Liz Tomforde's Windy City series is a sports romance series that covers all bases and I love it, so I thought I'd write a review of book one, Mile High.
Sports romances have grown in popularity in recent years since the rise of BookTok and Bookstagram. And even more so now with Taylor Swift dating Kansas City Chief's Tight End, Travis Kelce.
But for me, they've always been a sub-genre of romance novels that I've enjoyed.
I never used to think of myself as sporty, despite doing netball, dance, swimming and once upon a time football. However, now I love to watch it whether it be American Football, Formula 1 or Ice Hockey.
So it was no surprise that when I began the Windy City series by Liz Tomforde, I loved it. The series consists of three published books with a fourth set to be released later this year.
The first three books - Mile High, The Right Move and Caught Up - cover a different sport. Mile High is the first book in the series and is an NHL/ice hockey romance. The Right Move is a NBA/basketball romance and Caught Up is a MLB/baseball romance.
Mile High by Liz Tomforde was my first read of February so for my first blog post of the month, I thought I'd share my review of book one in the Windy City series.
Review of Mile High by Liz Tomforde (Windy City #1)
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Tropes:
Sports romance: 9/10
Workplace romance: 9/10
Forced proximity: 9.5/10
Opposites attract: 9.5/10
Overall Rating: 5 stars
Synopsis as stated by GoodReads:
"ZANDERS: Chicago hockey isn't complete without me - everyone's favourite player to hate. I know my role, and I play it well. In fact, I thoroughly enjoy spending the majority of my game time in the penalty box before leaving the arena with a new girl on my arm each night.
What I don't like is the new flight attendant on our team's private plane. She works for me, not the other way around. But I'll be sure to remind her of that, and I can guarantee, by the end of the season, she'll be begging to quit her job.
But every road trip blurs the lines, and I can't quite figure out if I keep pushing that flight attendant call button in order to push her buttons, or if it's more than that.
STEVIE: I've been a flight attendant for years. I thought I'd seen it all, but when my new job lands me onboard working for the most egotistical and self-righteous diva in the NHL, I start to second guess everything. Including the promise I made to myself of never hooking up with an athlete again . . . no matter how annoyingly tempting he may be.
Evan Zanders is unfiltered, unapologetic, and too attractive for his own good. He loves his image, but I hate everything about it.
Everything but him."
Now I know what you're probably thinking: Mile High sounds like your average, everyday sports romance. But it isn't.
Yes, Zanders and Stevie start as enemies, forced to work closely together and over time their feelings grow. Mile High is a spicy romance suited for those 18 and over but there is a whole other layer to the characters and the plot underneath the surface.
Mile High has a variety of characters in terms of the protagonists but also the side characters. Evan Zanders (Zee) begins the book as the famous bad boy hockey player that everyone loves to hate. He presents the world with a certain persona of not caring, being brutal at times on the ice, and having his choice of women. He's known for being in the tabloids for all the wrong reasons and people love him for it. But underneath the tough, playboy exterior, there is so much more to Zanders.
He is emotional, haunted by his past, incredibly caring and protective of those he loves and basically a teddy bear. But his fear of not being loved for who he really is and not getting resigned with the Chicago Raptors prevent him from showing the world the true Evan Zanders.
And then Stevie comes along.
Stevie works as a flight attendant on the Raptor's plane and her initial meeting with Zanders didn't go how he hoped. She was a spitfire who took no nonsense because she had a job to do. But over time, Zanders let his mask fall whilst he was around Stevie and soon she became one of the few people to learn that the Zanders the public knows isn't real.
However, things aren't that simple.
Of course, in a novel, you need conflict and Zander's persona is a major part of the drama. Both Zanders and Stevie have insecurities for different reasons, but they ultimately lead to the same root problem in that neither of them thinks they're enough/worthy to be loved.
And this is why I loved this book. The protagonists weren't just typical sports romance characters, they had that extra level of depth and vulnerability to them.
Liz included diversity within Mile High in that both characters are mixed-race, there's mental health representation, and body positivity. The mental health representation was handled delicately and Liz wrote the novel in a way that conveyed the characters' emotions and struggles to the point that in the third act, I had to hold back tears.
Stevie's character is plus-sized and throughout her life, she's suffered a lot of trauma because of it. But I loved how Zanders gave her the confidence to love herself more and embrace her body. It was great to see Stevie's confidence grow throughout the novel and how she learnt to stand up for herself; there's one scene in particular with the press outside Stevie's building, which made me smile.
I think a lot of what I loved about Mile High was the representation within the novel and the characterisation of Stevie and Zanders because I saw a lot of myself in Stevie. The connection these two characters have is incredible and the banter as well is very comical.
I've seen a lot of reviews saying that the book is too long and could have been shortened, but personally, I feel it was the right length. You get to know the characters well enough to be taken on their journey with them and feel connected to them, which is the whole purpose of a book.
So I say Mile High by Liz Tomforde of the Windy City series is definitely worth the read.
Intrigued?
If my review has convinced you to give this book a go, then you can read it on Amazon, and Kindle Unlimited. Just click the cover below.
If you decide to read it or have read Mile High before, let me know what you think.
Until next time...