All Played Out by Cora Carmack

Title: All Played Out (Rusk University #3)

Author: Cora Carmack

Publisher: William Morrow

Release Date: May 12, 2015

Source: ARC from Publisher

Buy the Book: Amazon / Book Depository / Indigo

First person in her family to go to college? CHECK.

Straight A’s? CHECK.

On track to graduate early? CHECK.

Social life? …yeah, about that…

With just a few weeks until she graduates, Antonella DeLuca’s beginning to worry that maybe she hasn’t had the full college experience. (Okay…Scratch that. She knows she hasn’t had the full college experience.)

So Nell does what a smart, dedicated girl like herself does best. She makes a “to do” list of normal college activities.

Item #1? Hook up with a jock.

Rusk University wide receiver Mateo Torres practically wrote the playbook for normal college living. When he’s not on the field, he excels at partying, girls, and more partying. As long as he keeps things light and easy, it’s impossible to get hurt…again. But something about the quiet, shy, sexy-as-hell Nell gets under his skin, and when he learn about her list, he makes it his mission to help her complete it.

Torres is the definition of confident (And sexy. And wild), and he opens up a side of Nell that she’s never known. But as they begin to check off each crazy, exciting, normal item, Nell finds that her frivolous list leads to something more serious than she bargained for. And while Torres is used to taking risks on the field, he has to decide if he’s willing to take the chance when it’s more than just a game.

Together they will have to decide if what they have is just part of the experiment or a chance at something real.

I wish this review could just be me telling you all to go and read Cora Carmack’s Rusk University series because it is seriously amazing and I can’t say that enough. But I’ll try to give you a little more than that and be somewhat eloquent. But trust me when I say that all I really want to do is yell “GO READ ALL PLAYED OUT” really loudly and leave it at that.

Nell DeLuca has always been focused on achieving her goals. Until now, though, those goals have all been straight forward: go to college, get good grades and graduate early. Nell knows exactly what she haas to do to achieve those goals, but she can’t help but feel like she might be missing out on other things in the process. So Nell does what she does best: she creates a list of things to do before she graduates, hoping to cram in all the typical college experiences she can in the few weeks she has left. And Nell finds just the person to help her with her list. Mateo Torres knows all about typical college experiences. As the star wide receiver of the Rusk football team, he’s done his fair share of partying and hooking up with girls. But Torres can’t help but be intrigued by shy and quiet Nell and he quickly becomes determined to help her with her list. Nell and Torres bring out different sides of each other when they spend time together. Before long, the two of them have to start asking whether completing this list is just a game or if it’s become something more.

GUYS. How do I even begin to explain my love for All Played Out and Cora Carmack. I feel like I say this every time I review one of her books, but it’s true. And anytime I read one of her books, I find a new favourite. With All Played Out that couldn’t be any more true. I loved this book so freaking much. I was lucky enough to get picked for Cora’s street team and got to read the book pretty early and I haven’t been able to shut up about it since. Like for real. Pretty sure some of my friends are sick and tired of hearing me talk about this book but I won’t stop. I can’t. Because All Played Out was simply awesome and amazing. I completely love the world Cora has created with her Rusk University books and I would be more than happy to read books in that world until the end of times. And I’m barely exaggerating when I say that. The story in All Played Out is a continuation of the two previous books, All Lined Up and All Broke Down, but it’s also very much Nell and Torres’s story. And I loved their story. I loved seeing them work together to complete all the items on Nell’s list. And their romance was everything I had hoped it would be. I loved this relationship so freaking much and I just adored Nell and Torres.

I’ve said before that I can relate to certain characters or that I’ve been able to see myself in some characters, but that has never been as true as it was with Nell. While reading All Played Out, I just couldn’t help but see how much like Nell I was when I was in college, and how much like her I still am today. Looking back on my time in college, it wasn’t until partway through my junior year that I finally started coming out of my shell and doing more than just study and focus on all things school. Even today, I would much rather stay home on Friday night to read or watch a movie than go out. Sometimes I almost have to force myself to be social (though, I will say that it is significantly more work to have a social life once you’re no longer in college, but that’s a discussion for another day). And that’s just who Nell was. It wasn’t until Dylan mentioned that she didn’t do much outside of study that she realized that her college experience might not have been as complete as she thought. So all that to say that I loved seeing Nell work to get out of her comfort zone, and do things that she wouldn’t normally do on her own. It made for such a fun story, especially when she had Torres along to help her. And holy Torres. I have officially found my favourite Cora Carmack boy. Torres is pretty much everything I would want in a boyfriend. Seriously, Cora pretty much wrote my dream guy. And I love him so freaking much. I don’t even really know what to say to even begin to explain why I loved him so much. Torres was always a favourite of mine in the previous books but now that I’ve gotten to know him better, well he’s even better than I thought. He’s more than just the cocky party guy you see in the other books. He’s also one of the sweetest, most caring guys ever and when I saw that I just fell for him even harder. I could go on and on about how much I love Torres, but I’ll let you go read All Played Out and see for yourself how fantastic he is, instead.

In cased it wasn’t obvious yet thanks to all the rambling I just did, I absolutely ADORED All Played Out. If you haven’t yet read any of Cora Carmack’s Rusk University series you seriously need to GET ON THAT. Seriously, you have no idea what you are missing. For my part, I’ll just be sitting here waiting (im)patiently for Stella and Ryan’s book. Also known as All Closed Off, the next book in the series.