Book 3 in the Vancouver Storm series
Reviewed by CJ | Rating: 5/5 | Steam: 🔥🔥🔥 | 📖
⚠️ This is a full spoiler review. If you haven’t read The Wingman yet — go read it first. We’ll be here when you’re done.
OPENING HOOK
Best friends to lovers is my trope (although I do also love sibling’s best friend, best friend’s sibling and second chance tropes) and The Wingman is one of my favourite examples of it. Hayden and Darcy are easy to cheer for the entire way through.
Quick note before we dive in: I’m mentioning the earlier books in this series, but it’s okay if you haven’t read them yet. You can enjoy this one without them, but there are so many overlapping characters and places that it’s a lot of fun if you do.
THE FULL STORY — SPOILERS INCLUDED
So we already know Hayden from the first two books, hanging around the edges of both Jamie and Pippa’s story and Hazel and Rory’s story. Here he finally gets his turn, and it’s with Darcy. Darcy, you will remember if you read the first two books, has been dating Calgary hockey player Kit since the three of them met in college. Hayden loved her from the second he met her too, but Kit got there first, and once she was his best friend’s girlfriend, that was that. Hayden never even let himself think about it too hard, putting all of his effort into being a supportive best friend to both of them.
Kit and Darcy stayed together for six years, out in Calgary where Kit plays, but the whole time, Darcy’s was slowly suffocating within the relationship. Kit never wanted her to shine; he figured as long as he could pay the bills and buy her nice things, she’d be happy living the good life as a hockey wife. He never paid attention to her dreams and interests. Meanwhile Hayden’s always seen exactly how much more there is to her, and loves her for exactly that.
Through the years Darcy would home for the holidays without Kit (who flew home to his family) and that gave her and Hayden years of bonding time in their friendship without Kit in the picture. It never crossed lines, and neither of them saw the other that way once Hayden knew she loved Kit. This bring us to the start of the book where Kit had found out Darcy wasn’t ready for an engagement (she didn’t know where their relationship was going, but it didn’t feel right) and his answer to that was to pressure her into it by proposing in front of a crowd, expecting her to go along with it. She said no and ran straight home and to her oldest friend Hayden.
That’s where the book opens: Darcy moving to Vancouver, and Hayden inviting her to move in with him. They’re best friends, they get along, he’s got the space and the money to make her life easier; so she moves in, and thus begins Hayden’s very committed (and adorable) campaign of trying not to drool over his best friend.
When Darcy admits she has no idea how to date, Hayden offers to be her dating coach; her wingman, hence the title, and it takes exactly no time at all for him to realize that it’s the worst idea he’s ever had. He hates watching her flirt with other guys. He hates watching her date other guys even more. So “supportive best friend helping you date” turns into “supportive best friend who would very much like you to look at him differently,” and that’s where things get fun.
They’re both obsessed with a book series called The Northern Sword, and it gets woven through the whole story with release parties, fan theories, etc. and Hayden’s grand gesture is tracking down a signed advance copy from an author who is famously, notoriously difficult to get to sign anything. This is all a huge risk for him, in more ways than one, because going after Darcy means risking the friendship completely so if it goes wrong, it goes spectacularly wrong. But he can’t help himself. Once he decides to show her how good they could be together, he’s all in.
It’s just beautiful watching these two find their way to each other. Hayden brings out the best in Darcy, and that’s really the heart of the book for me. Stephanie Archer writes men who know how to treat the women they love, and Hayden might be my favourite of the bunch so far. Okay, right up there with Rory, but we’re not talking about him right now.
BEST PART OF THIS BOOK
Watching Darcy come back to life around her career. Early on in her career (statistics and analytics) she made a mistake in her work, like the kind where people’s jobs were affected by the numbers she ran, and it terrified her so much that she’s buried herself in other safe, double-checked, “someone else is responsible” kind of work (accounting) ever since. Watching her get her confidence back, with Hayden and the Vancouver Storm team cheering her on the whole way, is what stands out for me. That and the spice, because seeing her try new things with the person she trusts most in the world was pretty fantastic too.
WORST PART OF THIS BOOK
Watching the friendship with Kit fall apart. It’s not even that the friendship technically ends, it’s realizing that Kit was never the person Hayden thought he was. That’s a hard thing to come to terms with, when you outgrow someone like that and realize you don’t want them in your life going forward. I think most of us have had that moment at some point, and it’s never easy.
Hayden also has some things to work through, feeling like he’s the fun guy who’s only good for a night out and not someone worthy of the kid of love we all know he deserves. It makes you think about the smiling, fun loving people in your life how they may be masking as much as us quiet introverts are when we’re dragged out, only differently.
THE STEAM RATING BREAKDOWN
- Yes, there are sex scenes; they are open door, not fade to black
- Warm, not crazy, but they are explicit. There’s a fair bit of spice in there
- The romance is central, but it’s built on years of real friendship, so the steam feels earned by the story around it, not the whole point of it
- No major content warnings beyond the emotional weight of exiting a controlling six-year relationship
THE ENDING — SATISFIED OR DISAPPOINTED?
Fully satisfied. This is a five-star read for me, and one I’ve reread more than once. It’s a go-to cozy afternoon book, but since I read fast, it only takes me a day to get through, and it holds up every single time.
THE CHARACTER WE LOVED TO HATE
Kit. Not a villain exactly, just a guy who mistook providing for a relationship for actually being present in it, and who couldn’t handle Darcy wanting more out of her own life than being his hockey wife.
A MOMENT THAT STOOD OUT
The signed Northern Sword book. Knowing how notoriously impossible that author is to get a signature from shows exactly what kind of gesture Hayden has made. It is specific, thoughtful, and completely about her.
WOULD WE REREAD IT?
Yes! And I already have, more than once, and it comes back out every year as a comfort read.
WHO IS THIS FOR
Anyone who loves romance, and best friends to lovers especially. If you like men who actually support and lift up the women they love, this whole series delivers.
WHERE TO GET THIS BOOK
📖 Physical Book
Amazon CA | Amazon US | Bookshop.org
🎧 Audiobook
Audible CA | Audible US
📚 More from the Vancouver Storm series
- Book 1 — Behind the Net | Reviewed by CJ | ⭐ 4/5 | Steam: 🔥🔥🔥🔥 — Read the Review
- Book 2 — The Fake Out | Reviewed by CJ | ⭐ 4.5/5 | Steam: 🔥🔥🔥 — Read the Review
- Book 3 — The Wingman | Reviewed by CJ | ⭐ 5/5 | Steam: 🔥🔥🔥 — You’re here!
- Book 4 — Gloves Off | Reviewed by CJ | ⭐ 3.5/5 | Steam: 🔥🔥🔥 — Coming Soon
- Book 5 — The Wild Card | Reviewed by CJ | ⭐ 4.5/5 | Steam: 🔥🔥🔥 — Coming Soon
Ready for more reviews from CJ? Find More Here
Plot Twisted. 🔥
📖 | Series: Vancouver Storm Book 3 | Genre: Contemporary Romance | Steam: 🔥🔥🔥
TAGS: Hockey Romance, Sports Romance, Friends to Lovers, Contemporary Romance, Stephanie Archer, Vancouver Storm Series, Book Review, Spoiler Review