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My Review:Title: Everything for You
Author: Chloe Liese
Series: Bergman Brothers #5
Published by: Indie
Release Date: May 10, 2022
Format: ebook
Pages: 356
Genres: Contemporary, LGBT, Romance, Sports Romance
Potential Triggers: View Spoiler »
Source: Overdrive
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2023 COYER Chapter 2, Lenoreo's 2023 Diversity Reading Challenge
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon ✩ B&N ✩ Google ✩ Kobo ✩ iBooks
My rating:
Blurb:Gear up for an all-the-feels, steamy slow-burn in this enemies-to-lovers sports romance about fighting for love when life’s taught you it’s a losing game.
Gavin
We’ve been teammates for two years, but it feels like a lifetime that Oliver Bergman’s been on my last nerve. A demanding captain and veteran player, I’m feared and friendless, while he’s the beloved rising star, all sunshine smiles and upbeat team spirit. To make matters worse, he’s obscenely attractive. In short: he’s genetically designed to get under my skin.Avoiding Oliver has been my survival tactic on and off the field. But when Coach drops the bomb that we’re now co-captains, avoiding him becomes impossible, and keeping the truth from him–let alone my distance–is harder than ever.
Oliver
Life was great until soccer legend Gavin Hayes joined the team and proved he’s nothing like the guy I grew up idolizing. Instead, he’s a giant–albeit gorgeous–grump who lives to rain on my parade. I’ve sworn off pranks since entering the public eye, so rather than settle our differences the Bergman way, I’ve had to settle for killing Gavin with kindness. There’s just one problem: killing him with kindness is killing me.To make matters worse, Coach gives us an ultimatum: put an end to our enmity or say goodbye to being captains. I’m prepared to be miserable while we meet her demands and make nice, but the last thing I expect is to discover an explosive attraction we can’t help but act on, and worse yet, to realize the man hiding beneath Gavin’s gruff exterior is all I’ve ever wanted.
Everything for You is a grumpy-sunshine, enemies-to-lovers, age gap sports romance about an upbeat rising soccer star with anxiety and his curmudgeonly veteran teammate who lives with chronic pain. Complete with nosy senior citizens, nosier siblings, and a meddling coach, this standalone slow burn is the fifth in a series of 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 was absolutely sucked into this one from the beginning, but I’m not sure if my mood changed and affected the reading, or if the story truly just didn’t keep the same pace. That’s the frustrating thing — am I distracted b/c the book isn’t holding my attention, or is the book not holding my attention b/c I’m distracted. *snort* I’m kinda leaning towards the latter, which is why I’m rounding up.
Reading the author’s note at the end didn’t surprise me in the least, I felt VERY strong Roy Kent and Ted Lasso vibes in our characters. Obviously the story is COMPLETELY different, but those characteristics were very obvious for me. And I actually truly enjoyed them. I also really enjoyed that while the vibe of the characters was familiar, the specifics were wholly different.
I sincerely appreciated Oliver’s happy front, hiding an anxious inside. I wouldn’t call the happy a façade because it truly is a part of who he is. He’s kind, he’s caring, he’s goofy, he’s a sunbeam. That’s just not ALL of who he is, and sometimes he lets the happy mask the other part of him. I ached seeing him struggle with his anxiety, it felt so real. I also really appreciated that he had so many “good things going for him”, b/c so often that is what people who have never struggled with mental health issues focus on, not understanding that anxiety/depression are true medical beasts. So in Oliver we got a perfect example of how mental health can affect ANY of us — it doesn’t discriminate.
Oliver really did speak to me in so many ways, and I connected with so many little things that made him up — especially his rainbow loving ways. I also appreciated the small ways he would show his love and caring for his family, his friends, and inevitably Gavin. And I was so glad to see him get a bit of his mischievousness back, even if I wouldn’t have minded more.
Gavin was a complicated grumpy character, and I truly ached seeing all that he was dealing with from the chronic pain caused by his career. And while we only get hints of what he dealt with growing up, it was enough to understand why he is the way he is — guarding his heart and not recognizing/accepting love easily. I loved how easily he cared for Oliver, even as it was reluctant.
They went through a lot of ups and downs in this book, and I was okay with the push and pull b/c it didn’t feel malicious so much as not understanding one another, and neither one willing to risk themselves. I loved when they started to give into the pull more than the push though.
That’s a lot of love for 3.5 right? Well, again, not sure if it was mood, but it just felt like it started to drag at some point. I don’t know if it actually did, but I just kept wanting to skim ahead. Even through their steamy scenes! And maybe I was waiting for something else, not that I can figure out what that something else is…maybe more of a scene with Gavin meeting the Bergman’s? I don’t know. There were also legitimate points that felt repetitive, or overemphasized…like Gavin ruminating about resenting Oliver’s beginning of his career when he’s at his end.
So yeah. Definitely a solid book in the series, it just might not have been the right book at the right time for me. Which means I am loathe to pick a new book to read now…I’ll definitely wait on Ziggy for a bit.
I’m sad this one didn’t work out for you the way I hoped it would. Oh well!