REVIEW: Double Dared by Hayden Hall (The Boys of Elmwood U #2)

- June 18, 2026

DOUBLE DARED

The Boys of Elmwood U - Book Two

by Hayden Hall

Release Date: June 18, 2026

Review

This is a lovely story, on the lighter side of Hayden, but no less beautiful and touching.

Greg and Harrison have a fun, lightheartedness while still being very real. And what starts as a dare/fake dating ends with pure love and happiness.

This is one of those stories that brings a smile to your face and leaves you with a pleasant afterglow.

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Synopsis

I'm not the kind of guy who turns down a dare. This is a lifestyle choice. I have committed to it fully, proudly, and without a single second thought.

So when Greg pointed across the bar at a man reading poetry alone in a black turtleneck and said "get him to agree to a date," I was halfway out of the booth before the sentence finished.

Enter Harrison: film student, built like an athlete, reads like a scholar, and has clearly never once left the house without putting on a fashion show for strangers. He saw through my opening line before I finished delivering it. He said yes to the date before I could ask. He also had his own agenda entirely.

His ex had moved on faster than he was prepared for. I needed a dare to brag about. So we struck a deal: three weeks of convincing, mutually beneficial fake dating. His ex would reconsider. My fraternity brothers would think the dare had backfired so spectacularly that I was, apparently, in love with a man.

Easy.

Except when his hand settled on the small of my back in a crowded market and my brain went somewhere it had no business going. Except when he leaned in close to say something and I forgot what language was. Except when I caught myself watching his mouth and had to physically relocate my eyes.

I never met a dare I couldn't handle. I just never expected one to handle me right back.

Double Dared is the second novel in The Boys of Elmwood U series, but it can be read as a standalone. It features one film student with a broken heart and an ill-advised theory about grand romance, one fraternity jock who has just discovered, somewhat inconveniently, that he has a type, and a fake-dating scenario that will bewilder, boggle, and befuddle its way to an accidentally happy ending.