The Play

I picked up The Play because I had read the first two Briar U books and I wanted to see if Elle Kennedy could make Hunter Davenport likable. He had been the background player in The Chase and The Risk, the Briar hockey guy who always had a girl on each arm and a joke ready in the locker room. I went in expecting a light college romance, and in many ways that is exactly what I got. But I finished it in two sittings, which says something about how readable Kennedy is when she is in her comfort zone.

My copy context for this one is simple. The Play is Briar U #3, published in 2019 by Bloom Books. It follows Summer and Fitz in book one and Brenna and Jake in book two, and it centers on their teammate Hunter Davenport and a Briar junior named Demi Davis. It is a new adult college hockey romance with open door scenes, told in alternating points of view, and it ends with a happy ever after as the series always promises.

Demi is the surprise of the book. She is not the loud sorority girl or the ice queen that these books sometimes use as a foil. She is a junior at Briar, studious, polite, a little sheltered, living with friends who are more outgoing than she is. She does well in class. She follows rules. She says yes when she wants to say no and laughs along when she is uncomfortable. By the start of junior year she is tired of feeling invisible in her own life. She has watched Summer and Brenna take risks and get hurt and land on their feet, and she wants some of that courage for herself before senior year arrives.

Hunter is the opposite on the surface. He is a junior too, a winger on the Briar hockey team, good looking in that easy athletic way, funny, flirty, always surrounded. Coaches like him when he shows up focused. Teammates like him because he keeps the room loose. Girls like him because he never promises more than a good time and he is honest about that limit. Under that, he is carrying a lot of pressure from home. His father played in the NHL and still acts like Hunter is an investment that has to pay off. Every shift gets graded. Every mistake gets a phone call. Hunter parties hard partly because it quiets that voice for a few hours.

A junior with a list and a hockey star with a reputation

Demi does not start with a formal written list the way some heroines do, but she has a clear idea in her head. She wants to be bolder. She wants to flirt without freezing. She wants to go to parties and actually talk to people instead of holding a cup in the corner. She wants to try things in dating and in bed that she has only read about. She is not looking to become a different person. She is looking to stop apologizing for wanting attention and fun.

What I liked about the opening chapters is how specific Kennedy is about Demi being overlooked. It is not tragic. No one is cruel to her. It is smaller than that. Professors forget her name even when she gets an A. Guys at parties talk past her to her prettier friends. Her roommates love her but treat her like the responsible one who will stay sober and hold the keys. Demi is funny in a dry way, but she delivers jokes so quietly that people miss them. That felt true to college life, where some people get cast as the mom friend early and then cannot break out of it.

Hunter enters her orbit through the usual Briar connections. Briar is a small world in these books. The hockey house parties blend with sorority events and theater group fundraisers. Summer is around, now steady with Fitz. Brenna is around, sharp tongued and loyal, now with Jake. Conor Edwards, another teammate, pops in with his steady energy. Demi knows these people in passing. Hunter knows everyone in passing. When they actually talk, it is because Demi is frustrated enough to say something honest about wanting to change, and Hunter is intrigued enough to listen instead of turning it into a pickup line.

Kennedy does a good job selling why Demi would trust Hunter of all people. He is safe in a strange way. He has no expectations of her. He does not see her as the quiet responsible girl because he never put her in that box. To him she is new. He notices that she is pretty when she stops trying to shrink. He likes that she calls him out when he is being cocky. Demi senses that he will not judge her for being inexperienced, because he has seen everything and he treats sex as fun rather than shameful. That makes him a useful guide, even if he is a risky crush.

The deal: fake dating for confidence lessons

The middle setup is a deal, though Kennedy frames it loosely rather than as a signed contract. Demi basically asks Hunter to help her loosen up. In practice this becomes a mix of fake dating and confidence coaching. They will be seen together. He will teach her how to flirt, how to carry herself at parties, how to say what she wants without blushing through the whole sentence. She will get to practice being wanted without the fear that one awkward night will define her. He gets company he actually enjoys, which surprises him.

I want to be clear about what this is and is not. It is not him paying her or her paying him. It is not a class with grades. It is more like friends with a plan. They go out. He tells her to make eye contact and hold it. He tells her to stop saying sorry when she has done nothing wrong. He pushes her to order what she wants, to pick the movie, to tell a guy at a bar that she is not interested instead of laughing nervously. Some of it is cheesy. A lot of it works because Demi is smart and just needed someone to point out habits she could not see.

