Raise your hand if Rio DeLuca is your new favourite book boyfriend from The Windy City series!
We’re raising our hands. Both of them. All of us.
The other day, someone asked me to rank the men from The Windy City series and honestly? It felt impossible. How are we supposed to choose just one when they’re all so great? Each guy brings something unique to the table, but Rio? He brings the whole table.
Rio was first introduced in Mile High, but I first met him in Caught Up, since I read the entire series completely out of order. (Listen, Baseball Daddy Kai set the bar real high but somehow, the rest of the men had no problem clearing it.) From the moment Rio showed up, I was intrigued. Did I think he had a weird (but completely valid) obsession with Ryan Shay? Yes. Did I feel bad for him being the last single man standing? Also, yes.
And as a millennial out in the dating world in 2025 let’s just say…it’s not fun. It’s lonely. But that is what drew me into Rio’s story and made his point of view immediately relatable. We dive right into his dating troubles in chapter one when he’s on a date with a girl who’s more interested in talking about herself than getting to know him. He says:
“I’m eager to meet someone, desperate, you could say. We go on a first date, I don’t feel that spark, and that’s where the connection dies.”
And honestly? That line is modern dating in 2025. Summed up. Perfectly. Brutally. So when Hallie Hart came barrelling back into his life, it gave Rio the second chance of a lifetime, one Rio knew he couldn’t waste.
In the previous books in the series, we saw funny Rio, Girls’ night Rio, but in his book? We see a side of Rio we never saw coming.
And then there’s Hallie Hart. The other half of this beautiful, aching, love story. A caregiver who has let the burden of responsibility shape her sense of self and her ability to trust. In an interview with The Nerd Daily, Liz Tomforde said she wrote Hallie’s story while she was taking care of her own sick mother. That kind of vulnerability shows up on the page, and it’s something you can only write from lived experience. As someone who has taken care of a sick parent, I felt the weight of the responsibility in every word. The sad reality of “Why them?” that quietly turns into “Why me?” was all too familiar.
People always talk about how hard it is being the one who needs care. But few talk about the people doing the caretaking. Hallie’s story shows that side, and then shows us what it looks like when someone shows up for her.
As I read the last page of Rewind It Back, I realised this wasn’t just a goodbye to Rio and Hallie, but to every couple we’ve met and fallen in love with throughout the Windy City series. Liz Tomforde didn’t just write an epic love story. She gave us closure, healing, a safe space to feel vulnerable, and a beautiful reminder that some sparks never truly die.
They just wait for the right moment to reignite.
Rewind It Back is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore.
Will you be picking up Rewind It Back? Tell us in the comments below!
Synopsis | Goodreads
The fifth book in the phenomenal, tiktok sensation, Windy City series. A spicy sports romance, following the fan favourite character of Rio…
Hallie
When I was eleven, my family moved next door to his. When I was sixteen, we fell for each other. And when I was nineteen, we broke each other’s hearts.
Six years later, I’ve landed an internship with a big-name interior designer in a new city. Unfortunately, that city just so happens to be the one he plays hockey for.
I thought Chicago was big enough to avoid him, until I unknowingly move in right next door. Even worse? My new job means I have to renovate his house.
I may have loved Rio deLuca once – but I’m not that same girl anymore.
Rio
I never thought I’d be the only single one left in my friend group. But after years of trying to find love, I’ve concluded it may not exist for me anymore.
That is, until I accidentally hire Hallie Hart to renovate my house and I find myself rewinding memories I’ve kept secret for years.
That connection I’ve been looking for since I moved to Chicago . . . I found it when I was twelve years old.
And now the only girl I’ve ever loved is moving into the house next door. Again.
