Reviews with content warning for Sexual harassment - The Dare

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The Dare by Elle Kennedy

29 reviews

beckyyreadss's review against another edition

emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I wanted to read this book because my goal last year was to discover new authors. Elle Kennedy was on this list, and I have been loving hockey romances in the past year. I have been waiting for another book as good as The Mistake and having a lad as good as John Logan and damn Conor Edwards is such a golden retriever and I want him and John.

This book has two points of view. The first is Taylor Marsh, she was hoping that college was her chance to get over her ugly-duckling complex and to spread her wings. Instead, she ended up in a sorority full of means and she has a rough time fitting in, so when her sorority sister issue her a dare, she can’t say no. The dare is to seduce the hottest new hockey player in her junior class: Conor Edwards. The second point of view is Conor Edwards, he 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 Taylor a second glance. But Mr Popular throws in a loop, rather than laughing in Taylor’s face, he does a solid by letting her take him upstairs to pretend they are getting busy and spend the night talking and having a laugh. Taylor doesn’t expect to hear from Conor again, but he wants to keep pretending. Turns out Conor loves games, and he thinks it’s fun to pull the wool over her sorority sisters’ eyes. But resisting his easy charm and surfer-boy hotness is damn near impossible. Though Taylor is realizing there’s much more to Conor’s story than his fan club can see. And the longer the ruse goes on, the greater the danger of it blows up in Taylor’s face.

I don’t know what it is about hockey romances, but they are so addictive. The writing isn’t brilliant, but the storyline and the character are adorable. I wanted to hug Taylor so damn hard throughout this book. I also wanted to smack Conor like dude – you are hot and yes you have trauma but dude help is there and let them help you. I also wanted to smack Taylor – yes you have trauma but don’t push people away and let them help you. These characters had personality, and both had a storyline with issues of their own but also were all about each other – they wanted to help each other with their traumas. Conor with his issues with his stepdad and his struggles with how he got to Briar U and then his ex-best friend being a dick, I just wanted to hug him. Taylor was so broken, and I just wanted to fix her – she is one of the only girls in both series that I relate to especially with the body issues that Taylor had. I love that she confronted Conor and was like you are a grown man, you don’t dip so why are you dipping now. I love Coach Jensen and that he was dating Taylor’s mum, it was just making everything so much funnier. I loved how Conor and Taylor kept growing and that it ended with a bigger issue of revenge porn and that the hockey lads wanted to kill Abigail’s ex-boyfriend and the girls wanted to kill Jules.

I don’t think this book had any weaknesses whatsoever. I wanted it to be longer. I would have loved to see Coach Jensen and Taylor’s mum in the epilogue, and I love that Brenna is now Taylor’s sister and would have loved to see them more together.

These series overall has been very up and down but I'm glad it ended on this high note.

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agiecummings's review against another edition

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emotional funny reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I have been going back and forth about how to rate this book for about 30 minutes since I finished it. One one hand, I really loved Conor and Taylor’s relationship and how they slowly built their trust over time.

On the other hand, there were almost too many other plots happening simultaneously.

For example, Kai (and the subplot of him needing money) was a lot. And then the released “sex tape” and subsequent lawsuit was really upsetting and led to a SECOND 3rd act breakup, which is my least favorite thing in a rom com.

So, I think, in the end, I liked some aspects of it, but the sum of its parts is greater than the whole and I’m sad to end my Elle Kennedy read-a-thon in this way. I just think we could have found a way to edit some of the extra and made it more about their relationship? I’m on the fence on how I want to fix it, but I want it to be better.

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debbitomsk's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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katiekaiser's review against another edition

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funny lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I enjoyed reading this book, but it was definitely my least favorite out of all the books in both the Briar U series and Off-Campus series. I didn’t really like a lot of the characters. I found Taylor’s constant self-deprecation to get annoying pretty fast. There wasn’t a lot to the character besides her being insecure which is unlike Elle Kennedy’s normal style. I have always appreciated that Elle Kennedy showcases and strong and confident female protagonist. This book felt lacking in that area.

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jasannalise's review against another edition

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medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

it was like a high school romance forced to be in college for the sake of explicit scenes. downright offensive self descriptions from a “plus size” character (with no hope of body positivity in sight, or even slight motivation for of self love/internal confidence to be reached).

second AND third act breakups fuelled by miscommunication and solved just as terribly

i have really enjoyed other books by this author but this was really disappointing :(

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