The Risk (Briar U #2)
If you're craving friends-to-lovers between a reformed party girl and her best friend's protective older brother, prepare for slow-burn perfection!
Brenna Jensen, the daughter of our favorite hard love coach Chad Jensen, is fierce, unapologetic, and refreshingly straightforward. As the daughter of Chad, she knows the unwritten rules, especially about fraternizing with rival players. But when circumstances force her to strike a deal with Harvard's star forward Jake Connelly, those boundaries blur.
Jake is everything you want in a romance hero – confident (sometimes arrogant), talented, and hiding surprising depth beneath that cocky exterior. His "one real date for every fake date" proposition sets up a delicious slow-burn dynamic that had me highlighting passages and fanning myself in equal measure. I mean, come on, don’t we all love it when the guy falls first?
The fake dating premise might be familiar, but Kennedy executes it with fresh energy. The constant tension of "will they get caught?" combined with the genuine connection developing between Brenna and Jake creates that unputdownable quality we all crave in romance novels.
And let's talk about the supporting cast – the hockey bros, the roommates, and the interconnected world Kennedy has created in this book and all of her other books makes the story feel rich and lived-in.
Rating: 4/5 Hockey Pucks✨
