This is the first book I read from Chloe Liese and I really liked it! I thought it was cute! I love how Ryder and Willa's relationship flourished. I loved their banter! I’m excited to read the other books in this series.

Willa is an up and coming women's soccer playing just trying to survive college until she can go pro. Ryder is a surly, lumberjack looking guy who is holding the key to Willa getting good grades. After their Business Maths professor makes them project partners their hilarious frenemy relationship begins where insults fly and sparks crackle.
For the first chapter or so I wasnt really feeling the story of Willa and Ryder but once we were introduced into the mind of Ryder Bergman I really grew to love these characters and root for their happy ending. I love that we get both their perspectives as their minds work in different ways. And really how could you not love Ryder.
A fun romantic read that is very slow urn that does get fairly sexually descriptive towards the end.
Thanks to Netgalley.com and Chloe Liese for the opportunity. I can't wait for the next brother to find love.

Guaranteed to get you out of a reading slump!

This book comes out swinging and takes no prisoners.
It invoked some very strong *feelings* right away, which had me invested faster than you can say "prank war, but make it foreplay".

This baby packs a punch of a delicious slowburn, steamy romace, enemies to friends to lovers, features a female sports star and disability rep.

Willa Sutter is the ace of her D-1 soccer team, with big ambitions for her career and no time for your bullshit.
She definitely shouldn't have to deal with her Business Math professor refusing to give her lecture notes for the classes she's missed when Willa was busy leading her team to victory and away games.
But instead of doing what he's contractually obligated to do, Professor MacCormack decides Willa should get her notes from the surly Lumberjack she ends up sitting next to because it's aways the only seat left when Willa doubtlessly barges in late after practice.

Ryder Bergman is trying to get through college without being murdered by the wild haired soccer star in his Business Math class that hates him for no apparent reason. When their meddling Professor insists on throwing the two together, he'll have to figure out away to survive Willa's hot temper.

A romance that will make you laugh, cry, perch on the edge of your seat and maybe leave you in a desperate need of a cold shower.

In this enemies to lovers story we meet Willa, a female football athlete and college student, she is having a lot on her plate, she need help catching up to her business management class. When she asks her professor for notes he directs her to Ryder, the guy sitting next to her for help. The problem is he ignores her attempt to talk to him and she has no idea what to do.

This book was full of interesting twists that made it very easy to read. I liked the plot and the way that some things were revealed. The romance was a slow burn full of delicious tension. The chemisty between Willa and Ryder was built in a lovely way. The book had the best development leaving the reader in a emotional rollercoaster. As for the secondary characters, they helped to create a full universe, which I would be interested to see more of.

*I received an arc through Netgalley and this is my honest opinion.

Spice warning! If that’s your thing than this is a great twist on the rom-com. Eclectic mix of loveable characters. Love Ryder and Willa and the way these two come together. I loved the way Willa’s mama played into the story, and Ryder’s ancestry gives a fun little reference to things that are popular in culture right now. You don’t have to be a soccer fan to like this book but I am and it added another element to the story that was the perfect platform for Willa’s passion. Their banter was fun and the sexual tension palpable. Would definitely pick up another book by this author.

Adorable, deep, and sexy, Only When It's Us is the new adult book we need right now. These days, it seems every book is set in New York or on the East Coast. Finally we have a fresh look at California life through the eyes of Ryder and Willa.

Ryder and Willa are coming of age in that transition from college to post-college life. Yes, they are privileged to attend college and take sexy vacations, but they also deal with reality when it comes to loss and grief. This book is about vulnerability and I'd recommend it to anyone who wants to feel all the romantic feels, but still engage with the tough aspects of relationships. I laughed, I cried, and I wanted the next book in the series right away.

I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

'Only When It's Us; by Chloe Liese is a captivating novel that will tug at your heart strings and leave you with a whole plethora of emotions. The premise itself was enough to get me to open the book - who doesn't love a frenemies to lovers romance - but the first page was enough to get me to keep reading. I loved the book so much I devoured it in one sitting, and then immediately went on Goodreads to see when the next book in the series was being released.

This book was definitely so much more than I was expecting. Not only was the slow-burn so exceptional, but the stories behind the characters themselves were so raw and powerful. For me, it's what took the book to the 5-star level. One of my favourite aspects of this book is how I connected with the characters on an emotional level, not because I could relate to their experiences, but because they were portrayed so realistically. I mean this not only for Willa and Ryder, but for all the secondary characters as well. Believe me when I say, I cannot wait to read more about the Bergman's (I would say brothers but I'm equally excited for more on the entire family, and would love a whole novel dedicated to the parents and how they met).

