The Deal (Off Campus #1)by Elle Kennedy
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Synopsis:
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.
What do you mean by “You got the wrong book here?” Because I heard that confessions were fashionable these days. So let’s go, shall we?
░ Confession # 1 : I kinda liked it. ░
But don’t say anyone, you hear me?
I know, I KNOW. The fact is, if The Deal is by no means a perfect book, and if I had issues I will explain, I enjoyed my read more often than not. That’s something important to stress in a New Adult book, don’t you think? That’s what I thought.
░ Confession # 2 : I might have rolled my eyes a few times here. ░
Who am I kidding? I totally did.
► First things first, let me tell you that the beginning was cliché as hell. Let’s look at it, shall we?
Through the first 20%, we see – WAIT FOR IT –
✔ a college hockey player who happens to be 1) a manwhore, 2) rich, 3) with daddy issues
✔ a music-major MC who 1) is immune to manwhore mentioned above, 2) is sarcastic with him, 3) was previously raped
✔ Hot chicks who only want to screw manwhore mentioned above because 1) he’s hot, DUH and 2) He has an enviable popular status which is nice to share
✔ a fake relationship aka the favorite twist of Harlequin
Yes that was violent and yes I was annoyed. Truth to be told, if friends who I trust hadn’t swear to me that the cliché hell would end, perhaps I would have stopped my read. Things being what they are, I continued on, and I don’t regret it at all.
► Second roll-eyed worthy moments, aka the sexe scenes.
I’m just going to say it once, but could we please stop with this “That’s not going to fit!” bullshit comments in sex scenes. FOR REAL.
That’s annoying and oh too much used in romance, not to mention that’s it’s fucking ridiculous. Come on. SCIENCE guys, science. It IS going to fit, so get over it. Please forget the tight vagina and huge dicks plot. COME ON. Generally speaking, the sex scenes were anticlimactic and laughable in my opinion, because yeah, sure, Hannah is a mood-killer, I’m not contradicting Garret on this.
► I have a thing : I don’t like the nicknames, especially when it’s “Babe“.
░ Confession # 3 : Okay, there. They totally made me swoon. ░
► The middle was wonderful, hot, hilarious. Guys, GUYS! They made me chock on butterflies!
✔ Their banter was so fun to follow – I can wrap it the way I want, there’s nothing that I like more than sarcastic and funny characters who interact with each other. That’s why Garret might be a dick at the beginning, I could overtake it because Hannah was everything but shy and well, called him on his shit pretty well. That was precious.
✔ Moreover I can’t deny that I’m a sucker for fake relationships, even though this plotline is everything but original. But what can I say, to see Hannah and Garret falling for each other was smile-inducing and straight on adorable. Oh, and did I mention that there wasn’t ANY INSTALOVE? Nope? Neither instalust? Hell YES.
✔ Although Hannah was a great and likeable heroine, I can’t deny that my favorite character was Garret. The guy reminded me of Warren from Maybe Not – and do you remember how much I adored him? In a nutshell, he’s hilarious, adorable, hot, conceited and stubborn. Oh, and he watches Breaking Bad : how awesome is that? Really, I loved the evolution of his character. Anyway, Garret’s handle of the over-dramatic ending was wonderful but completely unbelievable. Just sayin’.
✔ They both have – wait for it – FRIENDS! Unbelievable, I know right?
░ Confession # 4 : Is it bad if I want to sleep? ░
► The story dragged from 70% to the end and in my opinion it would have been better if it was cut a bit, and as always in NA (what? I feel like that happens all the time!) I got the impression that additional drama was only created to drag on the story and I must confess that I felt the urge to skim at some point because I was bored. Thanks god the last few pages pleased me, but I can’t forget that the book lost me for an important amount of time.
░ Confession # 5 : Sorry but I don’t see the point at all. Silly me. ░
► The NA issues are bothering me. I mean, why in the world do these stories need an abuse background? That felt OFF, unnatural and forced, and I didn’t care about it. Although I was interested in Garret and Hannah’s relationship, their issues never managed to move me, and the most interesting parts of the story took place during their growing romance, and absolutely not when we’re told the treatment of their abuse which felt unnecessary and not particularly well handled. In my opinion, that’s a shame to bring rape, or any kind of abuse, as a fucking BACKGROUND for a story. Either you handle the issue or you won’t USE it, because here Garret’s issues seems pointless to me, and I never want to feel like this when it comes to abuse, the subject is way too important for being denied.
░ Confession # 6 : I’m pretty sure I’ll read book 2. ░
