I adore marriage in trouble romances and Ever After Always is one of the angstiest ones I’ve read! The Bergman’s are one of my favorite contemporary romance families and I was so excited to read Freya and Aiden’s story. That being said this book almost felt heavier than the previous two. Their story definitely had some frustrating moments, but I enjoyed seeing their romance evolve through the difficult times. And I loved the family vacation setting! 4 stars

I was sort of surprised that we got Freya and Aiden's story as they seemed so solid in the previous books...and that's where it got good.

I really loved these two. They're both so smitten and low key obsessed with the other that it was easy to get drawn into how they were feeling. I loved how they were so willing to do what it took to find their way back to the relationship and even with the roadblocks, they realized how open communication was the key. (Kudos to the fun marriage counselor as well.)

Plot wise, it's good. I know I keep saying it, but the family is the best part of this series and they didn't disappoint in this one. Love love loved the brothers day and just the absolutely fuckery they do to delight and amuse each other.

Overall, this one felt a bit heavier than the other two, but Freya and Aiden are easy to root for and get invested in. Onwards to the next one!

**Huge thanks to the publisher for providing the arc free of charge**

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for this Advanced Readers Copy of Ever After Always by Chloe Liese!

This was great, I love a marriage in crisis book, it’s not some often and it should be. This was done well, there was a great sense of their history but also why they struggled in the present. You felt how much they loved each other and wanted to make it work. And it was work, and I love that the book didn’t shy away from that either, the supportive family not only of her but him was great too.

I started reading this one reluctantly because most of the time this type of plot is overdone and focused too much on ridiculous drama. But I'm glad I gave it a chance after reading other books in this series because I ended up loving it just as much as the others!

Rating: 4.25⭐️
Rep: anxiety
Thank you Berkeley and NetGalley for this ARC! I downloaded this just for the bonus epilogue (I’ve read this series previously but wanted to see the bonus content) and I loved the extra content we got for Freya and Aiden! They have my heart-I love how they worked through their struggles maturely and got a happily ever after! Their love is so beautiful and pure, and I adore it! Chloe does it again🫶🏻

I really love Chloe Liese 🥺 I love love love Second chance and Marriage in Trouble tropes but Marriage in Trouble is rare and it's sooo refreshing! To read about people who already live each other but are going through difficult times. It's just so real and so passionate. It's like reading what happens in the future of a romance novel where the romance start. It's so different. I love it because it portrays something true. Couples fight, go through tough patches, they grow and they have to grow together, but life flies by and sometimes it's hard to stay grounded together. Its easy to lose each other, and the gap just gets bigger. It doesn't mean that the love isn't there. It just means you have to work for it. And it's beautiful to read about it.

I never particularly connected with Freya & Aiden... and I still really don't. But that doesn't change the fact that this is an objectively good book with a gorgeous writing style.

Really enjoyed these characters. These two have some issues I think are pretty relatable. This gives slight forced Prox and second chance.

Drags a bit but quickly picks up.

I loved this book and this author! Chloe's inclusive and relatable characters made this a joy to read.

trigger warning: marriage problems, pregnancy and issues with conceiving, sexual content, alcohol, depression, anxiety and panic disorder, estranged parent, near death experience, physical injury

Dude I always hate marriage issues related books but I put my preconceived notions aside and decided to trust Chloe because homegirl has done me a fkn solid the last two books and BOI she came through. Won't say it's a new favourite niche but if this is the quality of book coming from a marriage in crisis novel then bitch sign me up.

The PINING. The SMUT. The FEELS. The casual intimacy and deep rooted concern and love. THE FAMILY DYNAMICS!!!!

I was so ready to hate Aiden from the idiot shit he pulled in the first book but he really grew on me. Freya was already baby but now she is Babie. Both of them are in fact. Again, the big family dynamics were really wonderful to read. This book had a LOT of it because everyone was so nosy about Aiden and Freya. The sibling concern and group effort to help heal their issues was so soft and sweet and also aggressive in the way only rowdy siblings can be.

Might be my favourite of the entire series but there are three more to go after Axel so we shall see!!

