THE DARE (Briar U #4) by ELLE KENNEDY

“I only see you.” He takes my hand, rubbing his thumb over the inside of my wrist. “Just as you are.”

Picking up a new book in this series (and the ones before them) is like catching up with old friends. We’ve felt so connected to all the characters we’ve met and fallen in love with throughout the Briar U journey, and now we can add Conor and Taylor to that our friendship list.

Whilst it may not have been up there with our favourites, we still enjoyed The Dare. The banter, the passion, the emotion and relationship struggles all part and parcel of finding yourself and growing up were once again apparent in this latest instalment, together with some topical subjects.

“I think there’s something here…and I think you’re afraid to find out what it is.”

Conor Edwards – ex California hot surfer dude, now hot hockey star at Briar U, New England. Popular with his mates and even more popular with the ladies who constantly seek him out. That is, until a beautiful, curvy woman catches his eye, thanks to a dare. Taylor Marsh, sweet, loyal, beautiful, and crippled with insecurities, feeling her curvy figure equates to undeserving of love. Forever hiding in the shadows when she should be bursting into the sunlight.

“You have no idea what it’s like to be me,” she says flatly. “I don’t. But I think if you tried, just a little, to accept yourself, you might figure out that everyone else has their own insecurities too. And maybe you’ll believe a guy when he tells you he’s wildly attracted to you.”

Taylor sees a disparity between them – the hot hockey god and the curvy girl unworthy of his attention. However, she couldn’t be more wrong – she’s beautiful inside and out, a fact Conor soon realises, if only Taylor could see what Conor sees when he looks at her. Passion, awe, love.

‘That’s the thing about running from yourself – you’re always running straight at the problem.’

But for all his bravado and easy going nature, Conor is plagued by demons from his past that soon catch up with him, throwing Conor for a loop.

There’s drama, passion – oh boy, these two were hot with sizzling chemistry – fun and fabulous camaraderie and banter, the usual elements synonymous with Elle Kennedy’s stories, and we  adore this series. As much as we enjoyed The Play, there were a couple of issues we couldn’t overlook. One being the constant reminder again and again of Taylor being fat – it was mentioned that her curves were reminiscent of Marilyn Monroe – in our opinion, curvy yes, fat no, and certainly no ugly duckling as suggested in the synopsis, in fact we have so many issues with this term. Taylor was a real beauty. We also became a bit frustrated with Taylors reaction to Conor in the latter part of the story. However, despite these issues we still fell in love with Taylor, Conor and Elle Kennedy’s story.