Review on 'Mile High' by Liz Tomforde✈️

Amazon Link: https://amzn.eu/d/fcJ11Oj 

Author: Liz Tomforde

Format Read: Paperback Pages: 570 Publication Date: 4th June 2022

Author Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/liztomforde.author/ Author Website: https://liztomforde.com/  

Content Warnings:

Explicit Sex Scenes, Body Shaming, Mention of anxiety

Review:

I never planned to buy this book, but it ended up being one of the automatic buys that I invest in when I enter my local Works. I have seen it a lot on social media, like a lot of the books these days. I had no idea what this book was about going in, and all I got from the blurb was that he is a bad boy hockey player and she is a flight attendant?!

The cover itself is just divine. I don’t know what it is about it, but the city landscape is so beautiful to look at and shows the main theme of the book, which is the characters on the airplane. Hence the airplane on the cover, duh! As well as this, on the actual paperback copy I got, there was a reflective background with the words ‘mile high’ written in cursive across the entire book cover, including the back cover. I think this was a really nice touch to the book because it gave it its own unique selling point.

You know me and large books. This book was 570 pages, which was great to see. So much can be delved into in that amount of time, and I am glad that Liz Tomforde did that for her first book in the Windy City series because it really made me invested. There is also the slight nudge towards the next book in the series between Indy and Ryan, which is always the way with series books.

I think this book was really important for the reputation of a plus-size FMC as well as a mental health-aware MMC. On top of that, the characters are ethnically diverse, which doesn’t put a damper on how they struggle and fight for what they want. Their struggles are delved into throughout the book and show the true process of healing, with the therapy that Zanders participated in for 12 years about not thinking he is loved, and how Stevie became strong enough to cut off the one person who was harming her body image throughout the book.

It starts with Zanders’ hockey team, The Chicago Raptors, getting a new charter jet for the away games, with the flight staff all being the same throughout the season, with Stevie being one of them. Immediately, they get off on the wrong foot when he is being cocky to her, and she is told not to fraternise with any of the hockey players by her flight attendant boss (who seems to be fraternising a bit too much herself!). For at least two months, Zanders continues to annoy her by constantly pushing the assist button above him, but both of them seem to enjoy the back-and-forth that starts to build a relationship between them. Soon, they become way too attracted to each other and decide to commit to one night with each other “to get it out of their systems” (it never works that way). They both decide, separately, that they want more than one night, but Stevie doesn’t want to risk her job and doesn’t completely trust that he isn’t the man that the media presents him to be.

It is quickly learned that Zanders is not who the media believes him to be, as he doesn’t show his true personality to the rest of Chicago. Only his close friends and family of the Maddisons, and his sister, know that he is the sweet and protective guy who is half of the face for the mental health charity for young boys in and out of sport. From there, Zanders and Stevie get to know more about each other and end up dating in secret so she doesn’t lose her job.

However, the peace is never for long in romance novels, and there was a third-act breakup around the 400-page mark. She gets captured on camera entering the apartment with him, and he breaks up with her, thinking that it will protect her from the negative comments she gets about her body but is really so she didn’t leave him first. Through the next few weeks, which are shown in the book, they are dancing around each other and are not talking to each other for the sole reason that her heart is broken by the love of her life, and he refuses to believe that she loves him.

I absolutely hate third-act breakups, but when they only last a few chapters, I don’t mind. However, in this book, it was not the case. There was still a huge chunk of the book left before they got back together, and it was so upsetting to read about their breakups from their different POVs through the last quarter of the book. To watch her make decisions about her life and then him trying to find ways to explain why he was an idiot to her but always going to see her when she is no longer in that place. In the end, they both worked on themselves, with him sorting out his familial relationships and her building up the confidence to be herself to the world whose opinions didn’t matter.

All in all, I loved the mix between romance, hockey, and personal development of the characters. I really liked this book and can’t wait to see what happens between Indy and Ryan. I heard they are going to be roommates? 😊

Until the next chapter,

#BellesBookBabble