A review by unsuccessfulbookclub
If Only You by Chloe Liese

emotional hopeful 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

3.5

The latest installment in the Bergman Brothers series had some great moments, but ultimately didn’t work as well for me as some of the other books in this series. There were some things I loved (ACOTAR references!! Believable friends-to-lovers!!) and some things that didn’t work as well for me. 

The main characters (Seb and Ziggy) spend a lot of time apart and there was a missed opportunity for some epistolary elements (texts, emails, letters even!). I am a total pushover for epistolary and it made me sad to miss out. I feel like we just had pages and pages of them “being apart” while they both worked a lot. I’m a total simp for epistolary, so the missed opportunity to incorporate letters and texts made me especially sad.

I enjoyed Seb’s growth in the story. There were some great moments between him and each of the Bergman Brothers. The thing I missed was detail about how he was “bad.” We heard a lot of how he “let people down” and “broke people’s hearts,” but I wanted more!! Is he a cheater? Did he have a substance abuse problem? Is he a flake? An a**hole? Just misunderstood? As readers, we never find out because I think we’re supposed to focus on Seb getting past all of that - but it’s hard to trust that he does “clean up his act” when we never know what his “act” was. It’s also hard to appreciate his growth when we never see him making amends and/or apologizing to people he has wronged with his actions. The one time that happens, he gets very sketchy about it with Ziggy and won’t tell her details, so we also never get details. I AM NOSY. GIVE ME THE DETAILS PLEASE.

The one thing Chloe never misses is including a great variety of characters with different types of disabilities and neurodivergence. In this book, Ziggy is autistic and Seb is dealing with a chronic illness (mild spoilers, listed below in the content notes!). Additionally, Ziggy is bisexual and Seb is pan, and it’s a very casual, NBD thing when they tell each other that. 

I still wish we had more characters of color in this series. The Bergmans are Swedish, so I get it, but they live in Southern California and many of them play pro sports… why is it that they RARELY encounter anyone who isn’t white?

Recommended! All in all, I enjoyed this but it didn’t knock my socks off. If you are a fan of new adult sports romances, you will probably enjoy this a little more than I did, and if you are looking for a soft contemporary with no third-act breakup? This is the book for you! You can read this series out of order but the Bergman family is BIG so it helps provide context if you read them in order.


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