Thank you Berkley and NetGalley for the Advanced Reader Copy. All opinions are my own.
The Final Score by Lana Ferguson follows Jack Baker, his hockey team’s heart and soul, who is going through some pretty tough decisions when an arm break doesn’t heal properly. Abby Thompson, Jack’s best friend Ian’s sister, is trying to recover from the scandal her dad caused. When Abby and Jack find themselves sharing an apartment despite Abby’s obvious animosity toward Jack, they start seeing each other in a different light.
This was my first Lana Ferguson, and I’m afraid she might not be for me. It felt like, despite the two characters sharing a space the entire book, their relationship went from frenemies to insta-love, they found themselves in a repetitive loop, and the spicy scenes did not feel earned. While Jack is a Golden Retriever MMC of the kind I always enjoy, in a sea of endless hockey romances this one fell right in the middle of the pack.
The Final Score
Description
Jack Baker is on top of the world now that he’s back on the rink where he belongs. But the high comes crashing down when he reinjures his arm immediately following his return to the ice, and this time, he might never be able to play again. After a lifetime as the strong, happy hockey guy whose sister needed him, Jack is left questioning everything he knows about himself.
Abigail Thompson feels like she’s hit rock bottom. It’s only been a few months since the massive scandal that finally severed the cord between her and her narcissistic father. And now, in her last weeks of grad school, she’s been kicked out of her building with very short notice. The last thing she wants to do is ask her half-brother for help after what she’s put him through, but it’s looking like his best friend’s spare room might be her only choice.
Jack is flighty, flirty, and a little full of himself—all the things Abby’s learned to avoid in men. However, spending every day together breaks the ice between them, and she starts to realize that Jack might not be who he seems. It’s possible that maybe, just maybe, he might be struggling as much as she is. Soon, confiding in each other leads to falling into bed, and this fling will either play with their hearts—or score them the ultimate goal of love.
Tropes
- Forced Proximity
- Frenemies to Lovers
- Hockey Romance
- Hurt/Comfort
- Brother’s Best Friend
Review
Overall Impressions 😊
The Final Score has all the makings of a good combo: a Golden Retriever MMC (which I love), a sassy black cat FMC (which I also love), hockey romance (which I’m feral for), forced proximity, brother’s best friend. From a distance, this should have worked for me. But despite my excitement to get swept away by it, it just felt middle of the pack.
It’s not that it was too spicy either. Icebreaker by Hannah Grace is plenty spicy and I ate it up. I think in this one, the spice didn’t feel earned for me.
They were supposed to be frenemies to lovers, but it kind of ends up being insta-love. And although I adored Jack and Abby, their dynamic felt so much like bicker-banter-vent-hook up. I want to see some growth of the relationship, and yet it felt like we went from one extreme to another.
Still, it’s a good palate cleanser, and it’s wholesome because Jack is so earnest and Abby is working through stuff. There’s just so many hockey romances out there that it didn’t do anything groundbreaking for me.
Perfect For Fans Of… 🌟
If you’re in between heavy reads and looking for a quick, sweet and spicy read, this one fits the mood.
Jack is a decent Golden Retriever MMC, and with the way he acts in the third act too, he’s a pretty realistic man. If you want a grounded character with real flaws, he’s nice to read about.
It’s a hockey romance, and it’s very spicy, as spicy as Icebreaker, if not more so. If you’re looking for a book that’s there for the spice rather than character and plot development, it’s a good pick. The scenes were a bit over the top for me, but that’s just not my cup of tea.
If you need characters to work for their romance, the painful yearning and all that, this isn’t the book.
Characters 👥
I thought Jack Baker was a well-built character. Yes, he’s a golden retriever MMC, but he’s not flawless. He makes some really coarse dirty jokes and he’s kind of a manchild at times. That grounded him in reality, but he’s such a cutie I couldn’t stop rooting for him.
Abby Thompson felt a bit like a blank page to me. She does have insecurities, understandably, and is nice, but despite her being a good anchor for Jack, sometimes she did feel like she’s just that.
