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Only When It's Us by Chloe Liese

239 reviews

jaynovara's review against another edition

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funny hopeful lighthearted sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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kaitrates's review against another edition

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slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

Let's start with what I liked about this book.

First, the chemistry between Willa and Ryder. I loved watching these two circle closer and closer until they finally came together (literally and figuratively). I also adore a prickly (err...tempestuous) heroine like Willa who's a total firecracker with a big heart. I also mostly enjoyed the sex scenes and their creative use of the shower and the mirror. Bonus points for some light spanking and actually talking about it before doing it! Lastly, I appreciated the late deafened rep - we don't often see this in romance and I'm always here for more disabled main characters!

Oh! I also adored the roomies and every time they were on the page I was smiling.

Now, onto my issues with it.

First and foremost, there were three HP references and apparently these were not removed in the Berkley edition. They violently tore me out of the story, especially knowing Liese already pulled this book to improve the late deafened rep. Like show your trans readers the same care please and thank you.

Some of my other gripes are more objective. For example, there was a lot of inconsistency from characterisations to plot points. Time is spent telling us tha tWilla and her mom read anatomy textbooks but then she uses euphemisms for genitals? Ryder is all "it was the men, not you!" but then trashes romance novels? Money is tight but Willa has an apartment with her friend?

Similarly, there was enough telling that it got to me. Truly, this isn't something I usually notice but DAMN it was rough here! With these info dumps, there often was extraneous info that never came back up or was contradicted (see above).

I also hated that we didn't get to see Willa's growth through her grief. We get maybe a page where we're told she's really struggling

after her mom dies

but then Rooney puts her foot down and then Willa is fine-ish and back with Ryder and saying ILU? We get one reference to her work with a therapist through her inner monologue around the ILU but again: its just being info dumped to us.

Now, there were also a bunch of things that I disliked that are more subjective. Let's just make a list, shall we?

Choo cha and log(jam). 🤢
He's SO BIG and she's so ~~wee~~ compact. Like, is she a sedan?
Magic voice/hands/peen. 🤬 I hate it SO much.
Miscommunication upon miscommunication upon miscommunication. Thankfully, not because of Ryder's hearing loss though.
Adrian.
The Bergman parents meet cute aka the embodiment of "well if a boy teases you its because they like you" patriarchal BS.
7 kids in this economy?! NVM the impact on sustainability...👀
Adrian was forgiven WAY too easily.
The ILU was absolutely not earned (and he realises when he sees her naked WHAT?! THEN CRIES THE SECOND TIME?!)
His voice just comes back and he's able to use it consistently...?

I think what Liese is doing is really important AND I promised my friend I would try another Bergman book if I didn't love this one since apparently her craft improves throughout the series. So I will give her work another chance and hope there aren't nearly as many things pulling me out of the story and diminishing my enjoyment of it.

Original Review
…what?

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porqueerestanvicky's review against another edition

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emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

This book finally drove the point home: I’m just not the target audience for romance. Not romance with ✨spice✨ in it, anyway —I hate it when the characters’ horny thoughts about one another get in the way of the plot, however little of it there is, and I felt like that happened here every five minutes or so.

Also, how can they be so in love if they literally got to know each other in the tail end of the story? And it all happened after they got each other off?? Wasn’t that kind of the whole conflict of the book, that they don’t talk about anything personal, like ever? Is this how allosexuality works? Am I just too asexual to get it? Okay, spoilery rant over.

I was pleased to see disability rep —especially the takes on how hearing aides are not all what they’re cracked up to be in fiction— but I’m not sure how I feel about the execution as a whole.

All in all, a fun palate cleanser, just not something to rave about, in my opinion.

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bookieboogie's review against another edition

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emotional funny medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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teeclecticreads's review against another edition

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challenging emotional funny reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I’ll start by saying that I think it’s really amazing that Chloe Liese not only listened to what her supporters had to say about the way the deaf rep was handled in the first writing of the book, but was proactive enough to make edits and release a completely new and improved version with changes made to better reflect accuracy with the deaf experience. That alone gets so many points in my book.

I love that deafness isn’t seen as a thing to be pitied or as a burden. Everyone in Ryder’s life was accommodating of his needs, whether by being mindful of speaking clearly where he can see to read their lips, or asking if he preferred to type or text when he began his journey with hearing aids. It may be a small thing to others, but those of us with disabilities know that these are the most meaningful ways that people can show us that they care.

Enemies to lovers is one of my favourite tropes and while I do love the progression they had, there were so many areas of miscommunication that I wasn’t a fan of. From Aiden being dismissive about Ryder’s choices regarding his disability and putting him in an uncomfortable situation unbeknownst to him, to Willa being upset and hypocritical that he didn’t share aspects of his disability with her. Please remember that disabled people do not owe you information about their disability.

I have to be honest, Willa annoyed me quite a few times while reading this. It’s wild to me that she was hiding so much from Ryder and had the balls to get upset at him for doing the same. Also, Ryder’s friends shaving his beard while he was sleeping felt like a huge violation of person to me. I know if it were me we’d be fighting for suuurreee.

Despite all that, it was still a lovely read. The banter between the two was fun, the Bergmans were a delight to meet and Rooney is one of the best fictional best friends I’ve had the pleasure to read about. She reminds me a little of myself too because I’m very confrontational.

I’m looking forward to reading about Ren and Frankie next ☺️

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dearhaleynicole's review

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emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Only When It’s Us follows Willa & Ryder’s story over the course of a year at university. Willa is a star soccer player at UCLA, struggling to balance a ton between school, family, soccer and life. Ryder is a classmate of Willa's, who she happens to sit next to in their business class every day. After an infection two years prior took most of his hearing, Ryder is trying to find his new normal while being hard of hearing. They start out misunderstanding each other pretty strongly but then slowly developing a frenemies-to-something more relationship that i really did enjoy reading (we love good banter 👏🏻) but there were some times where our headstrong FMC Willa did frustrate me. She’s navigating an unimaginably difficult life change, but her closed-off personality just felt a bit exhausting to read chapter after chapter. I will say I really loved her passion and how it fuels her when she needs it most. Ryder was patient and understanding and just a really great partner through it all. Both MCs went on their own journeys of emotional healing and it was overall sweet to read. I will also say the slow build romance of it all was great and had me turning pages when it picked up. their relationship was equal parts playful and real. They navigated a lot in this book and i’m glad i got to read their story first 🫶🏻

This is the first in a series following the Bergman siblings (Ryder’s family) and I definitely plan to read more of them because I really loved the Bergman clan in general! The side characters in this book were very endearing to get glimpses of. I really can’t wait to read some of their stories after meeting them even just briefly in this one.

Also, the covers for the other books in this series, as well as this re-released version one, are really beautiful! I was just looking at them all and it made me really want to pick up the rest of the series sooner.

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