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Bergman Brothers #5
Everything for You
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.
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.
356 pages, ebook
First published May 10, 2022
339 people are currently reading
26313 people want to read
About the author
Chloe Liese
21 books10.2k followersChloe is a USA Today bestselling author who writes romantic fiction reflecting her belief that everyone deserves a love story. When not dreaming up her next novel, you'll find her reading, trying new recipes, savoring nature, and soaking up time with her big, beautiful family.
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June 7, 2022It's here! Oliver and Gavin's story is my hug for everyone whose anxiety is quiet some days and oh-so-loud others, who lives with chronic pain and struggles with what that means for their life and who they feel safe to let in and love them. It's a queer sports romance full of enemies-to-lovers hate-that-I-want-you vibes, Ted Lasso-esque sunshine + grumpiness, meddling poker player seniors, family shenanigans, ONLY ONE BED, and lots more that I hope brings a smile to your face and makes your heart at least a little happier. I'm so glad it's out in the world and I hope you fall as hard for these two knuckleheads as they fall for each other.
Paperback, e-book, and audiobook are now available for purchase from major retailers and also for request from your library!
Enjoy book playlists? Like all the Bergman books, EVERYTHING FOR YOU has a playlist, one song per chapter. Listen with Spotify.
Paperback, e-book, and audiobook are now available for purchase from major retailers and also for request from your library!
Enjoy book playlists? Like all the Bergman books, EVERYTHING FOR YOU has a playlist, one song per chapter. Listen with Spotify.
May 9, 2022
I want to give props to this book for having an authentic “I’m surrounded by straight people” vibe. It was accidental, but strong work.
Here are my criticisms: I believe I managed to avoid all spoilers, but as with any ARC review, please use caution for your own enjoyment.
There is a time jump over the first two years of their relationship
We are told about the instant antagonism between Gavin and Oliver when they meet, coming from Gavin. We don’t get to see this, because there’s a four year time jump. For an enemies to lovers slow burn, this is a critical part of the developing relationship! Excising it like this means that there’s nothing to support this animosity outside of what characters tell the reader, rather than an organic build.
This leads into my main issues with the romance, where I felt there was a lack of actual, believable connection.
The romance and lack of emotions
This does not count as a slow burn in my opinion, due to the pace at which they got together.
Their relationship is never really developed. They go from “we hate each other” (mostly off page) to “hooking up is a bad idea” to “I love you deeply and curiously forever” without actually spending time with each other in between.
They read like cardboard cutouts to me, so the scenes that could have been tender and loving fell completely flat. Even the caretaking scenes, that should have been emotional, felt impersonal to the point that it could have been a caretaker doing it.
They’re being forced to work together as co-captains, why couldn’t there be slow-building reluctant admiration and feelings, instead of lust that turns on like a light switch? It would be both more believable and a more enjoyable read if we saw them building a reluctant emotional connection that was followed by attraction, rather than just random horniness.
This would have made the aggressive caveman protectiveness/possessiveness Gavin displays at random more believable too - as it was, it felt wildly out of character as I didn’t believe he had that depth of feeling for Oliver. Or he has a temper problem, I suppose.
At the end, the author attempts to retcon these multiple unseen years of animosity as unacknowledged love and attraction. This undoes the whole plot, removes all tension of them being enemies or even meanies to each other, and just makes it deflate with a sad balloon noise.
Oliver and Gavin as characters
Oliver:We’re supposed to see Oliver as sunshine, bringing joy and fun back to Grumpy Gavin, and singing musicals. Specifically Hamilton. Hamilton is mentioned a lot.
What I actually got was a rude person with no boundaries. He criticizes choices Gavin makes - home decor, eating habits, clothing choice, etc - in a way that’s supposed to be funny, but just ends up being rude. A larger issue for me was that he never seems to grow as a person - its always about him and himself and his feelings, and has to be shoved into vaguely considering how Gavin feels at the end.
Gavin: Gavin is kind of ignored in this book. Oliver spends so much time focusing on himself, and Gavin focuses on Oliver, to the point that Gavin feels like an outline of a person. His personality is mostly swearing, and being grumpy. He eventually assimilates the Musical Hamilton Personality Trait as well.
Does this truly work as a standalone?
Technically yes, in that I can read it without any background knowledge on the series.
I have also only read the first in this series, a couple years ago. I didn’t have any trouble following this. That being said, the cameos/presence of the rest of the family was done in a very blocky and confusing way. The entire family is introduced en masse, and that is a lot of people. Working them in when they fit, rather than just a roll call of old characters, would be a much better read in general, let alone for new readers.
However, it also does not work as a standalone, due the overwhelming presence of other couples and their stories. This ended up reading like a series of epilogues for the previous MF couples disguised as a gay romance. We have:
A FMC overcoming her commitment hesitations after three years and getting hitched.
A vow renewal for a couple who had a secret wedding.
A random beach wedding for idk who.
Magical Babies for a couple who struggled with babies (for whatever reason) in their book. Two magical babies.
It would be a much better use of page space to develop the relationship between the main characters instead of continuing four(!) separate couples stories.
The sex scene
I’m addressing this specifically because this is the authors first MM, and when it gets Gay, there tends to be issues.
I want to hedge this with the fact that I do not know if all of the sex scenes in this series are as vague and weird as this. As it is, I am suspicious that the author chickened out of writing an actual gay sex scene. It was an odd blend of specific sharp moments, followed by Vaseline Over the Camera style vagueness and purple prose.
It is so vague it reaches Fifty Shades of Grey levels, and I didn’t understand what was happening here:
If you can’t say the word butthole, then you’re not old enough to write sex scenes.
I’d also like to note that penetrative sex is not necessary for a romance. This is pretty heteronormative assumption, and while it does prevail somewhat still in the MM romance world, but they didn’t have to have anal. If the author was uncomfortable writing it, it could have been skipped. Or even fade to black!
The romance book meta commentary
I loathe this.
As an example:
This is simply not how people talk, and it feels almost self-congratulatory about being a romance novel. It’s extremely cringy to read. Instead of talking about how deep romance books are, it would be better to actually build the emotional depth in this book.
Anxiety and emotional comfort cheese
One of the things this author seems to make as her personal brand is the disability/conditions rep. In this book we have anxiety and chronic pain.
Anxiety: I am familiar with anxiety, and I had problems with how it was handled here.
As someone with travel anxiety, I do not understand why Oliver, someone with self-admitted medication and therapy for said anxiety, does not have medication for travel. This is entirely reasonable thing to have! The fact that Oliver’s panic attack on the plane is solved by hand holding - when Gavin was one of the sources of his stress! - was uncomfortable to me.
Panic attacks don’t need a trigger, they can just happen. It is suggested otherwise in this book.
This book also insinuates, accidentally I suspect, that people with anxiety can’t be happy. This is categorically untrue. I suspect it’s a phrasing failure rather than what the author meant to say, but it would be best to …hmm not say that.
