The Dare (Briar U)

My least favourite of the Briar U but still a great read. I feel like this could have been a spin-off standalone as there wasn’t much hockey in it and the themes were a little darker than the others.And as much as I enjoyed it, I would have preferred Hollis’ story over Conor’s.

Taylor and Conor - two opposite versions of themselves but at the same time so good fitting for each other.Conor - gorgeous, athletic hockey player whose name is spread amongst all the girls.Taylor - too self conscious, complexing on how she looks, doesn’t like to be the spotlight attention receiver.But one dare had changed everything for them.As I said a million times - Elle Kennedy is one of my top 🔝 authors, in every story - she puts so many realities and challenges everyone of us sometimes experiences in our lives. And The Dare is one of these stories where a girls is so self ashamed finally have a chance to start believing in herself, tho to reach this - she needs to go trough some emotional and spiritual connections with herself.I love how author ✍🏻 writes in both of their perspectives and allows you to see and understand the MC and get to know them more. This way you’re fully engaged in the story.I can’t wait to read of her works!

I absolutely loved Conor. I wasn't that excited to read his story dispute liking him in Hunter's book, as I wasn't as connected to him as much as the main characters in the other books but this was great.Taylor was a great fmc, her banter with Conor was loads of fun and they w were both flawed but open to working on themselves. Classic fun from Coach and the other hockey boys as well.

Taylor is a curvacious, big-busted shy virgun. Her sorority continues the outdated practice of hazing new sisters and playing a charming game they call Dare or Dare. After a dare went horribly wrong and Taylor kissed a random guy who turned out to be another sister's boyfriend, Taylor has been the butt of several spiteful dares, the latest being to take one of the hottest hockey players, Conor Edwards, upstairs at the latest Greek Row party.Conor is a recent transferee to Briar University. Originally a dirt-poor son of a working mom their lives changed forever when his mom fell in love and married a billionaire. Conor was well on his way to a life of drugs, gangs and petty crime until he was sent to Briar and he feels a complete fraud, as if people would look at him in disgust if they knew who he really was. After twelve months of taking advantage of being a young good looking hockey player and hooking up with loads of girls Conor is starting to feel like he wants something more, a connection, someone who actually sees him. Then a scared looking girl with beautiful eyes asks him to humour her and come upstairs for a bet - she emphasises that she has no designs on his body!What follows is a classic fake romance becomes real but Conor has this low self-esteem, accentuated by the fact that he doesn't know what he wants to do in life (other than follow his step-father into his business), and Taylor worries that the romance is all an elaborate hoax and Conor will dump her in the most humiliating way possible.I love Elle Kennedy and I have loved the Briar U series but I have to say this just seemed to be recycling old plot lines and three-quarters of the way through this book I just thought, 'meh! Read this all before in one of the earlier books' First Conor has a situation and pushes Taylor away, that gets resolved, and then Taylor has a situation and pushes Conor away, yawn.Maybe my expectations were too high, if this was a book from an unknown author I would have rated this higher, because Elle Kennedy's writing is good, but this just lacked any originality for me - a sad way to end a series.

Well, unfortunately this book was a huge disappointment. I was looking forward to read Conor's story but there were some pretty big clichés that made this unoriginal and a letdown. I know I am harsh and I am sorry if someone doesn't agree with me. This is my personal opinion and I judge no one.So yeah, I felt like the author really wanted to give Conor a story which I very much appriciate and honestly his storyline, past and behaviour was detailed, interesting and consistent.The insecure girl+hot athlete trope was intriguing as I love these kind of stories but it turned out to be one in a million.Taylor, our female lead, is fat shamed by her sorority sisters. At least that's implied though only two of them actually behaves like a b*tch. She has problems with her body and her image of herself is distorted by the mean comments.That would be okay if she had an epihany or something about accepting herself and not caring about the bullies but that never happened.When she is dared to hook up with a hot hockey player, Conor Edwards she finds herself an admirer and a fake boyfriend. And Conor tells her from the get go that she is beautiful and sexy, but she doesn't belive him for a while. And it is freaking sad that she needs a hot dude telling her there's nothing wrong with her to feel a little better.I get insecurities. I have tons including body image issues. But the amount of self-loathing and the utter lack of respect for herself is disappointing. We need to teach young women the power of self-acceptence and how attractive it is. We should not depict it as normal that every girl needs an attracive athlete appriciating her to feel pretty.My orher problem was that the conflict due to miscommunication and pushing away the other because it's for the best was played out not once but twice. This is a turn that is annoying the first time it's in a book and to put it in a second time is just lazy. Or the purpose really was to infuriate me to no end. And of course, just to top the whole insecurities trope with a cherry after Taylor sais some mean and hurtful things to push Con away she doesn't own up to it. In typical dumb chick fashion she sits around and Conor is the is the one who comes groveling. Please, just once, have the girl enough balls to go after his man!Conor, the hoceky team and the mentions and appearences of characters from past books made the book funny and lively sometimes and it was quite enjoyable till the end, but some sh*t just bothers me too much!