The Deal by Elle Kennedy

Series: Off Campus #1
Main Leads: Garrett Graham, Hannah Wells
Secondary Characters: John Logan, John Tucker, Dean DiLaurentis, Allie Hayes, Justin Kohl
Setting: United States, Massachussets, Hastings
Genres: Romance, Contemporary, New Adult
Tropes: Opposites Attract, Fake Dating, Healing Past Traumas, Tutor Girl, Hockey Player, Friends to Lovers, He Falls First
Release Date: February 24, 2015
Publisher: Bloom Books
Format: e-Book, Audio
Source: Purchased
Pages: 360
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Purchase It: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo

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.

When I finished watching the Off Campus show, I wasn’t ready to move on so of course I re-read the entire series from the very beginning. It ended up being a huge endeavor because after more than ten years, there are 12 books in this world and I read every single book all over again.

Reading this book again reaffirmed my love for both Garrett and Hannah. Their story was compelling as hell and their romance was sweet, emotional, and healing. Just like the first time that I read this book, I was hooked from the jump. Garrett and Hannah are both dealing with past traumas and the work they put in to heal from those traumas really made the story emotional and me, invested. There isn’t anything new or original with the storyline but Elle Kennedy does a really good job of pulling this story together anyway. The characters really shine and made the story feel fresh.

I completely forgot that Justin from the books was a football player so of course Hannah had a crush on him because who doesn’t have a giant crush on a football player at that age? Hannah was so normal. She was a college girl who went to class, worked part time jobs to get by, and was too shy to talk to her crush so when the hockey player in her ethics class needs help getting a good grade so that he can keep playing hockey and offers to help her get over being shy so that she can win over her crush, of course she’s in.

Garrett Graham is the captain of the hockey team at Briar University and he needs help with his ethics class. Hannah needs help, he needs help so why can’t they help each other? He was so confident that their arrangement would benefit the both of them that nobody was more surprised than he was when he develops feelings for Hannah. When Hannah starts coming to him for more than just help with getting Justin to notice her, he knows that he is in deep.

Seeing the two of them realize their feelings for each other was a lot of fun. There was a lot of heaviness in the themes explored throughout the book but I really liked that Kennedy balanced all the heavy with lots of humor and characters that were so easy to root for. There’s lots to love about this book and I was really happy that throughout everything, my enjoyment of this book stood the test of time. This book has it all and I’m just as obsessed with this book as I was the first time that I read it. It’s such a good romance and I still recommend the hell out of this book.

Rating

4.5 out of 5

The Off Campus Series