Review: Unsportsmanlike Conduct by Sophia Henry

I went into this book with my fingers crossed that I would enjoy the book and I did. I would even say that that Unsportsmanlike Conduct came close to how much I enjoyed Ms. Henry’s debut work, Delayed Penalty.

In this installment of the Pilots Hockey series, we catch up with Pasha (the “bad” guy from Delayed Penalty) while he is on a singles cruise with a friend. Fate puts him in the path of Kristen – whom he quickly realizes that he has friends in common with.

When we first met Pasha, he was the classic black hat type of character going out of his way to ruin a budding romance. He was easy to dislike. Now, several years later we get a more mature Pasha and get to learn some of what was behind the bad behavior and jerk attitude.  Kristen has her own issues and the two of them together are fantastic as they seem to bring out the best in each other.

Their week in paradise couldn’t last and reality came crashing down when they returned home. I struggled a little bit with how Pasha behaved once the truth of his identity and the betrayal Kristen felt came to light. The post cruise Pasha just didn’t seem to be the strong personality he was before, I understood why he took the path he did, but felt like his demeanor changed too much. Kristen was just as frustrating for me, she had numerous opportunities to speak up for herself and she seemed to go out of her way to avoid them.

Unsportsmanlike Conduct is well written and fun. Even with the things that bothered me, Pasha and Kristen are characters that I found myself rooting for. If you have been following the Pilots series, you will see prior characters make brief cameos, but this is really a stand-alone book that has me looking forward to more from Ms. Henry.