The Right Move by Liz Tomforde
The basics
Title: The Right Move
Author: Liz Tomforde
Series: Windy City #2
1. Mile High (2022) 2. The Right Move (2023) 3. Caught Up (2023) 4. Play Along (2024) 5. Rewind It Back (2025)
Add it: Goodreads
Goodreads Summary:
RYAN She’s a distraction, that’s what she is. I’m the newest Captain of the Devils, Chicago’s NBA team, and the last thing I needed this year was for Indy Ivers, my sister’s best friend, to move into my apartment. She’s messy, emotional, and way too tempting. But when the team’s General Manager vocalizes his blatant disapproval of my promotion to Captain, referring to me as an unapproachable lone wolf with no work-life balance, I can’t think of a better way to convince him otherwise than pretending to date my outgoing roommate. The only problem? Faking it feels far too natural. Having a fake girlfriend wasn’t supposed to be messy but having Indy under my roof and in my bed is complicated, especially when she wants all the romantic parts of life that I could never give her. INDY I never imagined I’d be living with my best friend’s brother, NBA superstar Ryan Shay. Even more unbelievable? He needs me to act as his loving girlfriend who’s suddenly changed him into a friendly and approachable guy. Because, well…he’s not. He’s controlling of his space and untrusting of others. Our arrangement isn’t one-sided, though. I’m in a wedding coming up, one where every one of my childhood friends, including my ex-boyfriend, will be in attendance, and there’s no better date than my ex’s celebrity hero. Blurred lines make it almost impossible to separate real from fake. Falling for my roommate was never part of the deal, especially when Ryan is quick to remind me that he doesn’t believe in love. I’m a romantic and can’t help fantasizing that he’ll change, but soon enough, I find myself questioning if sharing a roof with my best friend’s brother was the right move after all
Here is a spoiler summary of what happened in The Right Move by Liz Tomforde to help refresh your memory before you read the sequel. If you need help remembering what happened in The Right Move then you’re in the right place. Please keep scrolling for an explanation of how all the Windy City books are connected.
This recap was written by Judith @ Paper Riot!
What happened in The Right Move?
- Ryan Shay is a basketball player for the Chicago Devils, and one of the most famous people in the country. He can’t go anywhere without being recognized, and so he has become very private and doesn’t leave his house often.
- Indigo (Indy) Ivers is the head flight attendant for the Chicago Raptors (MILE HIGH). She just went through a messy breakup, while also saving for fertility treatments because fertility issues run in her family.
- Stevie (MILE HIGH) asks her twin brother Ryan if her best friend Indy can move in to save money. Stevie was living there, but has now moved in with her boyfriend Zanders.
- Ryan and Indy clash at first, because he’s neat and she’s messy, he’s cold and she’s emotional. But then they bond over breakfast.
- Indy has become good friends with Rio (Zanders’ teammate, from MILE HIGH), who mostly stops hitting on her. He’s also in love with Ryan Shay.
- After Indy’s ex-boyfriend cheated on her, all her childhood friends chose his side. Two of them are getting married and both Indy and her ex are in the bridal party. They think Indy should get back together with him.
- Ryan just made captain and both his teammate Ethan and his manager Ron tell him he needs to be more relatable and open instead of private and only focused on basketball, e.g. by dating. Panicking, Ryan says he’s dating Indy.
- Indy and Ryan decide to make a deal: she pretends to be his girlfriend for the team, and he will be her date to her friends’ wedding.
- They go to the team’s fall banquet as their first fake couple outing. There, we meet Kai Rhodes (MMC in CAUGHT UP), Ryan’s friend from the sports world and a baseball player/single dad. Kai’s son Max is eight months old in this book. After this, Indy and Ryan sometimes babysit Max when Kai has fired another nanny.
- Indy is very close to her parents. Her dad is deaf, and Ryan learns ASL for him behind Indy’s back.
- As we learned at the end of MILE HIGH, Zanders wants to propose to Stevie. In this book, he proposes to Ryan to be his brother in law.