Lactose intolerance and emotional support cheese: This started off quirky, whatever, he eats cheese to feel better. However! We get a horribly incorrect usage of lactose intolerance later, with said cheese.
It was not necessary to give Oliver lactose intolerance, especially if you’re just going to get it wrong. He has a violent reaction to eating way too much brie, and this sets off an event in the book.
I have lactose intolerance. Cheese, even a soft cheese like Brie, does not have high lactose content. Additionally, he says he took a lactase pill - these work extremely well. It says on the package, that you can take multiple pills if you are going to eat lots of dairy. He does not. His amount of reaction is the level I’d expect if he ate like four gallons of milkshake. Not some cheese. In summary: not necessary, and wrong.
I won’t comment on the representation of chronic pain, as I am not familiar with it.
Author soapboxing, aka people don’t talk like this
There were many times in this book where characters would go off into unbelievable lectures disguised as conversations, on various topics like periods, toxic masculinity, believing in yourself, romance books, etc. None of it was realistic, and I found it to be overwrought and dramatic. It doesn’t read like anything approximating human speech.
There were a lot of attempts at poetry, which ended up being purple prose. Sometimes it went so purple that I didn’t know what it was trying to say. It loses its impact if everything is dramatically described, especially appearances.
Soccer, and the rest of the team
For a soccer book, I felt it was pretty light on the actual interactions and team dynamic. There were games, and a few practice scenes, yet it felt oddly left out. I think because the actual co-captaining was not relevant, there was less actual import for the sport to be present.
This was just weird enough I have to mention it. There’s like three or four other named characters on the team, and as far as I can tell, they’re there to show you who the author is agreeing with in a scene. Or crying over a pep talk. All of them react in concert, and it is always strange.
Expositional conversations via secondary characters
All of the emotional realizations and moments are had by massive and blocky expositional conversations, most often with side characters. The side characters who exist solely to tell the MCs how they feel, and expose insights into them we would never have gotten otherwise. They also serve to force a sudden change in course for the plot.
This happens because the characters do not seem able to realize these things for themselves, or about themselves, unless they’re told how to by some side character. Sometimes the characters know things that there’s no way they could have realistically known, like the emotional state of others without evidence the reader can see, or events that happened nowhere near them.
Miscellaneous details
Ted Lasso as inspiration: It’s noted by the author that this was inspired by Ted Lasso. I have never seen this show, and know nothing about it. As far as I can tell, it doesn’t matter at all as far as required knowledge. Maybe it’s relying on some characterization developed in the show - a common downfall of converting fic - and I don’t see it because I don’t watch the show. If that’s the case, then…well, don’t do that.
The three year old: This is the magical happening baby. I do not understand why it was necessary to read about the three year old mimicking the sex noises of her parents. This contributed nothing but a deep wish for me to unread it. The toddler also had Woke Baby moments, like telling an MC that she “respects his boundaries”. Three year olds do not understand boundaries!
General flow of scenes: There’s times where the characters went into long meandering thoughts in the middle of an action scene, and it was confusing. Oliver mused on the relationship and Gavin mid soccer game. It doesn’t belong here. Maybe a single quick thought, but these went on too long, and ended up making the scene very choppy.
There’s just some downright odd stuff, like continuity errors, and people having too many hands for the activities they’re doing, and 24yo soccer players having endless hankies like a clown magician.
Overall, I suspect if you liked the other books and don’t know about anxiety or lactose intolerance, then you’ll like this too based on reviews. It’s a choice to put a MM book mid MF series, that’s for sure. As a prolific MM romance reader, I was intrigued to read this authors first MM romance. Plus, I do love a good enemies-to-lovers sports romance. Suffice to say, I do not recommend it for MM readers.
While there’s no wedding in this book, and very little actual relationship, rest assured, dear readers, I'm sure you’ll get their wedding in like book 7.
I received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. All the opinions are my own.
Read more reviews on my blog:
https://horsetalkreviews.blogspot.com/
Here are my criticisms: I believe I managed to avoid all spoilers, but as with any ARC review, please use caution for your own enjoyment.
There is a time jump over the first two years of their relationship
We are told about the instant antagonism between Gavin and Oliver when they meet, coming from Gavin. We don’t get to see this, because there’s a four year time jump. For an enemies to lovers slow burn, this is a critical part of the developing relationship! Excising it like this means that there’s nothing to support this animosity outside of what characters tell the reader, rather than an organic build.
This leads into my main issues with the romance, where I felt there was a lack of actual, believable connection.
The romance and lack of emotions
This does not count as a slow burn in my opinion, due to the pace at which they got together.
Their relationship is never really developed. They go from “we hate each other” (mostly off page) to “hooking up is a bad idea” to “I love you deeply and curiously forever” without actually spending time with each other in between.
They read like cardboard cutouts to me, so the scenes that could have been tender and loving fell completely flat. Even the caretaking scenes, that should have been emotional, felt impersonal to the point that it could have been a caretaker doing it.
They’re being forced to work together as co-captains, why couldn’t there be slow-building reluctant admiration and feelings, instead of lust that turns on like a light switch? It would be both more believable and a more enjoyable read if we saw them building a reluctant emotional connection that was followed by attraction, rather than just random horniness.
This would have made the aggressive caveman protectiveness/possessiveness Gavin displays at random more believable too - as it was, it felt wildly out of character as I didn’t believe he had that depth of feeling for Oliver. Or he has a temper problem, I suppose.
At the end, the author attempts to retcon these multiple unseen years of animosity as unacknowledged love and attraction. This undoes the whole plot, removes all tension of them being enemies or even meanies to each other, and just makes it deflate with a sad balloon noise.
Oliver and Gavin as characters
Oliver:We’re supposed to see Oliver as sunshine, bringing joy and fun back to Grumpy Gavin, and singing musicals. Specifically Hamilton. Hamilton is mentioned a lot.
What I actually got was a rude person with no boundaries. He criticizes choices Gavin makes - home decor, eating habits, clothing choice, etc - in a way that’s supposed to be funny, but just ends up being rude. A larger issue for me was that he never seems to grow as a person - its always about him and himself and his feelings, and has to be shoved into vaguely considering how Gavin feels at the end.
Gavin: Gavin is kind of ignored in this book. Oliver spends so much time focusing on himself, and Gavin focuses on Oliver, to the point that Gavin feels like an outline of a person. His personality is mostly swearing, and being grumpy. He eventually assimilates the Musical Hamilton Personality Trait as well.
Does this truly work as a standalone?
Technically yes, in that I can read it without any background knowledge on the series.
I have also only read the first in this series, a couple years ago. I didn’t have any trouble following this. That being said, the cameos/presence of the rest of the family was done in a very blocky and confusing way. The entire family is introduced en masse, and that is a lot of people. Working them in when they fit, rather than just a roll call of old characters, would be a much better read in general, let alone for new readers.
However, it also does not work as a standalone, due the overwhelming presence of other couples and their stories. This ended up reading like a series of epilogues for the previous MF couples disguised as a gay romance. We have:
A FMC overcoming her commitment hesitations after three years and getting hitched.
