Behind the Net

4.75

✦Behind the Net (Vancouver Storm, #1) by Stephanie Archer✦

2 Stars ⭐️⭐️“𝑷𝒊𝒑𝒑𝒂 𝑯𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒍𝒆𝒚 𝒊𝒔 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒊𝒏 𝒎𝒚 𝒍𝒊𝒗𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒓𝒐𝒐𝒎, 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒚𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒅𝒐𝒈, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑰 𝒄𝒂𝒏’𝒕 𝒃𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒕𝒉𝒆.”𝑩𝒍𝒖𝒓𝒃Behind The Net follows Pippa, who starts working as an assistant to the hot, grumpy NHL player Jamie. Working for him was supposed to be a breeze, but nothing about him is easy. As Pippa begins to develop feelings for him, the line between work and personal life blurs, and things quickly get… intimate. But dating a famous hockey player and risking a broken heart? That’s definitely not part of the plan… right?𝑴𝒚 𝑻𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒔 With dual POVs from Pippa and Jamie, this was a decent, heartwarming grumpy-sunshine hockey romance.Let me first talk about the few things that made it worth reading:• Daisy—she was pure love. I can’t even explain how cute she sounded in the book; all I wanted to do was pet her🥹• There were quite a few moments between the main characters that I found super sweet and honestly, the only real saving grace for them.• Jamie, the grumpy guy, was such a softie, and Pippa was a strong character.• The side characters were so fun and genuinely made me smile. Especially Hazel and Rory—their chemistry was sizzling, and I can’t wait to read their story (book #2).Now that we’ve seen what worked well, it’s time for some disappointments:• To start with, the emotional turmoil of the main characters—the whole “we can’t move forward with this relationship” angle didn’t match their actions at all. It never felt like there was any real conflict in their minds.• Moreover, I couldn’t feel any real connection to the MCs, mostly because of the insta-lust and them being horny all the time. And the way they kept crossing professional boundaries? Just cringey.• The most frustrating part of the whole book was how often certain phrases were repeated. For example, Jamie was constantly “folding his hands in front of his chest” and being so “bossy,” while Pippa was always “feeling something in her stomach.” It just didn’t sit well with me.• And so, I completely lost interest in the plot and ended up skimming through the ending.Note: The smut could’ve worked if there was any real connection with the main characters. Even though there were some *very* steamy moments, they didn’t give me that giddy feeling.𝑪𝒐𝒏𝒄𝒍𝒖𝒔𝒊𝒐𝒏 (𝑻𝑳;𝑫𝑹)Overall, a decent heartwarming grumpy-sunshine hockey romance that had its moments and some truly fun side characters— but weak emotional conflict, too much insta-lust, and repetitive writing made it hard for me to connect with the MCs, eventually killing my excitement for the story, even with the smut.