Reading the Windy City sports romance series by Liz Tomforde has bee na slow but steady process this year, and with Rewind it Back done, dusted, and fully settled in my heart, I feel now is the right time to get my series review up and out there in the world. This has been such a great series to read in 2025, and I am very happy and thankful to have come across it at this point in time. Hopefully, this series review can be the final nudge for those who haven’t read it yet, or a random call from the universe for those who have never seen my content before. May this post find you when the series is ready for you.

The Windy City series, to summarise, is a collection of sports romance novels based in Chicago. The sports include ice hockey, basketball, and baseball, split one, one, two, and then coming back around to ice hockey for the last one. There are many romance tropes and adult fiction tropes in general touched upon throughout the series, including he falls first, reformed bad boy, single father, found family, grumpy x sunshine, fake marriage, and many more. This is a series that is on the more mature side, with explicit scenes and interactions that I would advise not be read by younger readers. As far as the spice goes though, it is probably around a 2-3/5 on the scale, but this is just a generalisation and could be different for you depending on your experience with such themes and book content.

Mile High marks the beginning of the journey, bringing the league’s rich badboy Evan Zanders and experienced flight attendant Stevie Shay in each others’ orbits. As far as the romance goes, this is the typical reformed bad boy book, and the expected attachments that come along with it make for a good read. I was a bit hesitant with this series because I wasn’t sure if I would like this trope drawn out in a sports romance, but the deeper character conflicts and connections make Mile High much more interesting than it appears on the surface. In the grand scope of things, this is the book that is the most forgettable, but it is still a good read and I remember viewing it in a pretty good light.

The Right Move then shows us a different angle to some fo the characters introduced in Mile High, and I think the deeper character experiences and conflicts here is what really made me feel that this series wasn’t just a lighthearted sports romance to giggle at. Indy, our main female character, has an experience and perspective that is rarely brought up in romance books, and I found it not only incredibly engaging to follow her story, but enticing to see what would become of her and Ryan. Their past experiences clash in a way that creates great conflict and tension, yet they are characters who, upon opening up, really showcase a deeper level of understandign and love for eac hother than I see in most romance books.

Caught Up throws us something different, not only in terms of character change ups, but different tropes, focuses, and character backgrounds that make for an intriguing blend of chalenges and perspectives. This is the single-dad one that everyone and their mum knows the series for, and I cannot deny that it is a core part of the story. I appreciate the complexities of this one, and even if there isn’t as many sporting moments shown, baseball still comes up as a key part of the story. I like the fact this series is providing us with a lot of different perspectives and characters, but Miller is one of those characters I didn’t gel with right away. I like that though, because it makes the experience of getting to know and understand her more interesting.

Play Along is my favourite of the lot, in part because the fake marriage plotline is a fun one, but mainly because getting to knowthe characters better and seeing things from their perspectives really made me love them even more. We meet the main characters in Caught Up, but they really have the chance to shine in Play Along. Kennedy is a badass, and while Isaiah may seem like a swoony puppy ont he surface, there is so much more to him and his love, care, and respect for Kennedy solidified him as my favourite among the guuys in the Windy City series. There are many tense moments in this book, and I ate all of them up.

Rewind it Back is the perfect ending to the series in my mind, though I understand that others may not agree. In fact, there may be some readers who don’t like this book. Second chance is one thing, but childhood friends-to-lovers is another, and pairing them together isn’t always destined for greatness. I love this combination, and I really liked how this story differs from the others in the series. It made it stand out more, and in doing so, showed more character depth for Rio and Hallie than in the previous pairings.

Overall, I think The Windy City series by Liz Tomforde is good, showcasing the depths and multiple angles possible with romance fiction, and provides a great number of interactions and moments to gush over. It is a romance series I see lasting long in this era of short-interest publishing, and I hope many reread and continue to talk about it in years to come.