The Goal
4.2 | 50,357 ratings
Price: 18.72
Last update: 01-27-2026
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- LaurenThe Goal ReviewFrom 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. - Jessica HullA sexy, frustrating sports romance that made me want to scream from the inside out!!The Goal is an unpredictable, messy romance that follows a determined, headstrong, stoic law student and a sweet, laidback southern hockey player as they find their plans on thin ice, their goals suddenly beyond their reach. Sabrina and Tucker are two very different personalities headed in two very different directions. Sabrina has one goal... escape. The shame and the frustration of her broken, twisted home life has made her ruthless in her drive toward that escape, her academic goals providing her with the only way out. But that drive, that shame, that proud determination makes for a character that is so closed off, so hardened. She's the polar opposite of John Tucker, the sweet, loveable Texan who might be unsure of his immediate plans, but he knows where he ultimately wants to end up. Sabrina and Tucker thought they knew where they were headed, they each had their own plans for their respective futures, but when their lives tangle, the unexpected threatens everything.
It's a dicey move to take an unlikable character from a previous book and turn her into your next heroine. It's hard to sell that to readers who've been trained to hate that character by the very same author now looking to endear them to her. Full disclosure, I'm a reader that didn't like Sabrina before either. We weren't meant to. So, of course, I was skeptical that I'd come to want a guy like John Tucker with a girl like her. But while she's definitely a tough nut to crack, I very much appreciated what this author chose to do with this character in The Goal. Sabrina isn't like other girls. She's as unapologetically sexual as the horny hockey players in this series. She's as impenetrable and difficult and frustrating as NA male characters typically are. She's complex and fierce and she has priorities that don't involve long term relationships. She doesn't exude a lot of vulnerability or emotion. She can come across as selfish, but it's not in a malicious way. She's just a girl that has always had to look out for herself and put herself first because no one else ever has. And given all of that, I'd say Elle Kennedy has successfully turned a villain into a heroine, and she's done so without compromising the integrity of her character. I can't get on board with an author taking a character she once vilified and completely altering her personality to fit the new goal of the author, to make her the sweetheart heroine you wish your readers will suddenly fall in love with. I have much more respect and appreciation for Elle Kennedy's choice to ensure Sabrina is still Sabrina. And getting to know her in all of her flaws and rough edges and her maddening stubbornness, I can NOW allow myself to want good things for her despite being so frustrated with her, without feeling like I read a story about a completely different character than the one presented to me previously. This author gets an A for character consistency. A big fat A.
I really enjoyed this installment. It hasn't topped The Score for me as a series favorite, but it's a really beautiful, angsty story about finding new dreams, discovering all the things you want in life even if they were never part of your original plan. It's about deciding what's most important. It's about making the choice to roll with whatever life throws at you as long as the right person is there to hold your hand through it all. Sabrina is a hard heroine to root for. And Tucker is so freakishly nice, he's the polar opposite of the bad boys I typically fall for. But there was something so right about this couple. Even when everything was stacked against them, even when Sabrina fought so hard against the good in her life, even when Tucker should have probably run the other way, I wanted good things for this couple. I wanted their happily ever after. And Elle Kennedy delivers a really solid storyline that took me and these characters exactly where I'd hoped we'd go by way of the road less traveled.
The Goal made me feel all the things. As Kennedy's sports romances tend to do, The Goal is chock full of colorful characters whose banter had me laughing and sighing, swooning and smiling. This story is peppered with amusing moments, times of heartbreak, seriously steamy, sexy scenes and the most frustratingly maddening storyline of the series. And I really loved it. I love a story that makes me want to scream from the inside out. There's a lot of ways a writer can drive a reader to the brink and this story tested my patience and my tolerance in ways no other book has before. Sabrina takes stubborn to a whole other place and Tucker's patience with her was far more virtuous than mine. But as stressful and angst ridden and damn infuriating as I found their story, it's a deliciously satisfying, honest one and I really, really enjoyed it.