by Elle Kennedy
First sentence: “He doesn’t know I’m alive.”
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Content: There is some on-page sex, lots of swearing including f-bombs, and mention of rape and emotional and physical abuse. It’s in the Romance section of the bookstore.

After two years at Briar University, Hannah Wells has a crush: on a football player of all things. She hasn’t talked to him, but he’s amazing to look at, so of course she’s infatuated. He’s even in her Ethics class. Then again, so is Garrett Graham, star hockey player of Briar’s winning team. And he’s discovered that Hannah is brilliant at Ethics (she got an A when everyone else failed) and he needs her help getting his grades up. She needs someone to help her get the football player’s attention. It’s a match. And it works fine until they realize they’ve caught Feelings for one another.

I picked this up because my co-worker (who is Very Knowledgeable in all things Romance) told me I needed to read it before I read next month’s Romance Book Club Book (Love Song, by the same author). She said I need the backstory (we’ll see if I agree when I get around to reading that one!). And even though it’s so very 2015-coded, I enjoyed this. Hannah was raped when she was 15, so she’s dealing with issues surrounding trust and vulnerability, and Garrett, bless him, was super mature (for a 21-year-old). Especially since he’s dealing with his own trauma surrounding the emotional and physical abuse from his father. Either way, these two “broken” people are able to find something in each other that is healing, and I can’t fault that.

There were some humorous parts, and I think Kennedy got the whole college experience – especially at an elite private school – down. Am I going to read the others in the series (all surrounding Garrett’s best friends)? Probably not. But I did have fun with this one.