The Risk (Briar U)

I loved The Risk so much. It is amazing. Elle Kennedy is a gifted writer and a master storyteller, and you can see her talent shine throughout this whole story. The characters are wonderful, the story is engaging, and the dynamics between Brenna and Jake are hilarious and full of heat. The rest of the cast is also very entertaining, and you can see how Summer, Hollis, Hunter, Fitzy and Brooks, characters you met in The Chase, are doing. The hockey factor is really thrilling in this one, and the suspense makes it really exciting to read. It is so well written that the story simply flows.The Risk is a mix of rivals-to-lovers and fake relationship. Brenna and Jake belong to rival colleges. He is Harvard’s hockey team captain, and she is a loyal Briar fan and the daughter of Briar’s coach. They are basically enemies, and have been antagonizing each other since the moment they met.Their chemistry is off the charts, and the banter between them is both hilarious and so very hot. The attraction they feel toward each other is really strong, but since they are rivals, they try keep it under control. That is until Brenna needs Jake to pretend to be her boyfriend so she can have a chance to get the internship she covets. In exchange, Jake wants a real date.Things start getting out of control once they start hanging out together, and the attraction proves to be to strong for them to keep their hands off each other. This thing between them can’t go anywhere though. He’s going to the NHL after graduation, and she still has a year left of college and her own dreams to persue. They will have to decide if the feelings they have for each other are worth fighting for, to open themselves to the other and share not only their deepest and darkest secrets, but to stop hiding from their friends and family and make it work.I love both Brenna and Jake. They are witty and funny and really likable. Brenna is gorgeous, sarcastic and confident, but has a few regrets. Her relationship with her father is strained, and a person from her past reappears to make her life more complicated.Jake is cocky, gorgeous and has only one thing on his mind. Hockey. It’s his life. He’s graduating and heading to the NHL, but is determined to lead his team to the Frozen Four and win the national title. He doesn’t need any distractions, but he can’t seem to stop thinking about Brenna.They way the relationship between them progresses from animosity to friendship and then to lovers is perfectly done, and the obstacles they face make the story very emotional and fun at the same time.I loved everything about The Risk, and I can’t wait to read The Play. Seriously. The Risk is everything you want in a sports romance novel, so for me it deserves at least 10 stars. It is, simply put, a real pleasure to read.

I’ve gotta say, I definitely enjoyed this book much more than the first stand-alone in the Briar U arc. It was funny, heartfelt, steamy (as always), but also showed more sides to people than just those in the universities, and I think that really played a big role in my overall enjoyment of this book.Brenna is, probably, my favorite person. She’s tough as nails, she wears red lipstick as her armor, she doesn’t give two shits if someone doesn’t like her, she’s sassy, intelligent. She’s a woman after my own heart. I also very much admire her self-control of her temper in certain parts of the book, because I don’t think I’d be a big enough person to be able to hold my tongue to the kinds of comments she received numerous times from some of the men in the novel.Jake is… well, he’s a steamy man, I’ll give him that, and he’s alpha, which, if you don’t know what that means, it means he’s the kind of person who’s in charge, who takes the lead, doesn’t take “no” for an answer, is very loyal to his team. Well, Jake will take “no” for an answer, so he’s not the kind of stereotypical jerk alpha that I’ve read in stories before. But he definitely exudes a presence in the book. People just notice him, and not just because he’s handsome as heck.We also got to see smatterings of Summer from the first book, The Chase, as well as Fitz, Hunter, Mike Hollis, and one new character whom I LOVE and am soooo glad she’s getting her own book: Rupi. I fell in love with her almost instantly. She’s very quirky and determined and very much won’t take “no” for an answer.The plot centered a lot around the hockey tournaments that Jake’s team, Harvard, and Brenna’s dad’s team, Briar, are preparing for and to face each other to go onto nationals, but it also centers a lot around Brenna striving to get her dream internship. I appreciated seeing that side of the field and how, yes, even today there’s a lot of misogyny in the sports broadcasting field. It was believable the way some of the men talked about women, and like I said earlier: I applaud Brenna for holding her tongue, because I really don’t think I would have been able to.There was also a smaller second element to the plot that played into it about Brenna’s past, and let me tell you: the story behind her past was a shock that I did not see coming and I literally did a double take reading it. Definitely a good plot twist.The dynamic between Brenna and her father is also one I understand, even if my own dad isn’t quite like hers. I understand how hard it is to want to be close, but not understanding how to get close, or when that closeness faded away. And the ugly shame that comes with feeling you’re a huge disappointment to your parent. It was very much a real moment, and I almost cried as a result of it.The sex scenes were quite steamy, as expected of these Briar University books, which I’m not complaining about. The scenarios were different almost each time, the romance aspect felt a little rushed, but also the chemistry between the two had already been established, so it was an overall great element to the story.I only wish there had been a different ending. Not that the ending was bad, I was just hoping we would have seen slightly farther into the future, or that there had been just one more chapter.But I definitely recommend the book if you’re reading the Briar U arc, and even if you’re not and want a steamy romance, then definitely pick this one up!4.5 stars

