Willa Sutter is a UCLA Division 1 soccer player with a quick temper. Raised by a single mom in the military it was always them against the world. Due to her soccer commitments she is occasionally late, or misses class for away games. The meddling Professor MacCormack tells Willa to get her notes from fellow student Ryder Bergman. When Ryder ignores her whispered requests and she gives him a death glare they become frenemies. Ryder Bergman has six siblings and a warm and loving family life. He also was a Division 1 soccer star until two years ago when meningitis stole his hearing. A fact Professor MacCormack fails to mention to Willa!
This is the first book in a series, but is not a cliff hanger. It is told in dual points of view. The world building and character development are tremendous. You truly empathize and react with the characters. The numerous secondary characters are also a joy to be around. I really love a book that pulls you in, makes you a part of their lives, and you never want it to end. I also liked the slower more believable development of a romance between Willa and Ryder. This is the first book and I am looking forward to more time with these people! I have read other books by this author and this is not a fluke - her people are real! I received an ARC from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review. I highly recommend this book.

5 Stars

Only When It's Us is an enjoyable new adult romance by Chloe Lies. I'm always a sucker for a good college romance, and this frenemies to lovers one excited me from the start.

Ryder and Willa get off to a rough start. The way this is written captured my attention immediately and had me fully intrigued in their story throughout. As they learn one another's backgrounds and motivations, the walls start crumbling. Both characters are complex, and end up being way more than they appear to be. I definitely enjoy them as individuals and as a couple.

Willa is a strong female character, a total spitfire, and a sports star. Yes, the female character is the college sports star in this one. What a delightful twist from the norm. A totally independent woman, she is not one for commitment, and it shows.

Then there's Ryder. Wow. Just wow. His backstory is handled in a nice way, not focusing on the negative. Yet, he will win you over immediately when you learn his background. And his family, oh how I love them.

This one just has all the feels for me. The story is written with charm and love. Ohhh...the slow burn element is wonderfully done. This story is one with a wonderful family element that I completely love as well.

The writing is great, with a nice tone, a pleasant writing style, and a seamless flow. The author excels in the exploration of being deaf, writing it with knowledge, compassion, and care. And then there's the bickering. Ohhh, the author gives us plenty of hot tempered moments between these two, which just ups the fun. They bicker, insult, and piss off one another from the start. It's all great.

I truly enjoy Only When It's Us. My first time reading a Chloe Lies book, I am impressed and look forward to reading more. Don't miss out on this little gem when you're in the mood for a sweet new adult read! It won't disappoint with it's mix of friendship, family, and love.

I really enjoyed this book, potentially more than I thought. It was a rollercoaster of a ride which dealt with many emotions and real life relatable problems.

I was invested from the beginning, the story was easy to follow. The dialogue (in the most part) was natural and easy flowing. The pace of the book was also great for me.

Are you in a Quarantine slump? Do you need a romantic comedy to make that couch even more inviting that it already is? Well I have the book for you.

What do you get when you add an over the top prank war, predictable chemistry and plot, characters with all kinds of issues buried underneath the surface? You get, Only When Its Us by Chloe Liese.

Willa Rose Dean is just trying to get through her business class with a high enough grade to keep playing soccer; when her professor, who seems to think he is Emma from a Jane Austen novel, forces her to get notes from a complete stranger. Ryder just wants to be invisible since his dreams of playing college soccer were dashed to pieces when he was rendered deaf by a case of meningitis. He is definitely not in the mood to have any new friendships, especially with the hotheaded girl in his business class.
The plot of this book goes at a nice clip and the characters are so funny. The line “Simmer you sweatpants” has officially been added to my vocabulary. Is it a literary masterpiece that is going to change the way that all books are seen from now on? No. But what it is, is a perfect lighthearted rom com that you just enjoy sitting down and reading. This is the perfect book to distract you and make you smile.

**One content warning though, there are some VERY steamy scenes towards the end, and if that’s not your kind of thing this book may not be for you. **

On the scale of how much will I ignore my family to read this book, I give it a 7.5. I was ignoring calls on my phone, and staying up late to finish the last chapter.  I would finish reading with a smile on my face and would laugh out loud at certain scenes.

This was an extremely delightful book to read, and I definitely will be picking this book up to read again when I need a light book to remind me of times when we were allowed to be in public again.

