I first found out about Mile High by Liz Tomforde when I was scrolling through a new releases post of a fellow Dutch book blogger. This is the first book in the “Windy city” series and got a Dutch edition earlier this year. However, I prefer to read romance in English and that version was a lot cheaper than the translated one. I immediately got curious once I saw what it’s about, but it took me until earlier this week before I picked it up and finish it as well. Was my curiosity satisfied?

About the book

Mile High by Liz Tomforde
Series: Windy City #1
Published by Independently published on June 7, 2022
Pages: 603
ISBN: 9798446572199
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance

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.

My review

Expectations

How I wasn’t aware that this is a sports romance, I don’t know. I definitely read the blurb before adding this book to my TBR, but that has been months ago. I noticed that this book is long, also because other reviewers stated this and therefore found it dragging at times. I’m really sensitive to such critique, so I was a little nervous whether I would experience the same. I’m glad to say that my experience differs a lot.

Characters

Our main characters are Stevie and Evan, two complete opposites. Stevie is insecure and Evan has a reputation he has to uphold in order to secure a new contract at the Chicago icehockey team after this current season is over. Since Stevie is working as a flight attendant on the team’s private jet, they run into eachother a lot and spending time together is unavoidable. They are attracted to eachother at first sight and it’s only when they spend more time together, that they both find that there’s more to the other than they’d initially thought. I was interested in and intrigued by both characters. Tomforde wrote them well, including their insecurities and flaws. They both have a lot of growth to do to be where they are at the end of the story and Both Stevie and Evan complement eachother in this growth. Stevie is really insecure about her appearance as she’s plus sized and gets to deal with a lot of fatphobia. Evan on the other hand has a reputation to uphold and is afraid to show his true self to the public. Only his inner circle gets to know the real him. He is also insecure about whether the general public and the team staff will like him for being his true self and a lot of trauma is lying underneath this insecurity. This applies to both him and Stevie. Once the story progresses, they learn to live with their trauma and maybe even heal from it. This make them both grow exponentially as characters, which benefits the storyline and romance.

Writing

Tomforde’s writing is accessible and easy to follow. The dual POV narration works really well here as it showcases both Stevie’s and Evan’s growth and ho they complement one another in achieving this. The chapters are quite short, which made this book an easy read for me. In contradiction to other reviewers, I don’t think this book was too long. I was intrigued every single second, because of the character arcs and development. I definitely felt the chemistry between these two and that has been quite a while.

Plot

As the novel is character driven, the plotline is there to support them. Sports is the most important thing in these characters’ lives, everything evolves around it. The supportive characters are professional athletes too and therefore we get a good glimpse of what their live might look like. The author elaborated various themes, such as fatphobia, intergenerational trauma and found family. Because both Stevie and Evan might have disfunctional family dynamics, they each found a family of their own who provides a steady support system. I can’t judge about the exploration of the themes in this book, but for me they felt real and believeable, as well as the character growth does. I wanted to keep reading to find out how our main characters’ story would evolve and therefore it was hard for me to put the book down.

Final thoughts

Mile High by Liz Tomforde was a pleasant surprise for me. Most sports romances I’ve read take place in college, which gives these books a more juvenile vibe. Reading an adult sports romance was very refreshing to me. I definitely enjoyed the character growth and the deeper layers to them were intriguing. I found this book never too long, because I simply couldn’t stop reading. I’m curious for The Right Move, the second book in this series as it’s about Indy. We got to know her in this book already, but I’m sure there’s more to her character.