Why I Didn’t Finish The Goal (And Why I’ll Probably Go Back)

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When I started Elle Kennedy’s Off Campus series, I didn’t expect to fly through it the way I did.

I watched the Prime Video adaptation first, completely fell in love with the characters, and then immediately picked up the books. Before I knew it, I’d read The Deal, The Mistake, and The Score in what felt like a blur. Most of them disappeared in twenty-four-hour reading sessions, and somewhere in between I managed to rewatch the show more than once.

Needless to say, I was invested.

So when I picked up The Goal—Tucker and Sabrina’s story—I assumed I’d do exactly what I’d done with the first three books: stay up far too late, ignore my ever-growing TBR, and finish it in a day or two.

Instead, I made it about 30% of the way through before quietly putting it down.

Not because I hated it. Not because I think it’s a bad book. I just realized I wasn’t enjoying the experience anymore.

Goodreads // Storygraph

Tucker Wasn’t the Problem

If anything, Tucker was one of the reasons I wanted to keep reading.

Compared to Garrett, Logan, and Dean, Tucker has a completely different personality. He gives off genuine Southern gentleman energy—the kind of guy who feels like he was raised on “my momma taught me better than that.” He’s thoughtful, patient, and refreshingly different from the cockier personalities that came before him.

I genuinely wanted to see him get his happy ending. The problem wasn’t Tucker. It was everything surrounding him.

I Never Really Connected with Sabrina

One of my favorite parts of the first three books was how quickly I found myself rooting for each female main character.

Hannah was incredibly resilient despite everything she’d been through.

Grace surprised me. She started out quieter than the others, but her humor slowly won me over, especially alongside Logan.

And Allie… honestly, I’m still not entirely convinced she operates on the same wavelength as the rest of humanity, and I mean that as the highest compliment. She has so much personality that every scene she’s in feels fun.

Then came Sabrina.

I understood her circumstances. I genuinely felt for the position she was in.

But understanding a character isn’t always the same as enjoying spending hundreds of pages with them.

By the time I decided to take a break, I found her treatment of Tucker frustrating more often than compelling. Every time it felt like they were making progress, she’d pull away again, and I struggled to connect with that emotional push-and-pull. 

Tucker never struck me as overly pushy or entitled. If anything, I kept finding myself wondering why he was trying so hard for someone who seemed determined to keep him at arm’s length.

Maybe that’s exactly what Elle Kennedy intended.

It just wasn’t working for me.

Déjà Vu

The other challenge was the structure itself.

Because The Goal overlaps with The Score, I found myself revisiting scenes I’d already experienced from another perspective.

Sometimes that kind of storytelling adds emotional depth or reveals details you missed the first time around.

Here, I mostly felt like I was rereading moments I’d only recently finished.

That isn’t necessarily a flaw in the novel. I just happened to read these books back-to-back, so everything was still incredibly fresh in my mind.

The combination of repetition and struggling to connect with Sabrina left me feeling surprisingly disengaged.

When Real Life Changes the Reading Experience

There was another reason I decided to step away, and it had very little to do with the writing itself.

Because The Goal overlaps with The Score, it revisits one of the most emotional moments in the series.

Without spoiling anything, I realized I simply wasn’t in the right headspace to experience that scene again so soon.

Sometimes a DNF isn’t really about the book. Sometimes it’s about where you are as a reader.

Books don’t exist in a vacuum. We bring our own experiences into every story we read, and sometimes a scene that would’ve been manageable another year lands very differently today.

That doesn’t make the book worse. It just means the timing isn’t right.

The Formula Started Showing

I’ll also admit something else started becoming more noticeable by Book Four.

The spice.

Or more specifically…

How is every single Briar hockey player apparently a legendary, once-in-a-lifetime lover?

At a certain point I had to laugh.

The first few books got away with it because everything else still felt fresh, but by the fourth installment I started noticing the familiar rhythms of the series. Hockey player. Emotional baggage. Incredible chemistry. Plenty of spice. Happy ending.

(Although if you read Logan’s book then you know, Grace’s experience was a bit different at the start.)

There’s nothing inherently wrong with that formula—it clearly works for a lot of readers.

I just became more aware of it after spending a month almost exclusively living in Briar’s world.

The Show Didn’t Help Either

Watching the adaptation before reading the books gave me a really fun perspective for the first three novels.

With Tucker, though, it became a little distracting.

Jalen Thomas’ version of Tucker is so different from the pale, redheaded Tucker described in the books that my brain kept bouncing between two completely different versions of the same character.

Usually an adaptation replaces my mental image.

This time the two versions were competing for space, and I found it oddly difficult to fully settle into either one.

So…Will I Finish It?

I think so. Actually, I’m pretty confident I will.

The more I’ve thought about it, the more I’ve realized I don’t think The Goal failed me. I think I burned myself out.

I spent weeks immersed in Briar University. I read three books almost without coming up for air. I rewatched the show multiple times. Then I immediately jumped into the fourth novel.

Maybe I didn’t need another hockey romance. Maybe I just needed to miss these characters for a while.

When Tucker and Sabrina’s season eventually arrives on television, I could easily see myself picking the book back up and reading alongside the adaptation. A little distance might be exactly what I need to appreciate their story on its own terms.

Final Thoughts

Walking away from a book—even temporarily—can feel strangely disappointing, especially when you’ve loved everything that came before it.

But I’ve also learned that not every pause has to become a permanent goodbye.

Elle Kennedy may never end up on future high school English reading lists, but I don’t think that’s really the point. What she created with Off Campus was a world I genuinely wanted to spend time in. Garrett, Logan, Dean, and Tucker all feel like distinct people, and that’s something not every romance series manages to accomplish.

So no, I don’t think I’m finished with Briar.

I’m just taking a little break.

And honestly?

I think that’s exactly what this series—and maybe I—needed.

Have you ever stepped away from a series you were enjoying, only to come back later and love it again? Or was there one book that quietly convinced you it was time to move on? I’d love to hear about it in the comments.

The Deal Review // The Mistake Review // The Score Review // The Book vs. Show Adaptation Review