WHAT’S INSIDE THE GUIDE

🏒 Discussion questions
🏒 Character breakdowns
🏒 Emotional themes & trope discussions
🏒 Playlist inspiration
🏒 Snack & drink pairings
🏒 Bonus book club activities
🏒 Hockey terminology for non-sports readers
🏒 Behind-the-book notes from Kristen
🏒 Forbidden romance & emotional tension discussion prompts

PERFECT FOR READERS WHO LOVE…

❄️ Forbidden workplace romance
❄️ Slow-burn tension
❄️ Best friends to lovers
❄️ Protective heroes
❄️ Emotional trust-building
❄️ Holiday romance atmosphere
❄️ Quiet yearning and restraint
❄️ Strong heroines in high-pressure careers
❄️ Forced proximity dynamics
❄️ Character-driven emotional romance

ABOUT THE BOOK

Off Duty is one of the most emotionally restrained and tension-filled romances in the Shots on Goal universe.

At its heart, this story is about trust, control, emotional safety, and the terrifying vulnerability that comes with wanting someone you should never cross the line with.

This isn’t just a romance about chemistry.

It’s about partnership.
About loyalty.
About carrying responsibility so carefully that you forget where duty ends and love begins.

Sean and Jessica’s story unfolds slowly—through long shifts, quiet moments, emotional restraint, and the kind of connection that builds long before either of them are willing to acknowledge it aloud.

The emotional core of Off Duty explores what happens when two people spend so much time protecting each other that eventually they can’t ignore the deeper feelings underneath the surface.

Within the Shots on Goal universe, this story brings a different kind of intensity—less chaos, more emotional tension simmering beneath every interaction until it finally becomes impossible to contain.

A NOTE FROM KRISTEN

Creating the Off Duty book club guide felt especially emotional because Sean and Jessica’s story lives so heavily in the quiet moments.

This book is about restraint, trust, emotional safety, and two people slowly becoming home to one another long before they’re ready to admit it.

Thank you for continuing to spend time in the Shots on Goal world and for loving these characters as fiercely as I do.

— Kristen Hope Mazzola

READ NEXT

Loved Off Duty?

Continue your hockey romance binge with:

🏒 For You, I Will
Marriage tension, emotional intimacy, found family dynamics, and deeply layered relationship growth. (An emotionally mature continuation of the Otters world.)

🏒 Cherry Picked
Instalove chemistry, emotional warmth, protective energy, and high-heat hockey romance tension. (A softer emotional balance after the slow burn of Off Duty.)

🏒 Hat Trick
Forbidden love, emotional healing, grief, and deeply vulnerable slow-burn romance. (The story that built the emotional foundation of Shots on Goal.)

READING WITH YOUR BOOK CLUB?

Tag your photos, annotations, snack spreads, and hockey romance chaos:

@khmazz

#ShotsOnGoal
#OffDuty
#KHMazz
#HockeyRomance

© 2026 Kristen Hope Mazzola. All rights reserved.