★★★★★ 3
John Tucker made this book
Format: Kindle
The Goal (Off Campus #4) by Elle Kennedy
3 stars!!
“I’m not the girl for John Tucker, and I never will be.”
After the bomb was dropped at the end of The Score I was more than eager for John Tucker’s story, he was a character that had always blended into the background and we never really got to know him throughout the other books in this series, but as they say, the quiet ones are often the worst.
However, John Tucker was adorable in every sense of the word. He really surprised me in The Goal. He was one of the most loyal and loving guys out of all of them and had the patience of a saint to back it up and with Sabrina James he certainly needed it. But also, Tucker was as sexy as hell and had a filthy mouth, I never would have guessed it. For some godforsaken reason Tucker loved Sabrina, whereas some guys would have given up and run for the hills, Tucker was glutton for punishment, he took the punches, he took the rejection, but would he get a happy ever after?
“Even if you hadn’t said you loved me back, I’d take whatever scraps you were willing to give me as long as I could be with you. I don’t give a s**t if that makes me pathetic-”
Sabrina James, she was one cool customer who I just couldn’t warm up to. I admired her drive and determination, her focus on bettering herself but her treatment of Tucker just wound me up no end. She was the puppet master and she definitely pulled all the strings and led our Tucker on a merry dance. Her coolness and aloofness throughout just grated on my every last nerve. If Tucker was insincere I could understand it, but she knew deep down that she held Tucker’s heart in her hands and had no qualms about toying with his emotions.
“It doesn’t matter how thin or thick anyone’s wallet is. We all hurt. We all love. We’re the same. And your past, who you live with, where you came from, it doesn’t have to matter. You’re creating your own future, and I want to see where the road forward takes you.”
For me though, my biggest gripe with this book was pacing. This story runs parallel with The Score and so a chunk of the plot line was repetitive. I just felt that as situations were rehashed through someone else’s eyes it lost its impact and for me interrupted my reading mojo. If you are reading this as a standalone and have not read The Score, then this shouldn’t be an issue. The first half of the book was particularly slow for me, however, as everything hots up in the second half it pulled me back in.
“My goal, once upon a time, was to succeed. I didn’t realize that success wasn’t grades or scholarships or achievements, but the people I was lucky enough to have in my life.”
My heart definitely belonged to John Tucker in this book, this guy had a heart of gold, was the most loving and giving, he gave Sabrina everything she wanted and needed and yet she still kept him at arm’s length. He was forever trying to bore little holes into her life and heart to inch that little bit forward but she was an emotional fortress, it all seemed a little one sided. They get there in the end but she was definitely a tough nut to crack.
“I can’t make a single decision. Not until Sabrina makes the most important one of all.”
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Reviewed in the United States on September 27, 2016
