behind the net by stephanie archer — a review
It is no secret that I love a sports romance. There is something undeniably high stakes about this sub-genre that gives these storylines momentum and assists in unraveling the romance — Behind the Net by Stephanie Archer is no exception to this.
This book follows Pippa and Jamie. Pippa recently left a long-term relationship, and the only relationship she’d ever been in, with a professional singer with who she had been on tour since graduating college. Now, she finds herself living in her sister’s apartment and trying to rebuild her life and start over. As the first step towards achieving this, Pippa gets what she believes will be an easy job: working as an assistant to an NHL player. However, that belief is quickly shattered when she finds out she’ll be working for Jamie — the grumpy hockey player whom Pippa had an embarrassingly adolescent crush on in high school. And what’s worse? He doesn’t even seem to remember her.
Stephanie Archer, I’d like to welcome you to the hockey romance hall of fame. This book was so. Much. Fun. First of all, the story is told in dual POV, and for me, this is what made it so great. At the start of their professional relationship, Pippa and Jamie are very awkward around each other, and there is a lot of unaddressed tension hanging in the air. Therefore, being able to see both of their mindsets (and all of the things they wanted to say to the other but didn’t) was not just funny at times, but also made you root for their relationship as a reader. This format also made Behind the Net very fast-paced, which I appreciated.
The characters were incredibly well-rounded. We get insight into their families, childhoods and inner monologues, which enables you to gain an understanding of their personalities and states of mind. I think it’s really easy to feel frustrated towards romance book protagonists for their questionable actions or unjustified words; however, because Behind the Net gives the reader a fleshed-out picture of the FMC/MMC, their behaviour was underpinned throughout by their life experiences, which eliminated all frustrated feelings and made everything feel justified.
But above all else, this book is feel-good! Behind the Net, even with its discussion of some deeper mental-health-related topics, will leave you with a smile on your face. Pippa and Jamie are the definition of grumpy X sunshine, and this trope will never not be a good time. I laughed, cried, gasped, giggled and kicked my feet while reading, and when I’m picking up a contemporary romance, that is exactly what I want. I can’t wait to pick up the next book in this series!
This review was written by Jess, who you can follow on Instagram — https://www.instagram.com/thatromancebook for more bookish content.