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Verdict: The best-rated book on our Kindle Unlimited sports shelf and the best “he falls first” in the Windy City series — built on a three-year unrequited crush, and let down for some readers by a heroine who takes a very long time to catch up.
Best for: Readers who want a sunny hero and a guarded heroine rather than the usual way round, who like a marriage of convenience that is actually about two people who already know each other, and who have read the earlier Windy City books.
Heat level: ★★★★☆ (4/5 — “explicit open door” on romance.io, from 619 reader ratings)
Rating: ★★★★☆ (4.1/5 — a 4.46 Goodreads average across 362,094 ratings, marked down for a heroine a substantial minority found hard to spend a book with)
Tropes: Marriage of convenience, fake relationship, he falls first, sunny hero and ice-queen heroine, workplace, athlete and team staff, found family, dual POV, interconnected standalone.
This is an LRR evidence review. We have not read this book cover to cover; every claim below is built from named public sources — Goodreads, StoryGraph, romance.io, Amazon, long-form blogs and the author’s own published content warnings — and where the evidence stops, we say so rather than filling the gap.
Play Along is Liz Tomforde’s fourth Windy City book and the highest-rated title on our Kindle Unlimited sports guide: Isaiah Rhodes is the Warriors’ shortstop and has been quietly in love with Kennedy for three years, and Kennedy is the team’s athletic trainer, the only woman on the staff, and entirely unavailable in every sense that matters.
It carries a 4.46 average across 362,094 Goodreads ratings, 4.44 on StoryGraph from 13,300 reviews at a did-not-finish rate under 1% and 4.32 on romance.io from 619. Those are the strongest numbers on the shelf. There is also one thing about this book we genuinely could not establish, and it is worth saying up front.
What Is Play Along About?
This is a baseball romance that we classify Strong Sports Setting on our Kindle Unlimited guide — and that is an upgrade we made because of this review. When we first built the guide we could not classify it at all and marked it UNVERIFIED. What resolved it is a structural fact rather than a reader report: Kennedy is the Warriors’ athletic trainer, the only woman on the professional staff. She does not watch the team from outside it. She works for it, travels with it, and treats the men in it, which puts the sport inside the relationship rather than beside it.
What we still cannot tell you is how much baseball is actually shown, and we looked hard — see below. The book is dual point of view, Kennedy and Isaiah, and it inverts the usual temperature: he is the sunny one, she is the closed one. romance.io readers tag the grumpy-or-ice-queen heroine 33 times and the sunny hero 51.
What Makes This Baseball Romance Work
- Three years of unrequited crush before page one: the single most-praised element, and widely called the best “he falls first” in a five-book series that specialises in them. The longing is established rather than manufactured.
- The polarity is reversed: a warm, open hero and a guarded, professional heroine. Common enough as a label, uncommon as an actual execution, and readers name it.
- The lowest abandonment rate on our shelf: under 1% did-not-finish across 13,300 StoryGraph reviews. Whatever else is true, people finish this book.
- Anxiety and grief are given real weight, and readers say so specifically — the author names both in her own published warning set rather than leaving them to be discovered.
- The author publishes content warnings. Only twelve of the thirty-four books on our sports guide have an author-published set, and Liz Tomforde does it per book.
Book Synopsis
Isaiah Rhodes has been in love with Kennedy for three years and has told nobody, including her. He is the Warriors’ shortstop, he is well liked by everyone in the building, and he has spent those three years being nothing more than friendly to the one person he wants.
Kennedy is the team’s athletic trainer and the only woman on the staff, which means she has spent her career being professional in a room that notices. She has her own reasons for keeping everyone at a fixed distance, and she has never given Isaiah a reason to think otherwise.
Then a situation arises that a marriage would solve. It is an arrangement, it is temporary, and it is on paper — the kind of thing two colleagues can do without anything changing. Except one of them has been in love for three years, the other has spent that long refusing to notice, and they now share a name, a season and a great deal of time. The question is not whether he wants her. It is what she is protecting, and whether she will let it go before he stops waiting.
