The Score by Elle Kennedy
Genre: NA Realistic Fiction
Blurb (on back of book):
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.
MY OPINION: ****
I actually ended up loving this book a lot more than the previous one. While Dean is definitely not my favorite of the four main hockey boys, I truly enjoyed his story and the relationship he and Allie created in this book. While I personally thought it was quite unexpected, it was very cute and well-written!
Dean is the typical player bad-boy who does whatever he wants whenever he wants in his Life of Dean. He's basically lived a good life, being rich, hot, and a well-known hockey player and he hasn't really known pain or experienced any unfortunate circumstances as of yet. He also doesn't do girlfriends, until he meets Allie, Hannah's best friend (Hannah being the protagonist of the first book of the series).
Allie has just gotten out of a three-year relationship with her on-again, off-again boyfriend, Sean, who was honestly an asshole and I despised the whole man. He seemed very manipulative and toxic and often gaslighted her and I'm glad that she didn't go running back to him even though there were times when she wanted to. Allie has been in committed, exclusive relationships her whole life and only feels safe and comfortable in a relationship. She ends up having to stay over at Dean's apartment one night to avoid the possibility of seeing her ex again and things move fast and soon enough she wakes up to find that she became the girl she never thought she was. She doesn't do one-night-stands and she doesn't do casual relationships, so the whole thing with Dean is a new experience that she did not like.
I loved Allie and Dean's relationship. It starts as more of a friends-with-benefits, lust-centered type of thing but it was obvious they were going to end up in a more committed relationship, especially since this is the Off Campus series and that has been the theme so far. The slow burn was very well done and I thought the book was perfectly paced, not going too fast and not going too slow. Dean is hesitant to get into a relationship since he's never done girlfriends before but he can't stop thinking about Allie. Allie doesn't want to jump into something so quickly after her breakup with Sean and especially doesn't want her rebound to be player Dean Di Laurentis. However, I loved how they eventually got together.
There was a huge plottwist at the end of this book that I was not expecting and was frankly quite emotional about. I didn't expect something so serious to happen in these otherwise fairly light and fluffy reads and it was definitely a shock. I do think that it was important that it did happen because it definitely helped to bring Dean and Allie closer together and also helped Dean to experience hardships, something that he has never had to deal with before.
I already have finished the fourth book (expect a review soon) and I can confidently say that this was my favorite out of the four. I just loved the relationship between Allie and Dean so much and I think that the various additions to the plot made it the best out the series.
The ending is very cliffhanger-y which is why I was quick to finish the fourth.
It's very unrealistic but so addicting that you can't help but overlook all the less understandable plot points in favor of the characters and the relationships and the romance. I would recommend this book to readers looking for a romance novel that will definitely help get anyone out of a reading slump!
Main Character: Dean, Allie
Sidekick(s): Garrett, Hannah, Logan, Tucker, etc
Villain(s): Disastrous events, misunderstandings, etc
Realistic Fiction Elements: This book was all very real to life.
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