It’s official – I’m on the Windy City Series bandwagon. Liz Tomforde’s Mile High is the first in the series, but I just know I am going to be inhaling the rest of these sports romances like nobody’s business. With sports fiction and adult romance blended into this long yet not long enough novel, what more could you want?

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.

So, as you may expect, there’s a little tension from their first meeting, a little conflict and disinterest, but it definitely doesn’t last long. The character development for both Stevie and Evan (I will be referring to him as Evan, Zanders made me laugh and cringe throughout the book) is phenomenal, and there are several moments of great storytelling where the layers and complexities of their life made for some amazing conflicts. The novel is well paced, maybe a little wordy and repetitive at times, but otherwise it has a nice flow and realistic trajectory. Things don’t feel rushed, nor do they feel drawn out. The level of contents and pacing feels just right.

The characters are authentic and all have their motivations, impacts, and influences on the direction of the plot and interactions with the other characters involved. You can see how complex everything is when you line up all the individual and group goals, conflicts, and relationships, which shows how much of an amazing job Liz Tomforde did in writing this. I would compare this to Mariana Zapata’s From Lukov with Love, the internal and external conflicts and relationship dramas interwoven with the personal pressures and targets of Jasmine and Ivan’s figure skating, but Mile High has a lot more going on. Maybe it is the number of characters involved, or the influence of so many people on the lives of these characters, but Mile High feels like a larger production and therefore it hits a little harder (no hate to From Lukov With Love, I still love that book).

Mile High is a tbr essential, and soon after you pick this up, you’ll be adding the rest of the Windy City Series to your list – I know I have. The romance is romancing, the spice is spicy, and the internal and external conflicts drive this novel like no other, making for some truly heart-breaking moments. If you’ve been like me and you’ve neglected reading this series because of its popularity on social media and the hype train you’re afraid of being underwhelmed by, this is your notice to give it a go. You may not love it, but I assure you, you will definitely like it.