It’s also okay that the book is a love letter to a man like Jack. Romance often turns out that way. It doesn’t bother me that the FMC is someone people can insert themselves into.
What I didn’t like is the imbalance of their relationship. They went from “I can’t stand Jack, he’s so shallow” to insta-love. I would’ve loved for them to share lots of moments to work up to liking each other, rather than the book putting us in a whirlwind.
I’m sure for people who read The Game Changer (this was my first Lana Ferguson) seeing Ian Chase and Delilah Baker was very charming. I always love previous main characters as side characters in current books.
Plot 🗺️
The plot is, I think, my second biggest gripe outside of the relationship. Contemporary romance usually tends to be character-driven, and that’s totally fine, I love it and I loved that in this book. The hockey setup, Ian/Delilah/Kyle, Ian and Jack’s friendship, and Abby’s struggles with her dad are all well placed and enjoyable details.
It’s really hard to balance forced proximity like this without a mutual goal, like trying to escape when they’re stranded on an island. Because they’re stuck in an apartment and Jack is learning to manage his emotions with Abby (which is one of my bigger icks, but we’re moving past that), they kind of got into a bicker-banter-vent-hookup rut pretty early on.
I would’ve wished for a much slower burn, sassy remarks from Abby, Jack being oblivious to his feelings, and him figuring them out when Abby got hurt, or whatever.
I kept waiting for the plot to happen, and it felt like a slice of life in the shared apartment. I think that might have balanced it more, but I still read this in a few days, so it wasn’t boring. It just wasn’t very engaging plot-wise from time to time.
Synopsis
Who Abby and Jack Are
Abby Thompson is a psychology grad student, and she’s the secret love child of a famous businessman. When that gets out, the tabloids latch on and won’t let go, and her father keeps calling, not to apologize but to get her to help him clean up the mess.
She only found out her half-brother Ian Chase existed not long ago. He’s an NHL player, and he’s the one who takes her in. Abby spends her days ignoring her dad and staying close to Ian and his girlfriend Delilah, who is Jack Baker’s younger sister.
Jack is Ian’s best friend and teammate. He broke his arm months back. It’s healing, but it aches every time he plays.
During a game, Jack takes a hard hit and reinjures the arm. The doctor tells him the old break left complications, and without surgery he won’t be able to play again. If he keeps pushing it, he’s risking permanent damage. Jack is near the end of his career, and this is the worst possible time for it. He doesn’t want to stop while the team still needs him, and he loves the game too much to walk away from it like this. So he gets Delilah and Ian to promise they won’t say a word to the coach.
Living Together and the First Kiss
Abby’s apartment floods, so she ends up staying with Ian and Delilah. They mean well, but they treat her like she’s made of glass, and she starts to resent being bubble-wrapped. One day she runs into Jack at the coffee shop where she works, and he mentions there’s a free room at his place. She doesn’t love the idea, but after another suffocating night, she takes it.
Living with Jack, she starts to see there’s more to him than the loud, goofy guy who teases her. Jack and Delilah lost their parents when Jack was twelve. He more or less raised his baby sister after that, and the two of them spent time in an orphanage before their aunt took them in. Under the easygoing act, he has panic attacks and a lot of self-esteem stuff, and hockey is the one thing he’s held onto. After losing his parents, he can’t take the idea of losing it too.
The coach figures out Jack is hurt. Jack gets to play a little, but the second his arm acts up, he’s benched. Abby reminds him he’s worth more than what he does on the ice. He’s the heart of the team, the one who cares most about everyone on it. Ian brings him along to coach kids at the orphanage, and Jack actually likes it.
The team barely beats Dallas, and Jack feels responsible that they aren’t playing the way they could. It’s giving him a lot of anxiety and guilt, so Abby tells him she wants to go home. He’s had a few drinks, so she drives. They talk the whole way back, and when they get to the house, Abby kisses him. They start hooking up after that, and they’re together most of the time.
Falling for Each Other
When Jack’s away for a game and Abby’s home alone, she calls him, and they have phone sex. His arm keeps hurting through all of it, and her feelings for him keep growing.
