Start Liz Tomforde’s Windy City series with Mile High, then continue with The Right Move, Caught Up, Play Along and Rewind It Back. That is the simplest route if discovering a connected cast matters to you. If one particular romantic setup is the reason you are interested, a later book can be a reasonable first choice: the publisher specifically presents The Right Move, Caught Up and Play Along as accessible standalone romances. The tradeoff is meeting parts of an established world before you reach their earlier stories.
In Her Own League belongs beside this list as a Windy City spin-off. The author labels it separately from the five numbered books. Treating it as a separate branch makes planning easier, especially when a retailer puts several editions, bundles and related novels on the same series shelf.
The Five Books in Numbered Order
The author’s Windy City listing gives this sequence:
- Mile High.
- The Right Move.
- Caught Up.
- Play Along.
- Rewind It Back.
You do not need to invent a second chronology before beginning. The numbered sequence is already a useful reading plan. It also prevents a common mistake: moving the two hockey books together and assuming that this preserves the series experience. A sport-based shortlist can be helpful, but it is a personal route through the books rather than the numbered order.
Use the sequence when you want introductions to accumulate naturally and prefer to recognize a returning name rather than pause to place it. Choose a different entrance only when the attraction is concrete. “I want a roommate romance” is a useful reason to consider book two. “Someone ranked book four highest” gives you much less information about whether its central situation suits you.
This is a discovery guide built around official descriptions and reading information. Its recommendations compare premises and reader priorities; they do not depend on claims about having read every scene or knowing that every reader will respond in the same way.
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What a Connected Standalone Lets You Choose
A connected standalone offers two different pleasures: interest in the current couple and recognition of a surrounding world. Those pleasures do not always need the same reading order. Someone seeking a particular relationship can prioritize that couple; someone seeking a growing sense of familiarity can prioritize the series sequence.
The publisher’s page for The Right Move explicitly welcomes standalone readers. Its pages for Caught Up and Play Along do too. That supports choosing an entry, but it does not establish that reading later books reveals nothing about earlier characters.
Think of your spoiler preference separately from your ability to follow a romance. You might understand a new couple perfectly while wishing you had discovered a returning character earlier. If even learning who appears alongside whom would bother you, start at book one and avoid later blurbs. If your main concern is whether you need to complete several books before trying a specific premise, the publisher’s standalone guidance is useful reassurance.
There is no need to turn a leisure choice into an obligation. Start in order when the overall idea appeals. Start selectively when one setup is clearly attractive, while accepting that returning later will feel like going backward through part of the social background.
Mile High: The Travel and Hockey Entrance
The official Mile High page pairs flight attendant Stevie with hockey player Evan Zanders. This is the entry to consider when a workplace that keeps people crossing paths appeals more than a domestic arrangement.
For a reader comparing the five premises, the useful distinction is mobility. A travel-based setup invites different questions from a shared apartment or a home renovation. How does someone remain professional around a person they find difficult? What happens when the same two people must encounter each other again rather than simply avoid a bad first impression? Those are good questions to bring to the opening, without assuming which scenes answer them.
Choose this first if you want the clearest beginning and are curious about attraction developing across professional boundaries. Pause before choosing it merely because you like watching hockey. A favorite sport and a favorite romantic dynamic are separate preferences. You may enjoy hockey but dislike antagonistic flirting, or know little about the sport while finding the travel setting immediately appealing.
The existing Mile High guide takes a closer look at that individual premise. Use it when deciding whether book one fits; use this series route when deciding what should come before or after it. Keeping those questions separate helps you avoid collecting several overlapping recommendations that all tell you about the same starting book.
The Right Move: Basketball With a Shared-Home Bargain
The author’s The Right Move description introduces NBA player Ryan Shay and Indy Ivers through roommates and fake dating. It is a strong candidate for a trope-led entrance if the shared home interests you more than the sports label.
The appeal to test here is the difference between public performance and private routine. In a hypothetical fake-dating story, a convincing appearance at one event might be easy; maintaining that appearance while negotiating ordinary space asks something different. If that contrast is what you enjoy, this premise gives you a specific reason to select book two. You are choosing a kind of relationship pressure, not simply whichever athlete has the most enthusiastic recommendation.
It is also a useful comparison with Play Along. Both can interest someone who likes a relationship arrangement, but pretending to date and dealing with a marriage are different starting positions. Ask which threshold you want the couple to face. Do you enjoy the question of what counts as real inside a performance, or does an already formal commitment sound more compelling?
Our The Right Move guide focuses on the roommate bargain. Read that individual guide if this is your likely first purchase or library request. If you already know you want Ryan and Indy’s premise, you can begin there and decide afterward whether you want to return to the numbered beginning.
Caught Up: Baseball Through Care and Responsibility
In Caught Up’s official description, pitcher and single father Kai Rhodes meets Miller Montgomery through childcare. This is the entry to weigh when the attraction is a household’s practical needs rather than the glamour of sport.
The reader decision is specific: do you want a child and the work of caring to be part of the romantic setup? Someone who loves a single-parent premise may find that more decisive than whether the athlete plays baseball or hockey. Someone looking for a couple whose time belongs only to them should take that difference seriously before selecting this book.
Care also raises a useful distinction between presence and responsibility. In an imagined comparison, two adults can enjoy spending an evening together without needing to reorganize anything. A relationship around childcare begins with questions about reliability, boundaries and who can depend on whom. You do not need to predict how the novel resolves those questions to know whether you want to spend time with them.
This is why Caught Up and Play Along should not be treated as interchangeable baseball installments. They give a sport-first reader two choices, but the central relationship situations differ. Try Caught Up first when care, family routines and competing responsibilities are the draw. Follow the numbered order if you want the transition into that part of the series to arrive in sequence. Neither choice requires declaring the other baseball book inferior.
