WHYYYY have the Bergman brothers not been in my life sooner?! I can’t believe I let this glorious ARC sit on my Kindle for so long. My notes about ONLY WHEN IT’S US is filled with mostly exclamation points because I just loved so many things about this book. I immediately binged the entire series. I couldn’t get enough.

First of all, VULNERABLE MEN! It was so rewarding to have Ryder’s POV throughout to balance out Willa’s fiery personality. Understanding Ryder’s disability and his struggle fighting his own inner ableism offered such an important perspective.

Willa frustrated me constantly throughout this book, mostly because we’re such different people. It was hard for me to rationalize her actions and emotions when I would so often have chosen to do the opposite. This challenged me as a reader and made her relationship with Ryder even more exciting. They are so different themselves which provided some of the BEST banter I’ve ever read in a romance. Such a well done, yet unique enemies to lovers!

I found myself, on multiple occasions, yelling at the characters to “just communicate!!!” But I appreciated that this wasn’t the central conflict. Willa and Ryder needed to be vulnerable and brave with each other while confronting their own insecurities and trauma. It made their coming together even sweeter. I may have preferred the final conflict to be dragged out a little longer, but this didn’t deter my overall enjoyment of the book. Chloe Liese has quickly become an auto-buy author and I’m so excited to read her newest book!

Only When It's Us is a new adult romance, and a pretty quick read. I have kinda mixed feelings about this one. There wasn't really anything wrong with it, and it was cute and all, but I feel like the story could've been told in about half the time. At the same time, when things were getting wrapped up at the end, it felt like it went by too quickly - the characters went through major events that were then just sort of brushed away without further comment.
Also, some of the descriptions threw me a bit, but that might just be me (a couple of times Ryder described Willa's eyes as ringed with red, and my brain just immediately went to Twilight, soo).

Overall, it's a good read and a cute story, but I'm very aware that these type of stories tend to be pretty predictable.

The pacing felt odd but I did enjoy the chemistry between the characters. I just do believe it suffered greatly from pacing issues

Amazing! I fell in love with the Bergman family in this novel and can't wait for all of the siblings to get their stories!! I am deaf in one ear so I understood some of Ryder's struggles! I just loved the relationship between Ryder and Willow! I would definitely recommend!

this book gave me the feels. i was into this book from when I read it. i will read more of this author for sure. I love it when a books just gives me all that feeling and this was it for me.

This book is NA which is my least favorite romance subgenre. I would rate the first 60% 2 stars but the last 40% 4 stars, so I am balancing out with 3 stars. What worked for me was the Bergman family, the vast amount of character growth by Willa and Ryder towards the end of the book, and how much Ryder opened himself to Willa. I definitely plan to read more from this author as I see the next book features an autistic heroine.

I'm sorry did I just actually enjoy a cishet romance?! What a wild world. This is a great book and I really appreciated the hard of hearing rep. I had some issues with the pacing and maybe it was the audiobook but it was difficult to figure out how much time had passed during sections. All of a sudden it was weeks or months later etc. This does have quite a bit of steam as well and heads up for that. I still have some issues with m/f sex scenes but those are my own issues and didn't affect my rating.

Do you ever read a book that you can’t stop thinking about days, weeks, months after reading it? That was me with Only When It’s Us by Chloe Liese. The characters were witty, they were smart, complex, and compelling. My favorite parts of romance novels are the banter and the chemistry between the two main characters and Willa and Ryder had both. This was a deliciously slow burn romance, but it worked so well for this book and these characters.

I will admit to being nervous going into this book as I’ve seen so many positive reviews but, I can whole-heartedly say that this one absolutely lives to the hype and I’m so excited to read more from Chloe.

I have mixed feelings about this book.
I LOVED the characters, mostly I loved Ryder Bergman, the over-average-sized, deaf, cinnamon-roll Beast. He's just perfection alright. I liked Willa Sutter a lot, as in her being outspoken, a footballer (and I haven't seen many in my romances). So I'd rec this romance was it only so as to spread representation of diverse characters.

The two get together bc their professor is a matchmaker, basically (and Ryder brother-in-law), and the rest is forced-proximity and banter to no end

That said, there were a few things I didn't like much. The pace in the middle felt a bit dragging (I skimmed some over-written lines, if I am to be honest, and I'm not proud of it). At times I was slightly fed up with what felt like a narrative trick (Willa unconsciously saying her thoughts aloud), and with the endless interruptions of the two MC's attempts at anything. And (SPOILER!) I felt a sting of betrayal when Bergman got his hearing back. I felt like the whole point of having diverse characters failed a bit. I mean, would it have been a less HEA if he stayed deaf?