My Review
Start with the strongest thing, because it is the reason this book rates where it does. Isaiah has been in love for three years before the novel opens, and the book does not treat that as backstory to be summarised — it treats it as the emotional situation. Readers name it constantly, and across a series built on the “he falls first” structure they generally name this one as the best example of it. Dual point of view is doing the work: you are in his head while he chooses, again, to say nothing.
The inverted polarity is the second real strength. Sunny hero, guarded heroine is a labelled trope that very few books actually commit to, and this one does — 51 romance.io readers tag the sunny hero against 33 for the ice-queen heroine, and the reviews back it up. It also gives the marriage-of-convenience premise something to do: he is not persuading a stranger, he is waiting out someone who already knows him.
Now the honest gap, and it is the reason this review changed our own guide. We could not find a single reader anywhere describing how much baseball is on the page. Five separate surfaces — the Goodreads review stream, the StoryGraph reviews, and three long-form blogs — and across roughly seventy voices, nobody addresses it. Not to praise it, not to complain about it. What we did establish is structural: Kennedy is the team’s athletic trainer, which means the sport is her job and not just his. That was enough to move the book from UNVERIFIED to Strong Sports Setting on our framework. On-page sport stays UNKNOWN, and it will stay that way until somebody actually describes it.
The complaint that keeps this off a higher rating is Kennedy. A substantial minority find her one-dimensional, find her resistance dragged out past its justification, and find the emotional labour of the book distributed almost entirely onto Isaiah. That last one is a real structural observation rather than a preference: if your hero has been waiting three years and your heroine spends most of the novel not deciding, a reader can start to feel the imbalance. Alongside it sit two smaller notes — that the spice crowds out character beats, and that the middle repeats itself.
One thing to reset before you start: this is described as a standalone and it is not really experienced as one. The book resolves its own romance completely, but the reviews are full of cameos, prior-book payoffs and series-level goodwill, and one blog that calls it independently readable is outweighed by readers treating it as book four of five.
My honest note: The best-executed longing on the shelf, in the book with the most lopsided couple. If Isaiah waiting three years sounds like your idea of a good time, it is the best thing Tomforde has written. If a heroine who takes four hundred pages to decide will wear you down, start elsewhere in the series.
| Element | In Play Along |
|---|---|
| Central relationship | Isaiah Rhodes & Kennedy — the Warriors’ shortstop and the team’s athletic trainer, married on paper after three years of unspoken want |
| Sport | Baseball — professional, MLB |
| Sports centrality | STRONG SPORTS SETTING — upgraded from UNVERIFIED by this review. The heroine is the team’s athletic trainer, so the sport is her job and not only his |
| On-page sport | UNKNOWN — across five sources and roughly seventy reader voices, nobody describes how much baseball is shown |
| Core tropes | Marriage of convenience, fake relationship, he falls first, sunny hero and ice-queen heroine, workplace, found family |
| Heat level | 4/5 — “explicit open door” (romance.io, 619 ratings). Some readers say the spice crowds out character beats |
| Burn speed | Not measured on our scale. Structurally the longing predates the book by three years, which is a different shape from a slow burn |
| POV | Dual — Kennedy and Isaiah |
| Pace | Under 1% did-not-finish across 13,300 StoryGraph reviews — the lowest on our sports shelf |
| Series | Windy City book 4 — the romance resolves completely, but readers experience it as series-dependent rather than standalone. Full HEA with an epilogue, no cliffhanger |
| Kindle Unlimited | Included, verified on the Amazon product page on 22 August 2026 |
| Content notes | Author-published, verbatim from liztomforde.com: “18+”, “Mentions of a parents death (off page)”, “Explicit Sexual Content”, “Depiction of Anxiety (off page)”, “Blatant Sexism by a side character”. Reader-sourced additions on StoryGraph: sexual content, abandonment |
Is Play Along on Kindle Unlimited?
Yes. Play Along is included with Kindle Unlimited as of 22 August 2026, verified on its own Amazon product page by reading the Kindle format swatch rather than a search tile. Check the current status on Amazon before you download. All five Windy City books were verified in the programme on the same day, which is unusual and worth knowing if you want to read the series through.
Audio inclusion is unverified. The audiobook is self-distributed through the author’s own imprint and sells separately; nothing we found indicates narration comes with a Kindle Unlimited subscription.
How Spicy Is Play Along?
