The Bright Years (Off-Campus #2) by Elle Kennedy
Summary (from the publisher): Get ready for another binge-worthy romance from international bestselling author and TikTok sensation Elle Kennedy. He's a player in more ways than one… College junior John Logan can get any girl he wants. For this hockey star, life is a parade of parties and hook-ups, but behind his killer grins and easygoing charm, he hides growing despair about the dead-end road he'll be forced to walk after graduation. A sexy encounter with freshman Grace Ivers is just the distraction he needs, but when a thoughtless mistake pushes her away, Logan plans to spend his final year proving to her that he's worth a second chance. Now he's going to need to up his game… After a less than stellar freshman year, Grace is back at Briar University, older, wiser, and so over the arrogant hockey player she nearly handed her V-card to. She's not a charity case, and she's not the quiet butterfly she was when they first hooked up. If Logan expects her to roll over and beg like all his other puck bunnies, he can think again. He wants her back? He'll have to work for it. This time around, she'll be the one in the driver's seat…and she plans on driving him wild.
Review: Ok I did not expect to like this so much more than book one and almost makes me want to go back and rate the first book down a star in comparison! In this book, we get John Logan's story. He's a college junior and on the hockey team and his life is a procession of parties and hook-ups. But behind it all is a growing despair about his future after graduation. When he has an encounter with freshman Grace Ivers, he finds himself drawn to see her again. But when he thoughtlessly offends her, he must spend much of his senior year convincing her to give him another chance.
I did have a hard time at the beginning of this book. I do read a lot of open-door books but find it doesn't bother me when it coexists with emotional intimacy. But this book starts right out of the gate with casual hookups. Eventually, this becomes something more and that's when I started to really eat this story up. But it felt a bit rocky for me until we got to that point.
I really loved getting to know Logan and Grace through this story. Logan is so down bad for Grace, and I loved watching her make him work for it. He is so all in for her and it was so endearing. A lot of Grace's struggles in this book felt very relatable to me - an inexperienced girl who is disappointed by a guy, a best friend who isn't quite what you need them to be. I was rooting for Grace to find redemption in both the guy and her friendship in this, and it felt satisfying to see it happen.
I also just deeply loved Logan's backstory!! Unlike the other guys in this series, Logan comes from a humble background. He grew up working in his father's auto shop and he and his brother have a lot of pain over their father's alcoholism. I did feel like it was a bit far-fetched that the whole book Logan is convinced he has to give up every dream he might possibly have to move home to run the garage and take care of his father after graduation.
The plot of this just felt like it was missing some of the elements I didn't enjoy in the first book in the series (far-fetched third act breakup in particular). This is very open door and explicit, but the characters feel so sweet and it felt like a relatable college story about an upperclassman falling for a freshman. It honestly made me SO excited to see Logan's story on screen with the tv show in a way that I hadn't felt watching the show. And of course, it was fun getting to see characters from the first book pop up throughout scenes in this book.
The only reason I'm not rating this 5 stars is this is high on entertainment and not what I would call beautifully well written. This also has so much sexual content, and I could have done with more yearning and less spice.
Favorite quote: "'But the sex is just icing,' Logan says softly. 'It's everything else that matters most.'"
Stars: 4
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