A vow renewal for a couple who had a secret wedding.
A random beach wedding for idk who.
Magical Babies for a couple who struggled with babies (for whatever reason) in their book. Two magical babies.
It would be a much better use of page space to develop the relationship between the main characters instead of continuing four(!) separate couples stories.
The sex scene
I’m addressing this specifically because this is the authors first MM, and when it gets Gay, there tends to be issues.
I want to hedge this with the fact that I do not know if all of the sex scenes in this series are as vague and weird as this. As it is, I am suspicious that the author chickened out of writing an actual gay sex scene. It was an odd blend of specific sharp moments, followed by Vaseline Over the Camera style vagueness and purple prose.
It is so vague it reaches Fifty Shades of Grey levels, and I didn’t understand what was happening here:
We kiss, his hand wandering me, touching me *there,*
If you can’t say the word butthole, then you’re not old enough to write sex scenes.
I’d also like to note that penetrative sex is not necessary for a romance. This is pretty heteronormative assumption, and while it does prevail somewhat still in the MM romance world, but they didn’t have to have anal. If the author was uncomfortable writing it, it could have been skipped. Or even fade to black!
The romance book meta commentary
I loathe this.
As an example:
“I mean, romance novels, while focused on romantic relationships, also spend a lot of time excavating the main characters’ interiority—their past wounds, how those drive their present behavior and motivations, what fuels their dynamic with their love interest and the rest of the characters. I was simply going to use a certain trope to illustrate my point, but speaking plainly will do.
This is simply not how people talk, and it feels almost self-congratulatory about being a romance novel. It’s extremely cringy to read. Instead of talking about how deep romance books are, it would be better to actually build the emotional depth in this book.
Anxiety and emotional comfort cheese
One of the things this author seems to make as her personal brand is the disability/conditions rep. In this book we have anxiety and chronic pain.
Anxiety: I am familiar with anxiety, and I had problems with how it was handled here.
As someone with travel anxiety, I do not understand why Oliver, someone with self-admitted medication and therapy for said anxiety, does not have medication for travel. This is entirely reasonable thing to have! The fact that Oliver’s panic attack on the plane is solved by hand holding - when Gavin was one of the sources of his stress! - was uncomfortable to me.
Panic attacks don’t need a trigger, they can just happen. It is suggested otherwise in this book.
This book also insinuates, accidentally I suspect, that people with anxiety can’t be happy. This is categorically untrue. I suspect it’s a phrasing failure rather than what the author meant to say, but it would be best to …hmm not say that.
Lactose intolerance and emotional support cheese: This started off quirky, whatever, he eats cheese to feel better. However! We get a horribly incorrect usage of lactose intolerance later, with said cheese.
It was not necessary to give Oliver lactose intolerance, especially if you’re just going to get it wrong. He has a violent reaction to eating way too much brie, and this sets off an event in the book.
I have lactose intolerance. Cheese, even a soft cheese like Brie, does not have high lactose content. Additionally, he says he took a lactase pill - these work extremely well. It says on the package, that you can take multiple pills if you are going to eat lots of dairy. He does not. His amount of reaction is the level I’d expect if he ate like four gallons of milkshake. Not some cheese. In summary: not necessary, and wrong.
I won’t comment on the representation of chronic pain, as I am not familiar with it.
Author soapboxing, aka people don’t talk like this
There were many times in this book where characters would go off into unbelievable lectures disguised as conversations, on various topics like periods, toxic masculinity, believing in yourself, romance books, etc. None of it was realistic, and I found it to be overwrought and dramatic. It doesn’t read like anything approximating human speech.
There were a lot of attempts at poetry, which ended up being purple prose. Sometimes it went so purple that I didn’t know what it was trying to say. It loses its impact if everything is dramatically described, especially appearances.
Soccer, and the rest of the team
For a soccer book, I felt it was pretty light on the actual interactions and team dynamic. There were games, and a few practice scenes, yet it felt oddly left out. I think because the actual co-captaining was not relevant, there was less actual import for the sport to be present.
This was just weird enough I have to mention it. There’s like three or four other named characters on the team, and as far as I can tell, they’re there to show you who the author is agreeing with in a scene. Or crying over a pep talk. All of them react in concert, and it is always strange.
Expositional conversations via secondary characters
All of the emotional realizations and moments are had by massive and blocky expositional conversations, most often with side characters. The side characters who exist solely to tell the MCs how they feel, and expose insights into them we would never have gotten otherwise. They also serve to force a sudden change in course for the plot.
This happens because the characters do not seem able to realize these things for themselves, or about themselves, unless they’re told how to by some side character. Sometimes the characters know things that there’s no way they could have realistically known, like the emotional state of others without evidence the reader can see, or events that happened nowhere near them.
Miscellaneous details
Ted Lasso as inspiration: It’s noted by the author that this was inspired by Ted Lasso. I have never seen this show, and know nothing about it. As far as I can tell, it doesn’t matter at all as far as required knowledge. Maybe it’s relying on some characterization developed in the show - a common downfall of converting fic - and I don’t see it because I don’t watch the show. If that’s the case, then…well, don’t do that.
The three year old: This is the magical happening baby. I do not understand why it was necessary to read about the three year old mimicking the sex noises of her parents. This contributed nothing but a deep wish for me to unread it. The toddler also had Woke Baby moments, like telling an MC that she “respects his boundaries”. Three year olds do not understand boundaries!
General flow of scenes: There’s times where the characters went into long meandering thoughts in the middle of an action scene, and it was confusing. Oliver mused on the relationship and Gavin mid soccer game. It doesn’t belong here. Maybe a single quick thought, but these went on too long, and ended up making the scene very choppy.
There’s just some downright odd stuff, like continuity errors, and people having too many hands for the activities they’re doing, and 24yo soccer players having endless hankies like a clown magician.
Overall, I suspect if you liked the other books and don’t know about anxiety or lactose intolerance, then you’ll like this too based on reviews. It’s a choice to put a MM book mid MF series, that’s for sure. As a prolific MM romance reader, I was intrigued to read this authors first MM romance. Plus, I do love a good enemies-to-lovers sports romance. Suffice to say, I do not recommend it for MM readers.
While there’s no wedding in this book, and very little actual relationship, rest assured, dear readers, I'm sure you’ll get their wedding in like book 7.
I received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. All the opinions are my own.
Read more reviews on my blog:
https://horsetalkreviews.blogspot.com/
June 16, 2022
5 stars
Everything for You was the grumpy/sunshine romance of my dreams. This is one of my all-time favorite troupes and I am always here for it! I love the Bergman siblings so much and Oliver’s book is one of my favorites (right behind Ren’s which I’m not sure can ever be topped!)
Oliver and Gavin are on the same soccer team but they’re worlds apart. Gavin is a veteran player at the end of his career. He’s the captain of the team and a bit of a grouch. Oliver is a younger player who always has a cheerful disposition. Oliver has always looked up to Gavin, but Gavin is especially grouchy to Oliver.
