The Right Move by Liz Tomforde

 

The Right Move, Book 2 of the Windy Series by Liz Tomforde, and my most recent uncovered treasure trove of romance, friendship, and even some cute bromance. For anyone who is thinking of diving into this book, I’ll say two things. One, the sexual attraction between the couple is something along the lines of I-really-cant-live-without-him and only-she-can-make-me-happy which is of course to be expected when you pick up any romance novel these days, but there is smut, significantly so. (Ahem) Like, I would definitely say it's 18+ and goes into details too. So, well, I hope you get the idea. Second, this book does a little touching on the topic of toxic relationships and toxic exes. So yeah, please remember that your mental well-being is always a top priority.

Now then, with that out of the way, let’s get into the book.

I’d like to take this opportunity to introduce our main leads – Ryan Shay and Indigo Ivers.

The novel is a sports romance setting with the typical rich guy and ordinary girl falling head over heels in love with each other trope. Ryan Shay, Captain of the Devils, the NBL team. Indigo Ivers, a flight attendant for the NHL team, the Raptors. Both have issues from their past relationships and although at the beginning you are bound to think that the female lead has it bad, oh boy, the later chapters where Ryan reveals the reason for his trauma are going to make you hurl obscenities around. As in, both of their exes were total trash, but the difference was mainly in that Ryan’s ex was sly and cruel (I’d like to add dumb to the list) but Indy’s ex definitely lacked brains and heart and possessed an over-inflating ego instead. We, as readers, don’t get to see much of Ryan’s ex-lover, except in his recounting of the past. We see more of Alex, Indy’s ex-boyfriend, and his toxic masculinity and insensitive acts which clearly take a toll on Indy.

The two are mutually acquainted through Stevie Shay, Ryan’s twin sister, and Indy’s best friend. In case anyone is interested, Stevie has her own love story, another whole book, called Mile High. It is the story of how she fell in love with Zanders, an NHL hockey player of the team Raptors. The same one for which Indy is a flight attendant.

It begins with Indy coming into Ryan’s minimalistic black-and-white life with her rainbow and summer breeze personality. Although both are reluctant about sharing the same apartment for personal reasons, Stevie manages to convince both sides. It definitely starts on the wrong foot, for Ryan’s stoic personality does not go well with Indy’s emotional one. Indy is a sensitive extrovert. Ryan is the exact opposite, a diplomatic introvert who is closed up and cold towards people with the exception of his sister Stevie. When Indy tries to be friendly, Ryan panics and behaves rudely. Indy openly shows her sexual attraction to him. Ryan gets irritated when that happens. He also short-circuits every time he fantasizes about her or sees her dressed up for the events they attend together or even just in her oversized T-shirts. Man really has a hard time around her most of the time, no pun intended. Their views about love and life are also vastly different, just like their financial situations. But they are, after all,  each other’s perfect temptations, to quote Ryan’s thoughts. So they get do there, albeit it does require some, no, actually a lot of work. Although they don’t see the faults in themselves, they do see the problems in the other person. In fact, there is a cute scene where they create lists for each other, consisting of tasks to work on these specific issues. Simple stuff like taking care of flowers, or changing certain habits. And they stick the lists onto the refrigerator. I don’t know why, but that struck me particularly as cute, especially since it's Ryan who did that. Anyway toward the end of the book, one can clearly see the change and growth of both characters.

Their relationship which is at first only that of mutual acquaintances, accelerates forward too soon when Ryan asks Indy to be his fake girlfriend. Another quite common trope in romance novels these days. Ryan’s awkwardness around the loud social butterfly that Indy is, is quite cute to read about. The first couple of times when they act, Ryan is ‘way too bad at this!’ to quote Indy. No worries though, he gets better. They learn to open up and confide in each other. They stand up for each other and for themselves. 

I would like to point out that Alex unknowingly became the catalyst that boosts Ryan’s feelings for Indy. The more Ryan hears of Alex, the more he and readers realize how toxic and insecure of Indy he was. Indy was way better off without him. I mean, why is the fact that if she wears heels she is a bit taller than him, so hurting to his ego?  

