Plot Summary
Pretend We're Hooking Up
Taylor Marsh1 is a curvy, self-conscious junior hiding in the corner of a Kappa Chi party with her best friend Sasha3 when the sorority VP Abigail4 targets her for the house's signature game: Dare or Dare. No truth option, and refusal means social exile.
Abigail4 — still nursing a grudge from when Taylor1 accidentally kissed her boyfriend on a previous dare — orders Taylor1 to seduce Conor Edwards,2 the hottest new hockey player in the junior class. Taylor1 spots him across the room: impossibly tall, blond, broad-shouldered.
Knowing rejection is Abigail's4 real aim, she crosses the floor, grabs his arm, and babbles a desperate plea into his ear — come upstairs and pretend they're getting busy. No actual touching required. To her shock, the bored surfer-boy agrees.
Fake Sex, Real Talk
Locked in a sorority sister's bedroom, they hear Abigail's4 crew eavesdropping outside the door. Conor2 grins, grabs the headboard, and starts slamming it against the wall while groaning loudly. Taylor1 catches on and adds moans of her own, escalating until she improvises a line so outrageous Conor2 smacks his forehead on the headboard laughing.
When the performance ends, something unexpected replaces the comedy: genuine conversation. Conor2 reveals an absent father, a wealthy stepdad named Max8 who doesn't connect with him, and a finance major chosen for him rather than by him.
Taylor1 shares her MIT professor mother,7 a Russian scientist father who died before she was born, and her dream of teaching first graders. They talk for hours, falling asleep mid-sentence in a nest of stuffed animals — strangers who've somehow become friends.
Conor Drops to His Knees
At an alumni luncheon the following week, Conor2 overhears Abigail4 and her friends discussing Taylor1 in terms that make his fists clench beneath the table. They mock her body, joke she should do porn, and dismiss the idea that Conor2 could genuinely want her.
When Taylor1 walks past without seeing him, something compels Conor2 to his feet. He calls her name loud enough for Abigail's4 table to hear, asks why she never called, and drops to his knees begging for one date. Taylor,1 bewildered, catches on and plays along with practiced reluctance.
Later, at his townhouse, Conor2 proposes they make the ruse permanent — change their online relationship status and keep playing the part. Taylor1 accepts, and within hours their phones are exploding with notifications. The game is on.
The Game Stops Being Funny
At Malone's bar, a sorority sister dares Taylor1 to give Conor2 a lap dance. Instead, Conor2 reverses the dare — stripping to a tank top and performing a goofy, gyrating routine to Def Leppard while the whole bar watches.
What starts as comedy turns electric when his hand threads through her hair and he leans in to kiss her. Taylor1 bolts out the back door. In the alley, Conor2 follows, and they argue about whether any of this is real. She accuses him of treating her like entertainment.
He confesses he came tonight not for appearances but because he couldn't stay away. He says he thinks there's something between them and asks to kiss her. She whispers okay. His lips find hers against cold brick — gentle first, then desperate. The pretending is over.
The Weekend in Buffalo
Taylor1 drives Conor's2 Jeep six hours to Buffalo for Briar's semifinal. The game is brutal — Conor2 brawls defending his captain Hunter,6 and despite a first-period lead, Minnesota scores twice in the third to eliminate Briar. The locker room feels like a funeral.
The next morning, the mood lifts when Taylor,1 Conor,2 Hunter,6 Bucky,12 and Foster10 descend on a mall. The guys stuff themselves into tuxedos and bury Taylor1 in dresses. At a surf shop, Conor2 talks passionately about ocean conservation while Taylor1 models a skimpy black swimsuit for him.
He loses all composure, rushes her into the dressing room stall, and pins her against the mirror with a kiss that leaves them both breathless. A frowning saleswoman knocks. Taylor1 buys the swimsuit while still wearing it beneath her clothes. They flee like teenagers.
A Ghost from California
The girls have transformed Taylor1 — white dress, silver stilettos, curled hair. At a nightclub, she and Conor2 dance for the first time, his hands memorizing every curve. Then a scrawny, dark-haired guy taps Conor's2 shoulder: Kai Turner,5 his childhood best friend from LA, has tracked him down.
Kai5 surveys Taylor1 and sneers that Conor's2 standards have dropped — a blade aimed at her deepest wound. Taylor1 vanishes into the crowd. In the hotel room, Conor2 explains Kai5 as someone he deliberately cut from his life, but Taylor1 senses a deeper story he isn't ready to share.
Instead, she offers her own vulnerability: she's never been with anyone. Conor2 promises to go slow. That night, his mouth mapping her body for the first time, he keeps his word.
