The Deal - Elle Kennedy (Review)

The Deal by Elle Kennedy
Series Off-Campus #1
Genres: New Adult, Romance, Contemporary
Publication date: February 24th 2015
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
Format: paperback, 330 pages
How I got it: My local library
Buy it: Amazon | Barnes & Noble
My rating: 5/5  

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. 

..............................................................................

  

My thoughts:

This is a new adult book for a more mature audience. 

This is the first book in a little while that I just got completely lost in reading.  I couldn’t put it down and needed to know what was going to happen.  Since I was reading a hard copy I did my bad habit of reading ahead because I just couldn’t read fast enough and needed to know what was going to happen.

This book follows Hannah who is a college student who is crushing on a football player.  Graham is a star of the hockey team with a famous father who is failing a class, which could lead to his suspension on the hockey team.  Graham is persistent and keeps going after Hannah to tutor him in the class since she is one of the few passing.   Hannah and Graham eventually strike a deal that Hannah will tutor him and in return Graham will work on getting her a date with her crush.  What could possibly go wrong with this plan? 

First this wasn’t just a typical love story, both Hannah and Graham had issues that they needed to work at that where much larger than just failing a class.  Hannah had been raped in high school and wasn’t sure she could enjoy having sex again, she was able to enjoy spending time with boys, but wasn’t sure of the next step was possible.  Graham on the other hand had a very controlling famous father that he was working hard to distance himself from.   The author did a great job with these tougher issues and how she handled them.   Neither of the characters just get over what happened to them and the author really explores ways that they are working through their issues.  The author took very complicated issues and made me want the characters to get over them and be successful. 

I love Hannah as a character.  She is conflicted with her feelings a lot during the book, but does a great job thinking about them while we are reading.   The author did a great job developing Hannah as a very independent and strong character who didn’t really lean on anyone for help.  I loved that during the book we can see Hannah begin to accept help and realize that help is ok.

I LOVED Graham! The author did an amazing job creating his character.  We get to see all of his flaws as well as his strength.  I feel like he grew so much during the book.   Graham was a much more developed and complex character then he came off of in the beginning of the book.  The more I read about Graham the more I feel in love with him! 

The story-line is amazing in this book.   The author did a great job keeping the story moving along so there wasn’t many downtime points where I was like we could have skipped this part.   The story was very well developed and kept such a steady pace I needed to know what was going to happen next.   I also now need to purchase the next books in the series!! 

I would suggest this book as a weekend read.  Once I started reading I just couldn’t get enough and I was totally sucked in.

 ..............................................................................

About the Author

A New York Times, USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling author, Elle Kennedy grew up in the suburbs of Toronto, Ontario, and holds a B.A. in English from York University. From an early age, she knew she wanted to be a writer, and actively began pursuing that dream when she was a teenager.

Elle currently writes for various publishers. She loves strong heroines and sexy alpha heroes, and just enough heat and danger to keep things interesting!

Author Links: