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A review by ashleyvharris
The Deal by Elle Kennedy
emotional
funny
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
BookTok wore me down, so I’m finally reading Elle Kennedy. I honestly don’t get the hype around this one. It was very middle-of-the-road for me. I didn’t find anything particularly striking or outstanding about this book over very similar (near carbon copies) of the same story.
The characters had decent chemistry, but the whole premise of their deal is so unrealistic. I love a good fake dating scenario, but only when it’s believable. Your 20 years old and fake dating a hockey player in order to get attention from the football player? This feels like it might be better set in a story with younger high school characters.
If cringey dialogue is a dealbreaker for you, steer clear of this book. The amount of times that a character said something so random had me in a state of permanent cringe. No self-respecting person genuinely uses the term “douchecanoe” in a sentence. It felt like Kennedy was a parent trying to use the “hip lingo” to relate to their teen children.
Kennedy’s strength in this story was her ability to tell a love story featuring survivors of rape and abuse without making the story all about their trauma. It’s fantastic to read a book about survivors moving forward with their lives (trauma now a part of that life) and dating, finding love, making mistakes, and being empowered in their sexuality.
Despite being a cookie-cutter story with poor dialogue, The Deal successfully brings representation of trauma and abuse survivors to the spicy romance genre.
The characters had decent chemistry, but the whole premise of their deal is so unrealistic. I love a good fake dating scenario, but only when it’s believable. Your 20 years old and fake dating a hockey player in order to get attention from the football player? This feels like it might be better set in a story with younger high school characters.
If cringey dialogue is a dealbreaker for you, steer clear of this book. The amount of times that a character said something so random had me in a state of permanent cringe. No self-respecting person genuinely uses the term “douchecanoe” in a sentence. It felt like Kennedy was a parent trying to use the “hip lingo” to relate to their teen children.
Kennedy’s strength in this story was her ability to tell a love story featuring survivors of rape and abuse without making the story all about their trauma. It’s fantastic to read a book about survivors moving forward with their lives (trauma now a part of that life) and dating, finding love, making mistakes, and being empowered in their sexuality.
Despite being a cookie-cutter story with poor dialogue, The Deal successfully brings representation of trauma and abuse survivors to the spicy romance genre.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Rape, Sexual content, Domestic abuse, Sexual violence, and Sexual assault
Moderate: Physical abuse
Minor: Death of parent