However, the characters are truly something, I think I'm going to go ahead with the Bergman brothers if only to see the whole family again. They are that vivid, and that likeable.

Perfect for fans of an enemies turned loved romance! It’s a bit of a slow burn as they are in a friend/enemy zone until they realize they have feelings for each other. Romances don’t always work for me, and this one was mediocre for me.

In the end, I have finished DNFing this book. It has a very interesting premise, it gives a twist to the cliché of a soccer boy (in this case it is her), but the characters have not caught on to me and how their stories intertwine has not finished convincing me. I would have liked their personalities to have developed more, how they interact with each other. It has been a novel that for many factors, I have not been able to continue at ease.

I cannot even with my love for this book. The story is just amazing. So heartfelt and deeply emotional.

Willa and Ryder? They are so amazing!! Chloe Liese truly makes you feel their romance.

Also can we just talk about how much of a catch Ryder Stellan Bergman is?! 😍🔥

Only When it’s Us – Chloe Liese

This and the other books in the series (this is Book 1 of the Bergman Brothers series) have popped up in my Instagram timeline and on goodreads a few times, so I thought I’d see what they were about. I am going to discuss it with spoilers in the review so please don’t read ahead if you’d like to read it and for it to be a surprise.

Firstly, I’d say that this is an easy read – definitely one to read if you don’t want to engage your brain. It took me basically an afternoon to read. I have nothing at all against this kind of story – boy and girl meet, they try to not get together when it’s pretty darn obvious that they really want to, and then they do and no one is shocked.

Willa is really hard to like, as a main character. She has hardly any depth beyond ‘soccer’ and ‘bad temper’ plus ‘I don’t like men’ – I felt that there were some missed opportunities to create some interesting scenes with her and her friends, the other girls in her team, maybe. She does explain in her inner monologue that she doesn’t really connect with the others like she does with Rooney her roommate, but she doesn’t really seem to talk to her either. I understand that that’s part of her character, that she doesn’t open up, but she doesn’t seem to even be moving along that journey for at least 95% of the book. She’s a keen footballer on the road to the Olympics.

Ryder, on the other hand, is not hard to like – he’s a good main character in that he’s thoughtful, compassionate and easy to empathise with. He’s had a bit of a crap time and is dealing it with it in a relatable, if not slightly patronising, way. Initially I thought it was a great move to have a love interest as a newly HoH/deaf man – it’s not something I’ve seen before. Quickly though, it moved on to getting him to basically pretend that he can still hear, and he undergoes major surgery to get cochlear implants in a bid to get him back to ‘normal’, at least, that’s the implication in the story.

I kept being surprised with clangers like that, a kind of dud note in the way of something that’s particularly sexist or racist, being dropped into the text. At one point Ryder says that he needs to avoid Willa falling asleep on his couch in case his friends and roommates ‘spoon her’. I mean, if my friends were in danger of doing that I probably wouldn’t be their friend anymore. In the story, it’s just a passing, shrugged off thought which engineers Willa into his bed. It could easily have been that she needed to be there because someone was coming back late, or leaving early, and he wanted her to be able to sleep in peace.
Another one which cropped up more than once was a reference to his brothers as ‘Irish twins’ – I had to look this up as I’d never heard it before, but the definition is that they were born within 12 months of each other, called ‘Irish’ in reference to the stereotypical view that Irish families had lots of children and therefore were born close together. I think it originated in the US and appears to have been in response to the Irish immigrants coming to America in the 1800s. It is at best, not very nice and at worst, a racial slur which does not belong in a book written in the last year or so. I am surprised that it was used, in the first place but was mentioned more than once and that no editor picked up on it. Language matters, and we need to re-examine all of our sayings and stereotypical references as we gain more understanding of the world around us and the humans in it.

In addition to that reference, I was irritated by the fact that the series is called the Bergman Brothers but he has sisters, and that his Mum is Swedish but all we seem to know is that she doesn’t like ‘hotdogging’, and none of her fellow Swedes too either. I’ve been to Sweden, and it’s much more than meatballs and cinnamon buns – in fact, it’s more reindeer meat and cardamom buns (at least, it was in Stockholm). I was disappointed that there didn’t seem to have been any research done into Sweden, it was just this one ‘fact’ repeated.