Band 4 of 5 on romance.io, labelled “explicit open door,” from 619 reader ratings, and the author confirms it herself — her published warning set opens with “18+” and names explicit sexual content. That agreement between reader tagging and author statement is unusually clean; on most books in this cluster the author says nothing at all.
The elements worth flagging come from her list rather than from readers: a parent’s death mentioned off page, a depiction of anxiety, and blatant sexism from a side character. Given the heroine is the only woman on a professional baseball staff, that last one is structural rather than incidental. A minority of readers also feel the spice takes up room the character work needed. For the same heat band with the sport genuinely on the page, The Dugout is the closest thing on our shelf.
Who Should Read This Book?
You’ll likely love it if: a three-year unrequited crush is your favourite shape of romance, you want the sunny hero and guarded heroine done properly, you have read the earlier Windy City books, and you like an author who tells you what is in the book before you open it.
You may want to skip it if: a heroine who resists for four hundred pages will exhaust you, one-sided emotional labour bothers you, you need to be able to start a series anywhere, or you specifically want baseball on the page — because we cannot promise you any.
In short: the best longing on the shelf, attached to the couple most likely to feel lopsided.
What Readers Are Actually Saying (August 2026)
The channel driving this book is the series and the screen deal attached to it: trade reporting in May 2026 that Amazon MGM is developing a Windy City television series, which is why a July 2024 release is still accumulating readers at this rate. In the interest of accuracy, the paywalled trade story was not reachable from our research environment and we are reporting it from the headline and secondary coverage rather than the article. There is no Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, Library Journal, Booklist or All About Romance review of this book; coverage is blog-tier. Reddit: unknown / not accessible — reddit.com is blocked from our research environment and nothing has been substituted for it.
Why readers love it (according to the discourse): Isaiah, first and by a wide margin — the golden-retriever hero with three years of unspoken feeling, repeatedly called the best “he falls first” in a series known for them. Then Kennedy’s growth across the book, which her defenders name specifically. Then the found family and the series cameos. Then the handling of anxiety and grief, which readers say is given real depth rather than used as decoration.
What readers argue about and complain about: Kennedy. A substantial minority find her one-dimensional or actively annoying, and find her resistance dragged well past its justification. That shades into the sharper structural version of the same objection: the emotional labour is distributed almost entirely onto Isaiah, and if your hero has already waited three years, a heroine who spends the novel not deciding can start to feel unfair. Second, the spice, which several readers say crowds out character beats. Third, a repetitive middle. And fourth, the standalone question — one blog says it reads independently, while the reviews themselves are full of series payoffs, so treat “standalone” as technically true and practically optimistic.
On audio: narrated by Jacob Morgan and Samantha Brentmoor, published by the author’s Golden Boy Publishing imprint in 2024. We could not confirm a runtime — the listings we could reach do not expose the field — and no Libro.fm listing surfaced, so there is no audio link on this review.
The series question worth asking first: the romance resolves completely, with a full HEA and an epilogue and no cliffhanger, but this is book four and it reads like book four. Start with The Right Move, which is the most-rated entry in the series and the usual entry point, then Mile High for the opener. Rewind It Back closes the run — and note that despite its shelving, our review found it is a second-chance romance rather than a slow burn.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Play Along on Kindle Unlimited?
Yes, included with Kindle Unlimited as of 22 August 2026, verified on its own Amazon product page rather than a search tile. All five Windy City books were verified in the programme on the same day. Audio inclusion is a separate entitlement and we have not confirmed it.
How much baseball is in Play Along?
We do not know, and we looked properly. Across five sources and roughly seventy reader voices — Goodreads, StoryGraph and three long-form blogs — nobody describes how much baseball is shown, in either direction. We record on-page sport as UNKNOWN rather than guessing.
Is Play Along a sports romance or just a romance with an athlete?
A genuine sports setting, and this review is what settled it. The heroine is the team’s athletic trainer and the only woman on the professional staff, so the sport is her job as well as his. That moved it from UNVERIFIED to Strong Sports Setting on our framework.
Can I read Play Along as a standalone?
Technically yes, practically no. The romance resolves completely and one blog says it reads independently, but the reviews are full of cameos and payoffs from the earlier books. Start with The Right Move, which is the most-rated entry and the usual way in.
