The Chase

You know what they say: start an Elle Kennedy book in a day, finish it that same day even though it's nearly 400 pages.

I didn't expect to love this. After binge-bonanza, I thought my EK feels might have cooled. Both her heroines and heroes sounded similar to me through the third, with 4 feeling a bit different.

Enter Summer. Enter her & Brianna's friendship. It felt more heroine-focused and I loved it. Summer was sweet, and open. I loved her as a heroine with her vulnerability and insecurities but also knowledge of herself. Though some of the'speeches' lacked subtlety, I appreciated the initial conflict between Fitzy and summer where she correctly accused him of single storying her.

I really equally appreciated his owning that. Fitzy show more was a great hero. We were all excited to get to know the big tattooed nerd-at-heart better, but unfortunately I don't think the book focused on his multitudes near as much because of creating initial love triangles... That last a long time and only serve to develop summer.

But this book, when it was hot, really was. Dean's scene at the end was fantastic: because of Summer. The humor was slightly different (yay) but the dialogue still so snappy and easy to read.

So Summer was the book for me. And that was ok with me. More than ok. show less

Elle Kennedy is one of the best at taking expectations and tropes and turning them into surprising, complex deliciousness. On the surface this looks like the typical nerd-falls-for-princess story, but both main characters are so much more than their labels. As usual, this super slow burn romance gave me all sorts of butterflies, and I loved watching both characters grow and progress both personally and as a couple. I also love how Kennedy brings attention to and calls out social issues and unabashedly promotes feminism. With the added bonus of revisiting familiar characters from the Off-Campus series, this was such a pleasure to read.

The name dropping of designer labels was exhausting. Also, if someone called my partner a whore during a job interview function, I feel pretty strongly that I would not work for that person?

I appreciated this book because it tackled some interesting issues: learning disabilities, creepy professors, people in positions of authority misbehaving, etc.

Definitely a solid 4.5!!!

Though you might not have seen many reviews on my blog, I’m a huge fan of Elle Kennedy’s college romances and The Deal is one of my favorites. So, I’m quite happy that this book lived up to those expectations and this might be by second favorite of hers. The writing style is easy and breezy as ever, I didn’t want to put it down at all and stayed up quite late in the night to finish. We get the amazing banter that has almost become Elle’s signature style, only it’s slightly more heated this time. There are lots of laugh out loud moments while also covering a range of important issues and I loved how the author was able to balance out the two.

Summer is the star of the show here. She is fun, high show more energy, a personality that is impossible to ignore and someone who lights up a room and attracts attention wherever she goes without even meaning to. She can be petty and jealous sometimes, but she recognizes these qualities in herself and tries to do better. She is very passionate about fashion and completely unapologetic about it. She is very open about her sexuality and always stands up for herself and other girls and has zero tolerance for slut shaming which was a quality I really admired. She can be unsure about herself sometimes and believes she isn’t very smart due to her learning disability, but she never lets it stop her from trying her best. Despite being judged and dismissed for her looks, money or fashion choices, she still has a very big heart and makes friends easily with everyone she meets and it’s just so hard not to fall for her natural charm.

Fitzy is her complete opposite – he maybe a hockey superstar of Briar but he hates the attention and just wants to stay in his room and design his video game. I liked this characterization, of him being not just a jock but also a nerd and that it’s possible to be both. However, I didn’t like him much for more than half of the book. Being from an abusive household has made him incapable of expressing his feelings and he doesn’t want to attract the attention that seems to follow Summer, but the way he is rude and disrespectful towards her just to deny his own attraction, did not endear me to him at all. It was only after he got his act together and started communicating that I really started liking him. One thing I liked after they got together was that he was completely supportive of her and never dismissed her feelings, especially about the sleazy professor.

Kennedy writes awesome side characters and this book is no different. I don’t think Hunter made much of a good impression on me when he was introduced in the Off Campus series, but I liked him a lot here. All the time Fitz was being an idiot, I actually wanted Summer to get together with Hunter and his genuine feelings for her really came through. I was as upset as he was when the inevitable happened and I really hope we get another book with his story. The other character who stole the show alongwith Summer was her best friend Brenna, the coach’s daughter. You may not like instalove but I promise you will love this insta-friendship and I was greedy for more of their scenes together. Brenna is a complete firecracker, sassy as hell, a great friend to have and someone who takes her hockey rivalries very very seriously. Summer’s third roommate and another player Hollis is a clueless hockey bro who keeps vying for Brenna’s attention but he is also very sweet and I actually felt sorry that she wouldn’t give him the time of the day.

