Behind the Internet: A Grumpy Sunshine Hockey Romance

Cute story!
This was a solid 4 stars for me; I enjoy Stephanie Archer’s style and I’m definitely pre-ordering the next book.What I liked:-Stephanie Archer’s books are generally easy, breezy, fun books to read. If you, like me, enjoy turning your brain off for a while and read a book to decompress, this is the author for you. I love the Queen’s Cove series and I was looking forward to this, too.-Pippa and Jamie both likable characters. Actually, all the characters are pretty easy to like and are well developed.-DAISY!!-Jamie’s nickname for Pippa is adorable. All the flashbacks to their high school days are so freaking cute!-The steam was good. I feel like steamy scenes, especially featuring dirty talk, are hard to get right and Stephanie Archer consistently nails it. It doesn’t feel unrealistic or have so-bad-it’s-hilarious dirty talk.What I didn’t like:-Low/no stakes: while I enjoy her style overall, I felt like this book had a problem in that so many things that would have made me more invested in the characters happened off-page. We are told what happens instead of shown. Like, Jamie defends Pippa’s ambitions in front of her parents, but we don’t actually see this happen. Maybe it’s just me, but I get attached to characters by going through their experiences with them; mentioning something central to the characters/their relationship in passing makes the experience….more bland than breezy.-Hotness: yes. We get it. You are both stunningly attractive people. It almost felt like that’s all they were because it was mentioned so many times. He kept referring to her as his “pretty assistant” well after their relationship was established; which I thought was strange. See above about mentioning important event but not being “shown”. We were shown that they are hot ad nauseam. Maybe it’s just me. I didn’t feel like any of her other books had this issue.-I actually agree with Pippa’s parents (but I’m also the type of person who desperately wanted Ferris Bueller to be caught, that jerk): it’s easy to pursue your dreams when you have a hot, rich partner to ensure you don’t starve. The fact that Pippa didn’t even really address it when she should know exactly how the music industry can be makes her seem a little vapid, like she’s a privileged girl who has never really had to struggle for anything in her life.Not my favorite Stephanie Archer book, but it’s still a Stephanie Archer book and I happily devoured it whole. I will also happily pre-order the next one.I was provided an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Ultima lettura del mese questo libro, e non poteva finire meglio di così❤️‍🩹Ho letto “Behind the net” di Stephanie Archer quasi senza nessuna aspettativa, pensando di trovare il classico hockey romance carino e spumeggiante, e invece ho trovato una storia che mi è rimasta nel cuore come poche, perché Jamie e Pippa fanno questo effetto: sono travolgenti, unici e completamente pazzi❤️‍🩹Jamie è il nuovo portiere dei Vancouver Storm, dopo anni in giro per il paese con varie squadre torna a casa per prendersi cura della madre, ma ha bisogno di un assistente così la squadra gliene affida una.Pippa è una musicista senza obiettivi e senza la minima idea di cosa fare della propria vita. Finisce così a fare da assistente a un giocatore di hockey estremamente scontroso, con un cane al seguito e senza spazio per altro nella vita se non l’hockey o sua madre.Il libro viene dichiarato come slow burn, ma io mi trovo in disaccordo con questa descrizione: sono estremamente convinta che la loro storia si muova a un ritmo REALE, tutto quello che succede succede nei tempi che mi aspetterei nella vita reale, e questo credo che sia il grandissimo punto di forza del libro.Come si può non innamorarsi di un giocatore di hockey che per tutti gli altri è grumpy al 100% ma quando si tratta di te diventa un cinnamon roll estremamente attento e dolce? Questo è Jamie, e molto di più❤️‍🩹Ho adorato davvero tutto di questo libro, posso affermare con certezza che finora è stata la lettura migliore dell’anno, e rientra di sicuro tra i preferiti del 2023🥰La Archer riesce a bilanciare l’humor, lo spicy, l’angst e il romance in maniera magistrale, uno stile di scrittura fenomenale davvero.Ho amato entrambi i personaggi principali e ANCHE quelli secondari, non vedo l’ora di avere il seguito tra le mani (o sul Kindle😅)Consiglio VIVAMENTE la lettura a tutti, perché quello che mi ha lasciato questo libro è inspiegabile a parole, può solo essere provato❤️‍🩹

This book is light, fun, spicy, sweet, and absolutely love all the golden retriever caracteres in this book. Love it! Read it!

First book of Stephanie Archer that I read and I loved it, I couldn’t put it down.Jamie is a grumpy NHL player and Pippa is his live-in assistant, and you guess it they quickly fall in love.I love Jamie protectiveness toward Pippa and how he believes in her unlike her ex who crushed her confidence but thank to Jamie she believes in herself again.They mutual crush for each other in high school is really fun, they were so sure the other didn’t know the other existence so they both act like they don’t remember. The scene were they discover the truth is priceless.Overall their couple is amazing and I’m not afraid to say that’s my relationship goal.