The Deal (Off-Campus #1): book review

The Deal // Elle Kennedy

rating

4.8 stars out of 5

song

“I Really Like You” Carly Rae Jepsen

New Adult Contemporary Romance

Synopsis:

She’s about to make a deal with the college bad boy…

Hannah Wells has finally found someone who turns her on. But while she might be confident in every other area of her life, she’s carting around a full set of baggage when it comes to sex and seduction. If she wants to get her crush’s attention, she’ll have to step out of her comfort zone and make him take notice…even if it means tutoring the annoying, childish, cocky captain of the hockey team in exchange for a pretend date.

…and it’s going to be oh so good

All Garrett Graham has ever wanted is to play professional hockey after graduation, but his plummeting GPA is threatening everything he’s worked so hard for. If helping a sarcastic brunette make another guy jealous will help him secure his position on the team, he’s all for it. But when one unexpected kiss leads to the wildest sex of both their lives, it doesn’t take long for Garrett to realize that pretend isn’t going to cut it. Now he just has to convince Hannah that the man she wants looks a lot like him. (source)

Review:

Wow!!! I’m so happy I read this book, this is just what I needed to kick off spring break. After a week full of stuffy midterms and boring lectures, this book was the perfect award for all my studying.

Elle Kennedy has this easy going writing style that makes it so easy to just plow through her book. Seriously, I finished this book in less then a day because it was just that good. Her writing is full of humor, witty, and downright refreshing. There wasn’t a boring part in this book for me, I flew through it right from the beginning.

I loved her characters, her ability to make a truly authentic romance, and how knowledgeable she was on hockey. You can tell that Kennedy put a lot of research into hockey before she wrote this book and it just added to the appeal. I’ve always been interested in hockey and I’m happy with how realistic her ability to make a game scene was.

I adore this book, as soon as I can I’m buying the rest of the series, it was fantastic. Kennedy has this gift to get you so attached to her characters in so little time it was ridiculous. It was love at first read for me with Hannah Wells and Garrett Graham. The romance in this novel was downright sizzling AND realistic. I think that’s what really drew me in. I love how it’s set in college and I love how this was a realistic count of two individuals falling in love. There wasn’t cheesy lines or unrealistic scenes that had you rolling your eyes, this really could happen and I LOVE IT. Seriously, such a good feeling book. If this isn’t on your TBR add it, you seriously won’t regret it.

*caution spoilers ahead

Besides this novel being a sizzling romance, there is also an enviable friendship between Hannah and Garrett. I love how they began as friends and slowly worked their way to something more. He got true authentic feelings for her BEFORE they were intimate and I think that was really important.

Hannah is a survivor from sexual abuse and the ability for her to trust Garrett with her body wholly and completely was so crucial to their relationship. They were just so realistic and I wish they were real so I can be best friends with Hannah and oogle her relationship with Garrett and write about how wonderful they are.

Hannah was awesome! She was witty and full of humor and just such a strong female character. She wasn’t snarky or rude,she was just the right amount of sarcastic and humorous to have me laughing throughout the whole book. Garrett too. He was a “player” but he also had depth and was respectable to the women he did sleep with before Hannah. I loved how their relationship was more then sexual intimacy and that it was at least 100 or so pages in before their first kiss, it was realistic, no insta-love here. Of course, there was insta-chemistry but that’s how love usually starts. I’m not saying insta-love doesn’t happen, but for their situation insta-love wouldn’t have been realistic. Hannah needs to trust a person before she allows herself to be vulnerable and Garrett wasn’t looking for a relationship.

I LOVE how they stayed true to themselves throughout the novel too. I thought it was so refreshing for them to be humorous with each other through the steamy scenes because it was so like them!! The ability to laugh and fumble through their relationship just made me really adore them as characters and as a couple.

I wish that they actually sold this series in stores in my city, I have no idea why they don’t have these books in stock! They’re fantastic and Amazon takes forever to finally arrive, but I really want the rest of this series.

Overall, I really liked this book. I will definitely be rereading it multiple times and buying the rest of the series as soon as I can. The writing was just so easy to get into and to be held captive by. You won’t be able to put this book down because it was just that good. Such a fun and sizzling read! I definitely recommend this book, even if you’re not really into romance or New Adult I think everyone would thoroughly enjoy this book. It had humor, passion, and such fun and witty dialogue! Elle Kennedy you rock!

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