Briar U Book 3 --> whole review might be spoilers but it's a pretty popular series so you might already know this stuff.
Hunter Davenport is from a wealthy family, he is a hot hockey player and he's now the captain of the team. This year is going to be different since he made himself a promise that he is going to put hockey and his team first this year, last season ended badly when he unknowingly slept with a rival players girlfriend (this rival player broke his arm during a crucial game at the end of the season). What's going to be different this year is he is going to be celibate... no women, no drama, just focus on the game... he can do this right?
Demi Davis is a hard working student she has a long term boyfriend of 8 years they have been together since they were 13 but she was smitten long before that when he moved in next door to her when she was 8 and they lived in Miami. Demi's dad is a surgeon and wants her to follow his medical footsteps, she is far more interested in psychology just hasn't found a way to tell him she doesn't want to be a doctor she knows that he has been pushing her towards it and she doesn't want to disappoint him. Her mother is supportive but seems to follow along with whatever her dad wants to do when it comes to certain things and that seems to include what Demi should study in school.
Hunter and Demi end up thrown together on a project for a psychology class where one student is to play the therapist and figure out the diagnosis of the other student (playing the patient) they get to know each other as friends through these sessions, Hunter feels his role as a patient is made easier since he just channels his dad (a narcissist). Demi has several guy friends and begins to consider Hunter as another one of those friends.
There is one guy (TJ) that everyone else can see has a bit of a crush on Demi, but she sees him as a good friend and nothing more he is seen throughout the book wanting to spend time with her but Demi double plans and frequently has to put off their plans for doing things with Hunter or other friends.
Demi feels like Nico (her boyfriend has been pulling away from her he has made some shady excuses lately for why he can't come over and Hunter (who was introduced to him) sees him at a frat party coming out of a bedroom with a girl (who isn't Demi) and zipping up his pants. Hunter struggles with whether he should tell Demi or not but after speaking with some friends decides to just tell her what he saw. Initially Demi doesn't believe that Nico could be cheating but it comes out later that he has been cheating on her (and with multiple girls).
Hunter and Demi continue to build a friendship and Hunter even helps Demi look for her rebound, Demi just wishes Hunter would agree to be her rebound already...
Demi's parents are not very accepting of the fact that Nico is no longer in her life and instead of respecting her wishes to not see him they make her go with them to have dinner with his family for Christmas... drama!
Demi continues to get closer to Hunter and Hunter really doesn't know how much longer he can continue to resist her, he is drawn to her and he knows there would be fireworks if he let himself go there with her. But he wants to prove to himself that he can reach the goals he set and have Hockey as a top priority. Hunter also struggles with the worry he is going to follow his father's footsteps (his dad has cheated on his mom on multiple occasions) and he is trying so hard not to be like him that he is putting off his possible dreams of being in the NHL because he doesn't know if he could handle that lifestyle.
Eventually they can't fight their feelings anymore and end up together, Demi's parents continue to struggle that Nico is no longer in the picture and didn't even want to give Hunter a chance (I found this tough... they should have been more supportive towards their daughter and her feelings after her ex was found to be a cheater).
There is also a side story where Hunter's team mates want a mascot and their coach gives them a hard boiled egg to watch over... if they can take care of this he will consider going to the Dean to see if they could potentially get a pig. Their egg of course ends up going on adventures, being used as an excuse to irritate their team mates and gets a bunch of followers on it's Instagram... it's a good team building exercise for responsibility.
Some negative things about the book:
Hunter seemed to be a side character in his own story for a good portion of the book
Demi decides that she wants a rebound but Hunter continues to say he is off the market he wants to remain in the sex-free zone, this part I felt was wrong on Demi's part she kept teasing him about his "monk" status and pushing for him to give in already and break his dry spell since it really wouldn't hurt his hockey games, if the roles were reversed everyone would be upset.
There is a scene where Demi and Hunter end up taken to the local jail and he takes a selfie of himself with Demi being behind bars, this probably just bothered me because I was a prison nurse for over 10 years... cell phones are contraband and the officers wouldn't have let him keep it with him.
I won't go too much into this but there is multicultural representation but it doesn't seem to be well done, seems to be more stereotypes of different cultures that are seen on TV/movies or something. Same with some characters and their sexual orientation.
A friend of Demi's at the very end of the book ends up having suicidal ideations with an active plan in place, I felt the author should have spent more time with this if they were going to add it to the story not just throw it in at the very end to have the LFC save the day.
*College romance *Dual POV *some spice *Hockey Romance *sports romance *YA *happy ending
*slow burn
Trigger Warnings: suicide attempt (not main character), cheating
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