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catastrophiclyss's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
funny
inspiring
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual harassment, Classism, Misogyny, Sexual content, Fatphobia, Toxic friendship, and Cursing
Moderate: Lesbophobia, Body shaming, Homophobia, and Eating disorder
britwalsh16's review against another edition
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
OMG! This book is EVERYTHING! Like the amount of emotions I am feeling right now is insane! I am Taylor, Taylor is me! I identified sooo much with her it was insane! & Conor with all his talk about body positivity & all his support of Taylor, just made me swoon to no end!! I NEED a man like Conor! He is everything!! If I could give this book 10 stars I would! 100 stars! They go through a lot of very serious stuff, & it was all written so beautifully! I just couldn’t put it down, but also, I did not want it to end!! Give me more of Taylor & Conor please!! Pretty pretty please!!! 🥺🙏🏻
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Body shaming, Grief, Sexual assault, Outing, Sexual harassment, Sexual content, Bullying, Fatphobia, and Lesbophobia
Moderate: Classism, Vomit, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Alcohol, Toxic friendship, and Death of parent
Minor: Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Eating disorder, and Abandonment
caitlinemccann's review against another edition
emotional
funny
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I appreciate how consumable Elle Kennedy's series are. Even if I'm reading it for the first time, there's some inherent comfort in that.
What threw me with The Deal was the heroine, Taylor's, very clear disordered eating habits that were never addressed. Please be mindful of that if you decide to read this book. I debated rating this book lower than a three because of it but ultimately rounded up because there were still enjoyable components elsewhere in the novel. However, I think this is potentially the weakest of the Briar U series.
So easy to read but kind of a meh 3-star rating.
What threw me with The Deal was the heroine, Taylor's, very clear disordered eating habits that were never addressed. Please be mindful of that if you decide to read this book. I debated rating this book lower than a three because of it but ultimately rounded up because there were still enjoyable components elsewhere in the novel. However, I think this is potentially the weakest of the Briar U series.
So easy to read but kind of a meh 3-star rating.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Eating disorder, Dysphoria, Bullying, Body shaming, Abandonment, Gaslighting, Fatphobia, Sexual harassment, and Emotional abuse
Moderate: Alcohol, Vomit, Lesbophobia, Toxic friendship, and Misogyny
Minor: Infidelity
raegandrust's review against another edition
funny
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
this was definitely my favorite read of the briar u series 🙃
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming
Moderate: Fatphobia and Bullying
Minor: Eating disorder
itsamylynne's review against another edition
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying
Moderate: Fatphobia, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, and Body shaming
Minor: Religious bigotry, Hate crime, Outing, and Homophobia
underscoresyd's review against another edition
emotional
funny
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
TWO third act breakups and the utter miscommunication/non-communication between the two MC’s made me want to tear my hair out and not in a good way. Taylor annoyed me in more ways than one, same with Conor but they both had their redeeming qualities.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Bullying, Fatphobia, and Body shaming
Moderate: Sexual harassment and Classism
Minor: Eating disorder
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming, Fatphobia, and Sexual content
Moderate: Bullying, Toxic friendship, Vomit, and Sexual harassment
Minor: Eating disorder and Lesbophobia
debbitomsk's review against another edition
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Sexual harassment, and Sexual content
Moderate: Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Body shaming, and Bullying
mar_reads7's review against another edition
funny
medium-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
4.0
I'm genuinely shocked this has the lowest rating of all the briar u books, conor and taylor are very funny and likeable and I enjoyed watching their relationship evolve.
The miscommunications everyone keep talking about felt more like someone being overwhelmed and shutting down, which feels like a realistic human reaction to me so I don't mind that too much.
I don't love that Elle Kennedy seems to have accidentally given Taylor an eating disorder though. When in Taylor's pov she describes some behaviours about her relationship with food that scream earing disorder to me but those things are never addressed, eating disorders are never even brought up so I don't think it was done on purpose. I don't like that this book went through however many hands it had to go through before being published and no one thought to be say that Taylor's relationship with food wasn't healthy and that it's not okay that she restricts her eating just because she's "chubby". I know this is because Elle Kennedy isn't fat so she has no frame of reference for writing a fat character but someone should have caught that at some point between the book being written and it being published.
That being said, that's my one real gripe with this book, I really enjoyed it.
The miscommunications everyone keep talking about felt more like someone being overwhelmed and shutting down, which feels like a realistic human reaction to me so I don't mind that too much.
I don't love that Elle Kennedy seems to have accidentally given Taylor an eating disorder though. When in Taylor's pov she describes some behaviours about her relationship with food that scream earing disorder to me but those things are never addressed, eating disorders are never even brought up so I don't think it was done on purpose. I don't like that this book went through however many hands it had to go through before being published and no one thought to be say that Taylor's relationship with food wasn't healthy and that it's not okay that she restricts her eating just because she's "chubby". I know this is because Elle Kennedy isn't fat so she has no frame of reference for writing a fat character but someone should have caught that at some point between the book being written and it being published.
That being said, that's my one real gripe with this book, I really enjoyed it.
Content Warnings
Minor: Eating disorder
anoveldestination's review against another edition
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Eating disorder, Body shaming, Sexual harassment, Sexual content, and Fatphobia
Moderate: Bullying
Minor: Homophobia and Lesbophobia