erin

4.25 stars!

"To live well, you must learn to see yourself first."

CHARACTERS

Alice Sun: Honestly, when I was reading the part where the whole kidnapping thing came up, I could just feel the hate from readers. And, like, as much as I hate to say this, I get it so much. Desperation makes people do some really insane things, and honestly, if I were in that situation, I might've done something similar. All she wanted was to look out for her family, and that's just so relatable to me; I just want to make sure my loved ones are happy and safe and healthy. I loved her ambition. I loved her relationship with Henry. I loved her character development, even if it happened in just thirty pages. I just loved her. It's been a long time since I felt this way towards a FMC, and I missed this feeling so much.

Henry Li: Ugh, I read his bonus chapter and it just made me love him even more. And when he said that Alice was the most important person to him...ARGSHSBQWSAJNK. His obliviousness toward Alice's "hatred" was legit so funny to me, like, "Wait, we hate each other?" I loved that he basically helped Alice, no questions asked, and didn't even get that angry at her when she confessed she wanted to kidnap someone. We love a man who does everything for their girls.

Chanel Cao: I'm literally so excited for her book, you have no idea. I'm going to add it to my calendar + add a reminder to buy it so I don't forget. She reminds me so much of one of my own OCs, and I loved her for it.

OVERALL

I'm not sure I'm on my rating yet, but definitely at least four stars. I loved basically everything about it. Ann Liang writes such beautiful descriptions that I feel like I'm actually there, and I love it when writers are able to do that without forcing it. I loved the main characters and Chanel. I loved the whole plot line, I feel like it's so unique for a romance book to get kind of dark, in a way. (Or I'm just not reading the right books.) I'll probably update my rating in the morning/in a few days, when I'm sure of my decision.

⋆.𐙚 ̊ 4.0★

This book genuinely reminded me how much I love reading romance. I was giggling and blushing the whole last thirty pages.

CHARACTERS

Harper Braedon: Honestly, I just think it's so nice to see a girl in a romance book who isn't a hopeless romantic or straight-up put off by the idea of love. While there was some cliché with the whole I-hate-jocks trope, I think a lot of the time romance writers lean too into certain stereotypes, and it was nice that she didn't just hate the MC because of the fact that he was a jock, but because he came off as privileged and oblivious to other clubs' suffering. I honestly related to Harper quite a bit with her owning a small business. I don't own one myself, but I understand her frustration of her reputation being destroyed. I want to be an author one day, and the success rates to actually make that my one source of income are low, which I imagine is somewhat similar for small businesses. I did think that the author could have leaned more into her relationship with her parents and other things to do with her money issues, as it was kind of just mentioned briefly and I thought it had potential to be a bigger storyline.

Luke Dawson: He's really, really sweet, but I felt there wasn't much to his character other than hockey? Like, he didn't seem to have much personality other than the fact that he was kind. I really admire his work ethic though, and his character development within his hockey, but I feel like it could've been more developed nearer the end. I really wanted him to snap at his dad, because as soon as his dad came on the page, I really did not like him and wanted him to get some karma. I understand there was a whole thing about his dad cheering Dawson on, but, like, that was only when he'd gotten what he wanted. Similar to how I feel about Harper's parents, I wanted his relationship with his father to be studied closer. I really love it when romance books have more to them than just the romance.

Alex: Soft boi. I loved his friendship with Dawson.

Ryan: I love him. I really hope he and Sabrina (or someone else) get a book.

OTHER

❥ The pacing was a little slow; it took about 100-ish pages for me to get hooked on the actual storyline. For me, I like romance books to have fast-pacing, otherwise it just gets a little boring? But after that I was really invested and read, like, 150 pages in one sitting.

❥ Sometimes the writing wasn't really my style, but I'm pretty sure this is a debut novel, and writing can change as you keep writing novels. (Not to say I wouldn't buy her books if her writing style didn't change.)

❥ I wonder what the next books are going to be about, because this is going to be a series, and it just says Varsity when I look on Goodreads, and I'm not sure what that means. Is the series just going to be based around hockey players, or the other sports mentioned as well? I sensed vibes between Ryan and Sabrina, and also potential for Logan and Marissa, but I don't know if that would be a book, because it's not mentioned whether Logan plays a sport. Either way, I'm going to keep an eye out for this series, and am excited for what it holds in the future.

⋆.𐙚 ̊ 4.25★

CHARACTERS

Sabrina James: She was very interesting, which was certainly a breath of fresh air after Allie, who I found a tad boring. I like how her trauma was (fairly) developed without specifically saying she had abandonment issues, and how it was stated how she was still struggling with them towards the end of the book, as it's not something that just disappears (unlike Dean's grief because hello what happened there??). I feel like her character actually clearly progresses over time, without there being a regression of a third-act breakup. You can see by the end, specifically the final three paragraphs, that she's grown as a person, and I love that because I don't think we really got that with the other FMCs.

John Tucker: He and Garrett are currently fighting it out for top place as my favourite MMC in this series. He's so respectful and sweet and patient, and just the dream guy, really. The only thing that kind of cringed me out was when Sabrina called him an 'alpha' early on in the book. I know I'm so nit-picky about things, but I feel like wording is important and it made me roll my eyes a bit.

SABRINA AND TUCKER

These guys are a good example of how the pregnancy trope can actually be done well. There's backstory to their relationship, and there's actually a date which is mind-blowing because there's been no dates, apart from the one with Logan and Grace. I feel like they had a strong emotional connection because of the date, and that their relationship wasn't just built on sex.

OTHER

Timeline: One thing I appreciated is how this book actually feels like it's over a span of a year. Maybe it's just because we get the months above a lot of the chapters, which we don't in the others, but the others' relationships sometimes seemed rushed to me.

Beau Maxwell: I think Sabrina's relationship with him deepened the grief we feel over his death, but at the same time, did Sabrina's grief just disappear too? I feel sorry for this guy - his death is being treated as a milestone for other characters and then he's just forgotten like what the hell 😭

OVERALL

Out of all the books in the Off-Campus series, I think this is the best written. The backstory, the characters, the writing, the development - I think it's Elle's best work in terms of this series. It's definitely not my fav in terms of the books, or the couple (That belongs to The Mistake + GraceLogan), but I just love it so much, and it comes second overall in the books.

OH THERE IS A SECOND ONE. THANK FUCK FOR THAT.

HELLO? HOW DID I NOT KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT THIS??? THREE BOOKS IN ONE YEAR? jlb you really are spoiling us