Oh, and not only are they teammates, but they happen to be neighbors as well. And now, to Gavin’s demise, co-captains of their team. There is only so much a man can take. Oliver tries to not take it personally and keep his happy disposition, but he is fed up as well and starts to prank Gavin. This whole part of the book kept me smiling.
I love the progression from enemies, to friends, to so much more. Gavin and Oliver had so much chemistry and I thought they were so great together. You could tell they truly cared for one another and it was so much more than just the attraction between them. It was such a beautiful slow burn and just made me so happy while reading.
This book was so much fun to read. But not only that, it was emotional, had the best family vibes and representation, and the most wonderful Ted Lasso feels (Yes, this inspired me to FINALLY watch it)! I also loved the friendships that Gavin had with his old man friends. It was seriously a highlight of the book! It was a perfect for me story and a lovely romance!
Everything for You was the grumpy/sunshine romance of my dreams. This is one of my all-time favorite troupes and I am always here for it! I love the Bergman siblings so much and Oliver’s book is one of my favorites (right behind Ren’s which I’m not sure can ever be topped!)
Oliver and Gavin are on the same soccer team but they’re worlds apart. Gavin is a veteran player at the end of his career. He’s the captain of the team and a bit of a grouch. Oliver is a younger player who always has a cheerful disposition. Oliver has always looked up to Gavin, but Gavin is especially grouchy to Oliver.
Oh, and not only are they teammates, but they happen to be neighbors as well. And now, to Gavin’s demise, co-captains of their team. There is only so much a man can take. Oliver tries to not take it personally and keep his happy disposition, but he is fed up as well and starts to prank Gavin. This whole part of the book kept me smiling.
I love the progression from enemies, to friends, to so much more. Gavin and Oliver had so much chemistry and I thought they were so great together. You could tell they truly cared for one another and it was so much more than just the attraction between them. It was such a beautiful slow burn and just made me so happy while reading.
This book was so much fun to read. But not only that, it was emotional, had the best family vibes and representation, and the most wonderful Ted Lasso feels (Yes, this inspired me to FINALLY watch it)! I also loved the friendships that Gavin had with his old man friends. It was seriously a highlight of the book! It was a perfect for me story and a lovely romance!
“I love you. I choose you. I choose us. I will fight for everything I have for us.
May 15, 2022
grumpy x sunshine, enemies to lovers, age gap sport romance, queer love, and one bed trope??? COUNT ME IN
dnf
June 13, 2022dnf @15% (1 hr and 10 min into the audiobook)
Nothing about this story grabs my attention and I'm bored, to be honest. The first chapter is mostly about all the members of the family and it feels info dumpy. Then there is a 4-year time jump and we are just told that there is animosity between Oliver and Gavin. We don't get to experience the early dynamics between them. In the next two chapters, Gavin and Oliver are suddenly attracted to each other. Just like that. Out of nowhere. Where is some kind of development?
I've tried reading two other books in this series, but this author's writing just doesn't work for me. Also, I've read a lot of MM and many of those are sports romance, and this one feels bland and generic in comparison.
Nothing about this story grabs my attention and I'm bored, to be honest. The first chapter is mostly about all the members of the family and it feels info dumpy. Then there is a 4-year time jump and we are just told that there is animosity between Oliver and Gavin. We don't get to experience the early dynamics between them. In the next two chapters, Gavin and Oliver are suddenly attracted to each other. Just like that. Out of nowhere. Where is some kind of development?
I've tried reading two other books in this series, but this author's writing just doesn't work for me. Also, I've read a lot of MM and many of those are sports romance, and this one feels bland and generic in comparison.
May 8, 2022
2.5 stars.
A slow burn, sunshine/grump, MM enemies-to-lovers sports romance, with an age gap
I have followed and loved the Bergman family series since the start, and am a total fan, but was never really excited about Oliver's story. Perhaps it was because he was so young in the other books, or maybe it was because I never felt pulled to his character. I wanted to read it though, as I adore this series.
I applaud Chloe for writing a MM romance, when the other characters in the series are all MF. It's always great to see diversity, and I ship any two people falling in love, no matter what their sexual orientation is.
This book had all the tropes, including the good ol' only one bed trope 😂
Oliver and Gavin had sizzling chemistry, the attraction was palpable!
I loved seeing all the Bergman family pop in and out of the story, but it was a lot! There were weddings, more weddings, vow renewals, babies, and if this was the first book you picked up, it would be quite overwhelming I think.
As always I loved seeing the family visit the A-frame, and still want to book it for my holiday ha ha.
The brotherly and sisterly support was lovely, as was the message of hope, and of letting others in.
I liked Gavin, and although I can't comment on his chronic pain, as have no experience of that. Would he really have been able to play at that level, in that much pain though?
I wanted more of Gavin's back story, we only scratched the surface.
Now to the stuff I unfortunately didn't like..
Oliver felt shallow and fake, and a bit self centred. I found him quite annoying to be honest ☹️
The constant Hamilton mentions. I haven't seen it, so that annoyed me. Ditto for Ted Lasso, who the hell is that? Pop culture alienates readers who aren't clued up on it, and also dates a book.
The anxiety rep, as great as it was seeing it again included in this series, as many, including myself suffer from it, wasn't how I have experienced it. I guess everyone is different, but generally the last thing that would help me is someone holding my hand or people crowding me🤷🏻♀️
Time jumps Argh. I see why it was done, but always hate them.
The cheese thing.
Oliver whipping a hankie out of his pocket. This actually took me out the story because do people carry actual hankies in this century?!
The 3 year old talking like she's a weird teenager.
Some of the love scenes being weirdly vague "he touched me there"
The preachiness. All the books have a little of it, but this one felt like it was shoving toxic masculinity and romance books in my face, and I'm so over it!
Oh and I hated the last two chapters! Never ending I love you forever, you're my everything etc. It felt out of character for Gavin, and totally unrealistic. Do people actually talk like this?! Sorry my eyes were rolling.
Maybe ignore my review, as everyone else seems to love it?! Maybe I'm just a grump! Idk.
Sorry Chloe, I feel terrible that I didn't love this, but I'm sure so many others will!
Published 10th May 2022!
⚽⚽ 1/2
Many thanks to Netgalley UK and Victory Editing for the ARC, in exchange for an honest review
A slow burn, sunshine/grump, MM enemies-to-lovers sports romance, with an age gap
I have followed and loved the Bergman family series since the start, and am a total fan, but was never really excited about Oliver's story. Perhaps it was because he was so young in the other books, or maybe it was because I never felt pulled to his character. I wanted to read it though, as I adore this series.
I applaud Chloe for writing a MM romance, when the other characters in the series are all MF. It's always great to see diversity, and I ship any two people falling in love, no matter what their sexual orientation is.
This book had all the tropes, including the good ol' only one bed trope 😂
Oliver and Gavin had sizzling chemistry, the attraction was palpable!