We also get some awesome cameos from our favorite characters and I was squealing with delight when Garrett, Hannah, Dean, Allie and Tucker showed up. It just made me want to read their books again.

While being a fun college romance, I loved how the author incorporated commentary on so many different issues in the book. I especially liked the representation of Summer’s ADHD and learning disability. It’s a great way to understand that not everyone learns the same way or at the same speed but that doesn’t make them any less smart, just that they may need some extra help or unique methods of learning.

There is also a lot of discussion about sexual harassment and rape culture on college campuses and the book really reflects upon how women are always made to question their own actions when someone harasses them, and the first finger is never pointed at the actual perpetrator. Even Summer dismisses her gut feeling and discomfort she feels around a certain professor because she is made to believe that it’s her own fault and she shouldn’t damage someone’s reputation with such allegations. I’m glad that we get a resolution in the book even though that’s not the usual reality, but I hope our world gets better and the perpetrators are held accountable instead of blaming and shaming the victims.

Finally, all I want to say is that I shouldn’t have waited this long to read The Chase and I’m so happy after completing it now. This book is entertaining and fun while also having a lot of depth and it was such an awesome experience. Kennedy writes amazing characters and now I have more of them to love. I’m even more excited to read Brenna’s story and I’m hoping it’ll feature a certain handsome arrogant rival. show less

This was the first book I read by Ellen and I was hooked! I consider it one of the best books in the series (Briar University), and one of my favorites. There were a few things I didn't like, such as Dean's reaction to finding out about his friend and sister dating, I thought Dean was a complete jerk, but overall I loved it.

I adored Elle Kennedy’s THE CHASE. It is the first book in the Briar U series and the perfect spin-off from the Off-Campus series The main characters are Briar hockey forward Colin Fitzgerald (Fitzy) and Summer Di Laurentis, the younger sister of Dean Di Laurentis from THE SCORE, book three of the Off-Campus series.

I love Fitzy and Summer. They are very different, yet they end up having a lot in common. My heart went out to both characters for the things they endured. Summer struggles with her classes because she has a learning disability. Colin’s parents went through a brutal divorce using him to get back at each other. Fitzy hates drama, and drama seems to follow Summer wherever she goes. Fitzy is an introvert. Summer is an show more extrovert. Summer is rich, Fitzy not so much. The two don’t even resemble the others typical “type." However, as time goes on they discover their similarities and cannot deny their attraction to each other.

Elle Kennedy does an amazing job with the plot. The story is skillfully written and hard to put down. This story demonstrates numerous examples of people judging others before they get to know them. I appreciated the scenes with both Summer and Colin with their majors/future careers. Summer is studying fashion design. Colin is double majoring in Fine arts and computer programming, wanting to develop video games. They both show integrity and strength. They help each other grow by balancing one another. THE CHASE has a great ending. I love the characters and would love to hear more about them in future books. I love Brenna Jensen and look forward to reading her story next in book two, THE RISK, expected to be released February 18, 2019. I’ll be counting the days. I voluntarily reviewed an advance reader copy of this book. show less

Colin Fitzgerald has finally decided to give into Summer Heyward-Di Laurentis advances when he finds her sharing a kiss with his friend. That should be the end of things, until he finds Summer has no place to live and they're in need of a new roommate.

It's not you, it's me. This was just a bit too much drama for me and I hate love triangles. I really liked Summer and the girl power focus but honestly, Fitzy was just a jerk and I don't know that he really made that much of an effort to apologise or make up for it. So I can't say I really endorsed their relationship. And the whole thing with Hunter was just dumb.

Summer was great. Her character was a refreshing change of pace. She was like sunshine. She was generally carefree, easy going show more and happy to socialise and make friends. And I loved her sex positive outlook. She had her moments where she doubted herself or felt hopeless but most of the time she was upbeat and friendly and confident and I rated it. And I was highly amused by her inner Selena Gomez voice. Her relationship with her parents and brothers was fantastic and my only complaint would be I wanted to see more of it. And her friendship with Brenna was awesome. I loved Brenna.

I haven't read any other Elle Kennedy books and although this is listed as the first book in the series, I felt like I was missing something. Apparently this is a spinoff of her other series, Off Campus. I wouldn't necessarily say you have to read the other books, the story does standalone but there were some references that went over my head.

As I said earlier, the romance between them was problematic. I didn't really like Fitzy and even though he said some romantic things, I found it tainted by my dislike and his lack of effort in treating her with respect. He's judgemental and cranky and I wish Summer had stuck to her guns more. She said the right things about deserving someone her loves and wants to be with her but she never enforced it enough for my liking.

But although letdown by the romance, the characters were fun and interesting and I enjoyed the humour and friendships. 3 stars. show less