Title: The Score (2016)
Series: The Off-Campus Series – Book 3
Author: Elle Kennedy
Genre: New Adult
Extent: 361 pages
Release Date: January 11, 2016
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Goodreads Description
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.
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
I’ve been kind of in a New Adult kick lately, and unsurprisingly, Elle Kennedy’s very popular Off-Campus series is my drug of choice. The Score is the third book in the series, following The Deal and The Mistake, and while I didn’t love it as much as those two, I still stand behind my statement that this series as a whole is really entertaining and addictive. Let’s get to it. 🙂
The Score matchmakes Dean, the ‘manwhore’ of our beloved hockey team, with Allie, Hannah’s best friend from The Deal. A drunken one-night-stand leaves Dean wanting for a repeat performance with Allie, who just broke up with her long-term, on-off boyfriend and isn’t into casual sex. Throw in some sneaking around to avoid rumours, some confusion about the future, and family problems, and you have The Score.
“I’m not ready to be with anyone else yet.”
“Sure you are. Seriously, just find yourself a rebound.” Dean whips up his arm. “I volunteer as tribute.”
First off the bat, Dean and Allie are quite entertaining protagonists. Born the middle son to two very high-profile lawyers, Dean has always lived a charmed life and is on-track to go to Harvard law school once college finishes up. Allie, on the other hand, comes from a less privileged family and has survived a couple of hardships in her life. Dean teaches Allie to live more in the moment whereas she teaches him to take more control in his life.
There is so much sex in this book that, I admit, I actually got a little bit tired of it and started skimming them. Personally, I’d like to see more conversations between our two leads rather than even more wild, raunchy sex. Right now the ratio feels like 50/50, but I prefer something along the lines of 70/30 in favour of conversations. I think because of this, I didn’t connect with Dean and Allie as a couple as much as I connected with the couples from previous Off-Campus books.
“I am perfect. I need to remind myself of that more often.”
I snort. “Right. Because you’re not conceited enough.”
“I’m confident,” he corrects.
The other reason why I didn’t enjoy this book as much as the others is because of the way Sean, Allie’s ex-boyfriend, is portrayed. When we first met him in Book 1, Sean was a really nice guy who truly cared for and respected Allie. In The Score, he and Allie broke up because they saw that their futures were incompatible — a very good reason to stay broken up. Instead, though, Kennedy chose to develop him as a crazy, clingy ex-boyfriend, one who sent Allie running straight into Dean’s arms (almost literally). I didn’t feel like this particular development was necessary and could’ve easily been achieved another way.
Despite my reservations about this book, though, I still found it utterly hilarious. Elle Kennedy has a great way with dialogue and always manages to find the funniest, wittiest possible ways of describing things. Coupled with the fact that her characters can be found in wacky situations, this book is personally a goldmine for giggles. I will leave you with one of my favourite moments below:
“You know, I don’t think we’re dealing with a Bella’s-magical-blood situation here.”
“No?”
“No. I think you’ve imprinted on this girl’s pussy.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean you’re facing a Jacob quandary. You imprinted on her pussy, and now it’s the only pussy you can think about. You exist solely for this pussy. Like Jacob and that weird mutant baby.”
Any author who pokes well-natured fun at Twilight is right up my alley. 😂
I agree about Sean’s characterisation – it’s like he underwent a personality transplant all in the name of added drama and angst!
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Exactly! And I feel like even without him being kind of a jerk, Allie and Dean would’ve happened just as nicely – I just feel like it’s a missed opportunity, you know? 😦
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I’ve been binge-ing some NA as well and I’ve surprisingly finished the entire Off-Campus series 😛 I agree that it was kind of weirs for Sean to be so out of character, I remember Hannah telling us how good and kind he is on book 1. Also like you, I really like Dean and Allie as protagonists, they’re fun and the wit level was high hahaha and yesss to the Twilight reference it was funny lol great review! ❤
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I knooow! And I mean, having incompatible futures is a perfectly good reason to break up and could also give some angst to the characters – I don’t really see a need for him to be developed into a jerk, I guess, and I’m real disappointed about that.
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Too much sex in a book doesn’t work for me either. I get annoyed after a while, because, like you said, I just want them to have a conversation! And poking harmless fun at Twilight will always make me chuckle (:
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I actually really love Twilight references in a book. Something about them… But yeah, perhaps I should know better than to pick up an NA book but the first two books in the series were pretty good at balancing the sex and the… ‘deeper’ emotional connection, I thought. 😂
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I do not read this genre, but I admit I enjoyed this review. You had me with those quotes 😉
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Thanks, Danielle! Those quotes had me too. 😉
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That last quote always makes my day! 😂 I’m a bit sad that you didn’t like this one as much since this is my favorite but I’m glad you’re still enjoying the series. What did you think about the situation with Beau?