I loved seeing all the Bergman family pop in and out of the story, but it was a lot! There were weddings, more weddings, vow renewals, babies, and if this was the first book you picked up, it would be quite overwhelming I think.
As always I loved seeing the family visit the A-frame, and still want to book it for my holiday ha ha.
The brotherly and sisterly support was lovely, as was the message of hope, and of letting others in.
I liked Gavin, and although I can't comment on his chronic pain, as have no experience of that. Would he really have been able to play at that level, in that much pain though?
I wanted more of Gavin's back story, we only scratched the surface.
Now to the stuff I unfortunately didn't like..
Oliver felt shallow and fake, and a bit self centred. I found him quite annoying to be honest ☹️
The constant Hamilton mentions. I haven't seen it, so that annoyed me. Ditto for Ted Lasso, who the hell is that? Pop culture alienates readers who aren't clued up on it, and also dates a book.
The anxiety rep, as great as it was seeing it again included in this series, as many, including myself suffer from it, wasn't how I have experienced it. I guess everyone is different, but generally the last thing that would help me is someone holding my hand or people crowding me🤷🏻♀️
Time jumps Argh. I see why it was done, but always hate them.
The cheese thing.
Oliver whipping a hankie out of his pocket. This actually took me out the story because do people carry actual hankies in this century?!
The 3 year old talking like she's a weird teenager.
Some of the love scenes being weirdly vague "he touched me there"
The preachiness. All the books have a little of it, but this one felt like it was shoving toxic masculinity and romance books in my face, and I'm so over it!
Oh and I hated the last two chapters! Never ending I love you forever, you're my everything etc. It felt out of character for Gavin, and totally unrealistic. Do people actually talk like this?! Sorry my eyes were rolling.
Maybe ignore my review, as everyone else seems to love it?! Maybe I'm just a grump! Idk.
Sorry Chloe, I feel terrible that I didn't love this, but I'm sure so many others will!
Published 10th May 2022!
⚽⚽ 1/2
Many thanks to Netgalley UK and Victory Editing for the ARC, in exchange for an honest review
June 5, 2022
It always feels nice returning to the Bergman world. Of course, I adored Gavin and Oliver. The ultimate grump with the most precious and sunshiney counterpart.
Seeing them come together, after all the pining was too sweet.
As always, Chloe Liese places the respect that’s needed upon the representation she includes in her stories. They’re always so well thought-out and inclusive and showcases different forms they can take.
The one criticism I do have though is that I find that the past few books in this series are starting to sound a bit preachy, rather than it naturally flowing through the dialogue or the story. I feel like I’m being lectured at, or I’m being given unsolicited advice. And that takes me out of the story. They can become long-winded and I just don’t enjoy reading them. It’s a pattern I’ve started to notice since book 3. I just wished they flowed better.
But other than that, will I keep reading whatever Chloe Liese writes? Yeah. Definitely.
Seeing them come together, after all the pining was too sweet.
As always, Chloe Liese places the respect that’s needed upon the representation she includes in her stories. They’re always so well thought-out and inclusive and showcases different forms they can take.
The one criticism I do have though is that I find that the past few books in this series are starting to sound a bit preachy, rather than it naturally flowing through the dialogue or the story. I feel like I’m being lectured at, or I’m being given unsolicited advice. And that takes me out of the story. They can become long-winded and I just don’t enjoy reading them. It’s a pattern I’ve started to notice since book 3. I just wished they flowed better.
But other than that, will I keep reading whatever Chloe Liese writes? Yeah. Definitely.
June 18, 2022
I am obsessed with m/m romances that are sports romances, but ones where they are actual teammates are on another level. Gavin and Oliver are teammates and don't exactly get along. Their coach makes them co-captains, though, and the two have to work together for their team. Oh, and they're neighbors. They have to spend a lot of time together, share hotel rooms, sit next to each other, drive to practice together...forced proximity galore! I loved how this was a grump/sunshine romance and how they slowly started to fall for each other as they spent more time with each other. Their dynamic was so fun and I really appreciated how Gavin had chronic pain and we got to see how that really affects someone and their ability to perform at such a high level as a professional athlete. They both end up being super sweet to each other, even if they pull pranks and get frustrated with each other. I just ate this story up and ended up listening to the entire audiobook in one day!
April 25, 2022
5 ⭐️
3 🌶
Expect:
Age-gap 🤩
Sports Romance ⚽️
M/M Romance 👨❤️👨
Grumpy/ Sunshine ☀
Enemies to Lovers 🥵
Dual POV 👥
Mental Health Awareness
Oh My God!! I would like to start by saying that this book is absolutely wonderful! I have loved the Bergman family since we were introduced to them in Only When It’s Us. They are captivating and hilarious, I will always love diving back into their world.
Oliver and Gavin complete opposites, but they also are extremely similar. They are two lonely men hiding behind masks as a way of protecting themselves. Oliver hides behind his smile, while Gavin hides behind his scowl. They usually will avoid being in each other’s way, however, that isn't possible when they are told to work together. Their chemistry was off the charts and their interactions were explosive, full of tension and banter! They both have incredible personalities and it was amazing to see them abandon their masks and be their true selves throughout the book. Being open with each other definitely made them develop more and more feelings, and it made me adore them even more! Also, did I mention that they are required to share a bed? JUST ONE BED! It was one of my favorite scenes, and the morning after scene was spectacular. I was laughing so much I had to wipe some tears. Their character developments were extraordinary! I love good character development and this novel has two amazing ones. The way they grow from their interactions and slowly come out of their shell in order to be with each other is amazing. This novel is beautifully written and I could not help myself from binging this in one day. Ollie and Gavin’s story is one I will be thinking about for a while and will be rereading in the future!
I love all the Encanto references!! This book’s playlist is possibly one of my favorite playlists of all time. I loved all the family scenes in this book! It isn’t a Bergman Family book without the family! Willa and Ryder have had my heart from the beginning and reading about them in this novel gave me all the warm feelings! Ren and Frankie are beautiful, as ever! Aiden and Freya and the mini Bergmans!!! Definitely one of my favorite things about Everything For You is Linnea’s relationship with Ollie. He is such a wonderful uncle and seeing that made me so happy. Axel and Rooney! I missed them so much! VIGGO!!! Oh my god Viggo is amazing. He is so funny and romantic! Men written by women>>. I cannot wait to read more about Viggo in his book!
I would HIGHLY recommend this series to everyone (check out the TW)! Although this is a standalone, I would definitely recommend reading the other books to avoid any confusion, and also as a way to get to know the rest of the Bergman family! They are incredible.
Thank you Netgalley and Chloe Liese for the advance copy of Everything For You in exchange for my honest review. I’m extremely grateful to have had the opportunity to read this wonderful book in advance! Everything For You will be released on May 10, 2022 🥰
3 🌶
Expect:
Age-gap 🤩
Sports Romance ⚽️
M/M Romance 👨❤️👨
Grumpy/ Sunshine ☀
Enemies to Lovers 🥵
Dual POV 👥
Mental Health Awareness
Oh My God!! I would like to start by saying that this book is absolutely wonderful! I have loved the Bergman family since we were introduced to them in Only When It’s Us. They are captivating and hilarious, I will always love diving back into their world.