'Only When It's Us' combines all the elements you are looking for in a rom-com (frenemies-to-lovers, slow burn, forced proximity, and sexual tension) with the depth of the characters backstories to make a fantastic, emotional, and hilarious read that will leave you wanting more. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who would listen - and while I'm waiting for the next book in the series, I'll be reading all of Chloe's other books to get my much needed fix.

This came highly recommended from a couple of friends and I am so glad I took their recommendation. Only When It's Us was fun and steamy and just light enough for a brain break. It had enough depth with both Willa and Ryder's hardships and struggles that the story wasn't all fluff. It really allowed you to get to know them and why they responded to life and relationships the way they do. I can't wait for the next book!

3.5*

“Life doesn’t live itself for you, and nothing is promised to us.”

Only When It’s Us is my first Chloe Liese book, and it won’t be my last. Willa and Ryder aren’t your standard new adult romance leads. They both have their own goals and struggles in life, their own strengths and weaknesses, and they both grow in this book on their own and with each other. OWIU is slow burn, but the tension between the characters is there from the very start. They share a class together and are sort of forced into interacting. Which is difficult for each of them for different reasons. Willa hates confrontation and “difficult conversations” and Ryder is hard of hearing due to a past illness, and still dealing with the loss emotionally/physically.

What I love so much about this book is that these characters are still doing their own thing, but they are also falling in love. They fall for each other sort of because of their differences and not just in spite of them. OWIU is extremely well written and flows well even though slow burn isn’t my usual favorite. While this book is highly emotional and sweet, it has it’s steamy moments, and I will definitely read the rest of the series!

As many of you know, I love sports romances. I liked this one because this was a bit different than most. It was frenemies to lovers, new adult, and it featured a character with a disability. And it had girl power.

Ryder was actually a relatable character to me because of his disability. I don’t like talking about this here, but I am hearing impaired so I was able to relate to what he was going through. My hearing loss definitely isn’t the same as his, I can still hear. Just not everything. But his description of loud sounds being too loud and the quiet still being too quiet was just accurate. When I read that, I was thinking, FINALLY, somebody gets how overwhelming sound levels can be sometimes!! Even clicking pens can be torturous.

I liked how relatable the characters were and there was definitely character growth. I also liked that this book was about soccer. I loved soccer when I was growing up. The pacing of the book was good, though it did take me a few chapters to get into this book.

I’d definitely recommend this book to anybody who wants a new adult sports romance book. It was a four star read. Thank you Netgalley and publishers for allowing me the chance to read this book. My thoughts and opinions are my own.

This title was fine. The banter between the male and female protagonists was funny and sharp. I like that the book switched between the male and female leads. It added to the story to be able to know what Ryder was thinking, since he wasn't able to communicate as well due to his disability. There was a lot of melodrama and the twist of Dr. B was predictable. However, it was a decent read and patrons will enjoy it. I am undecided whether I'd read anymore in the projected series, though.

This book was the best kind of slow-burn romance I've read in a very long time and I absolutely can not wait to read the next Bergman Brother's story!

Their meet-cute was the epitome of not cute and it was fantastic. From the overly loving and pushy BIL/Professor pulling the strings behind their less than willing partnership for class to the slow-building friendship and subsequent attraction this novel did a spectacular job at character development and relationship building. This book shows that it truly is a small world after all, appearances aren't always what they seem, and keeping an open mind makes life a whole lot easier.

I particularly love that difficult issues were NOT glossed over, there was no quick and happy solution to major life problems. But that doesn't mean there can't be a happy ending, it just means that as human beings we have to work not only on our relationships but also on ourselves.

Heat Factor: They’re not virgins but it’s pretty first love type stuff
Character Chemistry: Solidly “I’m going to antagonize you because that’s how we demonstrate our affection instead of being vulnerable”
Plot: A pair of 21-year-olds with baggage try to figure out how to adult
Overall: Heart eyes

To borrow a term from Ingrid, these protagonists are seriously messy, which typically makes me angry and/or frustrated while reading, but I was able to embrace the personalities of these protagonists and really, really enjoy this book. My atypical forbearance is likely directly attributable to the fact that these protagonists have a ton of baggage and they’re also 21, so I knew I should really keep my expectations for responsible adult behavior … moderated.

We’ll begin with Willa because the book begins in her voice. Willa is a student athlete who is going to be a professional soccer player. It’s going to happen. As long as she doesn’t fail her Business Mathematics class. Oh, also, her mom is basically a permanent resident of the oncology ward at the hospital down the road.