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I know, I love it when authors poke fun at Twilight! Hmm, I feel like the Beau thing is a bit out of “tone” with the rest of the series? Like I could see the result happening some other way even without Beau and it really took me out of my groove. What did you think of it? 😛
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Now that I look back on it, I kind of agree with what you’re saying but it just made it more real for me while reading. Tragedies don’t happen when you want them to, neither does death and while I was completely heartbroken (I wanted him to have his own book), it just made the story more realistic for me.
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I can understand! I think it’s just that I went into this series for the funny and cute, and while it’s definitely that, I wasn’t really expecting it to also be tragic. I wanted him to have his own book too – he featured quite a lot in the other guys’ stories. 😦
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Yeah that’s kind of what everyone expected from this series and then it took a turn haha I appreciated the surprise but it must have been jarring for you. It was so sad! She’s doing a spin off but I’m not sure who will be featured in it.
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It really was, haha. I did NOT expect to be reading about someone’s tragic death in a book with a topless dude on the cover – the dissonance is real. 😂
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😂😂 well when you put it that way, who wouldn’t be completely shocked?? Haha
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Exactly! 😂
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From the synopsis: “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.”
Honestly, for me, this looks like giant flashing red NO. It brings to mind one of my all-time favorite Tumblr comments (the last one, in bold): http://uta-no-pelvic-thrust.tumblr.com/post/123867270085/kramergate-micspam-ghostsnif
People who refuse to take “let’s be friends” for an answer send me from mild-mannered nerd to INFURIATED NERD in approximately half a second.
Is Dean presented as an entitled dick who learns to be less entitled and dickish, or is his behavior not really addressed as a bad thing? (Or, better yet, is his behavior not as awful in the book as the synopsis makes it sound?)
I guess it’s safest for me to steer clear of this book (especially since I’d be skimming past all the sexxxing, too)–though I’m disappointed about it, because the humor really does look awesome. Oh, well. Great review! =)
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Oh, I’m with you! In real life that’s a HUGE no-no for me but in books they tend to be presented as confidence instead of, hmm, arrogance and entitlement.
It’s been a while since I wrote this review/read this book, but I think it’s because we get to hear from both Allie’s and Dean’s side that his… er, persistence isn’t as in-your-face because we know that Allie actually welcomes it somewhat. It’s that whole “he’s cocky but since he’s hot, it’s OK” trope.
I’m gonna be honest — books in this genre can be really, really problematic if you read with your brain on (so to speak). I read them purely for fun, but I fully recognise that they are sometimes on the sexist, or perhaps very ‘traditionalist’ side of things – i.e. the idea that men are/should be like A, B, C, and women are X, Y, Z, etc. It’s probably why I don’t read too many of these things and only… sample them occasionally? It’s some sort of a guilty pleasure, and I wouldn’t personally recommend them to you. 😛
Thanks for sharing that Tumblr post with me! Brought a smile to my face.
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Oh, whew. Yeah, that sounds a lot more readable than the synopsis made it seem!
But I’ll take your suggestion and not read it, just to be safe. Because yeah, my brain apparently cannot shut the hell up and let me enjoy a book for once. *Shakes a fist at it.* I’m glad you’re able to enjoy them!
=)
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It definitely didn’t seem *that* problematic in the moment, I’ll admit. 😛
Thanks! It’s something I’m only able to do occasionally, so I usually just let myself course with it whenever it’s time. 😉
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I can see what you’re saying. How about that ending, though? Did it make you want to reach for The Goal immediately? I had wait so freakin’ long waiting for it to come out and it drove me nuts because I had to know what was going to happen next!
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I didn’t expect that ending at all, and thankfully didn’t have to wait that long! Having now read The Goal, though, I feel like the series gets less and less enjoyable for me with every book, but it could be because I get sick of the whole “hockey men are hot and confident and basically sex gods” thing real quick. 😛
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Lol. I can see what you’re saying.
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I’m glad! 😂
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Great review! I just read this one about a week ago and I agree with every single one of your points. I love this series as a whole, it’s super fun and addictive, but I feel like I enjoy each new book just a little less. This book was indeed a bit too much sex, not enough dialogue. And I agree about Sean, they didn’t have to ‘villainize’ him. I still have to read The Goal, but I hope to do that soon 🙂
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Thanks, Lindsey! I’m glad to hear that you agree, and I’m the same, I enjoy each new book a little less. I assume it’s because I’m already pretty sick of the whole “hot hockey men” thing, though.
Hope you enjoy The Goal!
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Ok, that last quote made me snort laugh, and I don’t snort laugh, so it was an internal snort laugh…but it still existed in my head.
Thanks for sharing: one of the reasons I stay away from books like these normally is the preconception that it’s all sex. If the typical ratio in her books is 70/30, then I could get into that. I read a book by Rissa Blakely that had so much sex that I couldn’t stand it anymore. I was like, where is the plot?? 😉
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I’d say that this one has a bit too much sex for me – mostly bc I tend to skim through those scenes – but the first two books in the series are really quite well-balanced! I recommend them for the humour, mostly. 🙂
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