Oliver and Gavin complete opposites, but they also are extremely similar. They are two lonely men hiding behind masks as a way of protecting themselves. Oliver hides behind his smile, while Gavin hides behind his scowl. They usually will avoid being in each other’s way, however, that isn't possible when they are told to work together. Their chemistry was off the charts and their interactions were explosive, full of tension and banter! They both have incredible personalities and it was amazing to see them abandon their masks and be their true selves throughout the book. Being open with each other definitely made them develop more and more feelings, and it made me adore them even more! Also, did I mention that they are required to share a bed? JUST ONE BED! It was one of my favorite scenes, and the morning after scene was spectacular. I was laughing so much I had to wipe some tears. Their character developments were extraordinary! I love good character development and this novel has two amazing ones. The way they grow from their interactions and slowly come out of their shell in order to be with each other is amazing. This novel is beautifully written and I could not help myself from binging this in one day. Ollie and Gavin’s story is one I will be thinking about for a while and will be rereading in the future!
I love all the Encanto references!! This book’s playlist is possibly one of my favorite playlists of all time. I loved all the family scenes in this book! It isn’t a Bergman Family book without the family! Willa and Ryder have had my heart from the beginning and reading about them in this novel gave me all the warm feelings! Ren and Frankie are beautiful, as ever! Aiden and Freya and the mini Bergmans!!! Definitely one of my favorite things about Everything For You is Linnea’s relationship with Ollie. He is such a wonderful uncle and seeing that made me so happy. Axel and Rooney! I missed them so much! VIGGO!!! Oh my god Viggo is amazing. He is so funny and romantic! Men written by women>>. I cannot wait to read more about Viggo in his book!
I would HIGHLY recommend this series to everyone (check out the TW)! Although this is a standalone, I would definitely recommend reading the other books to avoid any confusion, and also as a way to get to know the rest of the Bergman family! They are incredible.
Thank you Netgalley and Chloe Liese for the advance copy of Everything For You in exchange for my honest review. I’m extremely grateful to have had the opportunity to read this wonderful book in advance! Everything For You will be released on May 10, 2022 🥰
May 10, 2022
A gay grumpy/sunshine enemies-to-lovers professional athletes who are based on characters from Ted Lasso romance sounds amazing, right? Well, if amazing is what you want, this is not the book for you. Let’s break it down.
Pros:
1. I learned about emotional support cheese!
2. There were complete sentences!
3. The inspiration for the Roy Kent character was very obvious!
And that’s basically it for the pros, but, hey, it’s important to mention the positives.
Cons:
1. The emotional support cheese led to inaccurate and over the top lactose intolerance which was used for a “plot device” to bring Grumpy and Sunshine together to take care of someone else’s baby.
2. There were complete sentences but I did not like what they contained.
3. The inspiration for the Roy Kent character, while obvious, was also very flat. Roy is a dynamic and fully fleshed out person in the TV show but here all he has is, like, a beard and grayscale clothes.
4. The side characters had two purposes:
4a. To tell the MCs about the….MCs? The amount of telling and not showing in the book was made worse by the telling being done by Bergman Brother #589 or whoever.
4b. Continue their own happily ever afters from their own books. There were approximately 50 weddings and babies in this book that did not involve the two main characters.
5. Someone else’s sage toddler who magically respected boundaries while kneeing people in the nuts in the first chapter. I dislike children in books when I am not warned about their existence and it’s even worse when the child belongs to someone else and functions as a plot device and not a human person.
6. Disabilities abound in varying levels of accuracy. While Disability rep is great, fantastic, more people should do it, these books are ham fisted in their desire to rep. If you take away Oliver’s anxiety he is the same character minus the need to be hugged in the middle of the field. How a hug surrounded by people helps someone who cannot breathe I do not know but here we are.
7. The soccer didn’t actually need to exist in this book either.
8. The two main characters went from “i hate your guts” to “i love you deeply forever” without spending any time together. Their relationship was developed through other characters talking to them during such events as Poker Night and Side Character’s Wedding. I do not believe these two dingdongs love each other at all.
9. The sex was both too kinky and written for a pearl clutching grandparent. There was also a wild amount of shower sex for a supposedly eco-warrior dude and another dude with horrible career-ending knee problems. Listen, authors, stop making characters have sex in the shower! There’s a perfectly good bed right there. Use it.
10.The book offered absolutely nothing new, interesting, or well done to the genre where a million gay sports romances exist. It is very much Gay Romance for Straight Readers of Mediocre Romance.
In conclusion, do not bother reading this book.
Read this review and more on my blog: https://horsetalkreviews.blogspot.com/
Pros:
1. I learned about emotional support cheese!
2. There were complete sentences!
3. The inspiration for the Roy Kent character was very obvious!
And that’s basically it for the pros, but, hey, it’s important to mention the positives.
Cons:
1. The emotional support cheese led to inaccurate and over the top lactose intolerance which was used for a “plot device” to bring Grumpy and Sunshine together to take care of someone else’s baby.
2. There were complete sentences but I did not like what they contained.
3. The inspiration for the Roy Kent character, while obvious, was also very flat. Roy is a dynamic and fully fleshed out person in the TV show but here all he has is, like, a beard and grayscale clothes.
4. The side characters had two purposes:
4a. To tell the MCs about the….MCs? The amount of telling and not showing in the book was made worse by the telling being done by Bergman Brother #589 or whoever.
4b. Continue their own happily ever afters from their own books. There were approximately 50 weddings and babies in this book that did not involve the two main characters.
5. Someone else’s sage toddler who magically respected boundaries while kneeing people in the nuts in the first chapter. I dislike children in books when I am not warned about their existence and it’s even worse when the child belongs to someone else and functions as a plot device and not a human person.
6. Disabilities abound in varying levels of accuracy. While Disability rep is great, fantastic, more people should do it, these books are ham fisted in their desire to rep. If you take away Oliver’s anxiety he is the same character minus the need to be hugged in the middle of the field. How a hug surrounded by people helps someone who cannot breathe I do not know but here we are.
7. The soccer didn’t actually need to exist in this book either.
8. The two main characters went from “i hate your guts” to “i love you deeply forever” without spending any time together. Their relationship was developed through other characters talking to them during such events as Poker Night and Side Character’s Wedding. I do not believe these two dingdongs love each other at all.
9. The sex was both too kinky and written for a pearl clutching grandparent. There was also a wild amount of shower sex for a supposedly eco-warrior dude and another dude with horrible career-ending knee problems. Listen, authors, stop making characters have sex in the shower! There’s a perfectly good bed right there. Use it.
10.The book offered absolutely nothing new, interesting, or well done to the genre where a million gay sports romances exist. It is very much Gay Romance for Straight Readers of Mediocre Romance.
In conclusion, do not bother reading this book.
