Rewind It Back (2025) is a contemporary sports romance by Liz Tomforde and the fifth and final installment of her bestselling Windy City series (the first of which is Mile High). The novel is a prominent example of the “BookTok” sports-romance phenomenon, which propelled interconnected standalone series about athletes to immense popularity. Tomforde draws on her past career as a private flight attendant for a National Hockey League team to lend authenticity to the world of professional hockey. The story follows Rio DeLuca, a defenseman for the Chicago Raptors, who finds his life upended when he unknowingly hires his childhood sweetheart, Hallie Hart, to renovate his house. After six years of painful silence, the former lovers are forced to confront their shared history when they become next-door neighbors once again.

The novel explores the theme of The Endurance of Love Through Shared Memories, questioning if a deep connection can be preserved across years of separation. Central to the conflict is an examination of How Trauma Rewrites Familial Trust, as both Rio and Hallie must navigate the fallout from choices that tore their families—and their own relationship—apart. The story also addresses The Invisible Toll of Caregiving, detailing the immense personal and financial sacrifices that Hallie has secretly made while caring for her father during his battle with cancer. Through its second-chance romance plot, Rewind It Back weaves together a story of healing with a heartfelt exploration of forgiveness and the meaning of home.

This guide refers to the 2025 Entangled Publishing, LLC deluxe e-book edition.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of illness, emotional abuse, substance use, sexual content, and cursing.

Plot Summary

When Rio DeLuca was 12 years old and Hallie Hart was 11, they became next-door neighbors. Their homes in Boston, Massachusetts, shared a roof, which became an important meeting place for the children. Over the years, Hallie marked the important moments they shared by making mixtapes, and their friendship gradually deepened into love. However, they kept their relationship a secret from their families because they believed that Hallie’s brother and Rio’s best friend, Luke Hart, would disapprove.

When Hallie was 19, Rio was selected by the Chicago Raptors in the National Hockey League draft. Her plans to join him in Chicago, Illinois, were dashed when she learned that her father had blood cancer, but she didn’t tell Rio about the diagnosis. Soon after, she caught her mother, Steph Hart, having an affair with Rio’s father. Although she wanted to tell Rio and his mother, Mia DeLuca, the truth, Steph pressured her to remain silent by claiming that the news would shatter her father’s already precarious health. When Rio and Mia learned of the affair, they felt betrayed not only by Hallie’s mother but also by Hallie herself and broke off contact with her.

Six years later, Rio, now a 27-year-old defenseman for the Chicago Raptors, is weary of the superficial dating scene and longs for the deep connection he sees among his married friends. His contract is ending, and he contemplates selling his four-bedroom house in the suburbs to fulfill his childhood dream of playing for the Boston Bobcats and moving closer to his mother. To increase his home’s value, he decides to hire the interior designer who recently renovated his neighbor Wren Wilder’s house. That designer is Hallie, now a 25-year-old talented but financially struggling intern at the prestigious firm Tyler Braden Interiors. Hallie works a second job as a bartender to pay off her father’s medical bills and has just moved in as Wren’s roommate to save money.

When Hallie is assigned the project of renovating Wren’s neighbor’s house, a project she desperately needs to secure a full-time position at the firm, her and Rio’s separate lives in Chicago are set on a collision course. The reunion happens unexpectedly when Hallie’s boss pressures her to go on a date with a client and the man brings her to a Raptors game. She discovers that her date is married and prepares to storm off, but Rio spots her in the stands. Mortified, Hallie immediately leaves the arena.

Later that night, Rio arrives home and confronts Hallie, and they realize that they’re not only neighbors again but also client and designer. Rio insists that she can’t work on his house, and the tension escalates when he learns about her date because he still has unresolved feelings for her. Desperate not to lose the job, Hallie pleads with him to reconsider. Though torn, Rio agrees with encouragement from his best friend, Indy. Rio and Hallie’s subsequent design meetings are fraught with a volatile mix of nostalgic banter and bitter remarks, with his possessiveness sparking whenever he believes she has a date, which is actually her bartending shift. The emotional whiplash becomes too much for Hallie, and she quits working on his house. However, Rio apologizes and admits that he no longer knows how to act around her. They agree to a fragile truce, attempting to be friends.

Their working relationship slowly deepens, forcing them to confront their past. During a walk-through of Rio’s house, his friends Indy, Stevie, Miller, and Kennedy crash the meeting and warmly welcome Hallie into their circle. Later, Rio and his teammates go to a bar to celebrate, where he’s shocked to find Hallie working. He becomes protective when a coworker acts familiar with her and then addresses her money problems, but she rejects Rio’s offer of financial assistance. That night, her car breaks down, and Rio drives her home, extending the drive for an hour so that she can sleep while he plays music from their past. The next day, while exploring his house for the renovation, Hallie discovers a box in his closet containing every mixtape and CD she ever made for him, proof that he never truly forgot her. Seeing an opportunity to spend more time with her, Rio insists on an in-person design meeting and flies her to New York while he’s in the city for an away game. In his hotel room, they reconnect and become intimate, but Rio stops them before they have sex, confessing that he’s only ever been with her. In a moment of vulnerability, Hallie reveals the same.

The emotional turning point arrives when Wren informs Rio that Hallie’s father has been hospitalized in Minnesota. Rio immediately abandons an important game in his hometown of Boston and flies to be by her side. At the hospital, Hallie’s father tells Rio that he was diagnosed with cancer six years ago. After Steph abandoned the family, Hallie dropped out of college, moved to Minnesota, and took on massive debt to pay for his experimental treatment, all while serving as his sole caregiver. The revelation shatters Rio. For years, he blamed Hallie for keeping the affair between her mother and his father a secret, but he now realizes that he abandoned Hallie when she needed him most, leaving her to face the collapse of her family completely alone. Overwhelmed with guilt, he understands that her silence was an impossible choice made by a terrified 19-year-old trying to protect everyone.

While driving back to Chicago, Rio is consumed by remorse. That night, Hallie goes to his room, and he tearfully apologizes for leaving her. She finally explains how her mother manipulated her into silence. With all secrets exposed, they fully reconcile. Their relationship quickly rekindles, and they have sex for the first time in six years. Rio secretly pays off Hallie’s loans, an act she initially rejects until he frames it as his penance. However, Rio’s mother remains a significant obstacle because she’s unable to forgive Hallie for her perceived role in the affair.

Wishing to heal the rift with Mia, Hallie flies to Boston and confronts her. She lays bare the entire story of her father’s illness and her mother’s manipulation. Understanding the impossible situation that Hallie was in, Mia tearfully apologizes for pressuring Rio to end his relationship with her six years ago, and they reconcile. Rio, alerted to Hallie’s trip, arrives to find her and his mother peacefully watching television together.

Later that night, on the roof of his childhood home, Rio presents Hallie with a playlist that represents the important moments they’ve shared since reuniting. The final song marks the moment he signed a six-year contract extension with the Chicago Raptors, abandoning his childhood dream of playing in Boston. He tells her that she’s his true dream and reveals that he bought his house in Chicago six years prior with her in mind, built to the exact specifications she once described for their future home.

Two months later, Rio and Hallie, who are now officially living together, host a housewarming party in their beautifully renovated home. The gathering is a joyful celebration that unites his close-knit group of friends with her father, Luke, and Mia, who is now dating Rio’s uncle. As the 10 friends who make up the found family surround a firepit, Rio quietly shows his male friends the engagement ring he plans to give Hallie later that night when he proposes on the roof of their home. Surrounded by the people they love, Rio and Hallie share a quiet moment, secure in the knowledge that after years of separation and misunderstanding, they’re finally home.