The Goal: Now an Original Series on Amazon Prime (Off-Campus, 4)

I am in awe. I have no idea how Elle Kennedy continues to hit them out of the park. Or should I say, score those goals? A friend just asked me the other day which couple did I like best out of the series. I initially said Garrett and Hannah, then Dean and Ali came in a close second, Logan and Grace actually come in a bit out of order and third, but these two? Tucker and Sabrina? Are my hands down unequivocally favorite couple of the series, no contest! However, each and every book drew serious emotions out of me. It had been over a decade since I’ve started and read the first round. It was almost like brand new world, reading it again. I bet this story resonated with me most because I identify a LOT with Sabrina and a lot of of the things she grew up, dealing with. Those guards on her heart, the growing up and the not so best place, in a single parent household, with a mother working three jobs, with the determination to do better and be better, but mostly that earning driving hunger for love and to be loved. Sabrina had this horrible reputation of being an ice queen, because she did every thing she could to protect herself from any more emotional damage. I completely get it! Then enter Tucker. Oh my gosh Tucker. 😮‍💨 that is my dream man. Not my boyfriend, not my book husband, but my ultimate dream man. Oh how I wish he was real! Tucker was a perfect blend of strong, possessive, attentive, loving, and a southern gentleman all wrapped in one man. He brought hope to a time when men were just not giving and putting other people first. There’s so many narcissist out there, so many women with low self-esteem, that our world is working on such a sad level. That we all gravitate toward our boyfriends, and thank you for making some of the best ones!! Tucker grew up without a father, so also in a single-family home, but his mother raised him to be a great giving gentleman. She wasn’t the greatest to Sabrina, but I get why she wasn’t. I gobbled the story up! I didn’t hurt that when I was listening with Andrew Eiden & Susannah Jones narrating? They only brought the story to the next level. Both perfectly casts! Thank goodness because the woman who read books one and two? Horrible. I don’t normally like to bash narrators, but she just did not fit our characters at all whatsoever. I’m glad these two were able to deliver All in all, I can’t wait to read The Legacy next. I can’t wait to see the twins being born if there are any other kids coming along when the other kids come along, and we’re tucking his family are next. Well, I loved all of these characters so much, this off-campus world so much, but I really wanna know what happened to all of them. I love that we have a 2nd & 3rd series spinoff from this one. We get to see a couple of our now current Freshman, sophomores and juniors “next” year in the next series then After that we have the kids of those kids. I really can’t wait to get into it. And I’m so glad prime brought back this entire series starting with the deal to make us fall in love again with Elle KENNEDY‘s series, and introduce her to some people that had missed out around one. Can’t wait to see what happens Next! This is officially where I finished, I haven’t read any of the Briarview stories. I did read the gram effect. But that’s it so the rest is new to me as well. Excited to go check it out right now!!

Title: The Goal Author: Elle Kennedy Genre: romance Spice: 3/5 Pace: 4/5 steady. I did find certain things jumbled. Readability: 4/5 easy read, touches on complex topics. Relatable-ish. Character development: 4/5 the characters are unique. They are likable for the most part. The author eases you into them. Mentions/tropes: Hockey romance College romance Mental health Alcoholism Loss/grief Multiple POV Monster-in-law Family drama Abandonment issues Unplanned pregnancy Abortion-talk of My thoughts: this is easily my least favorite of the series. I found the mmc less desirable than I did any of the others in the series. Same with the fmc. It felt slightly scattered for example there’s early mentions of the step dad and then nothing til towards the end. It didn’t seem like it played much in the story and it just wasn’t written in well. Some of it I found too unrealistic. Other parts were written so beautifully similar to the other books. I didn’t appreciate a few things in this book. I’ll leave it at that. Still a good read and overall the series is amazing!!!

