The Deal

My new adult/contemporary Binge continues. There are a few authors that a lot of people talk about when it comes to New Adult and Elle Kennedy is one of them. Plus with my love of hockey, this book was a must. I actually enjoyed it more than I expected. The romance was a great slow build and the inevitable breakup before they get back together was done well.

I have read quite a few New Adult novels in the recent times but this is probably the first one I had so much fun reading. I laughed a lot and felt so very entertained and happy.

Hannah is a rape survivor and she is a strong, passionate woman who has spent years dealing with the trauma and now wants to do well in college and pursue her dreams. Garrett may be an arrogant hockey captain vying for the national championship, but he is also intelligent, smart, caring, a little insecure because of his own troubled backstory and is trying his best to get out of a bad situation and work hard for a bright future.

I loved the development of their relationship from being indifferent to friends to lovers. They become such great friends and trust each other with their traumas but never judge or walk away. They support each other through tough situations. At the same time, each of them have a life of their own with great friends and also their own passions and ambitions. I also loved the friendships in this book, there is no jealousy or rivalry, just honest supportive trustworthy friends who are great to spend time with.

The best part of the book is definitely the writing. The conversations are full of witty banter and light hearted moments which make this book so much fun. I also liked that the MCs have a traumatic history but the book is about them being survivors and not letting the past overshadow their present or future. The book is also relatively angst free, so I was very happy while reading it (considering I'm usually a crier). I recommend this to anyone who loves a good romance, entertaining dialogue and a great group of friends.

Thank you to my friend, Rhi for recommending this book to me. Being from the south, I know very little about hockey, but that did not stop me from enjoying these books! I quickly became consumed by Hannah and Garett's stories and could not stop reading. This book starts out with a fake dating trope and quickly develops into more. They have the sweetest romance and the spice was so good! I love the escapism that I felt going back to collegiate years and living through Hannah. I loved that they came from completely different “worlds” but found each other. Both of them have pretty traumatic pasts that effect the way they experience each other at first. Hannah and Garrett find peace in each other, and help one another overcome difficulties of their pasts. Check trigger warnings for this book because there are definitely come triggering topics that are discussed. This is a New Adult Romance and 18+ for themes, sexual content and language.

The Deal was one of those rare and unexpected books that had my captured my full attention. If you are looking for a book that was beautifully well-written, a storyline that was flawlessly executed, and characters that brought life to the book then look no further than The Deal. Ms. Kennedy brilliantly wrote a book that integrated humor, banter, friendship, romance and characters that felt real. Ms. Kennedy didn't just give us an ordinary college romance but she gave us characters that were mature, relatable, and realistic.

This book is not your typical ordinary girl falling in love with the jock with the same college recycled romance but instead a story of two real, honest, and mature adults who are dealing with their past. There is no woe is me which I absolutely love. This book had two main characters who had ambitions and knew what they wanted in life. They didn't let their tragic past define them and that's what I love about this book. What started as girl tutoring the jock, became a story that showcased how sometimes in life you learn to appreciate the unexpected things in life. In this case, an unexpected friendship and romance.

 “I want to murder him in his sleep, A. No, I want to murder him when he's awake so he can see the joy on my face when I do it.”
Synopsis: Hannah has a major crush on a university football star. Garrett, hockey team captain, needs to get his grades up in order to keep his place on the team. They make a deal - Hannah will tutor Garrett and in exchange he will pretend to date her to make her crush jealous.
“Sometimes people sneak up on you and suddenly you don't know how you ever lived without them.”
Thoughts:

• I felt uncomfortable with Garrett in the beginning with his persistence re: Hannah tutoring him and pestering her, as well as deleting music from her iPod because he didn't like it. He did redeem himself and make me fall in love with him later, but then he lost some points again when he warns every guy on campus off of her when Hannah wanted to try dating others. Definitely a controlling streak there I didn't like. Happily, Hannah laid into him over that.
• Hannah & Garrett had good chemistry and banter.
• The sex scenes occasionally had language that made me cringe, but overall were good. They focus on mutual pleasure and are explicitly consensual, and Garrett genuinely enjoys pleasuring women, all things that are a solid plus for me.
• I enjoyed the writing overall, found it very engrossing with a good, large, world - it felt believable as a real place filled with real people.
• Good balance of smut, plot and character development
• TW for discussions of past SA.

“How did I go so long without noticing you, damn it? Why did it take seeing a stupid A on your midterm to make me notice?”