Indy’s growth in particular makes readers proud. Well, at least I felt super proud of her for standing up for herself in front of her childhood friends. Heads up guys, these friends will make you question your sanity. As I mentioned before, Indy’s ex cheats on her, but her friends would prefer her to go forget and forgive him, so that their childhood friendship and friend circle is not destroyed. I mean, the audacity! Despite this Indy happily puts together a bridal shower party for her friend, even though, a) she is struggling financially, b) she was promoted but none of her “friends” ever celebrated that or even bothered to congratulate her, and c) they side with her ex and finally, they only remember her when there’s work to do. I don’t think they should even be called friends if they side with a cheater instead of the one who was cheated on. Her ex-boyfriend might’ve cheated on her and created a bad image for himself in the readers eyes, but as a person who struggled around manipulative “friends” and fake friendships and relationship aftereffects, I found her friends far more disgusting.

Just as love is a precious emotion, so is friendship and more people need to acknowledge this fact. This book is a perfect example of how childhood friends need not always be true friends.

(On that note, give yourself a pat if you’ve been a good friend, and give your wonderful self a warm hug if your friends haven’t lived up to the tag and emotion and hold your head up high and walk out of the burden that friendship had probably become. Phew! How I wish someone had told me that when I went through all that drama)

Like I said before, there is also some cute bromance. Stevie's brother and husband-to-be have the sweetest bond ever! They really have their own fandom at this point. They respect, like, tease each other, talk to each other in ridiculous ways, and help each other out. Ryan helps Zanders organize his engagement party and proposal for Stevie and Zanders in turn helps Ryan with realizing his feelings for Indy and looking out for her in his absence. 

Indy was quite the relatable character for me, mostly because of her dependent attitude and sensitive soul. She piles pillows beside her at night to create an illusion of another person with her to get rid of the feeling of loneliness. A bookworm who lives with her head in the clouds when it comes to love and relationships. To be specific, she a lover of 18+ romance novels. And Ryan is super awed by the books she reads and reads with her. I mean, that's quite rare however you look at it. Going back to Indy, she is also someone who bottles up her problems, and so she tends to ignore or pretend not to notice all of her problems. The problems of her toxic friendship, the problem of her dependency, and her sacrificial attitude. All of them are ignored by her and the readers since the author has done a good job while writing her sunny and loud facade attitude. That is, until Ryan points it out.

The smut parts of the novel are pretty detailed and quite strong. Although it is not  Aaron LYHFML Warner or Garrett “Hands off Hannah” Graham, Ryan can fully well make us and Indy drool with just the way he uses his words.

“Focus on me. Focus on us”

“Look how pretty that is Blue”

Ahh. It’s just the chef’s kiss, I tell you. I think I have read too many Wattpadd books whether the authors writes smut scenes but fail to infuse the pure love and admiration into the act. So most of the time it ends up looking like contractual relationship or something way worse. But this one was pretty toe curling and legs waving in the air vibes to read. 

But of course, it's not just smut. The characters are written beautifully and in detail. There is depth to both Indy and Ryan and also their actions and words. There is significant growth to both characters and their bond. The importance of communication and interaction in a relationship is also shown. Indy's struggles to move on is relatable to all those who find themselves in the same predicament. Ryan's trust issues are relatable to those who have been betrayed cruelly, by their most loved. Ryan and Indy moving on from their past is something all of us who have moved on from the painful past can relate to.

“Loving someone means accepting their flaws too”. A brilliant quote which rings true for this novel. Both of the main characters wholly accept each other, flaws, trauma, pain, scars included. They are just happy to be together and take care of the other.

Funny thing is, while reading, I got slight Pride and Prejudice vibes, but only at certain points. Ryan is like a softer, humbler version of Mr. Darcy, but he got that icy cold demeanor and short replies. And Rio reminds me way too much of Mr. Bingley and his ardent admiration for Mr. Darcy, in our case, Ryan Shay.

Well, all in all, The Right Move was quite a good read if you’re someone into tropes like physical attraction, sports romance, smut, and coming out of toxic relationships. It also goes through stuff like personal growth, relationship growth, trauma handling and overcoming it, moving on etc.

 

Happy reading everyone!