Review: The Dare

Thank you to the author for the gifted ARC of The Dare! All opinions are my own.

Spoiler alert!! I mention some minor spoilers for The Dare, please take note before reading on! I’ll cut to the chase and say that this book didn't work for me.

Elle Kennedy's Off Campus series is one of my favorite series ever, just completely perfect. Its the one series I constantly recommend, whether someone is looking for a great sports romance or new adult series. All the books were five star reads for me and the week I spent reading them in 2019 was a great reading memory for me.

That being said, I was so disappointed with The Dare. The Briar U spin off series has been hit or miss for me, I enjoyed The Chase and The Risk were fun reads, but I DNF The Play due to some content I found problematic. I kind of wish I DNF'd The Dare too...

I'll start by saying there were quite a few moments that I found myself smiling at. I enjoyed their meet-cute and how their fake relationship turned into a real one. I loooove fake relationship plots and those moments with Taylor and Connor pretending to date in the beginning were great. I thought the moments with Connor's friends were hilarious and reminded me a lot of the great banter from Off Campus. And I always appreciate a hero that is *really* into the heroine (although at times their chemistry felt off to me)

I'm all for a plus size heroine but Taylor was SO insecure. If you compare yourself to two of the hottest supermodels, own it! Her insecurities and negative self-talk made it really hard for me to connect with her story. I really struggled with all the subplots in this story, I kind of hate the "mean sorority girl" trope and I really disliked all those parts in the story. Also Connor's shady backstory subplot felt out of place and a little unnecessary. I kept expecting Kai to pop back up because that storyline felt so unfinished. I really hate miscommunication and I felt like the final conflicts Connor and Taylor had were too much for me.

Overall, The Dare was a 2-2.5 star for me. This was one of my most anticipated summer reads and I'm so sad it fell really, really short for me.