3.5 stars In the fourth, but hopefully not final, book in Elle Kennedy’s enjoyable Off Campus contemporary new adult romance series, another university student hockey player and lovely young woman find a future in each other as they move inexorably towards adult lives. Sabrina James has been surviving on ambition, overwork, and very little sleep as she drives herself through her final undergrad year. Determined to make a better life for herself and gain distance from her grinding family life, she is going to go to law school if it kills her. Her upbringing in an unpleasant, complicated family has made her self-reliant to the point of leeriness and incredibly driven. It’s been a long time since I wanted to see a heroine to escape as much as I wanted a better life for Sabrina. Show me a capable woman fighting dream crushers telling her who she is and you have my full attention. Letting off steam one evening, Sabrina meets John “Tuck” Tucker. He’s a charming member of the men’s hockey team at her university. While she likes athletes, she has sworn off hockey players after a bad experience with one. Tuck’s a temptingly engaging and unassuming guy though, so she makes an exception for him just for one night. Laid-back Tuck finds himself smitten with tough, but sweet Sabrina and he pursues her until – WONDER OF WONDERS AND MIRACLE OF MIRACLES – she tells him she’s not interested and he backs off. (Let’s pause to thank Elle Kennedy for a hero taking no for answer.) When Sabrina realises she’s pregnant, she finds herself seeking Tuck out and things move forward from there. Tuck is all in. It’s been three years since I asked this question, but I still don’t have the answer. Should a hero be a perfect guy or the perfect guy for the heroine? Is there a difference? Tuck is pretty amazing. He’s grounded, patient, an enthusiastic and attentive paramour, hard-working, calm, rational, responsible, patient again plus synonyms for it, mature, kind, sensible, fun, good-looking, protective in a non-overbearing way, bearded (to start off with and, admittedly, that may only make him perfect to me), supportive, and financially secure. Tuck gives Sabrina time and space, he participates as much or as little as she wants him to with her pregnancy and its ramifications, and bides his time while she comes around to the same conclusion he did the night they met. Tuck and Sabrina face almost insurmountable odds in succeeding with the stresses of their relationship, school, baby, and getting established in adult lives and all, I thought, with virtually no sacrifices. I guess that’s where the wish-fulfillment part of these books comes in. Young people having an instant family plot is not my favourite, but Kennedy did a good job with the story and she continues to be very good at writing friendships in addition to the love story. I will be buying all of the other books in the Off Campus series as they are published.

From Lala’s Book Reviews TW/CW: accidental pregnancy and thoughts about terminating the pregnancy I have finally made it to Tucker and Sabrina’s book! I think I had seen a tiktok after I read Logan and Grace’s book (The Mistake) where it was a pretty serious game of musical chairs between these two guys and it was like “Garrett and Logan fighting over who will be the godparent of Tucker’s baby”, and I couldn’t wait from that moment on to read this book. Why? Well honestly because of the video’s mention of Garrett which is honestly kind of crazy (but I love Garrett), and I’m always intrigued about books where someone has a baby even though it’s one of those tropes that has to be written really, really well for it to work. The first half of The Goal takes place as the same time as the majority of The Score taking place, and it was cool to be able to see certain events from the third book from Tucker’s perspective, but at the same time it was also difficult to read about Beau’s death since it was such a huge turning point in Dean and Allie’s relationship and had affected a lot of the other MCs because Beau did hang out with and crossed paths with so many of the other characters. Had I been introduced to Tucker’s book before I read about Garrett Graham, Tucker would be my number one of book boyfriends from the Off-Campus series, but Garrett came first and can’t be unthroned from the spot, but I can safely say that Tucker is in the number two spot. To my knowledge, the majority of what we know about Sabrina before reading this book is that she is a pre-law student like Dean, works really had and is “competitive” about her grades, and that she’s a you-know-what and is rather cold hearted. But again, that’s what Dean told everyone because Sabrina didn’t really mix with any of his friends. Sabrina is a completely different person than what Dean has described to us over the other books because Sabrina has one goal on her mind and that’s to better her life and to get an education in a career where she can support herself and get away from her home life. Her life is far from perfect, she lives an hour away from the Briar U campus in a rather run down house in Boston with her grandma who basically raised her and her stepdad who’s mostly always drunk and makes crude comments. Sabrina’s mom ran away from the family when Sabrina was like seven I want to say and hasn’t had much (if any) contact since. Sabrina has her life pretty much planned out as she gets an undergraduate degree from Briar U and works two jobs to help pay the bills at home and save money for when she gets into Harvard Law. She only has two real friends, but at times it can be difficult to connect with them because they come from money, but she still loves them because they’re there for her. Sabrina honestly over-works herself from studying and going to class to picking up any extra shifts that she can to grow her savings, so needless to say that she doesn’t have time for anything other than a one night fling if that. But, man does Tucker lay on the southern charm that night in the bar where she decides to go, and one thing leads to another and they’re in the back of his truck (let’s keep in mind that Sabrina wants the less amount of strings possible and is just looking for a release). And, Tucker being the gentleman that he is, makes her text him when she makes it back home safely since she wouldn’t spend the night with him and wants to drive back home despite the icy rain and dropping temperatures. Well, Tucker follows her home anyway because he honestly didn’t think she’d text him, and he was worried about the worsening conditions. Something happened that night because Tucker is smittened with Sabrina and they shared something those moments in his truck because he wants nothing more than to get to know her, but Sabrina doesn’t have any form of relationship built into her plan in the foreseeable future while she gets her degree in law. After many, many moments, Tucker finally is able to break down enough of Sabrina’s walls to get a better look of her life, and despite not wanting anything to do with Tucker or a relationship, Sabrina finds herself wanting to be able to spend time with him and talk to him and just be near him, but her fears makes the doubt stay in arms reach. As they try to work out their whatever you want to call it, Sabrina is starting to feel the effect of pregnancy, and she starts to worry big time because how can she handle this when she has so much to do to get out of her current home life situation and she doesn’t even know if Tucker would want to be in her or the baby’s life if she keeps it. This book is such a quick read. I wouldn’t say that there’s a whole lot of drama in this book, but there are plenty of deep moments especially when it come to the part of the book with the pregnancy. And it was always great to have our few moments with Garrett (heart eyes). I can see why people were so excited for The Legacy to come out to finish up the stories and have a look into their lives after Briar U, but I think that this book was a pretty good ending to the original part of the series.

⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4 Stars I really enjoyed The Goal by Elle Kennedy! Like all of the other books in this series, it did a great job of telling Tucker's story while still giving us the follow-up moments we needed from the previous books. One of my favorite things about this series is how connected all of the stories feel, and this book was no exception. I absolutely loved getting to see Tucker finally get his chance at happiness. It also felt like a lot of the moments where he seemed to be missing in some of the earlier books were filled in here, which made his story feel even more complete. In a lot of ways, this book felt like an unofficial wrap-up to the series, even though I know there are still more books after it. Now, Sabrina was a different story. 😂 I won't lie—I started this book being completely annoyed by her character. That could possibly be because I'm a Dean girlie and had some unknown bias going in, but honestly, I don't think that's the whole reason. However, as the story went on, Sabrina really started to grow on me. I appreciated her character development, and by the end of the book, she had definitely won me over more than I expected. Overall, this was a really good addition to the series. It gave Tucker the story he deserved, wrapped up some lingering questions from previous books, and delivered plenty of character growth along the way.

The Goal is the fourth installment in Elle Kennedy’s Off-Campus series. This New Adult series has become one of my favorite Hockey Romances, and I’m sad that it’s ended but thankful that Elle wrote spin-offs to it. (I also have The Legacy to read, and I’ll be reading it soon.) This friend group has become like family, and I love that each of them has finally found their HEA, especially Tucker, who ended up surprising me in this book. Tucker has stolen the top spot from the other Off-Campus MMCs. Sorry, Dean and Garett. It’s always the quiet ones who end up becoming the biggest dirty talkers, and that is precisely what Tucker was in The Goal. He was also the perfect gentleman to Sabrina, and then, towards the end of the book, he took on another role that made me melt into a puddle. Seriously, Tucker is the ultimate book boyfriend/husband. I was genuinely surprised I liked Sabrina, but after I read her POV and not Dean’s POV about her in The Score, I really liked her character. Dean didn’t like her, and he even ticked me off with how he treated Sabrina when she was with Tucker, but I won’t go into detail about it. Sabrina is goal-driven and has every reason to work her butt off after you get to know her character in The Goal. She ends up having something happen that has her questioning everything, but I liked how Elle Kennedy handled it and what Sabrina chose. Yes, I know some readers don’t like this particular trope, but I’m someone who can relate to Sabrina. I’ve been in her position, and I chose the same thing. Sabrina knew she could handle it, and she had Tucker after she started to trust him and eventually realized she was falling in love with him. Elle Kennedy does have the third book (The Score) and fourth book (The Goal) overlap with their storylines. One scene in particular is going to be a tough one to read again if you read The Score. Elle definitely made me cry again because it affected Sabrina this time. Overall, this is another fantastic addition to the series, and I give it 4.5 stars. If you haven’t read this series and enjoy reading Hockey Romances that involve a strong friend group that finally finds their HEAs, then you need to read this series. I’m sad that it’s ended, but now I can finally pass these books over to my college-aged daughter, who has been wanting to read them. Audiobook Recommendation: If you enjoy listening to your books, I would recommend this series as a whole in audiobook form. Andrew Eiden and Susannah Jones were the narrators for The Goal, and they did a superb job of bringing Tucker and Sabrina to life. I could listen to these narrators forever narrate books to me. Trope(s)/Element(s): 🏒Sports/Hockey Romance 🏒One Night Stand 🏒Grumpy Vs. Sunshine (She’s the Grumpy One) 🏒He Falls First 🏒Surprise Pregnancy

