A review by fortheloveoffictionalworlds
Only When It's Us by Chloe Liese

5.0

Disclaimer: An eARC was provided via The Publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. The Thoughts, opinions & feelings expressed in the review are therefore, my own.

Read for the #NetgalleyQuarantineChallenge – hosted by For The Love of Fictional Worlds and Gayatri @per-fictionist to handle our overflowing Negalley shelf!

Challenge – the eARC the releases next month

I rarely read NA Romance – but I spied “grumpy hero” + lockdown anxiety had me requesting access this eARC blindly.

And I am so freaking glad that I did.

ONLY WHEN IT’S US is an emotional, hilarious, complex and intricately plotted on the backs of strong characters who move into your heart; carve their place and you would never want them to leave. Ah! Willa Sutter and Ryder Bergman are two deceptive individuals – but in a way that the reader to never take anything at their face value!

Willa, our star soccer player of the women’s team – has absolutely no control over her own temper and yet has problems confronting people about her own rights – she is a protagonist with whom I could relate, especially considering that I too suffer from impulse control issues. She has the habit of jumping to conclusions, and loves her Mama Sutter – the woman responsible for making her the strong, independent, even if she is a little prickly on the outside like a porcupine, woman that she is today.

Ryder Bergman, has had his world totally turned on its axis – and it is something that we only get to know a little later into the story – for our first impression of Ryder is through Willa’s eyes and she does NOT give a favourable impression of him. But as a reader, we end up (at least, I did!) loving and adoring this hero whose quiet charm and intelligence, slowly but surely; ends up piercing that prickly exterior of Willa – but it is his strength, his character + his utter loyalty and adoration of Willa that have me (and Willa) in a puddle of feels!

An enemies – to – lovers NA Romance, I fell in love with Only When It’s Us because the author has taken what could have been a stereotypical jock romance and used to put across protagonists – a tough no hold barred soccer player and an ex – soccer player + a current lumberjack and gives us a slow burn romance that have their moments of hilarity, stubborn protagonists interspaced with subtle emotional experience – that, in the end, has me very excited to see the path the rest of the series takes!



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