Tokybook fam, clear your weekend, grab your headphones, and get ready to spiral into second-chance slow-burn hockey romance perfection—because Rewind It Back by Liz Tomforde is here to gut you with nostalgia, hit you with steam, and patch you up with feels. Here’s your messy, heart-eyed, typo-friendly audiobook review of Book 5 in the Windy City Series—a standalone that feels like home and heartbreak and hope all rolled into one. 
Rewind It Back – Childhood Friends. First Love. One Broken Heart. And the Renovation of a Lifetime 
OKAY LISTEN—
This isn’t just a romance.
It’s “you were my everything before we even knew what love was” levels of pain.
It’s hallway glances and unsent messages.
It’s what-if meets now-that-we’re-grown.
And it is absolutely devastating in the best, slowest, most satisfying way.
Hallie Hart: The Girl Who Left (But Never Really Let Go)
Hallie is:
– Bold
– Brilliant
– A little bruised but beautifully rebuilding
She’s chasing her dream job in Chicago.
She’s not chasing her past.
But the moment she steps into Rio’s house and realizes it’s his, it’s over.
And I don’t mean the drama.
I mean your emotional stability.
Watching her navigate:
– Old wounds
– First love pain
– Unfinished business
Is unbearably relatable.
She’s strong, sharp, and so tired of pretending it doesn’t still hurt.
Rio DeLuca: Hockey God. Secret Softie. Still So in Love.
RIO. MY HEART.
He’s:
– The broody one in the friend group
– Loyal to a fault
– Lowkey carrying a six-year emotional breakdown on his back
You think he’s just another athlete until you hear his internal monologue and realize:
This man never stopped loving her.
Rio:
– Remembers everything
– Kept every moment buried just to survive
– Literally rewinds his whole life to get back to her
His love???
Unfiltered.
Unspoken.
Unshakeable.
I sobbed. Like… “why is this fictional man more emotionally available than my last three dates” sobbed. 
The Setup: Forced Proximity, Emotional Landmines, and One Bachelor Pad Redesign
Hallie renovating Rio’s house?
Torture. Comedy. Chemistry.
It’s:
– “Why are you still so hot?”
– “Why do you hate me?”
– “Why does your couch still smell like that one night?”
And all of it while designing a family home for the guy she thought she’d never speak to again.
The house becomes a metaphor.
For what they lost.
For what they could still build.
And for the walls that both of them need to break down.
Audiobook Vibes: Flawless Dual POV Energy
Nia Serge and Jason Clarke are chemistry incarnate.
Nia nails Hallie’s sass and sorrow.
Jason makes Rio’s yearning hurt. Like chest-tightening, sentence-pausing hurt.
You feel the weight of their past.
You feel the electricity of the present.
And when they finally give in?
Yeah.
Final Verdict – If You’ve Ever Wondered “What If,” This Book Is For You
Rewind It Back is:
– A love letter to first love
– A brutally honest portrayal of heartbreak and healing
– A story about coming back—not as you were, but as who you could be together
If you:
– Love second chance, childhood sweethearts
– Crave slow burn with real stakes and grown-up feelings
– Are weak for hockey players who pine like poets
– Need a book that makes you cry, grin, and believe again
Then you’re gonna fall HARD for this one.
Sorry for the emotional damage, I blacked out during Chapter 18. Tokybook fam, Rewind It Back doesn’t just make you feel love—it makes you remember what it was like the first time you really felt it.
#RewindItBack #WindyCityBook5 #SecondChanceSoftness #TokybookEmotionalRenovation #RioAndHallieForever