Coach Jensen Is Chad
Taylor's mother Iris7 reveals she's seeing someone and invites Taylor1 to dinner to meet him. Taylor1 brings Conor2 for moral support. Pulling onto Manchester Road, Conor2 freezes — this is Coach Jensen's9 house. Taylor's mother7 is dating his hockey coach, whose first name turns out to be Chad.
Coach's sharp-tongued daughter Brenna14 greets them at the door, thoroughly delighted by the awkwardness. Inside, Coach9 is nervous in a suit and tie, performing domestic competence. His pot roast attempt ends in oven flames — Taylor1 heroically smothers the fire with a bowl of mashed potatoes.
Firefighters arrive. Dinner relocates to a Thai restaurant, where the five of them bond over disaster and spring rolls. Under the table, Conor's2 hand wanders up Taylor's1 thigh. The families are merging whether anyone planned it or not.
Blackmail on the Beach
Conor2 organizes a beach cleanup with his teammates through an environmental nonprofit — a passion Taylor1 encouraged him to pursue. While the guys dig garbage from the sand, Kai5 materializes near the parking lot. He's been tailing Conor2 from Hastings. This time the stakes are existential.
Kai5 owes drug dealers ten thousand dollars and claims they'll kill him. His leverage: last May, after a fight with Max,8 teenage Conor2 gave Kai5 the alarm code to Max's8 mansion. Kai5 broke in and trashed the place. If Conor2 refuses the money, Kai5 will reveal who really let him inside.
Guilt and terror collide. Conor2 borrows ten thousand from Hunter,6 his captain, who writes a check without a single question. Then Conor2 begins pulling away from Taylor1 — canceling plans, barely texting, retreating behind one-word replies.
The Envelope on the Floor
Taylor1 has been fed crumbs for a week. On the night of the Spring Gala, Conor2 cancels by text. Furious, she drives to his townhouse and barges into his room. He's dressed to leave. When his jacket catches on a chair, a fat envelope splits open and bound stacks of twenties scatter across the hardwood.
Cornered, Conor2 pours out the full story — the stupid argument with Max,8 the code whispered to Kai,5 coming home from Tahoe to find the living room destroyed, his mother terrified for weeks afterward. Taylor1 begs him not to pay: confessing would strip Kai5 of leverage forever. But Conor2 snaps. He calls her just some chick telling him what to do, says they shouldn't be together, and storms out. The door slams behind him.
The Car Pulls Over
Conor2 is driving to a Boston bar to hand off the cash when his chest seizes. He can't breathe, can't see the road. He veers onto the shoulder, sweating and gasping. Taylor's1 disappointed face won't leave his mind — not the version angry at him, but the one that believed in him enough to demand better. He turns the car around. He drives to Hunter's6 place and returns every dollar.
He calls Kai5 and delivers an ultimatum: vanish, or I'll give up your name. Then he makes the hardest call of his life — to his mother and Max.8 His voice shaking, he confesses everything. His mom is stunned. Max8 is quiet. But the secret that's owned him for a year finally has a voice, and for the first time since California, Conor2 can breathe.
Love Confession at the Gala
Taylor1 has been abandoned at the gala. She's drinking champagne from the bottle with Sasha3 when a tall basketball player asks her to dance. They're on the floor together when a tuxedo-clad Conor2 arrives and physically separates them, declaring himself her boyfriend.
Taylor1 is furious — he gutted her and vanished. But as they dance, he lays it all out: the panic attack on the highway, returning the money, calling his family. Then, in front of the staring crowd, he tells her he's stupidly in love with her. He kisses her.
Charlotte, the Kappa president, charges toward them. They flee the gala hand-in-hand. At her apartment, Taylor1 grades his boyfriend performance a C-minus — barely passing. Then she tells him she's ready. That night, slowly and trembling, they make love for the first time.
Pledge Week Goes Viral
A video from freshman year explodes across campus — Taylor1 and Rebecca,16 forced to make out during pledge week hazing, drenched in water and nearly see-through clothing. Jules,15 Abigail's4 sidekick, stole the archive password from Abigail's4 phone and uploaded it to a porn site at the suggestion of Abigail's4 boyfriend Kevin.
Thousands of views accumulate in hours. Rebecca16 confronts Taylor1 in tears; in the bathroom, they share their devastation — Rebecca's16 conservative parents will disown her, Taylor's1 teaching career could be destroyed.
