The Risk

The Risk is Briar U Book 2, set in the same hockey-romance world as Elle Kennedy's Off-Campus books. It is not the direct source for Prime Video's current Season 2, but Amazon's official page keeps the larger five-book Off-Campus source series active, and the Briar U books are the most natural next shelf for readers who finish the original couples.

The setup is clean romance machinery: Brenna Jensen needs a fake boyfriend to navigate a sports-broadcasting opportunity, and Jake Connelly is the last person she wants to use for cover. He plays for Briar's rival program, which gives the banter a competitive edge before the relationship turns serious.

Read it if the screen adaptation sends you toward Kennedy's broader Briar University catalog. Brenna is not a passive romance heroine waiting to be chosen. She wants a career, leverage, and room to make her own decisions. Jake works because he meets that ambition with challenge rather than rescue.

Brenna Jensen is bold, career-minded, and tired of being treated as an accessory to hockey men.

Jake Connelly is Briar's rival on paper and Brenna's most useful complication in practice.

The hockey-world adults add pressure because Brenna's future depends partly on who takes her seriously.

No. 1 · Rival-school spark. The Harvard-Briar tension gives the romance a stronger competitive charge.

No. 2 · Career stakes. Brenna's sports-broadcasting goal gives the fake dating more than social convenience.

No. 3 · Catalog bridge. It moves Off-Campus readers into Briar U without losing the hockey-romance appeal.

Read this if you are...

• Moving from Off-Campus into the Briar U books.
• Looking for fake dating with a heroine who has a concrete career goal.
• Interested in rival hockey programs and charged banter.
• Comfortable with new-adult romance heat.

Skip it if you are...

• Only want books directly adapted by Prime Video so far.
• Dislike fake-dating setups.
• Prefer lower-conflict couples.
• Want the original Off-Campus team as the center of the story.

• You can read it without remembering every Off-Campus detail, but the wider Briar world helps.
• Track how often Brenna has to manage other people's assumptions before she can make her own move.
• Treat Jake's confidence as part of the conflict, not proof that he has already won.
• If the screen series is your route in, use this as a next-world guide rather than season homework.

• Elle Kennedy - The Chase. The first Briar U book and Summer/Fitz entry point.
• Elle Kennedy - The Play. The next Briar U sports-romance continuation.
• Elle Kennedy - The Score. The current Off-Campus screen-season anchor.
• Elle Kennedy - The Dixon Rule. A later Campus Diaries fake-relationship book in the same universe.
• Jenny Han - It's Not Summer Without You. Another screen-linked romance sequel with messy timing.

1. What makes Brenna's fake-dating choice strategic rather than childish?
2. Does the rival-school setup make Jake more interesting or more predictable?
3. How does the book handle ambition inside a romance plot?
4. Where does banter hide vulnerability?
5. Does the sports-broadcasting thread add enough pressure?
6. How much Briar U context does a new reader need?
7. Would this story translate cleanly to a future screen season?
8. What does Brenna risk besides her heart?