Dieses Buch zu lesen war wohl die beste Entscheidung meines Lebens! Ehrlich, es handelt sich bei "Only when it's us" um eine unglaublich erfrischende New Adult SportsRomance Geschichte, die absolut unter die Haut geht! Und endlich, endlich, ENDLICH ist in einer Geschichte die Frau der große Fußballstar. Ich erinnere mich nicht daran, diese Konstellation schon einmal gelesen zu haben, was mich schon von Anfang an überzeugt hat. Willa und Ryder sind die Protagonisten der Story und ich habe sie beide augenblicklich ins Herz geschlossen. Sie haben so viel Humor, Charme und auf der anderen Seite unfassbar viel Tiefgang, was ich vom Klappentext her überhaupt nicht erwartet hätte!
Unerwarteterweise kamen auch einige Parallelen zu "Stolz und Vorurteil" von Jane Austen auf, was ich so gefeiert habe! Es gibt diese eine Szene im Buch, in der das Willa auch klar wird und ich habe diesne Augenblick so geliebt!
Ich finde auch die Familien von Ryder und Willa einfach Zucker. Generell ist die Charakterzeichnung in diesem uch von Anfang bis Ende gelungen. Jeder hat seine eigenen Facetten und Macken und ist aber trotzdem total liebenswert. Ryder hat das Potenzial zu einem absoluten All-Time-Favorite-Book-Boyfriend.

Jeder, der Lust auf ein etwas anderes New Adult Buch hat, sollte zu "Only when it's us" greifen - ihr werdet es nicht bereuen!

This was a cute and quirky New Age YA romance with a slow build. I liked that the hero had some challenges as well as the heroine. I wish things had held my attention a little longer to keep my interest but it may just have been not the style of read for my current mood of darker plotlines. Thanks for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

4.5

This was a tough book to rate. I already knew that I wanted to rate it a 4.5, but I thought long and hard about whether to give it 4 or 5 stars.
I chose 4 because I had a couple of issues with the book. First off, Willa. While I wasn't the biggest fan of both of the main characters, Willa made me feel more annoyed. Her decisions, for the most part, came off as a bit childish. Second, the book changed to a darker tone pretty much out of nowhere about the 66% mark. It does end on a cheery note, though. I liked the writing style and the chemistry between the two leads.
I would recommend this to anyone who likes enemies-to-lovers stories.

Normally I'm a big fan of hate-to-love and sports romance books, but this one seemed too immature to me. I didn't click with the main character enough to be invested in the story. I don't know if I can really get behind a gal that has that short of a fuse. It's too much for me, but I'm sure there are plenty of people out there that appreciate it!

I love a great enemies-to-lovers romance and Only When It’s Us came through with the goods❣️

I couldn’t put this book down and would’ve binged it in one sitting... but I had to be functional for Easter prep & festivities the next day! It had all the elements I enjoy in a memorable romance - complex characters, excellent chemistry, great banter, sexual tension galore, plenty of laugh-out-loud moments, a good dose of steam AND it hits you with all the feels. The main characters were so relatable and the side characters were just as fantastic too, I was so invested in how it would all turn out.

I loved the depth that the author Chloe Liese injected into the storyline, her writing is so engaging & entertaining and I definitely want to read more of her books in future. There’s an accompanying playlist to this book which was an excellent touch👌 I listened to each song at the start of each chapter and this really set the scene for what lay ahead - it was a wonderfully immersive experience and I highly recommend you do the same when you read this book.

Only When It’s Us was just what I needed, and if you’re looking for a comfort read with a side of steam you should definitely check this one out too!

Huge thanks to Netgalley & the author for providing an e-ARC for review

4.5 stars

Very enjoyable story. Really liked the characters, felt like they were characters I would like to be friends with. Story was abit slow at beginning ,as most books are, but once character and plot build up was done story very entertaining. The author made the characters feel very real and relatable. Finished in one day. Would recommend to anyone looking for a funny and engaging story.

I'm chalking this up to a case of "It's not you, it's me." Maybe I'm too old for New Adult romances. I just couldn't get into the writing style and the story felt immature to me. I probably would have enjoyed this book 5 years ago but today, I just can't.

At first glance, this is a new adult sports romance centered around soccer. It’s much deeper than that because both of the main characters have a lot of responsibilities and hardships to deal with. This book also contains a hard of hearing male lead, a matchmaking professor, a slow burn, forced proximity, frenemies to lovers romance, close-knit family dynamics, and Pride & Prejudice references.

Willa started off being a frustrating character because she’s stubborn and quickly jumps to conclusions. Both Willa and Ryder are incredibly stubborn and share a love of soccer. They quickly grow on you to the point where you find yourself rooting for them to get together and you start to feel for what they’re going through. This book also dives into harder topics: the hardship of student life is for athletes, disabilities, how deafness is more complicated than it seems and the death of a loved one.

