The Dare by Elle Kennedy
Genre: NA Realistic Fiction
Blurb (on back of book):
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.
MY OPINION: ***
This is the last of the Briar U series and I'm sad to have finished it. They took away a lot of stress and were just easy, fun, cute books to read. I would definitely categorize them as a "summer read" because they were so fluffy and didn't require much thinking. While this one wasn't my favorite, I loved the series as a whole. Conor and Taylor are the new stars of this book, and I actually liked both of them fairly well.
Conor is yet another hot hockey boy at Briar University who has something of a reputation among the women. However, he has started to become a bit bored with his "manwhore" lifestyle and the lack of connection and feelings in his one-night relationships with various girls. When a dare leaves him and Taylor alone in a room for one night, he begins to realize the merits of a relationship that isn't based solely on sex. They start a fake-dating relationship that soon turns into something more.
Taylor is a sorority girl, but she's "different" from the others. She is described as "curvy" and a little bit over "regular" weight, whatever that means, and thus has a lot of insecurities about her weight and body image. I didn't like how this book seemed to equate "fat" to "ugly" because that is certainly not true, but I'm glad that her real friends were able to see past all of that to understand the real her. Taylor is also a virgin and doesn't have a lot of experience with men or relationships until Conor. Her fellow sorority sister bullies her for her weight and dares her to go into a room with Conor one night to hopefully humiliate her; obviously it doesn't work.
I love the fake-dating trope and this one was definitely fun and interesting. However, I did hate the insecurities it brought out in Taylor, who believed herself too "ugly" and "undesirable" to be with someone as "amazing" and "gorgeous" as Conor Edwards, even after he confesses his true feelings. Conor is incredibly patient and loving with her and I really admired that about him because to be quite honest, Taylor even got on my nerves at various points throughout the book.
I loved the side stories of both Taylor and Conor besides the romance because it gave the plot more depth rather than just being solely romance-driven. In freshman year, Taylor and another fellow sorority sister were dared to kiss, leading to some resentment and awkwardness between the two. However, by the end, the situation becomes much more serious, something that I did not enjoy but did think added to the story. Conor, on the other hand, is forced to deal with some childhood "friends" who were nothing more than bad influences on him. I hated the spike that that put in Conor and Taylor's relationship because it felt unnecessary but again, it added to the plot.
Overall, I liked this one fairly well and would recommend it readers looking for a quick and fun summer read (but definitely read the previous ones first!).
Main Character: Taylor, Conor
Sidekick(s): Friends, etc
Villain(s): Misunderstandings, Conor's friend (whose name I can't remember), etc
Realistic Fiction Elements: This book was very real to life.
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