- Ryan tells Indy the last woman he dated tried to get knocked up so he could pay child support, which is why he doesn’t date and has been celibate. Indy tells him she’s saving to have her eggs frozen.
- Indy goes to Ryan’s game and her ex, who was there apparently, finds her when she’s outside waiting for Ryan. He tells her he’s bringing a plus one to the wedding. Ryan comes out and kisses her to make the ex jealous (it works).
- Zanders proposes to Stevie on an airplane because that’s where they met (MILE HIGH). Indy and Ryan go to their engagement party.
- Indy gets told her fertility treatments are covered by her job’s health insurance. This wasn’t the case before. We later find out that Ryan paid for them.
- During a game, Ryan has a terrible knee injury and is taken to the hospital. Zanders and Rio tell Indy what happened. She rushes tot he hospital. If Ryan tore his ACL, his career is over, but it’s okay. He has to recover for a month, and Indy takes care of him.
- Ryan tells Indy he keeps his house clean because he went through depression and his house used to be a mess.
- Indy got accepted to Dartmouth but never went because her ex didn’t want her to, but she’s hella smart. Ryan wants to start his own charity foundation to help kids and she draws up the entire business plan.
- Ryan finds a positive pregnancy tests and freaks out. He gets mad at Indy because trauma, and Indy runs away to Rio’s house. Then Stevie says it’s hers and she and Zanders (MILE HIGH) are having a baby.
- Ryan buys Indy a house outside the city to live together, and they make up. They celebrate ith all their friends and family. Kai and Max are there, and Kai says he bought a house 10 minutes down the road.
- In the epilogue, it’s 4 years later. Stevie and Zanders have one daughter, Taylor (named after Ryan Taylor Shay). They live close to Ryan and Indy now with a bunch of dogs.
- Indy and Ryan struggled to get pregnant so tried adopting but then she got pregnant via IVF, AND they got a call to adopt a kid, so they have two kids a few months apart: Iverson (after Indy Ivers), their son, and Navy Renee (after Indigo/Blue and Stevie Renee), their daughter.
- Rio is 27 in the epilogue and still Indy’s friend. Still single.
- Indy quit being a flight attendant 3 years ago and now works for the Ryan Shay foundation.
How are the Windy City books connected?
BOOK 1: MILE HIGH
This book is about Stevie Shay (a flight attendant for a hockey team) and Evan Zanders (a player on that team), who fall in love. In this book we also meet Indy Ivers (fellow flight attendant and Stevie’s friend), Ryan Shay (Stevie’s twin and a basketball player) and Rio DeLuca (another hockey player who becomes friends with them all).
BOOK 2: THE RIGHT MOVE
This book is about Indy (Stevie’s friend) and Ryan (Stevie’s twin) who become roommates and start (fake) dating. In this book we see more Stevie and Zanders, and Rio, who is now Indy’s good friend and obessed with Ryan. We meet Kai Rhodes, Ryan’s friend who is a baseball player and a single dad. Stevie finds out she’s pregnant.
BOOK 3: CAUGHT UP
This book is about Kai (Ryan’s friend) and Miller (Kai’s coach’s daughter), who nannies for him and eventually loves him and his son Max. In this book we see the entire friend group (Stevie, Zanders, Ryan, Indy, Rio, Kai and his brother Isaiah) have family dinners every week. We also meet Kennedy Kay, the baseball team’s athletic train who Isaiah is in love with. Stevie is pregnant; Ryan and Indy get married.
BOOK 4: PLAY ALONG
This book is about Isaiah (Kai’s younger brother) and Kennedy (his athletic trainer), who get drunkenly married in Vegas and have to pretend to be married. All the other couples (and Rio) still show up. Indy is pregnant, Zanders and Stevie have their kid.
BOOK 5: REWIND IT BACK
Book 5 will be about Rio, Zanders’ teammate from the Raptors, who becomes Indy’s best guy friend in book 2, and is part of their friend group throughout the series. He frequently complains about being single, always joins in for girls’ night and is pretty much in love with Ryan Shay.