Play Along: A Marriage Premise With Workplace Stakes
The official Play Along page identifies shortstop Isaiah Rhodes and athletic trainer Kennedy Kay, with an unexpected marriage in the setup. That makes it a different proposition from simply wanting another athlete romance.
A marriage premise asks a reader to enjoy consequences attached to a relationship label from the outset. You may like watching a couple grow toward commitment, yet feel less interested when a formal bond arrives before emotional clarity. Or that reversal may be exactly what makes you curious. Naming that preference is more helpful than using “romantic” as if it described a single experience.
The workplace connection adds another filter. When deciding whether to sample this one, ask whether you enjoy professional identity entering the romantic problem. For example, a hypothetical reader who wants a complete escape from office concerns might prefer a different premise, even while loving marriage-of-convenience stories. Another reader may enjoy the contrast between what people can acknowledge privately and what their work environment allows them to show.
Because this is book four, it is particularly worth separating accessibility from sequence. The publisher supports standalone entry. Starting here nevertheless means entering a series already several books deep. If that is acceptable and the marriage setup is the clear attraction, try the opening. If you want every introduction to precede its later context, keep it in fourth position.
Rewind It Back: Hockey With a Shared Past
The Rewind It Back description brings hockey player Rio DeLuca and Hallie Hart together through a reunion, neighboring homes and renovation. Consider it when your strongest preference is a past relationship entering a present-day problem.
A shared past changes the questions a reader brings to a romance. With strangers, you may look for a first impression gradually revised. With a reunion, you may be more interested in whether the people meeting now can distinguish memory from their present needs. That is an interpretive lens for choosing, not a claim about the novel’s eventual answer.
The renovation element gives another concrete point of comparison. If you enjoy a physical project as a reason for repeated contact, this may interest you more than an apartment arrangement or team travel. A house can also make a reader think about what “home” means, but you should let the novel establish its own meaning rather than assume a symbolic interpretation is a promised plot.
Book five is the route to reserve for later if you want the numbered sequence. It is not the logical second step simply because you began with the other hockey title. You can make a hockey-only shortlist, but label it honestly as selective reading. For someone especially sensitive to knowledge about the surrounding cast, staying in order is the more straightforward choice.
Where In Her Own League Fits
The author calls In Her Own League a spin-off. Its premise pairs team owner Reese Remington with field manager Emmett Montgomery. That shifts the comparison toward leadership and authority within baseball.
For a first visit to the author’s work, the practical question is whether you want an athlete at the center of the romantic pairing or prefer people whose jobs involve running the sporting organization. Those are related interests, but they are not identical. A reader attracted to decisions, authority and professional disagreement may find the spin-off worth considering on its own terms.
For a series reader, placing it after the five numbered books is a simple personal plan. It keeps the main list intact and gives the branch its own space. This is a recommendation for clarity, not a claim that the author has made that position compulsory.
Do not add the spin-off to the numbered list merely to make the bibliography look tidy. Equally, do not overlook it because it lacks the next number. A good reading plan distinguishes a sequence from a related opportunity. You can finish the five-book route, take a break, and then decide whether the leadership premise is the kind of return you want.
Three Useful Routes Through the Choices
For the reader who wants the full connected experience, the route is uncomplicated: follow books one through five, then consider the spin-off. The benefit is consistency. You spend less energy deciding whether the next choice is strategically perfect and more time seeing whether the series itself suits you. Reassess between books rather than buying every edition at once.
For the reader attracted to a specific trope, select the premise first. A hypothetical reader seeking roommates and a performed relationship would shortlist The Right Move. One looking for childcare in the romantic setup would compare Caught Up with their preferences about single-parent stories. One seeking an unexpected marriage would examine Play Along. These are reasons to sample, not promises that a trope label guarantees enjoyment.
For the reader choosing by sport, distinguish the two hockey premises and the two baseball premises before making the shortlist. Travel differs from reunion and renovation; childcare differs from marriage and workplace complications. Basketball points toward The Right Move. Baseball leadership points toward the spin-off. This route is useful when a sport initially catches your attention, but the relationship should still decide the actual next book.
If you begin out of order and want to continue, return to the earliest unread number. There is no need to construct an elaborate reverse chronology. Keep a note of what you have read, let the current couple’s book stand as your first encounter, and accept that earlier appearances may feel like discoveries made afterward.
Editions, Boundaries and Your Next Book
Use original titles to match editions accurately. A new cover or a subtitle does not automatically identify a new story. Compare the author, original title, language, format and publisher information before assuming two listings are different books. Page counts can vary with layout, so they are a poor substitute for identifying the work.
If you read in translation, retain the original title beside the local listing in your notes. That is especially helpful when recommendations use English titles while a library catalog uses a translated one. Check the edition itself for language and translation information; a familiar cover design does not establish either. This guide does not promise current subscription inclusion, stock or a matching set of extras across countries.
Check the author’s content notes on the relevant book page if you have specific boundaries. A sport, a couple map or a comforting visual design cannot tell you everything about subject matter. Likewise, choose a sample for voice and pacing rather than trying to convert promotional enthusiasm into a guaranteed reading experience.
For the clearest next step, choose Mile High if the whole series interests you, or identify one precise relationship setup and sample that book. If you want to browse beyond Tomforde afterward, the sports romance shelf offers another route through sporting premises, while the Alisson Bento catalog lets you compare this site’s own fiction. Keep that broader browsing separate from the Windy City sequence: the useful recommendation is the one that matches what you want to read next.
