Reviews with content warning for Cursing - Behind the Net

Romance, Music, Hockey, this book weaves together some of my favorite things! I just loved it from page 1! I need to read more hockey romance books! I’ve read other sport romance books but I know nothing about football, and I’m not a genius with Baseball or Basketball. But I LOVE hockey! Blackhawks all the way!!! And this is my first hockey romance book & it just makes me want to read sooo many more hockey books!!! I’ve found a new sub genre I love!!! 💜
As for this story, I love how Pippa & Jamie are there for eachother & once they decided to stop fighting their feelings they didn’t let anything get in between them, they fought for eachother no matter what! I love relationships like that, & that is the kind of relationship I dream of having one day, & reading books with that relationship just make me overjoyed! 🥰😞

Content Warnings

readwithria's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Behind the Net exceeded my expectations! I had a great time reading it, and it has reignited my interest in sports romance

Read if you love
🩵 hockey romance
🩶 forced proximity
🩵 cute dogs
🩶 healing from past relationship trauma

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gabs_parr's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted relaxing medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

LOVED their friendship and their romance. I loved the slowburn buildup so much that I could even tolerate the miscommunication between them without wanting to bang my head against the wall too badly. Their relationship is one of the healthiest I’ve ever seen portrayed in a romcom novel. I love them. They really felt like a real and genuine couple that you know and admire in real life, like your friends that your not-so-secretly a little jealous of but are so happy for them that they found each other because that’s how good they are together.

The side characters were fun and almost solid enough when they were shown, but they could have been fleshed out more. That was one of my biggest hang ups throughout the book. They didn’t have friends. Either of them. I get that she was coming off a 2-year tour and he was moving back after 10-years of playing somewhere else, but STILL. They grew up in Vancouver. They didn’t have any childhood friends to reconnect with? Pippa’s only friend is her sister who she doesn’t spend much time with? Jamie made no friends while he was away for 10 years? He just had one friend, Rory, and when that friendship spoiled, he never made another friend? Hayden on the team seemed like a promising character, but he never became fleshed out or a real friend, which made me think he was introduced more as a set-up for the 3rd book than anything else. Their lack of friends is a red flag, for both of them. I would have such serious reservations about dating a man without ANY friends. But she didn’t have any either, so idk. It’s weird to not have friends. I’m hoping to see more developed friendships in further installments of this series, especially amongst the players. That’s half the fun of sports romcoms.

My only other critique is more of a personal preference, so it’s not something that impacted my star rating. There were too many smut scenes. Every scene included was incredibly well written. In fact, I was impressed. She’s one of the best romance scene writers I think I’ve ever read. But maybe sticking to 3-4 scenes would have been sufficient. 5 would have been a lot but like, okay, sure, if they’re very good. I lost count of how many this book included but it was a shocking amount and I think I read like 80 romance books last year alone. I’m not new to the genre. Maybe if some of them had at least been shorter, that would have been better. There were definitely several scenes that I when I was reading them I was actively thinking, “This could have been closed door.” Like I said, it’s personal preference, so I can’t knock a star for it, but it was just a lot. 5/5 on the spice scale not because anything was so dirty or scandalous but just because of the sheer endless amounts of it once it starts.

Overall, I would recommend this book to my romance reading friends, especially to anyone looking to enter the hockey romcom world. Just with the warning of full spice (and a lot of very sweet, wholesome love) ahead ⚠️

Content Warnings

penandpaper's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

If I could rate this book only by the first half, it’s an easy 5 star read. I loved the characters, tension, and backstory. I even loved how obvious the Ted Lasso references are. But the second-half follow through? Knocked this down 2 whole stars. There wasn’t enough conflict because there was no real character growth — just several paragraphs saying over and over again how they’d grown. The only big moment of true resolution is done in a few paragraphs. The rest of the obvious issues to worth through? Ignored or abruptly wrapped up. Hundreds of pages resorted to overdone romance tropes instead of utilizing the real potential this book had.

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