I did like the concept of the playlist, a song at the start of every chapter and there is also a special Spotify playlist to listen to, but I wasn’t sure how that would work, exactly. Do I press play for each song at the beginning of each chapter? It usually takes me longer to read a chapter than to listen to a song. Maybe I’m overthinking it – it didn’t work for me as basically, I don’t tend to listen to music when I’m reading. I appreciated the effort though. It reminded me a bit of Stephenie Meyer’s habit of listing the albums and artists she’d listened to in that instalment of Twilight.

The book could have been about 100 pages shorter, as there really wasn’t much plot. Lots of description on Ryder scrubbing his face with frustration, describing meals they’ve made each other or their eye colours changing with anger/desire. I’m not sure if it’s possible for someone’s eyes to change colour so rapidly.

On the other hand, while I won’t read the other ones, I did finish it and it did keep me occupied for a couple of hours. If you like your romances easy to read and with lots of descriptions about flannel shirts (I think she means checked but hey, what do I know?) then fill your football boots.

Thanks to Netgalley and Netgalley connect for the DRC!

4.5 stars

This book definitely put a smile on my face. I enjoyed getting to know Willa and Ryder. This book has a lovely quality that allows it to be fun and cute while also remaining extremely grounded. Ryder and Willa both have these really tough things they need to deal with and I don't think either one of them is skirted over. The book definitely tackles their problems head on and with a lot of care. This, to me, allowed these characters to become that much more real. I root for them and I want them to be happy.

I had so much fun with this couple and cannot wait to continue reading about Ryder's family.

This was not my cup of tea, but I though the therapy element very important and sweet! More books should include such realistic depictions during this life stage.

Chloe Liese is an author who I discovered in 2020 and I am so glad I did. Chloe has a way with fleshing out her characters (flaws - well not flaws, just differences) and all, which truly humanizes them to the reader. I loved following along with Ryder and Willa's story - Ryder who is hard of hearing and Willa who is emotionally closed off, watching their romance unfurl gave me all the feels. Upon finishing this, I immediately went and grabbed more by Liese!

Only When It's Us is one of the best Emerging/Young adult romance books I've read. As a 23 year old woman, I could connect so strongly with Willa and all the struggles she goes through throughout this book. The novel was well written, and had a perfect tempo of pacing and throwing in all of the sexual tension. I'm definitely recommending this book to other New Adult readers in my life, and readers that love romance with a great backstory.

Only When It's Us is a fantastic frenemies to lovers romance on campus. Ryder and Willa grow closer as they overcome individual challenges. Ryder's challenges with his hearing touched my heart. I have several students facing similar challenges. I even recommended this book to their teacher. I liked the use of the music playlist. Creative touch. Thanks Chloe Liese and NetGalley for the ARC of this title.

Maybe more like a 3.75⭐️

I was really really loving this for the first 3/4 of it, but it just felt like the ending dragged out a bit tbh.

Willa and Ryder are paired up together during a class and forced to work together, mostly because the professor is Ryder’s BIL and thinks it would be funny because the two of them don’t get along. They prank each other, they push each other’s buttons, and they’ve got sexual tension so thick you can cut it with a butter knife. Classic enemies to lovers trope where they’re forced to work together and I loved it 👏👏👏.

However once they realize their feelings for each other, Willa became so annoying with her reasons for not wanting to be with him that it just got a little old after a while and I wanted to push her aside to take her place if she didn’t want him.

I will say that I think this author is hilarious with her quick witted comments in this book and the internal monologue from the characters was top notch comedy. It was a super enjoyable book to read in that regard.

I’d also love to point out that we love to see clear and verbal consent during the steamy scenes. Love it so much. 10/10 for that.

I give it a 🍆🍆🍆🍆 out of 5 on the steamy scale as well just FYI

The male love interest is also hard of hearing, which I think is good to note since we need more representation in our romance books. I loved a lot of conversations it brought up and I loved the little details of how his life had changed since becoming hard of hearing. I will say that at times it felt a little....questionable on if he got cochlear implants to “fix” himself because of her or maybe I’m misunderstanding his reasons behind wanting to do that, but I just felt a little weird about certain sections of the book regarding his hearing loss. I’d love to hear from an own voices reviewer for that though.

Also, TW for losing a parent to cancer and the grief that comes with that.

I received a free ebook version of this through Netgalley. Thankyou to both Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this! My review is still honest.

Woah, I didn't realise I completely forgot to review this! So this one will be short but sweet, but it suffices to say I highly recommend this romance. The love interest of this one is a deaf man and I love the representation and how this book doesn't emasculate him any way. I loved reading from both perspectives, both characters were very likeable and the tension between them was very well developed. A great romance read!