Willa, Willa, Willa. She has seriously--seriously--unhealthy methods of coping with situations that stress her out. Which is, like, every situation. In life, she can’t deal with confrontation, so she does a poor job of communicating with her professor when she needs special assistance in his class as a result of being a student athlete. She also completely and totally bombs her first interaction with Ryder because she communicates poorly and then jumps to conclusions. When Willa and Ryder are thrown together and become “frenemies,” she refuses to let them be truly friends or anything more because she fears nothing more than being vulnerable and needing anyone. Willa’s pretty fierce, which is awesome, but it’s primarily because she has such an unhealthy way of interacting with the world, which is unfortunate.

For his part, Ryder is not, as Willa first assumes, an asshole. He’s deaf. And he doesn’t speak because he can’t hear himself anymore. Overall, Ryder’s baggage and struggle is just as real as Willa’s, but it’s much better managed. Ryder has a big, supportive family and friend group--even if his surly attitude has alienated many of them--so his support network is more robust than Willa’s. He had planned to be a professional soccer player, too, but when he got bacterial meningitis right before his first year of college, he lost his hearing and his balance, and therefore his dream. Because his interactions with people are necessarily limited due to his hearing loss (and he didn’t know sign language before he lost his hearing, so his ability to sign is still not robust), he struggles with how his life changed dramatically almost overnight, so he copes by effectively hiding in plain sight.

To try to boil down what made my heart happy while reading this book, I’ll make a list:

1. Professor as asshole matchmaker. I don’t even care if he shouldn’t have done what he ultimately did. It was perfect.

2. Willa and Ryder’s dynamic was on point for a pair of young lovers who don’t want to get vulnerable with each other but totally want to jump each other’s bones. They’re so angsty and confused. Ah, to be 21 again…

3. Ryder’s struggle with his hearing loss filled my heart. He doesn’t like wearing his hearing aids because they make some aspects of his hearing loss worse, but he hears Willa’s voice with his better ear and wants to hear more and - OH! Be still my heart. The moment when he hears her voice. Totally got me.

4. Willa struggles super hard. With reason. Her mother has been her only support system and constant for her whole life, and she has to come to terms with the idea that her mother’s cancer treatment is not working and she will die. She is really bad--so bad--at healthy functioning under stress. But she does seek professional help. GOOD. She should.

5 The writing is evocative and constructed to feel like the voice of feisty, angsty new adults. I don’t know of another book I’ve read recently with so many poignant or funny one-liners. And there are a number of reminders that we might be making ableist assumptions in our daily lives.

6. It comes with a playlist. This absolutely worked for me, because I believe in mood music, and also I enjoyed the content of the playlist. It’s really easy to access the playlist in Spotify if you don’t want to try to construct it yourself, but if you don’t want to engage with it at all you also have the option simply to...not.

Toward the end, I felt that Ryder was achieving unicorn-level patience and understanding, but I understood the point that he was trying to make to Willa, and she needed the support, so that’s how that goes.

The more I think about this book, the more I love it. What a satisfying read.

I voluntarily read and reviewed a complimentary copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. We disclose this in accordance with 16 CFR §255.

This review is also available at The Smut Report.

I'm so excited I picked up this book on NetGalley and had a chance to read it before the publication date! Thank you to author Chloe Liese for making it available!

Told from alternating points of view, frenemies Willa and Ryder are forced to work together in a college class and what starts as a loathing for each other, quickly transitions to something more. This book is definitely a slow burn with a steamy payoff.

Only When It's Us is a friends to lovers romance trope that also incorporates the sport of a soccer star (Willa) - while not an overly used trope in this book, it's another element that really makes Only When It's Us an enjoyable romance book.

I am so glad to see the use of traditionally unrepresented characters in a romance book. It is refreshing and much needed in a world that puts pressure on people to fit a certain mold.

Chloe has done a great job developing the characters not only in a relationship sense but on a personal level. I felt really invested in both Willa and Ryder's life stories.

Oh, and if you like guys in plaid - get ready for some wild outdoorsy fun in this first book of a stand-alone series. I personally can't wait to read the next Bergman Brother book to see what happens next.

Thank you NetGalley and NetGalley Connect for this arc.

This was an easy and engaging read for me. The basic plot was pretty predictable, a couple of prickly people, both too quick to take offence find themselves stuck with the other. Their pranks and antics with each other were fun to read. A nice mindless break from "real life".

4.5 stars

Thank you NetGalley for a gifted copy of this book. All opinions are my own. Thank you to my friend Addie for recommending this book to me!

Fans of The Simple Wild - this one is for you!! Willa Sutter is a hot headed up and coming soccer star who has a hard time talking about her feelings. Ryder Bergman is a lumbersexual neanderthal who is trying to hide his disability and insecurity behind his bushy beard. So when a misunderstanding in their math class got them started on the wrong foot, nothing bad can happen right?