I went into this book with no expectations and ended up having a good time. My rating is hovering between 3.5 and 4.

<i>Disclaimer: I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.</i>

This is a fun book that would probably be classified as enemies to lovers. We have Willa and Ryder who seem to have an intense dislike for each other when they first meet. They are forced to get to know each other better because of a class. They have such different personalities and it’s fun to see how they both start to like each other. It’s not an easy road because of family issues for Willa and some secrets that Ryder is keeping as well. Ryder recognizes his feelings first but is sensitive enough to realize that Willa is not initially ready for a relationship. His patience is heartwarming and what develops is a beautiful slow burn love story. This is such an entertaining and at the same time emotional book. I am looking forward to stories about Ryders siblings.

What happens when you cross a grumpy, flannel “lumberjack” with a sassy, strong soccer star? Well- misunderstandings to start plus lots of wit, possible flirting and a one-upping war. But also, growth, tenderness and breaking down of well-built inner walls.

I DNF this book. The writing felt immature for me, it felt like this book was for teenagers, all the hormones but no substance (until 1/3 of the book in). I’m sure it gets better, but the main character was very immature and there were no real conversations between the couple. It was too sexual forward, words like D%&K were used. It was all bickering and sex thoughts for the big part of what I read. I wasn’t enjoying it, so that’s why I stopped reading it, but I heard other people loved it.

Willa and Ryder bring the HEAT in this book. I didn't find everything believable (Willa's refusal to get attached seemed overblown), but I really loved the tension between them. This was sexy AF and I'll definitely pick up more from Chloe in the future!

I enjoyed this book and the enemies to lovers trope it falls into. I loved that both characters had flaws and grew throughout the book. Of course, since I love soccer, their passion for soccer made me happy too. I did think the book was a smudge long because rheee was a lot of repitition - we must have read a description of Ryder’s physique a hundred times and I figured out that Willa mumbled all her thoughts out loud early in the book and didn’t need it told to me so often. I also felt like Willa over reacted to so much that it took away some of my enjoyment

You know that moment when you go blind into a book because you don’t know anything about the author or the story but from the first chapter you just can’t stop reading and want to turn page after page so fast ? That’s what happened to me with this story.
I loved it so much! The writing was great and the characters are so perfect together that at first glance you will always say “Nope, this wouldn’t work in a million years!” But it does and omg how much it does!
I can’t recommend it enough and I’m so looking forward to the next books in the series.

Give me a book about grumpy, silent heroes and I'll read it. This one was no exception.

From the first to the last page I loved the banter, their easygoing nature and their ability to piss each other just enough before one of them loses their mind. I cannot tell you enough how much I enjoyed this book to the point I am still debating to buy it for my shelf.

But of course, I can't go past some things that put my possible purchase into consideration.

First, even though the book is average length I felt like it was longer than it was and that's because a lot has happened in this book. Like A LOT.

Okay, there's nothing too much in this book (like pigs flying) but still a lot. Just made me slow down the reading even though I'll read a book like that in two days.

Their chemistry is off the chart (seriously hot) but at the same time the author doesn't put you completely out of misery. The hottest moments actually happened at the far end of the book which is not something I usually like but in this book it's done right (but at the same time I wouldn't mind if they were sooner in the book. Waiting till the almost last page is too long for me). So yeah, for a slow burn fans this one is a must read!

In short:

an average sized book that for me felt long because a lot has happened
very hot tension, hilarious banter but at the same time those sweet moments where you go all ''Awww'' on characters
heroine was very independent but also sassy - there was one moment when I thought she could be more open about her feelings
hero is a grumpy, silent man but also such a kind person
a sports novel but sport is not really the main aspect, in fact the games are mentioned but not lived in the story
background drama, prepare tissues
lots of repetitive phrases - if I counted how many times lumberjack was mentioned it would probably be too many. But like I said, in other books it would put me off, in this one it was done right
All in all,  Avery solid read, will possibly read again (or even buy a copy) and definitely read other books by this author (especially this series).

4-4.5 stars.

DNF at 40%. I’m having a tough time connecting with this and after reading for a few days and only making it this far, going to stop here.

I’ve come to realize that good communication is one of my favorite things to find in a great romance novel. And likewise - I don’t have much patience for poor communication being the conflict between the love interests. I appreciated the sparks and interest between Willa and Ry - but don’t understand what’s keeping them apart. And their professor assigning them a team bonding day for the two of them because their project is a good idea but they have too much tension? Nope. I am not the right reader for this one.

Thank you to the author and Netgalley for my advance reading copy.