Read this review and more on my blog: https://horsetalkreviews.blogspot.com/
April 13, 2022
Let me just start on the positive side and say, I
really, truly
appreciate traditionally MF authors dipping their toes into the MM waters.
Really. I do. Thank you, Chloe Liese.
It's another step in the equal representation direction for the LGBTQ community regardless of my quibbles with the actual narrative (which I will get to shortly) and I appreciate that more than I can articulate.
This story is full of hope and these two dudes are into each other. Sure, it's masked in some prototypical male posturing but at the end of the day, they do it for each other which is always nice to see, isn't it?
It's no secret that I've been around the MM block for a minute but I tried, really tried to go into this as blank slate, just a reader reading a romance. I do love a good enemies to lovers trope. One might even argue it's my favorite trope, so that was enticing. I also have made no secret of the fact that I ❤️ me a grump.
What you may not know is I've become an avid Ted Lasso fan and Gavin gave me some pretty hardcore Roy Kent vibes.
SING IT WITH ME.. 🎶🎤
Roy Kent, Roy Kent. He's here, he's there, he's every-fucking-where, ROY KENT!!!!
Unfortunately, Gavin is no Roy Kent. Pretty sure Roy would drop kick Gavin in about 2.5 seconds. I don't even think he would say anything before, during or after he did it either. Just "the look" then Roy's back walking away.
So that was disappointing but what I found more disappointing was Gavin's... ailments? Let me just say, I am not a soccer expert but I do like sports so as a sports fan the task of suspending disbelief with regard to Gavin's health and the Galaxy was insurmountable. I'm not going to belabor the point but just no.
Then again, I had a really difficult time believing either of these guys are professional athletes what with the inordinate amount of time off they have. Which, I might add, Oliver's family takes FULL and frequent advantage of often not to mention what Oliver has time to do in his free time e.g. glitter bombs in car vents, forking yards, weddings, babysitting at the drop of a hat????
What even? When do they train or work out with their teammates or learn plays? The sheer dearth of actual sports or team dynamics in this sports romance was a knife to the heart.
So let's talk about Oliver's family and their propensity to just pop in to visit whenever. My caveat is I haven't read any of the previous books so I have zero emotional attachment to the Bergmans. Suffice to say, I could've done with a whole lot less of them. They're close. I get it but do they always have to be taking up space in this story? Because they bored me to tears and I usually ended up skimming those sections. That page time would've been better spent in my opinion, developing Gavin and Oliver's relationship with their teammates and coaches. Let's face it the Diamond Dog huddles are arguably the best part of Ted Lasso period and Everything for You could've used a Diamond Dog huddle. Or twelve.
Lastly, I hate it so much when protagonists don't use their words and Oliver does so particularly and infuriatingly with his various family members. Often. Which I found incredibly annoying and juvenile.
Having said all that, let me circle back to how much I really do appreciate MF authors branching out into MM. Even though I didn't love this book, who cares? I'm just one person and the other reviews are overwhelmingly positive so, as always, I encourage you to decide for yourself!
An ARC was provided by NetGalley. Thank you!
Really. I do. Thank you, Chloe Liese.
It's another step in the equal representation direction for the LGBTQ community regardless of my quibbles with the actual narrative (which I will get to shortly) and I appreciate that more than I can articulate.
This story is full of hope and these two dudes are into each other. Sure, it's masked in some prototypical male posturing but at the end of the day, they do it for each other which is always nice to see, isn't it?
It's no secret that I've been around the MM block for a minute but I tried, really tried to go into this as blank slate, just a reader reading a romance. I do love a good enemies to lovers trope. One might even argue it's my favorite trope, so that was enticing. I also have made no secret of the fact that I ❤️ me a grump.
What you may not know is I've become an avid Ted Lasso fan and Gavin gave me some pretty hardcore Roy Kent vibes.
SING IT WITH ME.. 🎶🎤
Roy Kent, Roy Kent. He's here, he's there, he's every-fucking-where, ROY KENT!!!!
Unfortunately, Gavin is no Roy Kent. Pretty sure Roy would drop kick Gavin in about 2.5 seconds. I don't even think he would say anything before, during or after he did it either. Just "the look" then Roy's back walking away.
So that was disappointing but what I found more disappointing was Gavin's... ailments? Let me just say, I am not a soccer expert but I do like sports so as a sports fan the task of suspending disbelief with regard to Gavin's health and the Galaxy was insurmountable. I'm not going to belabor the point but just no.
Then again, I had a really difficult time believing either of these guys are professional athletes what with the inordinate amount of time off they have. Which, I might add, Oliver's family takes FULL and frequent advantage of often not to mention what Oliver has time to do in his free time e.g. glitter bombs in car vents, forking yards, weddings, babysitting at the drop of a hat????
What even? When do they train or work out with their teammates or learn plays? The sheer dearth of actual sports or team dynamics in this sports romance was a knife to the heart.
So let's talk about Oliver's family and their propensity to just pop in to visit whenever. My caveat is I haven't read any of the previous books so I have zero emotional attachment to the Bergmans. Suffice to say, I could've done with a whole lot less of them. They're close. I get it but do they always have to be taking up space in this story? Because they bored me to tears and I usually ended up skimming those sections. That page time would've been better spent in my opinion, developing Gavin and Oliver's relationship with their teammates and coaches. Let's face it the Diamond Dog huddles are arguably the best part of Ted Lasso period and Everything for You could've used a Diamond Dog huddle. Or twelve.
Lastly, I hate it so much when protagonists don't use their words and Oliver does so particularly and infuriatingly with his various family members. Often. Which I found incredibly annoying and juvenile.
Having said all that, let me circle back to how much I really do appreciate MF authors branching out into MM. Even though I didn't love this book, who cares? I'm just one person and the other reviews are overwhelmingly positive so, as always, I encourage you to decide for yourself!
An ARC was provided by NetGalley. Thank you!
April 19, 2024
One day read!
I love getting to catch back up with the Bergman Brood 🤩 and while I very much enjoyed so much of this read, it just did not meet the highs of some of its predecessors for me...I have been utterly spoiled by these books in the past 😶
I almost have the opposite feels for this read vs the previous book, yes I fully admit I am being unbelievably picky as my biggest gripe about the last instalment was that we did not get enough family and in this one it almost felt like we were rushing through time jumps & squishing so many moments in that I’d have rather seen more fleshed out as novella chapters or something 🙈
That is not to say I did not have an amazingly fun time reading this, the much loved Bergman Bro’ventions and Man Cub shenanigan’y support system made welcome reappearances. Oliver’s interactions with his family were all awesome (even if I’m greedy and would rather have seen many of these get their own novellas).
The sibling bonds are #goals the way they show up for one another…that Ziggy scene 🥺
I’ve a sneaky feeling her story will be next and Ms Liese is going to keep us waiting for meddlesome Viggo cos it’ll totes serve him right to be the last to find his HEA 😈 #karma 🤭
I love that Chloe expands her representation in this with the challenges her MCs face from sexuality in sport through the anxiety and body issues stemming from this and life in general. I hope that some day sport will be as accepting as this book was, it felt a little idyllic considering what I often see in the news about soccer games. The authors note at the start does come with a readers discretion warning about the use of an off page slur word – I feel I should also highlight this as an FYI.
