Title: The Deal
Series: Off Campus #1
Author: Elle Kennedy
Publisher: Self-published
Publication Date: February 24, 2015
Genre: New Adult – Romance, Contemporary
Pages: 342
Format: Purchased eBook

She’s about to make a deal with the college bad boy…

Hannah Wells has finally found someone who turns her on. But while she might be confident in every other area of her life, she’s carting around a full set of baggage when it comes to sex and seduction. If she wants to get her crush’s attention, she’ll have to step out of her comfort zone and make him take notice…even if it means tutoring the annoying, childish, cocky captain of the hockey team in exchange for a pretend date.

…and it’s going to be oh so good.

All Garrett Graham has ever wanted is to play professional hockey after graduation, but his plummeting GPA is threatening everything he’s worked so hard for. If helping a sarcastic brunette make another guy jealous will help him secure his position on the team, he’s all for it. But when one unexpected kiss leads to the wildest sex of both their lives, it doesn’t take long for Garrett to realize that pretend isn’t going to cut it. Now he just has to convince Hannah that the man she wants looks a lot like him.

This story was sexy, funny, with touches of drama and realistic situations that made me feel sad for the characters. It was a romantic story about two college students who strike up a deal that if Garrett helps Hannah get the attention of a boy she likes, then she’d help him study for a class so he doesn’t lose his place on the hockey team – and things get interesting from there.

I wasn’t expecting to enjoy this as much as I did, if I’m being honest. I’ve heard good things about it, and I think maybe it’s because it’s my age group, but it was totally something I could envision happening on a college campus and how a relationship could develop between two unlikely people.

Hannah is a spitfire. She’s kind of quiet and likes to keep to herself, but she made a promise to her best friend, Allie, that she’d be more social in their junior year of college and meet people and do more things. I thought that she was very level headed and well within her element. She knew who she was, and tried to not let what happened in her past define her. Though what did happen did make things complicated for her at some points, the fact that she found help through Garrett – someone she thought was so unlikely to help in any way – and I thought that it was both brave and wonderful of her to do so. Not that Garrett was a bad choice, but by explaining to him why she was broken and what she hoped could “fix” her was brave.

Garrett was totally cocky and I loved him. Though, like Hannah, I thought he was a pain sometimes, I knew that that was just how he was and that he really had his heart in the right place and many times he showed with his actions about how much he cared not only for her, but others, too. He progressively became much more open about his own past and his own problems, and we got to see first hand the one responsible for said problems. I was proud of him for being able to be strong and do something about it.

The dynamic between these two started out as a hate to love relationship, and I thought that it worked really well. At first they couldn’t really stand each other, but they grew to be friends over time, which I thought was super awesome. Even if the friendship stage didn’t last as long as what I’d expect, I still highly enjoyed their relationship dynamic because they grew with each other and developed with one another, bouncing off the other and brining out the good in each.

Yes, there were sexy times, and yes, they were detailed, but I thought that they were well done. There weren’t any hints of abuse and the way that it went about with the situation really made those moments sweeter -and steamier- in my opinion.

The plot of the book focused around helping Garrett pass an ethics class, but it also focused on college life, friendships, parties, getting to know others, and branching out of your comfort zone. Both of them had their own hurdles to overcome, but they did well with each hurdle. There was enough drama to keep me reading and wanting to know what happened next.

Overall, I thought this was a well-written new adult read and that the characters were dimensional, the setting was awesome (hello, home state!), and that the story went on an upward direction.

I rated this book 4.5/5 stars.