The Deal (Off-Campus Book 1)

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What happens next is a tale of heartachingly beautiful romance, of fake relationships and the niavity of college romance. Hannah is rehearsing for the winter show. She’s meant to be doing a duet with Cass, who is a nightmare to work with, for a song written by MJ. Cass keeps trying to change the plan, and eventually talks MJ into making changes that cause Hannah to drop out of the duet.

Hannah, for example, is a survivor of sexual violence, and the trauma she experienced weighs heavily on her throughout the book.For those of you who choose to take it again, your two grades will be averaged. If you do worse the second time, the first grade will stand,” Tolbert finishes. Her compassion and understanding towards Hannah’s struggles are evident in her writing, and it’s clear that she’s done her research.

She snorts. “Uh-huh. Well, sorry to burst your bubble, Mr. Perfect, but I’m not interested in dating you.” But I remind myself that I’m not driving her home in the hopes of scoring. I need Hannah too much to screw it up by sleeping with her. After practice today, Coach pulled me aside and gave me a ten-minute lecture about the importance of keeping my grades up. Well, lecture is too generous a description—his exact words had been “maintain your average or I’ll shove my foot so far up your ass you’ll be able to taste my shoe polish in your mouth for years to come.” Hannah agrees to tutoring Garrett since he’s super popular, and they think it might make her crush, Justin, notice her. Similarly, Garrett’s struggles with anxiety and depression are also sensitively depicted, with a focus on the physical symptoms that often accompany these conditions. What could have been better… I would definitely say it lived up to the hype and is a worthy read for any New Adult romance fan. Have Your Say…Hannah and Garrett start going to parties together and they become closer. Turns out they get on quite well. The two form an unlikely alliance when Garrett offers to help Hannah with her music studies in exchange for her helping him pass a philosophy class. While it might seem like a typical college romance on the surface, The Deal brings much-needed nuance and complexity to the genre. Kennedy does an excellent job of painting a vivid picture of college life, with all of its messy, complicated relationships and intense emotions. The fact that this is a dual POV romance book helps the reader to really understand the characters, as you see a situation from two differing perspectives.

For the millionth time in forty-five minutes, I sneak a peek in Justin Kohl’s direction, and he’s so beautiful it makes my throat close up. Though I should probably come up with another adjective—my male friends insist that men don’t like being called beautiful. At the podium in the lecture hall, Professor Tolbert delivers what I’ve come to refer to as the Disappointment Speech. It’s the third one in six weeks. There are other things I could say (really, I could gush for so much longer) but they are probably too spoilerish and I want readers to experience the joy of unexpected turns in the story without me getting in the way.

Just out of curiosity,” she says, “after you wake up in the morning, do you admire yourself in the mirror for one hour or two?” I give her a little wave, then leave the choir room and head outside. One of my favorite things about Briar is the campus. The buildings, ancient and covered with strands of ivy, are connected to each other by cobblestone paths lined with sweeping elms and wrought-iron benches. We've created a place where book lovers can come together and share recommendations and ideas with each other. There will be no spam from us, that's a promise.

That gets her attention. She straightens up like someone shoved a metal rod up her spine, then swivels her head in astonishment. “What?”It’s refreshing to see a romance novel where the characters communicate openly and honestly, without resorting to unnecessary drama or misunderstandings. She’s got one of the most interesting faces I’ve ever seen—her cheeks are a little too round, her mouth a little too pouty, but combined with her smooth olive skin, vivid green eyes, and the tiny beauty mark over her top lip, she looks almost exotic. And that body…man, now that I’ve noticed it, I can’t un-notice it.