The Right Move by Liz Tomforde - A Book Review
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 fantasising 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
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Tropes:
- Best Friend’s Brother
- Forced Proximity
- Basketball Romance
- Grumpy X Sunshine
- Fake Dating
I decided in May that I was going to prioritise reading Kindle Unlimited books, since my letter K of my alphabet challenge (King of Greed) was included in the subscription. So that has meant any book after King of Greed, is a one from my TBR Jar and most importantly, included within my KU subscription.
I read Mile High, the first book of The Windy City Series and also by Liz Tomforde back in January. I wasn’t all that impressed by my first introduction to the author and felt like I was the only one who couldn’t understand the TikTok hype. I decided that I would still continue the series because sometimes, the first book by the author doesn’t always result in being your favourite.
I picked The Right Move out of my TBR jar and was slightly worried, especially because the book was 400 pages long (we know how I feel about books over 300 pages), but I continued anyways.
The Right Move follows Indy, a flight attendant and friend of Stevie from Mile High, who works as cabin crew for Stevie’s boyfriend Zander’s hockey team. Indy was introduced in Mile High, but her story in The Right Move follows her reeling in her heartbreak after discovering that her long term boyfriend had been having an affair, leaving her homeless.
Stevie approaches her older brother Ryan, a worldwide famous basketball player, to ask for Indy to temporarily move in until she can afford her own place, as an alternative for her moving back home to Florida. Ryan is apprehensive at first, as he values his privacy from the world, but ultimately gives in, allowing Indy to move in temporarily.
In their early interactions, Ryan discovers that Indy is an emotional person, leading him to have no attraction to her as when he first met her, she was an emotional mess, having discovered her boyfriends affair.
When Indy moves in, the pair navigate their new roommate situation, which forces the pair to develop a friendship, despite Ryan’s one man show lifestyle. The pair are polar opposites to one another, Indy thriving on colour and Ryan favouring black and white. This causes Ryan to develop anxiety at the new person throwing colour to his once monotone life.
Indy begins navigating her flight attendant job, whilst navigating life post breakup and in a new environment. Ryan begins navigating the new person on his home, whilst navigating his new role as team captain, which his general manager Ron is apprehensive of.
Ryan worries that Ron believes he’s not good enough to be team captain, so when speaking to his colleague, he discovers that his teammate and his wife regularly have dinners with the coach and his wife to form a friendship beyond the court. In an attempt to make his manager believe he is the right person for the job, he accidentally reveals that he is in a relationship, to make himself seem or capable for the job role, despite not being in one. This panic, results in him to seek the help of Indy for her to be his fake girlfriend, where she’ll be required to attend galas and speak to Ron his manager in attempt to make him believe Ryan is the right person. This is set in exchange for Ryan to also be Indy’s fake date for a wedding of her friend, in which her cheating ex boyfriend will also be attending.
The pair navigate their new roommmate situation, whilst also fake dating, where they both attend galas to showcase their fair relationship. The pair develop a contract which sets out rules that they must abide by to make their relationship believable. In the contract they also detail goals for one another, which the other must achieve. Ryan sets a list of goals that Indy must complete relating to her newly found single life, whereas Indy has to allow people into his life and be the bookish boyfriend that Indy reads about.
With their forced proximity and additional fake dating, their pair slow develop a friendship with one another, where they settle into a familiar and comforting routine.
Indy is left feeling left out when bumping into her friends, who were shopping for the upcoming wedding, which leaves Indy left out due to sharing the same circle of friends as her cheating boyfriend that has strained her friendship.
The pair slowly start to develop feelings beyond friendship, but keep it between themselves, both disclosing them to one another.
After one of Ryan’s basketball games, Indy runs into her ex boyfriend, who is nonchalant about his affair, before revealing he’ll be at their friend’s wedding with a date. From a far, Ryan observes their interaction, before jumping into save Indy, after watching her struggling with their first meeting post breakup. Ryan steps into the role of her fake boyfriend, leaving her ex boyfriend star struck, after he discovers Indy is dating his favourite basketball player.
The fake dating plan begins to work as Ron starts believing that Ryan is the right person to lead the team, by bringing them on camping dates, where Ryan and Indy are forced to share a bed.
