Why Mile High by Liz Tomforde Gave Me All the Feels (And the Dogs!)

A sports romance with heart, heat, and dogs that will melt you.

Synopsis

ZANDERS

Chicago hockey isn’t complete without me – everyone’s favourite player to hate. I know my role, and I play it well. In fact, I thoroughly enjoy spending the majority of my game time in the penalty box before leaving the arena with a new girl on my arm each night.

What I don’t like is the new flight attendant on our team’s private plane. She works for me, not the other way around. But I’ll be sure to remind her of that, and I can guarantee, by the end of the season, she’ll be begging to quit her job.

But every road trip blurs the lines, and I can’t quite figure out if I keep pushing that flight attendant call button in order to push her buttons, or if it’s more than that.

STEVIE

I’ve been a flight attendant for years. I thought I’d seen it all, but when my new job lands me onboard working for the most egotistical and self-righteous diva in the NHL, I start to second guess everything. Including the promise I made to myself of never hooking up with an athlete again . . . no matter how annoyingly tempting he may be.

Evan Zanders is unfiltered, unapologetic, and too attractive for his own good. He loves his image, but I hate everything about it.

Everything but him.

Review

4,5 stars

I FINALLY succumbed to the hype and read the first book of the series.

If I began as a book blogger, time and menopause and an overabundance of sex scene sometimes (read often) taking center stage in place of the romance somewhat put me off the genre.

From binge-reading romance to being extra picky, I’ve become someone who only wants the good stuff. What I need is romance with heart—the slow building of feelings, true connection, and two people who not only fall in love but make sense together. If there’s fade-to-black or spice? Either works—just give me a STORY that makes me swoon.

And Mile High by Liz Tomforde gave me exactly that!

Yes, it’s tropey and a little cliché, but everything was written with so much care that it all worked beautifully.

The story? A sports romance between bad-boy hockey player Evan Zander and good-girl flight attendant Stevie. Think forbidden love (she works on his team’s flights, and they’re not supposed to mix), with sparks from the very beginning.

So you have it your first cliché: bad boy/good girl. And the trope is forbidden love as she is working for him and could lose her job if they were caught fraternizing.

BUT

Evan is so much more than his bad-boy reputation—flawed, vulnerable, protective, and surprisingly soft at heart. Stevie, meanwhile, is a “big girl” (her words, though Evan lovingly says there’s just more of her to adore). She’s been shamed in the past by family and an ex, and part of her journey is reclaiming her confidence and demanding to be someone’s first choice.

Together? They shine. Evan lifts her up, she grounds him, and their romance feels real, supportive, and full of heart.

Yes, there’s drama (including a third-act breakup that made me roll my eyes, as always), but overall, I couldn’t put it down. I flew through it in two days!

What pushed this above four stars for me were the imperfections—the characters’ flaws, their growth, the humor, the dogs (older shelter pups  = my heart), and even Evan dressing up as a Disney princess just to make his niece smile.

The hype? 100% deserved.

Thanks for reading!

Sophie