Book Review: The Risk by Elle Kennedy

The Risk (Briar U #2) by Elle Kennedy

Pages: 432
Publish date: February 18th 2019
Publisher: Elle Kennedy Inc.
ASIN: B07G4H3665
Purchase: Amazon UK – Amazon US – Amazon AU

Everyone says I’m a bad girl. They’re only partly right—I don’t let fear rule me, and I certainly don’t care what people think. But I draw the line at sleeping with the enemy. As the daughter of Briar’s head hockey coach, I’d be vilified if I hooked up with a player from a rival team.

And that’s who Jake Connelly is. Harvard’s star forward is arrogant, annoying, and too attractive for his own good. But fate is cruel—I require his help to secure a much-coveted internship, and the sexy jerk isn’t making it easy for me.

I need Connelly to be my fake boyfriend.

For every fake date…he wants a real one.

Which means this bad girl is in big trouble. Nothing good can come from sneaking around with Jake Connelly. My father would kill me, my friends will revolt, and my post-college career is on the line. But while it’s getting harder and harder to resist Jake’s oozing sex appeal and cocky grin, I refuse to fall for him.

That’s the one risk I’m not willing to take.

The Risk:

I received an earc of The Risk by Elle Kennedy in exchange for an honest review. This has in no way influenced my thoughts and feelings about the book.

Over the last couple of years, I’ve come to fall in love with Elle Kennedy books, especially her sports romance ones. And after reading The Chase, I couldn’t wait to pick up the next in the Briar U series. Then I read the synopsis of The Risk and knew I needed it soon. But I am a little disappointed. For the most part, I loved The Risk, but I was expecting more from it.

The Risk follows Brenna as she tries to navigate the ups and downs of college and everything that comes along with it. As the daughter of the Briar U’s Ice Hockey team, a lot of people know who she is. So hooking up with a player from a rival team is out of the question, let alone the captain. To help secure an internship that could set up her whole career, she is going to need Jake’s help. And he just happens to be Harvard’s star forward and captain. Jake is arrogant, annoying and oh so good looking. And for every fake date, Jake wants a real one. And things are bound to get real.

Brenna has been one of my favourite characters from Elle Kennedy for quite some time, so when I heard she was getting her own book. I knew I was going to love it. Brenna has always been an intriguing character, we’ve never really known too much about her, but also we’ve known enough to understand who she is. However, in The Risk the reader gets to see her in a whole different light. While Brenna has a strong front, she does have some insecurities and they are put right in the spotlight here. It was really nice seeing this side of Brenna, it added to her characterisation and let the reader see her as human and not perfect. I adored that she really focused on working out what she wanted to do career-wise.

Karla Rivera

Jake was a brilliant male protagonist. Like Brenna, we have known him before but as the enemy. So it was really nice getting to see him differently. Jake is arrogant, but not mean. He knows what he wants and doesn’t let much stop him from getting it. And that is what made him so interesting. It’s not often we get point of view of the love interest, who is also the ‘enemy.’ It was great to be with a hockey boy again, they always just make me smile. Jake is a great, complex character that gets more interesting as the novel went on. The reader finds out more and more about him. His caring nature is also very evident throughout The Risk.

The romance in The Risk was really hot, nice and just made me smile. But I was also disappointed in it. My expectations were just much higher. I wanted this intensity that I was imagining and that lacked – which was upsetting. I was expecting more hate to love. And while there was a little of it, it was more banter rather than hate. I think I was more disappointed because I’ve seen what Elle Kennedy could do, and I was expecting the romance to be burning up my page and it didn’t. In saying all this, I loved Brenna and Jake together, they were simply adorable. Like I could not control my squeal with some of the things that Jake said. His this arrogant hockey player one minute, but then Brenna melts him into mush.

Lynda Sanchez

I also that Elle Kennedy played more into the fake dating aspect of the novel. If this was carried on a little longer, there would have been more impact for me. I love the fake dating trope, so I was expecting it to be all full blown and it wasn’t really. Brenna and Jake have so much banter and connection, that this could have been played so much more. I adored the scenes when they played one another and tried to rile each other up. It made for such a fun read.

We learn a lot about Brenna and Jake throughout The Risk. And some of the things that we do learn is hard to take in. I was an emotional wreck not going to lie. I pieced together some things, but then more happened and my heart just hurt. A lot of friendships were tested throughout the risk and some had to do with things from the past. I really enjoyed seeing the relationship between Brenna and her dad, but it was also really hard at times too.

Overall, I enjoyed The Risk by Elle Kennedy. It was a great romance that just made me smile, while I wished for more ompf, I would also read it again. The Risk explores the notion of family, friendship and letting go. It’s about finding a balance and the fact that sometimes, you will fall for the person that you less expect and it’s about to get heated.