Oh boy this one was a slow burn but once the flame ignited, was it steamy! ::fans self:: This was an awesome (fr)enemies to lover story that reminded me a lot of The Simple Wild. Ryder is referred to as the Sasquatch and he's tall with broad shoulders and a soccer player body (totally Jonah 2.0). The pranks they played on each other made me giggle. But besides the fun stuff that comes with an enemies to lovers trope, Chloe Liese also dives into harder topics - the tough life of student athletes in D1 sports, disabilities, and death of a loved one. She did a fantastic job developing Willa and Ryder's characters as well as their relationship. The Bergman family is awesome and I can't wait for the next book featuring Ren!

PS - similar to the Happy Ever After Playlist, the chapters all come with a song to set the mood and there's a playlist if you want to check it out on Spotify!

Wow, I really enjoyed and loved this book! It was so different than I expected. Took me a while to finish due to circumstances but I read every moment I could grab.

Willa is a young athlete at uni. She plays soccer so she juggles a strict training and game schedule next to trying to keeping her grades up. When she meets Ryder (due to the scheming of their professor) it is hate at first sight (for Willa at least) but then she discovers Ryder is deaf and they develop a frenemy-relationship. Willa also has mother dying of cancer, which really got to me. There was a lot in this story tugging my heartstrings actually.

Overall this book has many factors and I loved how the relationship between Ryder and Willa (friendship but also a slow burn) developed. I highly recommend this book! It deserves a spot on my favorite-2020 shelf.

I got about 60% through this book before I gave up. Enemies to lovers is my catnip but the plot of this book is pretty ridiculous. The characters actions make no sense and are far-fetched in my opinion. The characters and story were annoying me so I had to stop reading. Would not recommend.

This book was PERFECT and I loved every second of it!! It was funny, emotional and very angsty. Only When It’s Us was the first book I read by this author, so I didn’t really know what to expect from it. What attracted me was the cover and the blurb and now that I’ve read the book, I’m not disappointed at all!

I think what I loved the most in this book was the relationship between Ryder and Willa. As frenemies, they loved to banter and tease each other a lot, but you were also able to witness how they slowly started to fall for each other and it was beautiful. Both characters had secrets and fears from their past preventing them from understanding and acting on these new feelings, but they were still there to support and help each other. Nonetheless, Ryder and Willa were strong as individuals and it was impossible not to get attached to them!

What I also liked: Willa’s mother and the whole Bergman family, but also the last few chapters, they were the cutest!!!!!!!

This first installment of this new series was amazing so you should definitely check it out when it comes out in April if you love friends/enemies to lovers and slow burn romance with a lot of angst and banter. As for myself, I can’t wait to meet the rest of the Bergman family and get to know more about them.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I didn't have any expectations for Only When It's Us because it was a book I randomly requested on NetGalley but I was very pleasantly surprised! This is a new adult sports romance between two college students (yes, more of these please) with disability rep.

Willa is a fabulous soccer player and she's juggling school, sport, and visiting her terminally ill mother in the hospital. Ryder used to play soccer, too, but he got sick and now he's deaf. After the initial miscommunication, they quickly become frenemies when they are forced to work together on a team project for a class.

I loved how wholesome this book was. Although it dealt with some heavy topics, it was such a fun read. There was a song listed at the beginning of each chapter (and the whole playlist is available on Spotify), which was such a nice touch.

We got a lot of banter between Willa and Ryder and their chemistry was through the roof from the very beginning. They were complex characters, who really grew on me, and I was rooting for their relationship. While the first part stayed more in the playful zone, the second part got very steamy.

I appreciated the disability rep (although I can't speak for how accurate it was) and it was interesting to see how the characters worked with it but it didn't become a defining characteristic for Ryder or his romance with Willa. I also appreciated that the characters had a life outside of their attraction and they both had some serious personal battles to overcome, so they really had to work on themselves to be able to give their relationship a chance.

Also, the food descriptions! They were cooking for each other and those scenes were truly delicious, haha. I wasn't sure how I'd feel about the soccer thing because I really don't care for it (but maybe it would be different if I watched women playing) but it didn't get that much page-time and I have to admit it added a flavor to the story. And the hikes and the retreat in a cabin in Washington - I enjoyed seeing that a lot.

I have only a couple of minor complaints. It became a little bit annoying to hear how horny they are every time they were in a room together, and the descriptions of how every Ryder's body part is so hot and "lumberjack-y" got pretty repetitive. In terms of the overall romance, the writing bordered on cheesy and over the top a couple of times.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and I would highly recommend it if you're in the mood for some new adult romance goodness, and I'm looking forward to the next volumes in the series!