a lovely freshman, who occupies all his thoughts. A virgin freshman. Grace is highly taken with Logan and decides to lose the proverbial V-card to him, and when Logan tries to be a gentleman, things go really bad. Grace puts Logan through some crazy loops to win her affection again, and everything goes well until Logan’s family life and the prospects of a dire future for him get in the way.
I liked this one too and it’s very similar to the first book, with both male character having serious issues with their fathers. It’s really sweet how Logan totally turns into a sappy romantic hero.
Narration: I quit listening to the audiobook when I realized it was Lorelai Avalon again. The male POV is read by Lee Samuels, who does a nice job, but I just went ahead and just eyeball read it or I would DNF the book entirely because of the narration.
Possible triggers: alcoholism, toxic relationship with a parent, a situation of imminent sexual assault, anxiety and a mention of a possible panic attack
BOOK #3 THE SCORE
Dean and Allie – we met both Dean and Allie in the previous books. Allie is Hannah’s roommate and best friend and Dean is Garret’s exhibitionist, cocky and arrogant teammate and roommate. When Allie needs a place to stay to avoid her recently dumped boyfriend (who won’t leave her alone), Hannah offers the boys’ place for her to crash over the weekend. She can stay in Garret’s room as they are out for the weekend. They sent an assortment of threats to Dean via text: STAY AWAY FROM ALLIE. Well, kinda hard when she walks in on him having a threesome….
I confess I had zero love for Dean in the beginning… but things started the change when I see he’s basically just honest. What you see is what you get. It’s cute to see him get totally confused when “Little Dean” seems to find no one interesting…but Allie! By the end,I was in love with these two.
Narration: It’s Savannah Peachwood and Andrew Eiden, so definitely give it a try.
Possible triggers: mentions of depression, death of a friend by car accident, drug use
BOOK #4 THE GOAL
Tucker and Sabrina – yup, you read it correctly. That Sabrina who was the bane of Dean’s existence in the previous books. They hook up one night and they are both incredibly attracted to each other, but Sabrina has a one track mind: getting into Harvard Law. She has no time for relationships. Tucker, adorable southern gentleman that he is, decides to pursue her. Then, the universe throws a wrench on their plans: Sabrina gets pregnant.
This book has a storyline that is different from the other ones, which I liked very much. I confess the previous ones were getting to be too similar. The struggles are real, facing an unexpected pregnancy and I completely understand how Sabrina feels. I loved how Tucker was the perfect boyfriend – there for her 100%, no matter what she decided.
Narration: Susannah Jones and Andrew Eiden. (I’ll let you figure out who Andrew Eiden is, but you definitely know him by another name). They are both amazing narrators, but I don’t understand the choice for not having Tucker have a southern drawl in the narration. It is a major thing in the book and mentioned often, so it was weird not to hear it when he spoke.
BOOK #5 THE LEGACY
This is an anthology of sorts. It comprises of four novella-length stories, and they cover the four couples. I am on the fence about this book. Maybe I was expecting something else… I also read it in an unorthodox way: I read each novella right after each book. And sometimes the characters seemed a little…. off. Maybe it doesn’t happen to people who read the books years ago, but since I was reading these immediately after reading the books, sometimes I couldn’t feel the same vibe. That happened particularly with Garret and Hannah’s story. What I loved about them in the book is their ability rot communicate and lack of communication was exactly their major problem here.
We do get to see one couple get married, another goes on a honeymoon, another one deals with a proposal and another one gets pregnant and they are not who you expect. It was fun to read, but I was hoping for a little more.
Possible triggers: unexpected pregnancy, attempted sexual assault by a stepparent
Side note: I really hated the Alexander storyline… I thought it was annoying and they are true friends and true friends wouldn’t screw up major milestones of other friends with that crap.
Narration: Stella Bloom and Zachary Webber, who are amazing. And you finally get to have a wonderful, very authentic southern drawl for Tucker from Zachary Webber, who hails from Texas himself. Perfect!
BRIAR U SERIES
BOOK #1 THE CHASE
We met both main characters before: Summer is Dean DeLaurentis’ hellion little sister and Colin “Fitzy” Fitzgerald is one of the players in the hockey team. Fitzy takes over the lease of the house where the Garret, Dean, Tucker and Logan used to live. Summer, who was kicked out of Brown for apparently setting fire to her sorority house, is blackballed in the sister house at Briar, so she needs a place to stay. Big brother intervenes and she gets to be the fourth musketeer in the house. Little problem: Summer has a major crush on Fitzy, but she overhears him talk about her, calling her shallow and superficial. That hits her really hard because Summer has a learning disability related to ADHD and has a hard time not believing that she is indeed “fluff” and without substance.
While living together, they start to know each other better and soon their attraction to each other undeniable, but both of them have to overcome a few things to be able to be together.
It’s a sweet story and Fitzy is not your regular jock: he’s a gamer, and artist and an athlete. He is also super cinnamon all on the inside. Summer comes off a little bit of a ditzy girl in the beginning, so it’s hard to like until you understand where she is coming from.
