Bad Idea Book Review and Summary
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Natalia Sokolova - 11 Oct, 2026 07:48
Author: Elle Kennedy
Page Count: Unknown
Publication Date: Expected publication 2026 APL
Look, I am sitting here staring at a blank screen because someone forced me to crank out an analysis of Elle Kennedy’s upcoming Bad Idea just to pad some arbitrary metric, and frankly, I am ready to throw a chair through a drywall. Why am I wasting brain cells on a collegiate romance synopsis when I could be watching heavyweight contenders absorb brain damage in the third round like God intended? Let us dissect the promotional blurb for this Briar universe expansion before I lose my remaining grip on sanity.
The Absurdity of Collegiate Combat
The marketing copy introduces Ivy Di Laurentis as the dance program’s “most notorious punching bag.” And yet, where is the actual striking? Where are the cross-counter punches, the liver shots, the takedown defense, the sheer visceral survival of standing in the pocket against a heavy-handed pressure fighter? Ballet is brutal, sure, but calling someone a punching bag without a single round in the cage or a proper bruised cheekbone is a masterclass in semantic inflation. Kennedy leans hard into the classic adjacent-rivalry trope—brother’s best friend, falling apart at 2:00 AM on a roof, the requisite emotional trauma—which is about as original as a lazy jab-cross combination thrown by a gassed-out heavyweight in the championship rounds.
Toxic Proximity and Literary Slang
AJ Connelly is apparently dealing with ruined friendships and a hockey season in complete disarray, yet he has ample time for emotionally complex propositions. Make it make sense, fam. This man is fighting for his absolute life against a wave of profound psychological distress, yet he folds the second a “sweet” and “achingly beautiful” girl offers him a transactional arrangement for experience. The dichotomy between his catastrophic emotional state and his immediate capitulation is completely sus, low-key giving me second-hand rage. We are expected to swallow this narrative premise based entirely on vibes and the ticking clock of a ballet career.
Predicting how this book will land in the current marketplace requires zero psychic ability. It will sit comfortably alongside every other standard-issue hockey romance currently dominating the bestseller lists, right next to Emily Henry and Hannah Grace clones, while readers eat it up like absolute simps. Yet, the premise lacks a true knockout blow. There is no blood, no real canvas-sweeping devastation, just privileged kids moping around campus. If AJ were half as tough as a welterweight eating leg kicks in the fifth round, he would ghost her and hit the heavy bag instead.
I have to go translate a particularly stubborn piece of French existential poetry about the crushing absurdity of existence before my frontal lobe entirely disintegrates from sheer irritation.
#booktok #briaru #hockeyromance #ellekennedy