This review can be found on my blog, Reader Rayna, as well as Goodreads. This review is for a companion novel, but there could be some spoilers ahead. I love this series so much. As my first foray into New Adult, I am not disappointed. This last book in the Off Campus companion series followed Tucker and Sabrina, a hockey player and a very serious law student. When the two make eye contact from across the room one day, they are instantly attracted to each other in a very serious way, and boy did the heat turn up. When this story first started I knew what was going to happen eventually because it was mentioned at the end of The Score, so I knew what to expect in one sense, but I didn't expect to be so interested in both of the characters and their lives separately and together. Sabrina James is very serious and driven in anything she does. Her stubbornness often causes her to wipe herself out, but she wants to succeed so much and to get into the school of her dreams: Harvard. She's working two jobs, going to school full time, and studying her butt off to achieve these dreams. I found that her resilience was very refreshing and I liked seeing someone so committed, but even I was like, "You've gotta relax a little, bro." I found that sometimes she was very high strung, but I think a lot of that had to do with anxiety and how she dealt with it in her own terms. Of course, then when John Tucker showed up, a lot of that changed. Tuck is a very charming, smart, caring Southern gentleman and I loved him. I thought he was very mature compared to the last three guys in this series, but he was also just as horny as the others. I loved that he tried very hard to pursue Sabrina - and that he even realized he was going into "stranger danger" territory at one point and backed down a bit. But after that his pursuit wasn't pushy, but it was something that I could definitely see happening in real life. I thought that the way he strived to be a businessman and achieve his dream was also just as awesome as Sabrina's wish. And then The Thing happened, and oh man, I needed to know what the two were going to do in the situation. And this is where I'm going to drop some SPOILERS because I need to air a few things that bugged me and also excited me: When Sabrina found out she was pregnant, she was scared, and I don't blame her at all in her given situation. She had a craptastic home life, she was under a lot of stress, and she didn't know what to do in the situation, but when she told her friends and her friends suggested abortion and almost tried to push it on her, I felt myself getting very annoyed because it's not their body, therefore not their decision. I was just ruffled that it was mentioned so casually, like it was the one and only option, until a few paragraphs later they were going to totally support her. It just felt off and weird. I'm glad she went through with it and everything, but I wished that we could have seen a bit more? I mean there were a lot of big instances like finding out the gender and the birth (which was hilarious), but I just wished for a little more. I was like, "Sabrina, stop being so damn stubborn and worrying and just tell the guy you love him!" I wished it had happened sooner than the last 3% of the book. But I'm still glad it happened. That girl is so resilient! Taking care of a baby through Harvard? That's amazing. I love her and Tuck together, I really do. They balance each other out and I think that they meshed well together. I was creeped out by Ray the whole time, and I wasn't super fond of Sabrina's Nana, and then Tuck's mom, though coming from a place of love, was just cruel the way she approached Sabrina about everything. But hey, it happens, and I know that. There are plenty of sexytimes that happen in this book just like the rest of them, but I think there's a lot more dirty talk during the act than in the previous books, but I could be wrong. Either way, it was very good. Overall I felt that this book wasn't the best in the series, but I'm glad Sabrina's and Tuck's relationship was still explored because there was just a lot there and so much developed and came from it. I rate this book 4/5 stars and highly recommend it if you've read the rest of the Off Campus series.

I loved Tucker. He was funny, patient and devoted. He was not what I was expecting from the character. I liked sabrina but she drove me nuts because she couldn't communicate. The ending of the book dragged for me just because she couldn't tell tucker how she felt. I would have liked a bigger love declaration on both their parts but the scene was still good.

Ce tome marque la fin des couples de Off-Campus. On a enfin la possibilité d’apprendre à connaître Sabrina, rencontrée dans les tomes différents, et pas dans les meilleures conditions. Retournement de situation quand on se rend compte de tout ce qu’elle doit subir chez elle, et de tout ce qu’elle sacrifie pour atteindre ses objectifs. Tucker lui reste Tucker, toujours aussi drôle, mais cette fois on voit la version “amour” de Tucker, et on aimerait toutes en avoir un 😂 Il est juste adorable, il se fait rembarrer mais continue d’essayer et quand la grande surprise arrive il ne fuit pas, bien au contraire. J’ai vraiment aimé ce tome ! Plus que le tome précédent, et j’aime surtout que toute la bande continue à se réunir autour du hockey. Cette saga a été un véritable coup de cœur, que ce soit côté couples, histoire ou sport.

i love an accidental pregnancy and him being there no matter what 🩷 might be my fav of the series

, Perfect condition + ♡♡♡

I absolutely loved Tucker and Sabrina’s story. Their relationship felt genuine, emotional, and completely captured my attention from beginning to end. They complemented each other so well, and watching them navigate everything life threw at them made this such a rewarding read. It was wonderful catching up with all the familiar characters again. Dean is still unapologetically Dean, and I loved seeing the friendships between the hockey boys remain just as strong. Garrett and Logan’s battle over who gets to be Jamie’s godfather was such a fun addition and reminded me why I fell in love with this group of characters in the first place. I couldn’t have asked for a better conclusion to the Off-Campus series. Tucker was the perfect character to end on, and I loved how so many storylines came full circle while giving readers a satisfying, heartfelt ending. It wrapped up the series beautifully and left me with a huge smile on my face.

Lo amo intensamente. Es la segunda vez que lo leo y la verdad no recordaba que estuviera tan bueno. Amo demasiado esta serie