Chloe Liese has helped me find a love and appreciation for the "marriage in crisis" trope. I loveee Freya and Aiden. The story was beautiful and emotional and raw and real and I just adored seeing Aiden and Freya fall deeper in love with each other as they got over their hurdles!! Everything about the bonus epilogue was wonderful. It was HOT, funny, and so romantic!

I skipped book 2 to get to this one because I love Aiden and Freya so much! This book did not disappoint. I'm usually not a marriage-in-crisis fan, but this book has me changing my mind. It was emotional, honest, and so well written. Plus, of course, incredibly romantic.

Aiden's struggle with anxiety was at the forefront of this book. It plays a lot into some of the problems he and Freya are having in their marriage. I thought it was well-represented and well-written throughout the book.

I just love Aiden and Freya together. They're polar opposites but so in love with each other that it's contagious. The desire they had to overcome the problems in their marriage and work on communicating and bettering themselves was admirable.

I was also very happy with the fun vacation setting. It was a nice change of pace from the day to day scenes of their life. Also, it allowed for some creative scenes and events for Aiden and Freya to experience.

Overall, this might be my favorite Bergman couple, but there are still many books ahead so the jury is still out. 4.5 stars!

wow oh wow. i genuinely don't think i've ever read a marriage in crisis book ? but like this was just executed so well and i think it dives deep into topics that are so important. putting an emphasis on people changing throughout relationships, especially long term ones, is so important.

i relate a lot to aiden and his anxiety. i also can relate to growing up poor, something i still face to this day. i understand that need to be finically stable above all and how much of ourselves we lose from that need. growing up without a father figure constantly around as well, i've had so many of those insecurities, and i think chloe just explains them so well. when reading i was just in awe of how much of it made sense.

ever after always was just such a beautiful book. i didn't think going in i would enjoy it due to having divorced parents and a father whom i don't really have a relationship with, but i absolutely enjoyed every second of it, even when i was crying. i have a new appreciation for this !!

Matchmaker Aiden MacCormack, the professor who connected Willa and Ryder, gets a taste of his own medicine in this second-chance romance with his wife, eldest Bergman Freya. Their meet-cute was in their early twenties at a coed pickup soccer game where he guarded her like white on rice and she slammed a ball into his glasses. Now a decade has passed, and while they expected life and lust to mellow, she hadn't counted on his absence as he focuses all his energy into getting an app off the ground to provide a secure financial future for their future offspring. Freya just wants her hot husband home--after weeks of inattention and secrecy, she kicks him out. He finds refuge at the A-frame. The Bergman brothers have always told Aiden he is one of them, but this is their chance to show him, from advice to support to pranks, that they have his back and are routing for him and their sister.

Aiden and Freya seek marriage counseling, and a session gets them back on track, and then a step back, which is just so real. The counselor using games to help them reconnect, and as a gamer, can attest that it's a great way to both really get to know someone and work out some aggressions. Aiden's anxiety is portrayed with authenticity and compassion, and brought back under control when he allows those who love him to care about him. It's also managed with medication, rest, therapy, and honesty.

No one tells you marriage is difficult, no matter how much you love your partner, and author Liese handles this tale of a marriage on the rocks as adeptly as her novels about college students and new adults.

This series of romances focuses on a sprawling, imperfect, loving family and the friends and lovers they take into their fold. Most are loosely structured on classic romances and comedies, from Austen to Shakespeare... to Ted Lasso. The seven Bergman siblings live/work/play in SoCal (but spend time in the Pacific Northwest in their expanded A-frame family vacation home) and are of Swedish descent; geographical and cultural details beautifully round out the love stories. Each tale, edited and re-released by Berkley Romance with a bright, attractive cover, includes a preface from the author about her commitment to writing neurodivergent and chronically ill characters.

All of Liese's characters are portrayed with authenticity and sensitivity, and a recognition that no two people's lived experiences are alike. Gentle trigger warnings may be helpful for some readers. New bonus epilogues further the story, and sometimes help segue to the next; afterwards include more information, and often, each concludes with a sample chapter the next book in the series. Each chapter is told in alternating points of view, and each chapter in each book is prefaced with a song title/artist evocative of the mood, tone or subject of the chapter. All of the titles are cleverly pulled from a snip of dialogue spoken from one protagonist to the other at a pivotal moment.

the bergman brothers/sisters books just keep getting better and better 🥺🥰😭 truly loving these stories— they’re romance, yes, but they’re REAL and so incredibly heartfelt with the absolute best characters that you can’t help but love and root for… they’re just so delightful and give me all the feels!