The next day she’s in class hearing about child abandonment, and it pulls her straight back to her dad. Jack has already pushed her to tell her father off. She calls Jack to come get her, and he takes her to the aquarium his dad used to take him to as a kid, right before his dad died. When they get home, they sleep together for the first time.
The next morning Jack asks her on a date, because she’s all he can think about, and she says yes. He asks her to come to his game too, and she does. At the game she sits with Delilah, who keeps poking at how Jack’s arm is doing. Delilah still has no idea Abby and Jack are together, so Abby stays vague. Delilah says she thinks Jack is lonely, since he’s always been the strong one for everyone.
Ian and Delilah start spending time with an orphan named Kyle, and they decide to adopt him. Abby and Jack keep getting closer. Jack takes her hiking to a spot he found on his own, tells her he really likes her, and they have sex in the woods. They keep falling for each other, and Jack’s arm is still hurting, so he goes back to the doctor.
Abby gets invited along with Ian and Delilah to dinner at Aunt Bea’s, the aunt who raised Jack and Delilah. Over dinner, Delilah, Ian, and even Bea start pushing Jack to quit hockey and get the surgery. Jack yells at all of them and storms off to his old room. Abby follows him and calms him down. He’s worried people will find out about the two of them, but Abby isn’t thinking about that, she just wants him to be okay.
The next week, the doctor doesn’t leave him much room. Jack needs the surgery, he has to decide soon, and he might be living with this condition for the rest of his life either way. Jack is devastated, because he thinks hockey is all he has.
He doesn’t handle it well. He keeps saying there’s nothing good in his life, over and over, with Abby standing right there. She gives him a chance to come around, but he won’t stop saying it, so she leaves and goes to stay with Ian. The moment she’s gone, Jack knows he messed up.
The Final Score Ending Explained
The next day, Delilah comes by and gets the whole story out of Jack. She tells him to be with Abby and to grovel, and she’s in his corner about it. Around the same time, Ian, Delilah, and Abby talk things through. Abby admits what’s going on with her and Jack, and that she really likes him even though she walked out. Ian tells her that even when she feels like she doesn’t belong, they’re glad she’s in their lives, and she’s family now. Abby leaves feeling a little more sure of herself.
Then her dad calls again. She answers and tells him she’s done, that he needs to stop calling, and that she’ll get a restraining order if he keeps it up. He starts calling her names. She’s so distracted by the phone that she gets hit by a bike. At the hospital, Jack and Ian both rush to her. She’s okay, just a few stitches, and they take her home. Ian admits it’s a little weird, his best friend and his sister, then points out he’s doing the exact same thing with Jack’s sister.
Back at the apartment, Abby and Jack finally say it. They love each other, and they’re together. A few weeks go by, they settle into something domestic, and Jack decides to get the surgery.
Then Abby tells him she’s moving out. She wants them to start on the right foot, and they’ve never had any space from each other. She wants Jack to ask her to move back in once he knows she’s it for him. He’s sad about it, but he gets it, and he wants them both to be sure. Abby moves into Delilah’s guest room for the next six months.
Jack has the surgery and recovers. Abby graduates and starts working with little kids who’ve lost their parents or been left behind. Jack can’t play the way he used to, so he moves into coaching his team, because he still loves it. Ian and Delilah adopt Kyle and get engaged.
At the end, Jack gets down on one knee. Abby thinks he’s proposing. He’s actually asking her to move back in, because she’s it for him, exactly the way she told him to. They’re together for good.
Spicy Chapters
How Spicy is The Final Score: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
Whether you want to get to the heat or want closed-door modifications here’s the list of spicy chapters below.
- Chapter 14
- Chapter 17
- Chapter 20
- Chapter 22
- Chapter 24
- Chapter 31
Sweet and spicy 🍬🌶️, golden retriever and black cat 🐶🐈⬛, forced proximity and brother’s best friend 🏠🏒!
So what would your take here be? Did you read The Final Score? Should we try a different Lana Ferguson book, if so which one? Tell us in the comments!
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