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4.13 AVERAGE
4.13 AVERAGE
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
Soccer - real or fictional - isn’t so much my sport BUT I adore the Bergman family and love seeing then get larger book by book
Gavin is another great addition to the family. Seeing him step up to help Ollie with his anxiety, even while they were still at the stage of antagonizing each other, really showed who he was
I think we can all agree Ollie’s ex was trash, and it was good to see him open up to a chance at true happiness (instead of putting up a front while the happiness of everyone else was starting to wear on him)
I’m glad Gavin had his delightful poker friends, because without them he’d have been too alone for too long.
Even more glad that with some time and therapy he was able to see a life for himself after soccer, and that his life could include love with someone still in the game (the entire time I was reading I kept thinking about how hard that must be)
Everything for You is a contemporary MM sports romance and the 5th book in the Bergman Brothers, an otherwise MF romance series. Oliver Bergman is a rising soccer star in the same team as veteran player Gavin Hayes. Ten years his senior and being bisexual himself, Oliver has idolized Gavin as a talented out gay player until they end up on the same team and Gavin seems to hate Oliver. When they are named co-captains, they must find a way to work out their differences on and off the field.
I just could not get behind this book. From the initial set-up, I just did not buy into it. Their initial animosity didn’t really make much sense to me, felt really juvenile, and was just there as a plot device. The writing came across really tryhard and I was just cringing at the dialogue. The characters kept talking like they are therapists so I could not take them seriously and just kept rolling my eyes. While this is indeed a standalone, it is bogged down by having to give updates to nearly every other Bergman sibling/couple—there’s three weddings, a birth, and a completely pointless sibling breakdown to up the drama. I would assume readers of the series would appreciate it, but I was only reading this book.
I so wanted to like the romance between Oliver and Gavin, but I just don’t think it was written believably. While technically slowburn romance, their actual romantic interactions were so minimal before they were already declaring their love for each other. I just did not buy into it. Then the spice is more steamy than actual spice. I just wanted more out of their love story and them as a couple. It was disappointedly lacking in actual romance. As their own characters, I found Oliver to be really childish while Gaven was aggravating in his constantly misplaced feelings. Parts of that may be understandable, but it still annoyed me.
Despite the effort, Everything For You just doesn’t work for me.
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This audiobook had me laughing out loud in my office, missing turns while driving and kicking my feet in my chair. It is filled with top tier humor. Oliver and Gavin’s story is by far my favorite of the Bergman siblings so far. Sorry Freya, Oliver’s story just took the top spot.
It was fine. I didn’t really vibe with the writing style. It leaned into a lot of telling and not showing territory, which made passages tedious.
This worked better for me than the last one in the series. There was tension! And I love a growly, grumpy athlete who is secretly so soft.
emotional
relaxing
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This is book five in a series even if it's also advertised as a standalone so going in I knew I would meet previous characters and miss <i>some </i>context clues, however I was not prepared for how much of an epilogue this was. It's like the author did not care about the two characters the story is supposed to be about and instead used this as a way to wrap-up everyone else's story. The side characters were introduced every single scene and towards the end there's an entire paragraph naming every single family member...like what??
None of the characters were fleshed out either. Oliver is self centered, does not understand boundaries and thinks negging on someone is a form of teasing; Gavin literally could have been anyone, in the sense that he only served as a way for the author to portray Oliver as a good person. He was grumpy and mean and slouchy up until he was suddenly only there to be in love with Oliver. The side characters were even worse my god. They were only there to offer advice or push an emotional revelation on the mcs and it felt too blocky and put of place.
The book tries for a rivals to lovers story that is set off by the two characters being forced to be co-captains but it fails right from the beginning because the time skip from when they first met to the point the story starts completely eliminates all proof of a rivalry that would get the audience invested in their story. The characters then quickly progress from hatred to lust to love and it was just not plausible. The fact that they had their emotional climax before they even knew anything about each other damn near killed me.
Moving on to my major issue with the book, how anxiety was written. At the beginning we find out Oliver struggles with anxiety, fine, cool, I like that. The next chapter we get our first glimpse into Gavin's head and he talks about how Oliver is too happy-go-lucky and how it annoys him, also fine. The issue starts when Gavin sees Oliver experience a panic attack for the first time and he starts to think, 'oh he's not as happy as I thought he was, he suffers anxiety'. This sentiment is reiterated multiple times throughout the book and I'm just????? People with anxiety CAN be happy and optimistic too?? This honestly might just be an issue with the author's phrasing and not her intent but it's still not right.
I'm quite disappointed because this was my first pride month reads but oh well!
None of the characters were fleshed out either. Oliver is self centered, does not understand boundaries and thinks negging on someone is a form of teasing; Gavin literally could have been anyone, in the sense that he only served as a way for the author to portray Oliver as a good person. He was grumpy and mean and slouchy up until he was suddenly only there to be in love with Oliver. The side characters were even worse my god. They were only there to offer advice or push an emotional revelation on the mcs and it felt too blocky and put of place.
The book tries for a rivals to lovers story that is set off by the two characters being forced to be co-captains but it fails right from the beginning because the time skip from when they first met to the point the story starts completely eliminates all proof of a rivalry that would get the audience invested in their story. The characters then quickly progress from hatred to lust to love and it was just not plausible. The fact that they had their emotional climax before they even knew anything about each other damn near killed me.
Moving on to my major issue with the book, how anxiety was written. At the beginning we find out Oliver struggles with anxiety, fine, cool, I like that. The next chapter we get our first glimpse into Gavin's head and he talks about how Oliver is too happy-go-lucky and how it annoys him, also fine. The issue starts when Gavin sees Oliver experience a panic attack for the first time and he starts to think, 'oh he's not as happy as I thought he was, he suffers anxiety'. This sentiment is reiterated multiple times throughout the book and I'm just????? People with anxiety CAN be happy and optimistic too?? This honestly might just be an issue with the author's phrasing and not her intent but it's still not right.
I'm quite disappointed because this was my first pride month reads but oh well!