The Windy City series just keeps getting better and better, and Play Along is really pushing that agenda because it is my favourite of the series so far. Not only are the characters so wonderfully fleshed out with backstories, histories, rivalries, conflicts, secrets, and traumas, but there is a genuine feel from each and every person in this novel and this fake marriage sports romance feels so real.

Kennedy: I’m the only woman on staff for the Windy City Warriors, and after years of putting up with a sexist lead doctor, I’m desperate to land my dream job with a new team next year. All I have to do is maintain my professional reputation for my final season in Chicago. But a Las Vegas run-in with the team’s shortstop threatens it all, leaving me with a fuzzy memory and a ring on my left hand. Now, not only am I legally bound to the most persistent man I’ve ever met, but thanks to Isaiah’s scheme to save my job, I have to pretend the whole thing was a planned elopement and not a drunken mistake. Isaiah Rhodes is reckless, impulsive, and frustratingly charming. He’s also my brand-new husband. They got the saying wrong. What happens in Vegas doesn’t always stay in Vegas… sometimes it follows you right back home.

Isaiah: As the shortstop for Chicago’s professional baseball team, I’ve had my fair share of fun. But that all ended the day Kennedy Kay became a single woman. I’ve crushed on the team’s athletic trainer for years. I’ve flirted to no avail, so imagine my surprise when I woke up in Sin City with a ring on my finger and my favorite redhead in my bed. We agree to stay married for one baseball season, just long enough to keep her job safe, but in my mind, I’m using our time together to prove to her I’m husband material. Kennedy might be reluctant to join in on our game, but it’s one I refuse to lose. So come on, wife… play along.

We know the one-sided relationship dynamics between Isaiah and Kennedy from Caught Up, but even at the start of Play Along that has switched a bit. Learning about Kennedy’s arrival in Chicago and her welcome to the Warriors puts things into perspective, and the one-sidedness of their interactions gains a deeper meaning. But then we all get thrown into this fake marriage and the stakes skyrocket, not just physically but emotionally too. Kennedy’s whole life is on the line, and Isaiah would do anything to get her to her highest potential, including rip his own heart to shreds so she gets her dream job. But soon enough this one-sided relationship doesn’t look so one-sided anymore.

Isaiah is such a great character, not just in terms of his appeal, but in how he is, how he acts and reacts, and what he really feels deep inside. There are flaws and traumas he is dealing with, but they don’t make him less of a person or any less supportive to his friends and loved ones. I do think Isaiah is Mr Right for me in this series, but I will gladly step aside for Kennedy. Kennedy is so different to the girls we have seen so far in this series. While she is warm and kind once you get to know her, she is removed and professional in most situations, nothing like Stevie from Mile High who flirts on the job or Indy from The Right Move who is sunshine and rainbows personified. She is similar to Miller to an extent, but there are discernible differences between them. Kennedy has so much going on mentally and emotionally that does not breach the surface, and it is only through Isaiah’s slow and steady study of her that we see what she has been through and how that has shaped her as a person.

I am happy that this is how the baseball chapter has ended as we now swing back around to Rio in Rewind it Back, not only returning to ice hockey but bringing a strong groups of friends along for the ride. I was umming and ahhing about what would be in his story before the blurb came out, wondering what characters could be involved and who this mystery romance could be. Safe to say I am intrigued and excited to see what happens next.