BOOK REVIEW
Loved revisiting the Off Campus World of Briar getting snippets of my favourite four boys (Garrett) who I adore from the original series!! I wasn't sure if I was going to love or hate the spin-off series Briar U but I was pleasantly surprised...
The series starts off with The Chase, the title certainly sums up a large portion of the novel. The Chase or The Cat and Mouse game between Summer and Fitz!! It was gut-wrenching, I wish I could pick them up and shake them for the things they both failed to see!
I loved the dynamic between the two of them; the polar opposite attract senario and yet that they bring out the best in each other!! It was definitely a slow burn but infinitely worth the wait. I hated the slow burn in The Goal between Tuck and Sabrina, but Elle finally got it right in this one.
Self-deprecating, self-loathing and angst ridden to it’s core, make up a huge entirety of this novel - which are things I secretly love!! When a book makes your heart literally ache for the characters!! The Chase is a recipe for soul sucking, mind numbing ennui that leaves you a constant state of angst-ridden anticipation.
It did feel a little ever so slightly too dragged out at times, I’ll admit the reality in this novel was refreshing. The not acting on your feelings out of fear of rejection, miscommunication and mixed signals that we all as young adults partake in varying degrees! Fitz and Summer were a flicker in the dark that drew you closer and closer as the flame ignited.
Book Two we have The Risk I adored this one. It’s the story of Brenna our bold, sassy heroine as she sides with the devil and asks Jake Connelly for help to land an internship but that is only where it begins. 24 Hours is all it took to devour this entire novel; I couldn’t put it down!!
I had been waiting for the Briar U series to have some of the Garrett Graham level amazement and Elle finally touched on it in The Risk. The multilayered back stories of our leading couple added an extra layer to their blooming romance.
The chemistry and gravitational pull to one another was infectious and I loved every part as the story progressed. The only reason it’s not a 5 star review from me is, it could have had a little more sauce, the only thing I find with Elle Kennedy is she sometimes leaves the good stuff unsaid – and it’s the good stuff we all want to hear!!
The Play was beautiful!! I made the mistake of reading the 1 star reviews before I started which all said it was slow and boring soo I anticipated the worst as I started this one. The reviews were sooo wrong!! I loved Hunter and Demi's story, it was kinda a little Garett/Hannah mixed with Dean/Allie vibes with this couple, it was like the mix of two beautiful worlds. Elle finally got the recipe right with Briar U.
The Play follows our star athlete Hunter who swears off women completely, which was going well until Demi enters the picture. Recently single and tantalising the play to break Hunter's dry spell begins.
The Off Campus series started off mind blowing with Garrett and Hannah in The Goal and then just got progressively poorer in quality as the series went on; Briar U on the other hand, every single book in the series has pulled through!! All different but solid in there own right, which the last 2 books of The Off Campus series I found failed to deliver.
The Play was intriguing and mysterious, Hunter's internal battle was a pleasure to be a part of. The main criticism I have for the Briar U series is the fact it's not the same group of people, soo every book we are regularly being thrown names of all these new characters on top of all the ones that make up both series - from basketball & hockey teams alike, many that are fleeting in nature, so it is a massive name dump at times and highly confusing. With many of these side characters unnecessary to the story, they could have been cut out completely or condensed.
Well....I think I spoke way too soon!! Elle threw all the praise I just sent her out the window with The Dare. What a terrible end to the series. The Dare follows our leading playboy Connor and outcast sorority sister Taylor, as a Kappa House Dare slowly evolves into something more. There is really very little I liked about this final book. The story was interesting enough, but the dynamic between Taylor and Connor was truly pathetic. Taylor is patronised the entire book about the way she looks and having read this book straight after the other 3 books in the series, they as a couple lack chemistry, heat and plausibility because of it. It's almost as if the author herself didn't believe a guy like Connor would go for our heroine and thus is written completely differently compared to the way she normally dictates her smoking, hot female leads and not in a good way. This book kinda ruined the whole Briar U series I had grown to love. If I was giving advice, I would say read the first three books in the series and don't bother with the fourth. It falls less then short and it's redeeming qualities are minimal.
Elle as an author I have to say just doesn't have a full proof fail rate. If I compared her to LJ Shen for example, there is not a single novel of hers that falls short in the slightest, they are all mind blowing in epic proportions. Elle on the other hand, lacks the character and story development in varying degrees in each of her novels. Aside from rereading some of my favourites in the Off Campus & Briar U series, I won't be picking up an Elle Kennedy novel in the near future, I'm afraid.
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