The Graham Effect
Campus Diaries #1
by: Elle Kennedy
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Publication date: Oct. 31, 2023
Genre: New Adult Romance
Rating:
Gigi Graham has exactly three goals: qualify for the women’s national hockey team, win Olympic gold, and step out of her famous father’s shadow. So far, so good, except for two little things. Fine–a little thing and a big, grumpy thing. She needs to improve her game behind the net, and she needs help from Luke Ryder.
Ryder is six-foot five, built, opinionated, rude…and sexy as hell. But he’s still the enemy.
Briar’s new hockey co-captain has his reasons, though. The men’s team just merged with a rival program, leaving Ryder with an angry roster where everyone hates one another’s guts. To make matters worse, the summer coaching spot he’s angling for with the legendary Garrett Graham is out of reach after he makes the worst possible first impression on his hero. So, really, this compromise with Gigi is win-win. He helps her make the national team, she puts in a good word with her dad.
The only potential snag? This bone-deep, body-numbing, mind-spinning chemistry they’re trying to ignore. It’s a dangerous game they’re playing, but the risks just might be worth it.
My thoughts…
This was a fun read. You get to see them as teenagers meeting for the first time. Of course, Ryder is cocky and thinks there’s a fan girl on the ice. However, he soon realizes his mistake when the hockey legend walks into the rink and greets his daughter. Fast forward to their college years, and his college is dissolved and joined with her college. Needless to say, there is some rather interesting banter in this one.
This book is written in both POV’s. You have Ryder who begrudgingly takes on the co-captain role for the new merged team. He’s not much of a leader, and doesn’t want to be their leader, but pretty soon falls into the role… thanks to Gigi. He builds a friendship with her over time and he starts to see that in order to make this new team work, they need to work together. The only problem is, it’s easier said that done. Not to mention that Gigi’s father dislikes him and in order to get into his hockey camp, he needs Gigi’s help to win him over.
Now of course, this would be a romance without… you know, romance. So it stands to reason that as they work together trying to get Gigi’s dad to like him, and Ryder helping Gigi work on some of her hockey moves that are holding her back from success, that they would start to develop feelings. To make this more complicated, his co-captain and teammate is Gigi’s ex-boyfriend who is still trying to win her back. So that just add a whole other level of complication.
Between Gigi’s hockey career, Ryder’s hockey career, the team dynamic, and the romance, this story was packed full of awesomeness. From the main characters to the side characters, I felt like everyone had their own distinct voice and the story just flowed seemlessly. If you are in the market for a new adult romance built around two hockey players, you should give this one a read!
