The Goal by Elle Kennedy

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

She’s good at achieving her goals…

College senior Sabrina James has her whole future planned out: graduate from college, kick butt in law school, and land a high-paying job at a cutthroat firm. Her path to escaping her shameful past certainly doesn’t include a gorgeous hockey player who believes in love at first sight. One night of sizzling heat and surprising tenderness is all she’s willing to give John Tucker, but sometimes, one night is all it takes for your entire life to change.

But the game just got a whole lot more complicated…

Tucker believes being a team player is as important as being the star. On the ice, he’s fine staying out of the spotlight, but when it comes to becoming a daddy at the age of twenty-two, he refuses to be a bench warmer. It doesn’t hurt that the soon-to-be mother of his child is beautiful, whip-smart, and keeps him on his toes. The problem is, Sabrina’s heart is locked up tight, and the fiery brunette is too stubborn to accept his help. If he wants a life with the woman of his dreams, he’ll have to convince her that some goals can only be made with an assist.

The Goal

New adult surprise pregnancy sports romance!

The following ratings are out of 5:
Romance: 🖤💙❤️💚
Heat/Steam: 🔥🔥🔥
Story/Plot: 📕📗📘
World building: 🌏🌍🌎🌏
Character development: 🙂🥰😎🤩
Narrator(s): 🎙🎙🎙🎙
Narration type: Dual Narration

The heroine: Sabrina James – she is at the top of her class at Briar U, an ivy league college on the east coast, while holding down two jobs and paying a third of the rent on her family’s small home. She plans to go to law school and has applied to Harvard, Yale and Boston College. She plans to crawl out of the gutter as fast as she can. Her stepfather routinely hits on her, which is made even worse by the fact that he is married to her mother and sleeping with her grandmother. She is an extremely hard worker, and she is dedicated to her own advancement.

The Hero: John Tucker – he is a hockey player at the same ivy league college outside of Boston. He is majoring in business administration. He is a fun guy and often hangs out with his teammates. He is not the star on the hockey team and is fine being a team player, he hurt his knee in high school and plays good enough for his college scholarship but knows that he isn’t headed for the NHL. He gets plenty of women and often indulges in a one-night stand.

The Story: Tucker sees Sabrina at a party and is immediately attracted to her. His friends tell him that she will eat him alive. One of his friends even refers to her as his nemesis. This is due to how focused she is on her studies and how she isn’t shy to turn down most athletes. Tucker is persistent, and he wants her bad. He gives it all he has flirting with her and touching her and is able to hook up with her that night. Though she tells him off the bat that it will only be for one night, she isn’t interested in a relationship. He agrees, though he figures one night won’t be enough for either of them.

I liked how the romance between Tucker and Sabrina seemed to grow naturally, and though they fell in love with each other, neither would admit it, especially after Sabrina found out she was pregnant. The characters were great, and the story was interesting, though nothing spectacular. I was involved in the story, but the only real suspense was waiting for her to have the baby.

This audiobook was told in dual points of view via dual narration and was narrated by Susannah Jones and Andrew Eidem. Susannah’s voice wasn’t bad but wasn’t one of my favorites either. She was good at showing emotion through her voice though she didn’t do so well at using different voices for different characters. Andrew has a nice voice; it is a bit gravelly and sexy. He sounds very natural; not like he is reading. I thought he sounded suspiciously like Teddy Hamilton, so I googled them both and it’s the same guy.

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