Friday, April 22, 2022

The Scorecard by Maren Moore {a review}


The Scorecard by Maren Moore is officially available! Friends, this book is quite possibly my favorite in the Totally Pucked series. Or really I should say of all the hockey romances that I've read from Maren Moore. Graham and Emery have captured my attention. I cannot wait for you to all pick up this book and give it a read. Just know that it does end in a cliffhanger, so you're not going to get your HEA right away. Rumor has it that The Final Score will be out at the end of May, but that's not concrete right now.

The Scorecard started off with Emery having a girls night at her brother's house. As the girls were talking, the conversation naturally turned toward hockey players. This had the girls creating a list, a scorecard if you will, of a few players. That list was supposed to be thrown away, after all it was just made in fun. Yet when Graham showed up to the house, he happened to find it. He saw his name in 5th place, and that didn't sit right with him. Graham also doesn't understand why Emery seems to hate him so much. It's been bugging him for a while now. Especially as his attraction to her grows. Not that he can do anything about that though, it's his best friend's little sister after all. Things quickly take a turn after a night out. This hate to love relationship has just entered a new phase. Lives are about to change. Feelings are about to shift. A future together is a definite possibility. But it could be all thrown out the window with the news that is about to drop. 

Let's dive into my thoughts...

4.5 stars my friends. That is what I rated The Scorecard over on Goodreads. Freaking obsessed with this couple!

The Scorecard grabbed my attention immediately partly because it's Graham's story, but also because it's the brother's best friend trope. Which if you know me at all, you know I absolutely love that trope. This is also a hate to love story (some could consider it enemies to lovers, but I don't), a forced proximity romance, a fake relationship relationship, and it also has a surprise pregnancy! Oof that's a lot.

We find out early on why Emery has issues with Graham, and it makes complete sense. I don't blame her one bit, I would be irritated with him as well. But all it takes is that one night to change it all. Yes the "hate" is still there, but it's starting to lessen. As Emery gets to know Graham though, that hate is definitely turning toward love. 

Loved getting to meet Graham's mom and sister. The Tennessee scenes were some of my favorites. Being in Tennessee allowed us to get to know Graham a lot more, and see him be a bit vulnerable. This also affected Emery's way of viewing Graham. She was able to see this side of him that he doesn't show to others. It shows what a family man he is, and where his passions off the ice lay. He's sharing what he sees as a piece of his future with the woman he loves.

For those who are not familiar with Emery, she's a new lawyer. It's taken a lot of hard work and dedication to get where she is. At her job, her boss tapped her to work on an extremely important case. I found myself a bit confused about all of this as we had no information about it. We knew the client name, and we were able to briefly meet them, but that was it. I have questions regarding that. I'm not sure how that is going to tie into the storyline between Emery and Graham. I'm guessing that will be revealed in part 2.

Then there is the fact that the "scorecard" from the beginning was not really referenced much throughout the book. To be honest, this is part of what held me back from giving the full 5 stars. I thought we would see Graham working his magic to move up the list, and him showing Emery why he deserves that top spot vs one of his teammates. So that was a bit of a let down.

Oh, and I want to mention the pregnancy because this is the second thing that affected my rating. Now it's not the fact that Emery is pregnant. That doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things. It's the timeline of her pregnancy. We know that Graham is the dad. We know that. I trust that. But knowing what else we know about OTHER characters who are also pregnant, Emery had to deliver prematurely. Yet that was not mentioned. That pregnancy timeline for Emery, Graham, and the other characters just wasn't flushed out properly. There was info that didn't line up. Am I looking too deeply into this? Quite possibly. But as someone who has given birth four times, I know a few things. So that just irritated me. Sorry.

I'm able to look past those couple of "issues", and I still feel 100% confident in my 4.5 star rating. I loved the book. I loved the characters. I am now counting down the days to The Final Score so that I can find out what happens next in their story. Because the tidbit at the end had my jaw dropping.

Cannot wait to see how Maren wraps up Emery and Graham's story, and to see what happens next for our characters from the Totally Pucked world.

Thank you for taking time to read my thoughts on The Scorecard. I hope you'll pick this one up, and fall for the characters the way I have. Truly this is my favorite of the series.

Happy Reading,
Laura


Pretending to be married to my brother’s best friend and my biggest enemy is the last thing I imagined I’d be doing.

But there was a thin line between lust and hate, and when I fell into bed with the NHL’s rookie playboy, I found out just how easy that line got blurred.

We were enemies with benefits, but then two pink lines changed it all.

Now he was bringing me back home to his family’s farm and faking it became real… in more ways than one.

He was meant to be the enemy but falling for him meant letting him win.

The Scorecard
Graham: 1
Me: 0

**The Scorecard is book 1 of the duet and is approximately 60,000 words. This book does end on a cliffhanger.


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Thank you to Maren Moore, and Wildfire Marketing Solutions, for providing me with an advanced review copy of  The Scorecard.