The fake dating part gives them cover. On campus, being Hunter Davenport's girl for a while means people look at Demi differently. Bouncers wave her in. Girls who ignored her ask who she is. Guys who ignored her suddenly notice. Demi hates that this is how it works, and Kennedy lets her say so, but she also uses it. She walks taller when Hunter is beside her. She talks more. She learns how it feels to enter a room without bracing for dismissal. Hunter, to his credit, does not use the arrangement to show her off like a trophy. He watches out for her. He steps in when someone gets pushy. He checks in after.

The heat builds slowly, then fast. Early kisses are lessons. He shows her how to take the lead, how to slow down, how to ask for more. Demi is nervous but direct, which Hunter finds refreshing after years of partners who played games. She asks questions. She says when something feels good and when it does not. Those scenes are explicit, as expected for Kennedy, but they are also tied to Demi finding language for desire. I found that arc more interesting than the physical details alone, because it shows growth you can track from chapter to chapter.

Roommates, teammates and Briar hockey season

One reason Briar U reads fast is the friend group, and The Play leans on it hard. Summer is the warm center now, the former sorority girl who learned to stand up for herself in book one. Brenna is the bite, Jake Connelly's girlfriend, quick with a joke and protective of Demi in a big sister way. Fitz and Jake bring the hockey house humor. Conor is the steady friend who notices more than he says. These people eat together, study together, crash on each others couches, and show up uninvited when something goes wrong.

Demi's living situation matters because confidence is hard to practice when your roommates still treat you like glass. Early on they tease her about Hunter in a way that stings. They assume he will get bored. They assume she will get hurt. They are not wrong to worry, since Hunter has a long history of short flings, but their worry keeps Demi small. A nice beat comes when Demi finally tells them to stop predicting failure for her. She does not give a big speech. She just says she knows the risks and she wants to try anyway. Brenna respects that immediately. Summer gets it too. That shift felt earned.

On the hockey side, Kennedy gives us season texture without turning the book into a sports manual. There are practices where Hunter is brilliant and practices where he coasts. There are games where his line clicks and games where penalties kill momentum. Coach Jensen, Brenna's father, runs a tight room and does not play favorites, which puts Hunter in an awkward spot since he is dating around the coach's circle in a loose sense. Jake, as captain material, calls Hunter out when he parties too close to game day. Fitz backs him up but with more humor. Conor covers for him on the ice when his head is elsewhere.

I liked that hockey is pressure, not just backdrop. Hunter loves the game. You feel it when Kennedy describes him on a good shift, finding space, reading a pass a half second early, celebrating with the bench in that pile of gloves and yells. But love does not remove fear. Every scout in the stands reminds him of his father. Every slump feels like proof he will never be enough. That is why the partying and the girls matter to him. They are places where no one grades him. Demi starts to become a third place where he can breathe, and he does not know what to do with that at first.

Family pressure and the cracks in Hunter

Hunter's dad is the shadow over the whole book. He is an ex NHL player, the kind of father who turned his own career into a coaching manual for his son. He calls after games. He texts during the week. He points out what Hunter did wrong with clips and stats. He talks about pro chances as if they are owed. He rarely asks if Hunter is happy. Hunter has learned to manage him with short answers and jokes, then go out and drink off the frustration.

Kennedy does not make the dad a cartoon villain. He loves his son in his own narrow way. He thinks toughness is care. He thinks pushing is support. But the effect is clear. Hunter feels conditional. He worries that one bad season will confirm his father's quiet fear that he wasted his potential. He worries that wanting a girlfriend, or wanting a life outside hockey, will look soft. So he keeps things casual. Casual cannot disappoint. Casual cannot be graded.

Demi has her own family stuff, quieter but real. Her parents are not demanding in the same way. They are proud of her for being good and steady. That praise becomes a trap. Demi learns that being the easy child means no one asks what she wants. When she starts dressing a little bolder, staying out later, talking about Hunter, her mom worries in that loving but limiting way. Are you sure. Is he serious. Do not get hurt. Demi loves her parents, but she starts to see that their image of her leaves no room for mistakes. Part of growing up here is letting them be nervous while she keeps going.

The best scenes between Hunter and Demi are when those pressures touch. He tells her about a brutal call with his dad after a loss, trying to laugh it off. She does not laugh. She asks what he wanted to hear instead. He does not have an answer ready, which tells you how rarely anyone asks. She tells him about feeling erased at home in a different way, praised for being no trouble. He gets angry on her behalf in a way he never gets angry for himself. They are good at seeing each other clearly. They are bad at applying the same kindness inward, which is pretty human for twenty year olds.