Ich mochte dieses Buch sehr, Brenna mochte ich in "The Chase" schon sehr und habe Jake und sie schon in dem Buch geshippt haha, weshalb ich so gespannt auf dieses Buch war und ich wurde definitiv nicht enttäuscht. Ich liebe die Charakterentwicklung in diesem Buch von Jake und von Brenna und wie sich das ganze aufgebaut hat und es war auch schön die verletzliche Seite dieser doch so starken Charaktere zu sehen, die beiden ergeben zusammen ein echtes Powercouple. Auch die Hintergrundgeschichten fand ich hier super, z.B. die ganze Rupi und Hollis Sache 😂 Und natürlich auch endlich mehr über den legendären Coach Jensen zu erfahren. Ich fand auch die Themen, die angesprochen wurden, sehr wichtig, unter anderem die Frauenfeindlichkeit im Sportbereich. Zudem hatte das Buch auch eine gewisse Emotionalität, es hat mich richtig zum Weinen gebracht. Alles in allem mal wieder ein sehr gutes Buch von Elle Kennedy ❤️ Das Briar U Universum hat es mir echt angetan haha, sowohl die Off Campus Reihe als auch die Briar U Reihe 🥰

Never have I thought that another of Elle’s written men could come and make me fall in love with him as much as Garret did, but here we are. Don’t get me wrong, I ADORE all of the Off-Campus and Briar U boys, Dean especially, but none of them dethroned Garret in my heart. And here comes Jake Connelly and joins Garret on the best-book-boyfriend position.Jake is the perfect mixture of all the previous Off-Campus men. He probably resembles Garret the most with his talent, confidence and cockiness, but has Dean’s self-assurance and a tad of selfishness, Logan’s loyalty and Tucker’s unruffledness. But he also comes with a fire in him, a kind of fire that I haven’t noticed in the other men so it was only natural that he had to be paired up with a female heroine who would know how to respond to and challenge that fire. So it’s not a surprise that Brenna was the one to steal his heart.Brenna, such a force to be reckoned with. She has all of the beautiful traits of the other Elle heroines, she’s kind, honest, loyal, strong, independent, confident, but also cocky which was not so much the case with the previous girls. She has a fire in her that matches Jake’s own and they are literally two peas in a pod in every aspect. They are both unapologetic about who they are and what they want and they don’t shy away from voicing their thoughts and desires.I just adored watching their relationship grow and just like with Hannah and Garret I have zero doubts they’re gonna spend the rest of their lives together because they are literally made, designed for each other. Don’t get me wrong. I fell in love with and believed in all the other Off-Campus and Briar U couples, but it was only H and G that made me feel they were soulmates at a 100% and the same thing happened now with B and J.Can’t wait to dive into Hunter’s story next!Shout out to Hollis and Rupi! They were such an amazing comic relief. I was laughing out loud with all of their scenes. They are so perfect for each other LOL!

Increíble. Esta saga me está enamorando con cada libro.

Wowww 😍😍😍 this is all u need.. from drama to so good chemistry between rivals 😍 I am smitten by it and it's a must read!! It's the best story after THE DEAL.

Funny, spicy...full of everythingThe plot was good and again Elle keeps me in love and falling for all of her characters