penandpaper 's review for:

Behind the Net by Stephanie Archer

3.0

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

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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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Mental illness

Moderate: Blood

Minor: Alcoholism, Death, Domestic abuse, Medical content, Death of parent, Pregnancy

saying that Pippa’s bad breakup and self-healing journey of fucking a hockey player was remotely the same as the loss of a spouse and a life-long battle with anxiety and depression was an INSANE take