At an emergency chapter meeting, Abigail4 shocks everyone by calling for Jules's15 expulsion. The vote is unanimous. But the damage radiates outward. That evening — her birthday — Taylor1 dumps Conor2 outside the Kappa house, fabricating cruel lies about his lack of ambition. She'd rather break his heart than let him see her shame.
Naked on Her Front Lawn
Abigail4 — who visited Taylor's1 apartment to apologize and offer her attorney mother's help — leads a delegation of Kappa sisters to Conor's2 house and reveals the truth: the video, the real reason Taylor1 ended things.
Meanwhile, Max8 flies cross-country and sits with Conor2 over coffee, offering grace: he's proud of his stepson, everyone deserves a few mistakes, and family outweighs any stolen cash. Armed with this, Conor2 goes to Taylor.1 She refuses to budge, refuses the police.
So he strips naked, marches onto her front lawn, and shouts for the neighborhood to get their phones out. Coach Jensen's9 car pulls up just in time. The absurdity cracks her open. That evening, flanked by her mother,7 Sasha,3 Abigail,4 and Rebecca,16 Taylor1 walks into the police station and files a report.
Choosing Each Other Again
That night in her apartment, the air between them is stilted and raw. Conor2 confesses he kissed another girl during their breakup but couldn't go through with more. Taylor1 admits what she couldn't say outside the Kappa house: that every cruel word was manufactured to push him away, because hiding felt safer than being seen at her most vulnerable.
He tells her he only sees her — stubborn, sarcastic, brilliant, kind — and nothing she could do would embarrass him. She says she still loves him. He says he never stopped.
No headboard performance this time, no naked lawn protest. Just two people sitting in the quiet wreckage of their worst weeks, deciding with full knowledge of each other's damage to try again. They make love slowly, and this time it feels less like desire than a covenant.
Epilogue
In Huntington Beach, Taylor1 wobbles upright on a surfboard for the first time, riding a wave into shore and pumping her fists in victory. Conor2 watches from beyond the swells, stupid with love. His mom and Max8 adore her.
He's pursuing a summer internship with an ocean conservation nonprofit — a career path Taylor1 helped him see. Back east, the legal case grinds forward: Jules15 has taken a plea deal, but Kevin's parents have hired an aggressive lawyer, and a trial may loom.
Taylor1 and Rebecca,16 far from cowering, are petitioning Briar's Greek Council to host consent and sexual assault seminars ahead of fall pledge season. Senior year awaits — they've agreed to move in together with Hunter6 and Demi.13 Conor2 asks Taylor1 to race him for the next wave. She paddles hard.
Analysis
The Dare interrogates who gets to define desirability and at what cost. Taylor's1 body — curvy, voluptuous, perpetually policed — becomes the novel's central battleground, not because her worth depends on it, but because she's been conditioned to believe it does. Elle Kennedy refuses the makeover-to-acceptance pipeline; Taylor1 doesn't shrink or transform to earn Conor's2 desire. The novel argues that the gaze that damages isn't the one that sees nakedness, but the one that assigns shame to it.
The fake-to-real structure does more than generate romantic tension — it creates a liminal space where both protagonists can practice vulnerability without stakes. Freed from the pressure of genuine expectations, Taylor1 stops performing confidence she doesn't feel, and Conor2 stops performing indifference he doesn't mean. The lie makes them more honest than real dating ever could. The novel suggests intimacy requires rehearsal — sometimes we need permission to pretend before we can risk being genuine.
Conor's2 arc inverts the conventional romance hero trajectory. Rather than a powerful man humbled by love, he's a man already humbled — economically dependent, morally compromised, identity-fractured — who must learn that worthiness isn't earned through charm but through accountability. His confession to Max8 dismantles the novel's most insidious lie: that class origin determines moral destiny.
The revenge porn subplot elevates the story beyond genre conventions. Kennedy positions the violation not as a romantic obstacle but as a systemic failure — hazing culture, male entitlement, digital permanence — demanding collective response. Taylor's1 decision to file a report, flanked by her former enemy4 and fellow victim,16 argues that solidarity across difference is the only viable answer to individual shame. The novel's final message isn't that love conquers vulnerability. It's that vulnerability, properly shared, becomes power.
Review Summary
The Dare received mixed reviews from readers. Many praised the chemistry between the main characters Conor and Taylor, as well as the humor and steamy scenes. However, some felt Taylor's body image issues were overly repetitive and the miscommunication trope was overused. Readers appreciated the body positivity message but had mixed feelings about its execution. The book was generally seen as an enjoyable college romance, though not the strongest in the Briar U series. Overall, fans of Elle Kennedy's writing style found it entertaining despite some flaws.