Falling for real and the breakup that had to happen

Of course the fake thing stops being fake. Kennedy does not hide this. The fun of the middle is watching two people who swore they were practicing fall into real habits. Hunter starts texting Demi just to tell her something funny from practice. Demi starts saving stories to tell him later. They have favorite food orders. They have a show. They sleep better next to each other. Friends notice before they admit it. Brenna gives Demi a look. Jake gives Hunter a warning wrapped as a joke.

The sex changes tone too. Early scenes are instructional and playful. Later scenes are tender and a little possessive in a way that scares both of them. Demi starts to want more than lessons. She wants him to stay after. She wants to meet his moods without being asked to leave. Hunter starts to want to be the guy she calls first, not the tutor she graduates from. That want makes him pull back, because in his head wanting leads to needing and needing leads to failing someone.

The breakup comes from Hunter's fear more than from a single betrayal. There is a bad stretch where hockey goes poorly, his father turns up the criticism, and Demi needs him to show up in public as a real boyfriend rather than a casual escort. Hunter panics. He says something dismissive. He misses something important. He lets old habits answer for him. He goes out with the guys instead of staying. He tells himself Demi is better off without his mess. Demi, who has spent the whole book learning not to accept crumbs, tells him she is done being a practice run. It hurts because both have a point.

I thought this section was solid but familiar. If you have read a lot of new adult romance, you will see the beats coming. Big misunderstanding timed to the third act. Friends take sides but push them back together. The heroine focuses on school and friends and looks great at a party. The hero mopes, drinks, plays badly, then has a talk with a teammate that spells out what readers already know. Kennedy writes it smoothly, with good dialogue, but she does not reinvent it. The breakup feels required by the genre rather than forced by these specific people, though Hunter's dad issues give it enough weight to pass.

Grovel, grand gesture and what works and what does not

Hunter's grovel works because it is sustained, not just one speech. He apologizes without excuses. He tells Demi she was never a lesson to him, even if that is how it started. He shows up where it counts. He talks to his father in a new way, setting a boundary without cutting him off completely. He plays better because his head is clearer, not because love magically fixed his slap shot. Most crucially, he tells Demi he wants a real relationship with labels and plans, and he accepts that she might say no.

Demi does not fold instantly, which I appreciated. She has spent months learning to trust her own judgment. She makes him wait. She asks hard questions. What happens when his dad rips into him again. What happens when a road trip puts temptation in front of him. What happens when she has a bad week and gets quiet again. Hunter answers with actions more than promises. He introduces her properly. He stays when it is boring. He listens when she talks about theater and school and post grad fears. For a guy who used to float through, staying power is the proof.

The ending is a classic happy ever after. They commit. The friend group celebrates. Hockey season closes on a hopeful note rather than a championship fairy tale. There are hints about Conor getting the next book, which as a setup works. No one dies. No one moves across the world. It is warm and sexy and closed. If you came for comfort, you get it fully.

Now for fair criticism, because this book needs it. The Play is the lightest of the first three Briar U books, and that is both its charm and its limit. The Chase had Summer dealing with body image and a father who controlled her story. The Risk had Brenna and Jake with sharper banter and higher stakes around forty plus year old family wounds and hockey politics. The Play has lower angst. Hunter's dad is tough but not new as a type. Demi's arc is sweet but internal, so the external plot sometimes feels thin. A few chapters in the middle repeat the same party lesson with different outfits. Readers who want high drama may find it too smooth.

The steam is high, which will please Kennedy fans, but at times it covers thin spots. When Hunter and Demi avoid a hard talk, a sex scene often arrives to reset the mood. Those scenes are well written and consensual and fun, with clear talk about wants and limits, but two or three of them could have been shorter to leave room for more about Demi's school life and Hunter's future plans. Demi's interest in theater and campus work gets mentioned but rarely shown in depth. I wanted one more scene of her shining in her own space, not just at a hockey party on Hunter's arm.

Still, I liked it more than I expected to. Hunter grows without losing his humor. Demi grows without becoming someone else. The friend group feels lived in. The hockey beats feel right for college, with bus rides and sore legs and film sessions, not pro glamour. If you want a cozy, sexy college romance where a good guy learns to stay and a quiet girl learns to speak up, this hits the mark.