Only When It’s Us by Chloe Liese

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Title: Only When It's Us
Author: Chloe Liese
Series: Bergman Brothers #1
Published by: Tantor Audio
Release Date: November 10, 2020
Format: Audiobook
Narrator: C.J. Bloom, Nelson Hobbs
Length: 11 hours and 22 minutes
Genres: Contemporary, New Adult, Romance
Potential Triggers: View Spoiler »parental death « Hide Spoiler
Source: Libro.FM
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2023 Audiobook Challenge, Lenoreo's 2023 Backlist Reader Challenge, Lenoreo's 2023 COYER Chapter 1, Lenoreo's 2023 Diversity Reading Challenge
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon ✩ B&N ✩ Google ✩ Kobo ✩ IndieBound ✩ iTunes ✩ Book Depository ✩ Libro.FM ✩ Chirp
My rating:

Blurb:

Prepare for an emotional rollercoaster brimming with laughter, tears, and slow-burn sexiness in this new adult romance that tackles the vulnerability of love with humor and heart.

Ryder

Ever since she sat next to me in class and gave me death eyes, Willa Sutter’s been on my shit list. Why she hates me, I don't know. What I do know is that Willa is the kind of chaos I don’t need in my tidy life. She’s the next generation of women’s soccer. Wild hair, wilder eyes. Bee-stung lips that should be illegal. And a temper that makes the devil seem friendly.

She’s a thorn in my side, a menacing, cantankerous, pain-in-the-ass who’s turned our Business Mathematics course into a goddamn gladiator arena. I'll leave this war zone unscathed, coming out on top…And if I have my way with that crazy-haired, ball-busting hellion, that will be in more than one sense of the word.

Willa

Rather than give me the lecture notes I missed like every other instructor I’ve had, my asshole professor tells me to get them from the silent, surly flannel-wearing mountain man sitting next to me in class. Well, I tried. And what did I get from Ryder Bergman? Ignored. What a complete lumbersexual neanderthal. Mangy beard and mangier hair. Frayed ball cap that hides his eyes. And a stubborn refusal to acknowledge my existence.

I’ve battled men before, but with Ryder, it's war. I’ll get those notes and crack that Sasquatch nut if it’s the last thing I do, then I’ll have him at my mercy. Victory will have never tasted so sweet.

Only When It’s Us is a frenemies-to-lovers, college sports romance about a women’s soccer star and her surly lumberjack lookalike classmate, complete with a matchmaking professor, juvenile pranks, and a smoking slow burn. This standalone is the first in a series of new novels about a Swedish-American family of five brothers, two sisters, and their wild adventures as they each find happily ever after.

3.5 stars — I don’t know what it is with this book, but I’m having a really hard time figuring out my thoughts on it.  Let’s just say that this audio took me forever to finish because I kept pausing and playing sudoku games on my phone instead because it couldn’t hold my attention.

I wondered if it might be the narrators, but I actually LOVE Ms. Bloom and enjoy Mr. Hobbs.  I did have a LOT of difficulty detecting internal thoughts vs open dialogue, especially with Willa…which is often a problem in audio, but given how much Willa thinks to herself and sometimes out loud, it might have just not been a great choice to listen to vs read.  But the humour, the pacing, the emotion, those were all great…so it’s not completely that.

I’m not a huge enemies to lovers lover, so I thought it might be that…but this one was more just antagonistic and bickering as opposed to actual enemies.  Unless you count Willa as being an enemy of herself.  She was…extremely frustrating.  She had so many great qualities — she was funny, sassy, spirited, dedicated and driven…and if you made it past her walls, she loved like no ones business.  But she basically let 2 people past her walls, and otherwise they were like Fort Knox.  It’s not that I didn’t get that to a degree, especially with what she was dealing with with her Mom.  But so much of it seemed to stem from her non-existent Dad, and I guess what we learned just didn’t feel like enough to make that reasonable with the degree with which she was closed off.  Not saying there aren’t people like that, but it just made it hard for this reader to hold on with Willa and connect and empathize on that particular issue.  After awhile it was just too much.

Ryder had his own interesting issues with stubbornness and pride.  Like Willa, he had some fantastic qualities — he was caring, sensitive, sassy, and smart.  I think I empathized a little bit more with his own struggles, even if his pride could be frustrating at times.  It felt like it was reasonable and he grew as the story went on.  I don’t think I had the updated version of the story, so not sure what changes she made to his experience with hearing loss…I’ll take it with a grain of salt.

I enjoyed them together, but I did lose excitement over them after awhile.

I think in the end that’s the issue for me: the book felt drawn out.  I think I would have enjoyed it more if it was trimmed.  Otherwise my mind was just left wandering and not invested enough.  I might try another book in the series, but this time I’ll try reading it.  I think there are parts of this author’s writing that are a match with me, so we’ll see if different characters and a different format make a difference.