Mile High (Windy City, 1)

I like this and I used the audiobook… the change of pov was fun.

lucky me it’s a series cause i need 5 more of them injected in my veins STAT!
I personally felt this book was a little slow at the beginning but i immediately loved the side characters. And when I love the side characters I know i’m probably going to enjoy the book (& series as a whole). There is big girl representation, anxiety representation, overall mental health representation and i LOVED it. Oh and this was my first hockey romance! I understand nothing about the sport so I’m so glad there was little talk about it. Yeah this is a book i would recommend.

Trying too hard to be a romance. H isn't a strong enough lead to carry this whiney a** b1tc8 of a h. Like no sex at the halfway point, no angst, no heat, no fire, no chemistry. A terrible book really. DNF
Actually I made it half way through on the audiobook and fr it was DOA I regret that I spent this much time on it, even at 1.6. I shouldn’t have believed the hype. This book is for 60yo women

This was a new author I checked-out, when I didn't have an audiobook available in my holds. I started listening and since I love sports, I thought I'd give it a try. The main characters are Zanders, a hockey player, and Stevie, a flight attendant who is part of the crew who works on all of the team's (the Raptors) flights to away games. Zanders is the team bad boy who has a different girl every night on the road and at-home after games, set up mostly by his agent, Rich. Stevie has Zanders' number right off the bat, when he teases her and incessantly uses his call button to irritate Stevie every 5 minutes with some ridiculous request. Tara, the head of the crew of flight attendants, is a royal B, who sits Stevie down on their first road trip and warns her about no fraternization with the players. Or, she'll lose her job. Um, shouldn't this have been part of the hiring process? Anyway, avoidance of fraternization is no problem for Stevie. She has been around jocks all her life, as she lives in a high-rise with her twin brother who's the star player (of course) on Chicago's NBA team. So Stevie can handle Zanders. They meet out one night, and she ignores him because of the fraternization rule. But over the course of the season, sparks fly. That's a generic description for what does on between this couple, as there is way too much explicit sex and nudity for my taste. But aside from that, there is just so much stupidity with Zanders, who really comes across as a dumb jock. No spoilers, but his agent is not working hard for him either, and it takes to the end of the book for him to realize this. Not a very sharp dude. Stevie is much more to my liking as a person, who is a bit of a plus-size (read: normal-size) person, unlike the skinny gold-digger model types Zanders has typically been linked with. The various plot contrivances to drive the main couple apart are silly. And for this reason, the cluelessness of the Zanders character - and, the fact that it's way too long for what it is - I don't give it a very good rating. It is part of a series, but I am not interested enough to seek out the next books.

Mile High is the literary equivalent of comfort food. It does not reinvent sports romance, but Liz Tomforde knows exactly how to make familiar tropes work. There is a forbidden workplace romance, with forced proximity, a hidden relationship, a third-act breakup, and the inevitable happily-ever-after. I knew where this story was headed, but was surprised by how much I enjoyed the journey. Stevie Shay lands a job as a private flight attendant for the Chicago Raptors hockey team and immediately clashes with superstar Evan Zanders. On the surface, Zanders is arrogant, demanding, and perfectly comfortable playing the role of hockey's resident bad boy. Stevie wants nothing to do with him, especially after past experiences with athletes. Long flights, constant travel, and unavoidable proximity slowly reveal that neither person is quite who they appear to be. Tomforde creates a romance that feels believable beneath the flashy NHL setting and spicy scenes. Stevie and Evan spend time getting to know each other, supporting each other, and confronting the insecurities they carry from difficult childhoods. Their emotional growth gave the relationship its believability. I really liked reading about how they talked through their insecurities and differences while being attracted to each other like magnets. Speaking of attraction, the chemistry is excellent. The spicy scenes are plentiful and well-written. I can confidently say this book had me blushing more than once. Tomforde strikes a nice balance between emotional connection and physical intimacy, which made the romance feel sweeter and stronger. The biggest drawback was the length. At more than 16 hours, the story occasionally felt stretched beyond what it needed to be. A tighter edit would have strengthened the pacing without sacrificing the character development that makes the romance shine. I listened to the audiobook where both Winston James and Mari delivered strong performances. My only complaint is one I have with most dual narration productions. Hearing narrators perform exaggerated versions of the opposite gender during intimate scenes always turns me off. I will choose duet narration every time if given the option. Mile High is a popcorn romance with heart, heat, and characters worth rooting for. I am not rushing to pick up the next book in the series. If it showed up as my next book club selection, I would happily read on. Pick this up if you love spicy sports romances with forced proximity, a secretly soft hockey star, emotional character growth, and enough chemistry to make you forget the audiobook is over 16 hours long.