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Characters
Taylor Marsh
Self-conscious sorority outsiderA Briar University junior studying elementary education, Taylor has struggled with body image since adolescence. Raised by her brilliant single mother7—an MIT nuclear science professor—she grew up comparing herself unfavorably to a woman the world seemed designed for. She joined Kappa Chi hoping for a college reinvention but found mean girls instead. Taylor's psychological architecture is built on avoidance: she hides behind oversized sweaters, deflects compliments with self-deprecation, and retreats from conflict. Her humor is sharp and self-effacing, weaponized against herself before others can strike first. Underneath the armor of insecurity lies genuine warmth, intelligence, and a fierce capacity for love. Her relationship with Conor2 forces her to confront whether she's been protecting herself or imprisoning herself.
Conor Edwards
Charming hockey player with secretsA transfer junior from LA, Conor is the hockey team's most popular player—six-foot-two, blond, surfer-boy gorgeous, and relentlessly charming. Beneath the easygoing persona lies a boy who grew up poor with an absent father, absorbed into his stepdad's8 wealth without ever feeling he belonged. Conor's core wound is worthlessness: he doesn't believe he deserves his privileges, his friendships, or Taylor's1 love. His prolific hookup history masks a deep loneliness—women treat him as a conquest, never bothering to know him. His laidback demeanor conceals genuine emotional intelligence and a protective instinct that borders on reckless. With Taylor1, he discovers someone who sees past the surface. His arc centers on learning that vulnerability—not charm—is what earns real connection.
Sasha Lennox
Taylor's fiercely loyal best friendTaylor's1 best friend and fellow Kappa Chi outcast. A music major from a family of doctors, Sasha is a former Olympic-qualifying gymnast whose career ended with a knee injury. Sharp-tongued, boundary-setting, and unapologetically herself, she serves as Taylor's1 protector—the person who says what Taylor1 can't. She fights Taylor's1 battles with the sorority while pushing her toward self-advocacy and refusing to let her spiral unchecked.
Abigail Hobbes
Sorority tormentor turned allyKappa Chi's vice president and Taylor's1 primary antagonist. Abigail has punished Taylor1 for two years over an accidental kiss with her then-boyfriend. Platinum-haired and acid-tongued, she weaponizes insecurity—her own body image issues from being bullied for her flat chest in high school manifest as cruelty toward Taylor's1 curves. Beneath the venom lies a more complicated conscience than anyone suspects.
Kai Turner
Conor's blackmailing childhood friendConor's2 childhood best friend from their old LA neighborhood—scrawny, manipulative, and perpetually entangled with dangerous people. Kai represents everything Conor2 fears about his own origins. A skilled psychological manipulator, he weaponizes loyalty and shared history to extract money and favors. He embodies the gravitational pull of a past that refuses to release its grip, the friend who becomes an anchor dragging you under.
Hunter Davenport
Loyal hockey team captainBriar's hockey team captain and Conor's2 closest friend. Wealthy, principled, and quietly intense, Hunter leads by example on and off the ice. He writes Conor2 a ten-thousand-dollar check without asking a single question, embodying unconditional brotherhood. His relationship with girlfriend Demi13 provides a model of healthy partnership that subtly influences Conor's2 understanding of what committed love requires.
Iris Marsh
Taylor's brilliant, distant motherTaylor's1 mother, an MIT professor of nuclear science. Tall, thin, and effortlessly elegant—she is, inadvertently, the physical ideal Taylor1 can never match. Their relationship is complicated by periods of workaholic neglect balanced against genuine devotion. Iris's new romance with Coach Jensen9 forces mother and daughter to navigate shifting loyalties and the uncomfortable admission that they've both been lonely.
Max Saban
Conor's misunderstood stepdadConor's2 stepdad, a wealthy businessman who married Conor's2 mother and transformed their lives materially. Outwardly cheerful and generous, Max has been emotionally distant from Conor2—not from malice but from uncertainty about how to parent a stepson who resents his presence. The gulf between them is mutual: both men built walls assuming the other wanted them there.
Coach Chad Jensen
Hockey coach dating Taylor's momBriar's hockey coach and, unexpectedly, Iris Marsh's7 boyfriend. Tough but fair on the ice, nervous and domestic in his personal life. A kitchen fire on his first family dinner becomes an accidental bonding catastrophe. His gruff exterior and his daughter Brenna's14 sharp wit are nearly identical, a resemblance neither appreciates having pointed out.
Foster
Stoner science-geek roommateConor's2 roommate, a molecular biophysics major who smokes weed and critiques movie physics with equal passion. Provides comic relief and unwavering loyalty to the household.
