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Author
Elle Kennedy is an author from Toronto, Ontario with a Bachelor of Arts in English. She’s currently a New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal bestselling author. She’s also currently working with Amazon Prime to turn the Off Campus book series into a TV show. They’re currently casting and planning to start filming in June 2025 in Vancouver BC so hopefully we will see something on our screens sometime in 2026.
There are quite a few books in this hockey romance universe. All can be read as standalone’s but it makes the most sense to read them in order to understand all the characters better and follow all of their stories accurately. The Elle Kennedy books in order to make the most sense would be the Off-Campus series (The Deal, The Mistake, The Score and The Goal), then the Briar U series (The Chase, The Risk, The Play, The Dare), then Legacy, and finally the Campus Diaries series (The Graham Effect, The Dixon Rule, The Charlie Method).
The Chase
The Chase follows main character Summer Di Laurentis who is also Deans younger sister from The Score. Summer is struggling with her opposites attract crush on Colin Ftizgerald. He’s absolutely not her type. He’s covered in tattoos, loves video games, plays hockey and is a nerd. He also has a narrow view of Summer and and she overhears him say this opinion to Garrett Graham from The Deal. To make matters worse, Colin Fitzgerald’s (AKA Fitzy’s) best friend has a crush on Summer and she just became their roommate. But Summer is determined to never chase a man. Even if they have intense chemistry. If Fitzy wants Summer, he can chase her.
The Risk
The Risk follows main character Brenna Jensen who is also Summer’s best friend and the daughter of Briar’s hockey coach. Brenna’s known for being a bad girl and not caring what others think about her. But where she draws the line is sleeping with the enemy. And that enemy is Jake Connelly. Jake Connelly is arrogant, annoying, insanely attractive, and the captain and star forward of Briar’s rival hockey team Harvard.
As fate would have it, Brenna needs Jake to be her fake boyfriend to secure her dream internship. But the problem is, for every fake date, Jake wants a real one.
The Play
The Play follows main character Hunter Davenport. After his distractions with women cost his team the hockey season last year he’s decided to go celibate now that he’s team captain. However, he can still be friends with women. That won’t cause any distractions. And his friend Demi Davis is great, and the fact that she has a boyfriend takes away the temptation. However, when Demi ends up single three months into their friendship and wants a rebound from Hunter things get complicated.
The Dare
The Dare follows main character Taylor. She joined a sorority on college hoping it would help her get over her ugly-ducking complex and spread her wings. Unfortunately, her sorority is filled with mean girls and she has a hard time fitting in. When her Kappa Chi sister issue her a dare, she has to prove herself. The dare: seduce hockey player Conor Edwards. Conor helps Taylor trick her sisters into thinking they’re hooking up and end of fake dating
Quotes
“She’s my muse. She’s my laughter. She’s my trigger. She’s my desire. But most of all, she’s my heart.”
“She has the kind of smile that makes a man want to start writing very bad poetry. Dazzling and genuine and as beautiful as the rest of her.”
“Friends who say “I love you” every time you part ways are important. Those are the ones you need in your life.”
“Can’t change the past, don’t cry over the present, don’t stress about the future. It’s all pointless, especially regret.”
“There’s always someone with a shittier life than yours. That doesn’t turn the shit in your life into roses.”
“Men really need to stop telling women what they mean or don’t mean.”
“Sometimes we make all the wrong decisions, end up in all the wrong places, and still find exactly where we’re supposed to be.”
“I truly believe that all body types are beautiful. It’s only when I look in the mirror that I forget.”
My Review
Overall I really enjoyed this series. Nothing can compare to the Off-Campus series but the Briar-U series was still amazing! My favorite books in order are The Risk, The Play, The Chase, and then The Dare. I didn’t expect The Risk to be my favorite of the series with Jake and Brenna being two new characters but they just had so much chemistry that I couldn’t get enough of them. I think Brenna is easily one of my favorite characters if no my favorite character in all the books. I also really liked The Play and getting to see Hunter’s character develop from him being mentioned in the Off-Campus series. I feel like the friends to lover trope was perfect for him. The Chase was a little step down for me. I really like Fitzy and Summer as characters and the only reason I didn’t like it as much was because of Fitzy’s view of Summer in the beginning of the book and how he used it as a reason not to be with her. The Dare was my least favorite of the series but I still really liked it. I just felt like they jumped into the fake dating so quickly and I was hoping for more of a reason for them wanting to do it besides Conor being bored and liking games. I loved this series and I’m sure I will end up re-reading it sometime in the future. 5/5 stars.
That’s the end of my Briar U by Elle Kennedy book series review. If you read any books by Elle Kennedy be sure to let me know in the comments what you thought about them and which book is your favorite. She has lots of books so there’s a hockey romance book for everyone. If you’re looking for other books to read check out these reviews: Off-Campus book series, Barely Even Friends, and The Perfect Rom-Com.