Is there a cliffhanger?
No. Full happily-ever-after with an epilogue, no cliffhanger, and Windy City follows a new couple each book. Its did-not-finish rate is under 1% — the lowest on our whole Kindle Unlimited sports shelf.
Why do some readers dislike the heroine?
A substantial minority find Kennedy one-dimensional and her resistance dragged out past its justification, and a sharper version of the same objection is that the emotional labour falls almost entirely on Isaiah. Her defenders name her growth across the book. With a 4.46 average across 362,094 ratings, the critics are clearly the minority — but they are consistent.
What are the content warnings?
The author publishes them herself, verbatim: 18+, mentions of a parent’s death (off page), explicit sexual content, depiction of anxiety (off page), and blatant sexism by a side character. Given the heroine is the only woman on the team’s staff, that last one is structural rather than incidental.
If You Loved Play Along, Read These Next
If the hero is what you want more of, The Right Move carries the highest single-character consensus we have measured anywhere — twenty-seven of thirty reviewers name Ryan Shay. If it was the found family, Rewind It Back closes the series on exactly that note. And if this made you want a baseball romance with actual baseball in it, The Dugout is the most sport-dense book we verified. All three sit on our best sports romance on Kindle Unlimited guide, and the wider shelf is in Book Reviews.
The Bottom Line
This is the strongest set of numbers on our Kindle Unlimited sports shelf and they are largely earned: three years of unspoken longing established before page one, a sunny hero and guarded heroine done properly rather than merely labelled, anxiety and grief handled with care, and the lowest abandonment rate of anything we track. Against that, a substantial minority cannot forgive how long Kennedy takes, the emotional labour sits almost entirely on one side, and we still cannot tell you how much baseball is in a baseball romance. Read it fourth, as intended. Check Play Along on Amazon →
The Eikna Overall Ranking
On the Eikna scale, Play Along ranks as a series-peak marriage-of-convenience baseball romance — the best-executed longing on our Kindle Unlimited shelf, held back by a lopsided couple and an unmeasurable amount of actual sport, and best approached as book four rather than as an entry point.
The Evidence Scorecard
Overall ★★★★☆ 4.1/5
- ✓ 4.46 Goodreads average across 362,094 ratings
- ✓ Under 1% did-not-finish, lowest on our sports shelf
- ✓ Three-year unrequited crush established before page one
- ✓ A substantial minority cannot forgive the heroine
Romance ★★★★☆ 4.4/5
- ✓ Best “he falls first” in a series built on them
- ✓ Sunny hero and guarded heroine genuinely executed
- ✓ Marriage of convenience between people who already know each other
- ✓ Emotional labour distributed almost entirely onto him
Characters ★★★★☆ 4.1/5
- ✓ Isaiah is the most-named reason readers finish
- ✓ Kennedy’s growth defended specifically by her supporters
- ✓ Series cast gives the couple a real world
- ✓ Detractors find her one-dimensional and slow to move
Writing ★★★★☆ 3.9/5
- ✓ Dual POV keeps the longing legible
- ✓ Anxiety and grief given real weight, not decoration
- ✓ Author names both in her own warning set
- ✓ Several readers report a repetitive middle
Emotional Impact ★★★★☆ 4.4/5
- ✓ Three years of waiting pays off for most readers
- ✓ Grief and anxiety handled with care
- ✓ Epilogue lands the series-level payoff
- ✓ Some say the spice crowds out the character beats
Heat Level ★★★★☆ 4/5
- ✓ romance.io band 4, “explicit open door”, 619 raters
- ✓ Author’s own warning set confirms explicit content
- ✓ Reader tagging and author statement agree exactly
- ✓ Heat is not why anyone recommends this one
Ending ★★★★☆ 4.4/5
- ✓ Full HEA with an epilogue
- ✓ No cliffhanger; new couple each book
- ✓ Resolves its own romance completely
- ✓ Reads as book four, not as an entry point
Re-read Value ★★★★☆ 4.1/5
- ✓ Highest-rated book on our sports shelf
- ✓ Amazon MGM developing a Windy City series
- ✓ Series cameos reward reading the run in order
- ✓ Heroine’s resistance is harder the second time
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