Matt Anderson
Dimpled charmer roommateConor's2 roommate whose irresistible dimples leave bodies in their wake. A reliable friend who joins the Buffalo shopping trip and supports Conor2 through every crisis.
Bucky
Impulsive comic relief teammateAn enthusiastic, unfiltered teammate who says whatever enters his brain. His antics—from interrogating Coach9 about mascot pigs to diving into freezing surf—provide constant entertainment.
Demi Davis
Hunter's blunt girlfriendHunter's6 girlfriend and psychology student. Blunt, warm, and protective, she serves as Conor's2 conscience, calling him out directly when his behavior toward Taylor1 crosses lines.
Brenna Jensen
Coach's sharp-tongued daughterCoach Jensen's9 fearless, witty daughter dating NHL player Jake Connelly. She bonds immediately with Taylor1 and delights in tormenting Conor2 at family gatherings.
Jules Munn
Abigail's destructive sidekickAbigail's4 lackey who lacks independent moral judgment. She steals the pledge week video and uploads it as a thoughtless prank, causing devastating consequences for Taylor1 and Rebecca16.
Rebecca Locke
Closeted fellow pledge victimTaylor's1 fellow pledge from freshman year, forced into a filmed kiss during hazing. She's quietly gay, closeted from ultra-conservative parents, and has avoided Taylor1 for years out of shame over that night.
Plot Devices
Dare or Dare
Initiates and recurs as catalystKappa Chi's signature party game—dare only, no truth option—with social punishment for refusal. The game forces Taylor1 and Conor2 into their first encounter when Abigail4 weaponizes it to target Taylor's1 insecurities, daring her to seduce the most attractive man at the party. It recurs at Malone's when another dare nearly triggers a lap dance and instead catalyzes the first real kiss. The game also frames the larger sorority culture of performative cruelty masquerading as tradition—the same culture that produced the pledge week footage later used as a weapon. The central irony: a dare designed to humiliate Taylor1 instead delivers the relationship that transforms her life.
The Fake Relationship
Central romantic engineWhat begins as a one-night favor evolves into a sustained deception when Conor2 proposes they maintain the pretense of dating. They change their MyBri relationship statuses, FaceTime during Kappa meetings, and perform affection at dinners and bars. The ruse shields Taylor1 from Abigail's4 cruelty, cures Conor's2 boredom, and—crucially—creates a liminal space where genuine feelings can develop without the pressure of admitting them. Each public performance pushes them deeper into private intimacy. The device exposes the paradox at the novel's heart: pretending to be a couple required them to be more honest with each other than either had managed in any real relationship before. When the fakeness dissolves, the realness has already taken root.
Kai's Blackmail
External threat from Conor's pastKai Turner5 possesses the one secret that could detonate Conor's2 family: that Conor2 provided the alarm code enabling the break-in at Max's8 mansion. This knowledge gives Kai5 perpetual leverage—whenever he's in trouble, he can extort money under threat of exposure. The blackmail functions as a ticking bomb beneath the romance, representing Conor's2 unresolved class shame, his guilt over betraying his mother's trust, and his fear that his past defines his worth. When Kai5 escalates from guilt trips to explicit threats demanding ten thousand dollars, Conor2 must choose between perpetuating the lie or risking everything on the truth. His decision to confess rather than comply becomes the story's moral pivot.
The Pledge Week Video
Third-act crisis catalystFootage from freshman hazing—Taylor1 and Rebecca16 forced to kiss in soaked, nearly transparent clothing—is stolen from the sorority archive and uploaded to a porn site. The video weaponizes Taylor's1 deepest vulnerability: being seen, judged, and reduced to her body by strangers. It functions as the ultimate test of her growth, forcing a choice between retreat and resistance. The video also catalyzes unexpected alliances, uniting former enemies around a shared violation. Its resolution through legal action and campus advocacy transforms Taylor1 from someone who hides from attention into someone who demands accountability from the systems that failed her.
Conor's Naked Protest
Climactic gesture of solidarityWhen Taylor1 refuses to leave her apartment or confront the video publicly, Conor2 strips naked and runs onto her front lawn, inviting the neighborhood to stare and photograph. The gesture is absurd by design—a hockey player's sculpted body on voluntary display mirroring Taylor's1 involuntary exposure. It collapses the distance between her shame and his solidarity, demonstrating that being seen at your most ridiculous doesn't destroy you. Coach Jensen9 pulling up in his car adds a layer of comedic humiliation that further defangs the power of embarrassment. The moment works not through argument but through visceral demonstration, cracking Taylor's1 resolve with laughter rather than logic.
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