Title: Always Only You
Author: Chloe Liese
Series: Bergman Brothers #2
Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again)
My Bookshelves: Contemporary, Contemporary romance
Pace: Medium
Format: eBook, Novel
Year: 2020

Hints of the depths of Ren’s unrequited love rear their head in Only When It’s Us, so I pretty much immediately dived straight into the novel. I mean, I loved the first story of the Bergman Brothers, so I figured why not jump straight into the second one. And, as predicated, it was just as wonderful and fantastic as predicted.

Liese did wonderfully in her description of living with a chronic illness, at least to my limited understanding. Frankie’s constant, daily battles to manage something that most of us couldn’t ever fathom make her completely loveable and adorable. As is the gradual understanding that her distance form her family is entirely chosen and of her own making. Every piece of information about her daily life made me fall more and more in love with her. And made it that much understandable why Ren has had his unrequited love.

Sometimes the whole loving from afar, unrequited loved can be a bit of a creepy storyline and trope. I mean, I find it generally frustrating that someone hasn’t shared their feelings. And it can be seriously creepy. Yet, Liese was able to make this incredibly sweet. Ren has totally sound reasons for keeping his mouth shut and his fascination somehow doesn’t feel creepy. I mean, he’s waiting, but he doesn’t just stop his life in the meantime.

This was pretty much a cover to cover read for me. I loved the whole Bergman clan, I loved the romance and found everything about it completely adorable. I also enjoyed listening to the play list as the story unfolded. Plus, once the romance started, there were a few challenges, but mostly it was just beautiful and all of the gooey feelings.

Image source: Goodreads

Title: Only When It’s Us
Author: Chloe Liese
Series: Bergman Brothers #1
Rating Out of 5: , 5 (I will read this again and again and again)
My Bookshelves: Contemporary, Contemporary romance
Pace: Medium
Format: eBook, Novel
Year: 2020

Not going to lie, I love a good enemies-to-lover romance. They’re always just so adorable, and the epitome of I love you in spite of your flaws. Or at least, it is to me. And this story definitely was a great example of the trope. It was cute and funny, filled with fun moments and a whole lot of antagonism. Plus both Willa and Ryder have such adorable backstories and personalities, that it is impossible not to fall completely, totally and utterly in love with them.

Mac is a fun plot driver, I mean, he’s kind of a dick. But he’s also a well-meaning ignoramus. Which is always the best type, he’s just annoying enough that you want to smack him around the head, but not so much that he’s irredeemable. He also personifies a whole heap of prejudices and assumptions that are often made in daily life. I’m intrigued to see what his story is like later on in the series, I’m not yet sure how much I like him…

Liese does a great job of dealing with some tough issues. Firstly, Willa’s mothers battle with cancer. As a child of someone who battled cancer, I can attest that many of those emotions and thought processes were incredibly familiar. It’s amazing that such a happy and sweet book has such a dark aspect to it. And one that was down very, very well. The there’s Ryder’s late-onset deafness. I know next to nothing about this, but it felt incredibly genuine. The fact that Liese has a note in the front about her republication due to some of her own assumptions… it made me love her writing all that much more.

The final amazing cherry on top for this story… the play list. I’ve read lots of books that have play lists you can find online attached. Play lists that the authors used when writing certain chapters or scenes. But I’ve never had the pleasure of reading one that has a song for every chapter. Listening to this as the story unfolded helped to even further heighten the emotional connection. And now I have a great nostalgic play list to crank whenever I’m in the mood.

Image source: Goodreads