A lot of characters from the series these books are a spin off to show up, but this definitely can be read as a standalone.
Possible trigger: feelings of inadequacy due to a learning disability
BOOK #2 THE RISK
This book follows Brenna, Coach Jensen’s daughter, Summer’s best friend and her Romeo-and-Juliet-with-a-happy-ending tale of forbidden love and a little bit of an enemies to lovers/fake dating. You see, Jake is the captain of Harvard team and that’s a no-no. Harvard and Briar are “enemies” on the ice, especially with their coaches hating each other.
Brenna and Jake had been friendly and flirty with each for a while, and when Brenna pulls a namedrop and tells the guy interviewing her for her dream internship that Jake is her boyfriends, they end up striking a deal: for every fake date, Jake wants a real one. What they didn’t expect was to catch feelings…
I really liked this new set up in this book. Though we basically follow the same characters, their story is pretty much their own. I love how the badass Brenna opens up her heart to Jake, and he does the same to her.
There’s a little storyline about Hazel, Jake’s best friend. It bothered me a little when (SPOILER ALERT) we find out that she has always had thing for him. I really wanted them to be GOOD friends and that ruined it for me a little, but it doesn’t spoil the book.
Great addition to the series.
Possible triggers: misogyny in the workplace, miscarriage, strained relationships with a parent, heavy drug use
BOOK#3 THE PLAY
After feeling betrayed by Fitzy and Summer in The Chase, Hunter turns into Briar’s quintessential fuckboy, hooking up with every willing girl on campus. And believe me, practically every girl on campus was willing! He ends up hooking up with the girlfriend of a Harvard player who loses it during a game and ends up breaking Hunter’s arm. That was the the last drop to convince him that he needs to change his ways. He does a 180 and goes completely celibate. Meet Hunter The Monk.
The next school year starts and poor Hunter is now roommates with Brenna, Rupi and Summer in an estrogen-filled household. He is also partnered yup with Demi in a Psych class. Demi is a a cute half-latina, half-black badass girl. She doesn’t pose a threat to Hunter’s celibacy because she is in a long term relationship with her boyfriend Nico.
One day, though, Hunter spots Nico in a very compromising position with a girl in a frat party – when, according to what told Demi, he was supposed to be having a boys night out. After a lot of pondering, Hunter decides to tell Demi. She doesn’t believe it at first, but soon the truth comes out and it wasn’t the first time. Demi wants a rebound guy and pretty soon she decides that the rebound guy has to be Hunter – the Monk.
I loved the dynamic between the two! I also loved the Latina representation. It was sweet to see Demi peel the layers off Hunter, showing us that there is a lot more than the manwhore hockey player. This book pretty much keeps the tone of the other books. I also loved how much they believed in each other as a person, how they backed each other up.
The side story romance of Rupi and Hollis is a hoot too!
Possible triggers: suicidal attempt on page, cheating (not main characters), toxic relationships between spouses, toxic relationship with parent
Narration: Ana Osorio and Teddy Hamilton. Ana Osorio is a new narrator for me and she was a great surprise! She does sound like a young woman! Sometimes, in audiobooks, the narrators tend to sound older, and with female narrators, it’s even weirder when it happens. This is not the case. Teddy Hamilton plays a great Hunter, as usual.
BOOK #4 THE DARE
We met Connor before. He’s the one who helped Demi make Hunter jealous and finally cave in the last book. This time the heroine, Tracy, is a plus size girl. Well, she might be a size 8 in a sea of size zeroes and twos, but if you take into account the cover of the book, not even that. But her size has been the bane of her existence since she was little. At her sorority, she’s bullied about it non stop by the VP. When at a party they are playing their infamous Dare or Dare game, her nemesis dares her to seduce Connor. She manages to convince him to go along and pretend they hooked up. They make the appropriate noises and convince everyone they indeed hook up so that she is off the hook. They spent most of the time talking and then finally fall asleep.
When Connor overhears people talking really mean shit about Tracy, he decides to pretend that they are indeed together. Well well well, they already liked each other, so they obviously catch feelings.
I hate hate hate this “greek” culture that breeds so much bullying and toxicity with the pledges and the hazing. I don’t understand how that can still be a tradition in this day and age. I also understand that it’s the perfect scenario if you want to write a story about fat-shaming and bullying, but I was shaking my head most of the time.
I loved how they are together but I was a little bit annoyed by how the miscommunication plot device was used not only once but twice in this book! So much of the heartache the main characters go through in different circumstances could have been avoided just by literally talking.
I was hoping more for the last book in the series. This one doesn’t even have an extended epilogue online. It is still a great book and I loved Tracy and Connor, but I am now hoping that there is a fifth book, like The Legacy, to tie it all up, maybe including characters from both Off Campus and Briar U.
Possible triggers: fat-shaming, bullying, blackmail, revenge porn, feelings of inadequacy
