I’m speaking specifically of silly, low-stakes love-hate, more often found in contemporary romance than sturm und drang historicals.) (I’ve probably loved a number of *serious* love-hate romances over the years, due to all the angst potential. Obviously, in New Adult romances the characters are a lot younger than me, but even at that age I don’t think I could relate to a love-hate relationship.

I’m not into the squabbling-but-attracted dynamic. What follows is a slightly tedious period where the two encounter each other and verbally spar. When he complies, Brenna is outraged – even though she didn’t consider what she had with him to be a relationship per se, who is Jake Connelly to interfere? Jake then point-blank tells McCarthy to dump Brenna. Jake wants Brenna to break things off, and because Brenna doesn’t take well to being told what to do, especially by the Harvard hockey team captain, she refuses. McCarthy and Brenna have fooled around a few times, and she considers him a “solid candidate in terms of FWBs.” But Jake thinks that McCarthy is serious about Brenna, and that his mooning over her is distracting him from the upcoming college hockey playoffs. Jake uses the unexpected encounter with Brenna to warn her off one of his teammates, a “cute, goofy” kid named Josh McCarthy. Unfortunately, she can’t help but notice that for toxic sludge, Jake is damn hot.

Thus she is particularly sensitive to the rivalry, and tries to treat Jake like he’s toxic sludge. It doesn’t help that the two have traded barbs in their previous encounters.īrenna is not just any fan of Briar hockey – her father coaches the team. Jake is the captain and star player for Harvard’s hockey team Harvard is a rival for Briar University, and thus Jake is The Enemy. This adds insult to injury the sting of being stood up is compounded by having it witnessed by someone Brenna emphatically does not like.

The heroine of The Risk first appears in The Chase as Summer’s friend Brenna, and the hero, Jake, is featured in a few scenes of that book as an antagonist to Brenna (so, obviously, a future romantic interest).īrenna Jensen finds herself stood up for a date at the local diner just as she’s about to leave, Jake Connelly shows up and somehow figures out what’s happened.

I recently read the first book in your Briar U series, The Chase, and gave it a B+, mostly on the strength of an appealing heroine. Jennie B- Reviews / Book Reviews Briar U Series / College Hockey / New Adult 4 Comments

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