Behind the Net by Stephanie Archer
Genre: Romance
Blurb (on back of book): He's the hot, grumpy goalie I had a crush on in high school... and now I'm his live-in assistant.
After my ex crushed my dreams in the music industry, I’m done with getting my heart broken. Working as an assistant for an NHL player was supposed to be a breeze, but nothing about Jamie Streicher is easy. He’s an intimidatingly hot, grouchy jerk who can't stand me. The guy has a massive ego. Keeping things professional will be no problem, even when he demands I move in with him.
Beneath his surliness, though, Jamie’s surprisingly sweet and protective.
When Jamie learns how bad my ex was in bed, his competitive nature flares, and he encourages and spoils me in every way. The creative spark I used to feel about songwriting? It’s back, and I’m writing music again. Between wearing his jersey at games, rowdy parties with the team, and being brave on stage again, I’m falling for him.
He could break my heart, but it might be worth it.
MY OPINION: ****
I'm not going to lie, these books kind of ate. I gobbled up this series (or what is published so far of it) in two days and I had such a fun time. I'm honestly very tired of the hockey romance world so I've started to stray away from it but I think I saw a Tiktok about this book and decided on a whim to pick it up, since I've been in such an awful reading slump.
I ended up staying up until 5AM reading this book over my break, devouring every page. It's a very cliche, happy go lucky, sweet little romance with not too much emotional damage or conflict. It's a super simple premise and I loved the tropes in it.
The book follows Pippa and Jamie. Pippa has recently broken up with her boyfriend from high school and is trying to figure out who she is independent of that relationship. Her ex was a singer and Pippa also wants to follow her musical dreams but has a large lack of self-confidence because of her ex's criticisms of her songs and talents. Her parents also want her to become involved in marketing, which has a better chance of success and money rather than following her dreams of becoming a singer.
Jamie is a NHL player who needs an assistant to take care of his dog and basically manage his life. Lo and behold, Pippa becomes his assistant but their first impressions of each other are not the best, or rather her first impression of him is poor. He has a very grumpy and grouchy attitude and comes off as egotistical because he is so shocked that his high school crush was assigned to be his assistant. To be honest, this plot line was contrite and boring but I ran with it because who am I to complain. I knew what I was getting myself into.
Pippa spent her high school years positive that Jamie had never noticed her, though she had a teeny crush on him. He was two years older than her and already apparently godly-looking in high school and despite the fact that she was in a relationship with her one and only boyfriend Zach, she always had somewhat of a crush on Jamie. Jamie apparently reciprocated those feelings but knew that Pippa was tied up with Zach, so never acted on it.
I love the high school crush idea because it's not as common and it's always so fun to imagine what it would be like if you reunited with your high school crush years later and found your old feelings to not only be rekindled but reciprocated. This was a fun little side story that I enjoyed reading about.
In the end, this book is very cliche but so fun to read. It's everything you would expect from a romance novel and there weren't many surprises. Jamie pushes Pippa to follow her dreams and overcome her insecurities, which was cute. There are definitely many cringey scenes and plot devices, such as cheesy nicknames, but if you overlook that, it was fun overall.
The relationship between Jamie and Rory seemed very forced and only there to serve as some sort of conflict for Jamie, but overall, this side storyline was boring and I found no interest in it at all. It did introduce us to Rory, who is the love interest in the second book, so that was fun.
The book jumps right into the plot from like chapter 2, so it reads very much so as an insta-love story. However, it's more of a forced proximity slow burn than anything because both of them have feelings for each other but don't know how to act it because of perceived misconceptions of how the other feels for them. I usually despise insta-love stories but this one wasn't that bad and didn't feel like the other ones, so that was fine for me. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a quick and fun hockey romance full of spice, banter, and following your dreams.
The second book was better though; these don't need to be read as a series.
Main Character: Pippa, Jamie
Sidekick(s): Friends, family, etc
Villain(s): Insecurities, misunderstandings, etc
Romance Elements: This book centered around a romance storyline.
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