Behind the Net

Content Warning: This section of the guide features discussion of sexual content.

Stephanie Archer, who lives in Vancouver, Canada, built a TikTok following with food videos and book recommendations before she turned to writing contemporary romance. She bills her books as full of spice and banter, and her readers generally praise her romantic comedies as delivering a satisfying combination of sex and story.

Archer’s books rely on beloved tropes of the romance genre, and she organizes them as such on her author website. Her debut novel, That Kind of Guy (2021), incorporates the fake-dating and enemies-to-lovers tropes with its story of a mayoral candidate, Emmett Rhodes, who agrees to sign off on a restaurant loan for Avery, an ambitious young woman, if she agrees to date him to help his image. This book became the first in the Queen’s Cove series. Archer’s next book, The Heartbreak Rule (2022), is a slow-burn, enemies-to-lovers romance between Gemma, a rising comedian, and Reid, a friend’s ex-boyfriend.

The remaining books in Archer’s popular Queen’s Cove series share the setting of small-town Queen’s Cove and address the adventures of the Rhodes family. The Wrong Mr. Right (2022) incorporates the friends-to-lovers trope as shy, bookish Hannah attempts to break out of her shell by offering to handle social media for charming surfer Wyatt. In Your Dreams, Holden Rhodes (2022) turns to a grumpy-sunshine, friend-with-benefits pairing as Sadie ends up co-owning an inn with the attractive Holden Rhodes. The fourth and concluding book in the series, Finn Rhodes Forever (2023), is a second-chance romance; 12 years after breaking her heart, Finn tries to win back Olivia by helping her finish her PhD. Several of the Queen’s Cove books also include the popular trope of sex or dating lessons, in which the more experienced partner offers to tutor the younger, less experienced protagonist, with a committed relationship resulting.

Archer next turned to the genre of sports romance for her Vancouver Storm series, which features players on a fictional NHL team based in Vancouver, Canada. Sports romance, particularly hockey, grew in popularity after the success of Elle Kennedy with her new adult sports romances like The Deal (2015) and The Graham Effect (2023). Emily Rath’s Jacksonville Rays series (Pucking Around, Pucking Wild, Pucking Sweet, Pucking Strong) also led to an increase in interest in hockey-centered sports romances, which Archer was able to capitalize on with the success of Behind the Net. Initially self-published on Kindle, her books were picked up for distribution in paperback by Orion/Hachette in 2024 and then re-released in paperback by Penguin Random House in 2025.

The next three books in the Vancouver Storm series include The Fake Out (2023), in which Pippa’s sister Hazel fakes dating hockey pro Rory Miller to make her ex-boyfriend jealous. In the third book, The Wingman (2024), Hayden Owens agrees to be a dating coach for his friend Darcy, incorporating one of Archer’s favorite tropes, the friends-to-lovers premise. In the fourth book, Gloves Off, planned for release in 2025, Archer returns to the enemies-to-lovers, marriage-of-convenience tropes when Georgia, who needs to marry to claim an inheritance, turns to Storm defenseman Alexei Volkov for help. Several of the Vancouver Storm series have been translated into other languages, including French, German, Spanish, and Portuguese.