{"id":12154,"date":"2016-09-24T08:00:16","date_gmt":"2016-09-24T12:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/?p=12154"},"modified":"2017-02-18T03:41:22","modified_gmt":"2017-02-18T08:41:22","slug":"arc-review-the-goal-off-campus-4-by-elle-kennedy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/?p=12154","title":{"rendered":"ARC Review: The Goal (Off-Campus, #4) by Elle Kennedy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Buy:\u00a0 Kindle Ebook<\/a>\u00a0 |\u00a0 Paperback<\/a><\/strong><\/h4>\n
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\r\n <\/div><\/div>\n
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Review<\/strong><\/h4>\n

4 stars!<\/b><\/p>\n

The fourth book in the Off Campus<\/i> series brings us the story of John Tucker. Tuck is the last of the four hockey playing friends and roommates that feature in these books \u2013 the quiet member of the group who hasn\u2019t had a lot of action in the series so far. However, a bomb dropped at the end of The Score<\/a> has had me desperate to get my hands on this one to see how his story was going to play out!<\/p>\n

Sabrina James was briefly introduced in the last book as the arch nemesis of Dean (Tuck\u2019s roommate). We\u2019ve only seen her from Dean\u2019s perspective, and he thinks she is a cold, stuck-up bitch. I was nervous going into this story, but after getting Sabrina\u2019s perspective and seeing her life, her goals, and her strong ambition, I actually liked her and was able to settle in and enjoy my read.<\/p>\n

Sabrina\u2019s life has not been easy, and she is desperate to rise up from her white-trash origins, away from her horrible home circumstances, and make something of herself. Her passion and determination to be accepted into Harvard Law school and build a successful legal career means that she devotes her life to two things \u2013 work and study \u2013 with no room for distractions. She doesn\u2019t have time for relationships, and she satisfies herself with quick hook ups \u2013 usually with athletes.<\/p>\n

Tucker and Sabrina meet in a crowded bar. Sparks fly, quick banter is exchanged, and before you know it they are steaming things up in Tucker\u2019s car, and holy hell! You know the old clich\u00e9 \u2018it\u2019s the quiet ones you have to watch out for\u2019? Well, it\u2019s true here because Tuck blew my mind! The man is sex on legs, deliciously dirty with a filthy mouth and OMG the sexy time is sizzling!<\/p>\n

One swift jerk of a lever and his seat falls completely flat. Tucker lies down and beckons for me again. \u201cC\u2019mere and fuck my face. I need more of that.\u201d
\nOh. My. God. Who is this guy?<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But whereas Sabrina attempts to move on after their brief, but life-shatteringly awesome sex, Tucker is smitten. He wants more of Sabrina, and he\u2019s determined to get it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m warning you \u2013 there are easier women than Sabrina.\u201d
\n\u201cWhy would I want someone easy?\u201d I flash him a grin. \u201cThat doesn\u2019t sound like any fun.\u201d<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There\u2019s a whole lot of back and forth as Tucker chases and Sabrina pushes him away, but she can\u2019t resist their chemistry. The lines are a bit blurry as they can\u2019t stay away from each other despite the uncertainty between them, but Tucker is just perfection \u2013 cheeky and flirty, infinitely patient, but giving the slightest push when Sabrina needs it, and being open about what he\u2019s feeling and what he wants from her.<\/p>\n

But then a delicious twist changes everything. Fans of the series will know exactly what\u2019s coming, and I love this trope in a romance novel, so I was super excited. The added complication creates some great intensity, and gives Tucker the opportunity to show his continues awesomeness. But even with the added intensity, there\u2019s still a whole lot of uncertainty between them. I thought it was well written, and it didn\u2019t reached the point of becoming too irritating (probably because Tucker is so freaking incredible), but I did get annoyed with Sabrina and her insistence on keeping Tucker at arm\u2019s length.

<\/span>Spoiler<\/div>
It\u2019s clear that he loves her and that he wants a future with her, and she feels exactly the same but is too scared to say anything, and her constant doubt, guilt and stubbornness made me want to smack some sense into her.<\/div><\/div> But despite the lack of clarity about their relationship, we can all see where it\u2019s going, and as the storyline progresses it is heartwarmingly gorgeous as we watch them cope with real life after college, figure what they want from their lives, and find their way forward together.<\/p>\n

The timing of this book takes us back to the beginning the The Score<\/i> (and revisiting some of those events was hard\u2026 and teary) before moving on to the future for these characters post-graduation. The rest of the crew are all a part of the story, and I loved catching up with the couples from the previous book, as well as getting to know some of the younger members of the team a bit better \u2013 at this point I\u2019m assuming the series will carry on with their stories?<\/p>\n

I really enjoyed this story. Honestly, I would have like a little bit more romance (as opposed to us just knowing what the characters were feeling from their inner monologues), but I really liked the overall story, and the way it all worked out for these characters.<\/p>\n

Not my favourite of the series, but still a great read. 4 stars.<\/p>\n

An Advanced Review Copy was generously provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.<\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Off-Campus\u00a0series<\/strong>
\n<\/strong><\/h4>\n

\"\"\u00a0 \"\"\u00a0 \"The\u00a0 \"\" \u00a0\"\"<\/p>\n

The Deal (#1) <\/strong>(Garret & Hannah)
\nReview<\/a>
\nBuy: \u00a0Amazon \u00a0<\/a>|\u00a0 Paperback<\/a><\/p>\n

The Mistake (#2) <\/strong>(Logan & Grace)
\nReview<\/a>
\nBuy:\u00a0 Amazon \u00a0<\/a>| \u00a0Paperback<\/a><\/p>\n

The Score (#3) <\/strong>(Dean & Allie)
\nReview<\/a>
\nBuy:\u00a0 Amazon \u00a0<\/a>|\u00a0 Paperback<\/a><\/p>\n

The Goal (#4) <\/strong>(Tucker & Sabrina)
\nReview<\/a>
\nBuy:\u00a0 Amazon \u00a0<\/a>|\u00a0 Paperback<\/a><\/p>\n

The Legacy (#5)<\/strong> (A collection of four ‘where are they now?’ novellas)
\nReview<\/a>
\nBuy:\u00a0 Amazon<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

For similar reads, check out our New Adult Recommendations<\/a> page<\/strong><\/h4>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Buy:\u00a0 Kindle Ebook\u00a0 |\u00a0 Paperback Review 4 stars! The fourth book in the Off Campus series brings us the story of John Tucker. Tuck is the last of the four hockey playing friends and roommates […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10954,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","yasr_overall_rating":4,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"Product","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,9,58,29],"tags":[59,28,77,48],"class_list":["post-12154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-new-adult","category-romance","category-sports-star","category-steamy","tag-arc","tag-elle-kennedy","tag-off-campus","tag-review"],"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":false,"span_bottom":false},"number_of_votes":0,"sum_votes":0},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/The-Goal.jpg?fit=150%2C229&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7gaNL-3a2","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12154\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}