After preparing and organising her friend’s bachelorette, Indy becomes ill but is determined to attend and spend time with her friends. Her friends disclose their wishes for her and her boyfriend to rekindle, due to the strain it has put on their friendship. Indy becomes enraged at their suggestion to get back with her cheating boyfriend.
Indy is rescued by Ryan who comes to the party to take her home, after his sister Stevie revealed her illness.
When her friend’s wedding arrives, Ryan joins to be her fake date. Ryan ended up revealing to his coach that his relationship with Indy was fake but they developed feelings along the way to which Ron reveals that his wife knew about. After Ryan attends Indy’s friend’s wedding, the pair end up sleeping with one another after finally admitting their feelings to each other.
Ryan ends up buying a house which he intends to move into to provide himself with privacy.
Indy and Ryan have a heart to heart where Ryan reveals why he closes everyone out – during college he was almost trapped into paying child support after his girlfriend got pregnant with someone else’s baby, after pretending to be with him for the sake of his money; leading Ryan to develop trust issues. During their conversation, Ryan makes a comment about everyone in his live is only there to use him, resulting in Indy to believe she’s included in the statement. Indy decides the pair should end the relationship they have began.
Along the way, Ryan finds a pregnancy test in his apartment which he believes to be from Indy, only Indy has expressed her issues with fertility. It is revealed to be Stevie’s test, resulting in Ryan to feel regretful at his comments towards Indy using him. Ryan believed that Indy was using him, fearing he was experiencing the same from college.
After realising his mistake, he attempts to explain to Indy, who is reluctant to listen after being hurt before.
Indy is visited by her cheating ex boyfriend again, who begs for her back, revealing his mistake on cheating on her, being that he was worried to settle down too quick. After Indy has this interaction, Ryan is worried that she is going to forgive him and leave him.
In an attempt to rekindle what they had, Ryan takes Indy to his new house in an attempt to win her back. During their conversation, Ryan reveals he doesn’t believe Indy is using him, but was scared at the thought of it happening again. Ryan decides to leave Indy at the house to make a decision, who makes a silent decision to move in with him. Whilst Ryan has a basketball competition, Indy decides to move all their furniture from his apartment into their new home, to show him her answer.
After his game, Ryan returns to his apartment to find it empty, before going to the new house where he finds Indy in the kitchen with all their furniture.
The story ends with Indy and Ryan playing hostess in their new home, which they fill with memories.
Starting off, I enjoyed this book more than Mile High, but I didn’t LOVE it.
I found that I was able to immerse myself into this book much more than the first book that I read and I think that’s because I was able to relate to the FMC Indy, a bit more (fellow romance lover). This reason has made up my decision to continue reading the rest of the series, mainly because I’ve read two of the books so far and I’m interested to know what will prevail in the following books. I also think reading them all will allow me to give a better opinion.
What I’ve come to realise recently, is that I don’t think sports romances are for me. I’ve never had a big interest in them or a natural gravitation towards them. I really only read them because they’re popular on TikTok. I will say, I am looking forward to the third book of the series, Caught Up because it has a nanny plot to it, which I quite enjoy.
Just like Mile High, The Right Move could’ve easily been between 200-300 pages long. I found this book also had a lot of unnecessary filler and repetition, which the first book also had.
I was making good progress up until I reached 70% into the book, which was where I started to loose interest. At this point, I just felt like it was dragging on and the same themes were repeated. You’d think considering I read the After series that I’d have more stamina for repetition. I felt like Indy’s heartbreak was the part of this story that I felt was over repeated, whilst on Mile High, it was Stevie’s weight insecurity. In the end, I was just happy to have finished the book.
As mentioned, I related to Indy with her love for romance novels and I enjoyed the development of her relationship with Ryan, but I wasn’t overly ecstatic when they got together – I wasn’t squealing.
As always, I have to mention a loveable side character and for The Right Move, it has to go to Rio. I loved how funny he was and he was just completely loveable, he gave me golden retriever vibes honestly.
When I was reading it, I imagined Ryan’s manager Ron, to be Whitey from One Tree Hill. I think that’s just because OTH was also basketball themed, so I just imagined Whitey because I’ve watched him in that role.
Overall, I enjoyed this more than Mile High and didn’t find myself filled with dread at the thought of reading it. However, I’m still on the fence about its BookTok popularity. Hopefully, either the third or final book will change my mind.
My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
Georgia
♥
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