5 wonderful second chance stars.

I had 14 highlights in this book. Y'all. This book wrecked me! Wrecked me! I love Chloe Liese's Bergman brothers so much. And Freya and Aiden just ruined me.

There is nothing I love more than marriage on the rocks romance because it is so real. Marriage is hard - like Freya says <i>"Why doesn't anyone tell you how hard marriage is going to be?"</i> - and so often we read romance up until the HEA but really most are Happily For Now. It's nice to see couples work through their growth: in marriage, as they grow together, and as they grow apart. Freya and Aiden's story is about how you make the conscious choice to grow together - to understand how you've changed as people and actively work to understand what this new person you are with needs. Gosh. It's so deep. And so real.

I also loved how Liese showed Aiden's anxiety and the ways that it impacts their relationship. Anxiety is something that is quite common and peaks and flows are guaranteed. Never cured, only something that is managed and supported. As the book progresses, we realize that yes, Aiden has failed Freya, but Freya has failed him as well. And their realization of their failings, as well as their desire to do better, is truly beautiful.

I highly recommend this book, this entire series. Liese has something great going with the Bergman family and I can't see where else she takes us.

<i>"People who love each other hurt each other, too. What matters is that they learn and they try their best not to hurt each other that way again."</i>

Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced copy to review!

3.5 stars!

My tl;dr of my review here is I think a lot of the conflict could've been solved with easy communication between the couple before we meet them on page, and then when we do meet them on page they go to a therapist one time and all of a sudden ~are cured~ of their marital woes.

There is a lot I did love about this book though. I'm noticing that Chloe Liese can write a stellar conflict. Books 2 and 3 have conflicts that are so angsty and really drive at each individual's internal conflicts. I love how this conflict was a mini-test of sorts of what they've been learning and I love how quick Chloe has her conflict resolutions be.

Also, out of all the marriage-in-crisis books I've read, I think this one truly does the best job in showing the romance of knowing someone for years. Knowing their small habits, knowing their bodies, knowing what they'll do before they even do it. Seeing Aiden and Freya anticipate each other like that made me giddy.

Spice was spicin', but Chloe always throws in one spicy scene that makes me uncomfy and she found a way to do that again here hahaha.

I definitely wanted more here and felt like this book could've been a knockout read to me if Chloe just approached it from a different angle. But once again this is just me being selfish in what I'd like in a romance!!

I also did love the maturity that came with this romance since they both where in their mid-to-late thirties.

Aiden and Freya are not in a good place at the start of "Ever After Always." After deciding to try for a baby, things have fallen apart and they struggle to communicate with one another. Aiden who struggles with his own anxiety issues and the trauma of being abandoned at an early age by his father, cannot seem to explain to his wife that his anxiety is tearing him apart. Freya, who comes from a large and boisterous family, sees every one of Aiden's actions as rejection and proof that he no longer loves her. This is killing Aiden because there is no one he loves more than Freya.

Freya’s brothers try to butt in - albeit with the best of intentions - and help Aiden win back Freya but Aiden knows that only he and Freya can fix their problems. He hopes that marriage counseling will help them learn how to once again communicate effectively.

We get to see Aiden and Freya rebuild their trust in each other and their marriage through a family trip to Hawaii, where Aiden learns about groveling and grand gestures - with a little help from the queen of romance herself, Lisa Kleypas. It's not an easy road and it takes time and a few more mistakes, but eventually Aiden and Freya figure out that what they have is worth fighting for and their love is everlasting.

I loved every aspect of this story, especially Aiden's willingness to be so open and vulnerable and his absolute commitment to Freya. I also adored the family dynamics within this series. It's always nice to see past favorites: Willa, Ryder, Frankie and Ren.

Chloe Liese did it again! This one was definitely not my favorite in the series, but it was still really good! Freya and Aiden are having marital problems and it literally takes the whole family to test the waters and see if they can make it back to each other in one piece. Aiden has high anxiety, which really came out of the pages well, and really made me think about my own anxiety and how to work through it.