Book Rewind · Review: The Score (Off-Campus #3)
by Elle Kennedy
For today’s Book Rewind we are featuring The Score, the third book in the Off-Campus series by Elle Kennedy! You can check out my Book Rewind feature from last couple of weeks for reviews of The Deal and The Mistake! This new adult, college sports romance series is a favorite for me & many people and I hope you check out these reviews & series!
Book Rewind is a meme where we review a backlist title to distinguish reviewed books that are not a new release. We noticed we tend to review almost all new or newly released books and wanted to have a feature to spotlight some older books that we either just read or are just reviewing because we never got around to it, or possibly didn’t blog back then! This meme will be posted on Thursdays as a ‘Throwback Thursday’ kind of deal.
We totally encourage others to participate in the Book Rewind Review meme! Backlist titles need love too! Feel free to use our banner and be sure to link back to our page and tag us on social media so we can help promote your posts too!
The Score (Off-Campus #3) by Elle Kennedy
Category: New Adult, Contemporary Romance
Publication: January 11th, 2016
Purchase: Amazon
He knows how to score, on and off the ice
Allie Hayes is in crisis mode. With graduation looming, she still doesn’t have the first clue about what she’s going to do after college. To make matters worse, she’s nursing a broken heart thanks to the end of her longtime relationship. Wild rebound sex is definitely not the solution to her problems, but gorgeous hockey star Dean Di-Laurentis is impossible to resist. Just once, though, because even if her future is uncertain, it sure as heck won’t include the king of one-night stands.
It’ll take more than flashy moves to win her over
Dean always gets what he wants. Girls, grades, girls, recognition, girls…he’s a ladies man, all right, and he’s yet to meet a woman who’s immune to his charms. Until Allie. For one night, the feisty blonde rocked his entire world—and now she wants to be friends? Nope. It’s not over until he says it’s over. Dean is in full-on pursuit, but when life-rocking changes strike, he starts to wonder if maybe it’s time to stop focusing on scoring…and shoot for love.
Review:
[book rating=5/5]*This review was originally published, on my now defunct blog, back in 2015, and has since been edited.
From the moment I saw the chance to read The Score early, I knew I needed it like oxygen. I loved reading about Dean in the previous books, so I knew his book would be a sweet ride. For the first time in this series, I imagined something while reading the synopsis and I got that and more. It was complex, heartbreaking, heart-warming, sad, and hot all at the same time.
Allie is Hannah’s best friend, who we first met in the first book, The Deal, when she was giving a lot of moral support to Hannah while she was dealing with Garrett. Back then, she had a long-time boyfriend who she broke up with after a huge fight. In that aftermath, she finds herself in the bed of the biggest man-whore on the planet: Dean Di-Laurentis. Allie is not about one-night stands, so she never imagined anything after their night together, but Dean had other things to say about that. Add to all is this the uncertainty and struggles of Allie’s acting career and where she sees herself in the near future, and you get a complicated story of love and finding yourself.
I wasn’t fan of Allie before The Score. To be honest, her personality didn’t do anything for me – I didn’t fall in love with her or anything. She was just a regular girl in the background. I don’t even remember any funny or witty remarks from her, but it was probably because I didn’t pay much attention to her. But in this book!! Man, I fell in love with her! She is everything I ever wanted in a character and more. She is dramatic, feisty and funny, sweet and loyal, and I can see why she and Hannah are best friends. She has such a sad backstory and when you read about it, you can see the strength in her. She is compassionate and opinionated.
Dean. Dean Di-Laurentis. The newest love of my life. I’m as in love with him as I am with Garrett. Seriously. Dean is the epitome of a ladies man and I even love that about him. He is such a complex character. On one hand, he is all flirt and jokes. Everything with him is about sex and nothing complicated, but then you just need to look deeper to find his true self. Although his mind is set on how his life will turn out, he can’t help wishing for another path to follow – one that would be more suitable for him.
There is a tremendous amount of chemistry, heat, and romance in this book. Allie and Dean cannot resist their pull toward each other, no matter how one or the other wants to deny it. Together, they rock the world, and not just their own, but each others too. I love the slow burn that is going on romantically between them. They already know they are compatible in the physical aspect, so they don’t rush anything emotionally. Their romance is very realistic and one that I wish I could experience too.
While there is romance, there is a lot of friendship and loyalty. The hockey guys stick together, even though they all have their girlfriends. They still make time to spend together here and there, and this is the kind of friendship that will live on. There is also Hannah and Allie, who are still best friends and loyal to each other.
And to let you know, there is also a lot of heartbreak in this one. The major life-changing event that strikes Dean is something I never expected to happen. You will cry with him and Allie in the last few chapters. Elle Kennedy made this one hit home really hard.
We get the same dual POV in this one as in the past, and the usual writing style that I was expecting from Elle. It was such a quick read. These tropes she uses are nothing new, but she has a way of tweaking certain things and adding her unique element to it. Actually, The Score was so great, it put in me in a reading hangover for weeks, and I cannot help but reread the whole series again. Everything was just perfectly written and nothing wass overdone in any way. If you loved the other books from the series, be sure to check this one out too, because I’m sure you’ll love it!