The poker players and pranks were such high points - glitter 😂 - I am glad Oliver has learned to temper these as I still get second hand uncomfy memories from Willa’s dinner prank in book1 – that could have backfired so badly 😱
Speaking of Willa though, her contribution to helping Oliver sort things out was heartwarming to see her growth from book1. I was lowkey big sis proud for her as she was pretty annoying back then – love to see this for her, even tho again (yes I’m a broken record) I’d have preferred for the reason they interact here to have gotten its own novella – trying to be spoiler free and not sure I am succeeding 🤗
Grump/Sunshine, enemies-to-lovers & the always popular one bed tropes are masterfully manipulated here considering we have seen some of these pop up in CL’s earlier books yet they do not feel repetitive and make for such fun interactions it is truly unsurprising their popularity continues to increase + I am 100% here for it 🥰
All of this to say, while this instalment didn’t quite hit the highs of some of the earlier books in this series I still wholeheartedly recommend it for fans of the Bergman Brood as they do not disappoint 🙃
I am just uber greedy and wanted more for them (aka novella chapters) vs the rushed sandwich’y/forced insertion of events which I felt kind of came at the cost, simultaneously, of page time for the MCs so it almost feels like we don’t get to know enough about Gavin in particular as the newcomer to this “franchise” & at the cost of those milestones in their own right – they wound up feeling sadly a little throwaway imho … now your mileage may vary on this one and I will glady eat my hat if Chloe turns around and gifts us with the hinted at novella I have seen her mention in author Q&A fleshing out the events I am bemoaning missing out on here 😅
Lastly, and I pinky promise to STFU after this…but am I alone in no longer really wanting to visit the A-Frame unless it gets deep cleaned 🤨🌶️ 🔥 🤣
I love getting to catch back up with the Bergman Brood 🤩 and while I very much enjoyed so much of this read, it just did not meet the highs of some of its predecessors for me...I have been utterly spoiled by these books in the past 😶
I almost have the opposite feels for this read vs the previous book, yes I fully admit I am being unbelievably picky as my biggest gripe about the last instalment was that we did not get enough family and in this one it almost felt like we were rushing through time jumps & squishing so many moments in that I’d have rather seen more fleshed out as novella chapters or something 🙈
That is not to say I did not have an amazingly fun time reading this, the much loved Bergman Bro’ventions and Man Cub shenanigan’y support system made welcome reappearances. Oliver’s interactions with his family were all awesome (even if I’m greedy and would rather have seen many of these get their own novellas).
The sibling bonds are #goals the way they show up for one another…that Ziggy scene 🥺
I’ve a sneaky feeling her story will be next and Ms Liese is going to keep us waiting for meddlesome Viggo cos it’ll totes serve him right to be the last to find his HEA 😈 #karma 🤭
I love that Chloe expands her representation in this with the challenges her MCs face from sexuality in sport through the anxiety and body issues stemming from this and life in general. I hope that some day sport will be as accepting as this book was, it felt a little idyllic considering what I often see in the news about soccer games. The authors note at the start does come with a readers discretion warning about the use of an off page slur word – I feel I should also highlight this as an FYI.
The poker players and pranks were such high points - glitter 😂 - I am glad Oliver has learned to temper these as I still get second hand uncomfy memories from Willa’s dinner prank in book1 – that could have backfired so badly 😱
Speaking of Willa though, her contribution to helping Oliver sort things out was heartwarming to see her growth from book1. I was lowkey big sis proud for her as she was pretty annoying back then – love to see this for her, even tho again (yes I’m a broken record) I’d have preferred for the reason they interact here to have gotten its own novella – trying to be spoiler free and not sure I am succeeding 🤗
Grump/Sunshine, enemies-to-lovers & the always popular one bed tropes are masterfully manipulated here considering we have seen some of these pop up in CL’s earlier books yet they do not feel repetitive and make for such fun interactions it is truly unsurprising their popularity continues to increase + I am 100% here for it 🥰
All of this to say, while this instalment didn’t quite hit the highs of some of the earlier books in this series I still wholeheartedly recommend it for fans of the Bergman Brood as they do not disappoint 🙃
I am just uber greedy and wanted more for them (aka novella chapters) vs the rushed sandwich’y/forced insertion of events which I felt kind of came at the cost, simultaneously, of page time for the MCs so it almost feels like we don’t get to know enough about Gavin in particular as the newcomer to this “franchise” & at the cost of those milestones in their own right – they wound up feeling sadly a little throwaway imho … now your mileage may vary on this one and I will glady eat my hat if Chloe turns around and gifts us with the hinted at novella I have seen her mention in author Q&A fleshing out the events I am bemoaning missing out on here 😅
Lastly, and I pinky promise to STFU after this…but am I alone in no longer really wanting to visit the A-Frame unless it gets deep cleaned 🤨🌶️ 🔥 🤣
October 26, 2025
4 Stars
If I’m being totally honest, I only started reading this (largely M/F romance) series because I wanted to read this particular M/M instalment, knowing it was partly inspired by Ted Lasso’s iconic Roy Kent and seeing how many of my most trusted Goodreads friends enjoyed it so.
The story certainly gave ideal grumpy x sunshine vibes between soccer (football) stars Oliver and Gavin, and I could completely see (through dialogue and behaviour) how Roy was the inspiration for broody, moody, hurting Gavin. In that way, it was a lot of fun and was pretty much exactly what I expected.
However, having now read the Bergman Brothers series from the beginning, I have to admit that this book—with the usually preferrable to me M/M pairing—ultimately wasn’t my favourite of the bunch. If anything, it would probably rank 5th of the five Bergman books I’ve read so far, and that feels like such a mindf*ck to me that I can’t even begin to explain how or why it happened!
To be clear, this was still very much a solid 4-star read. I enjoyed the complex dynamics at play between anxiety-ridden-but-hiding-it-behind-a-perpetual-smile Oliver and getting-too-old-and-hurting-too-much-to-be-in-peak-condition Gavin, both of whom were dealing with some serious mental and physical health issues throughout their slow-burn, semi-enemies-to-lovers story, which made they journey to love and personal acceptance all the more relatable.
I just didn’t love these two as a book couple in the same excitable and adoring ways that I have loved past Bergman siblings and their partners. I can’t quite put my finger on why that was, but it’s left me scrambling for reasons and definitely doing some analysing of the past stories and characters, in order to try and work out why I felt slightly less into the romance this time around.
I think one thing that bothered me was the time-jump. For those who only read this book, it wouldn’t have been noticeable, but I was a little off-balance when I went from book four to five, seemingly skipping a bunch of years and life experiences of my beloved Bergmans in between. I completely understand why this was done, especially in terms of expanding the family with a new generation, while also aging up Oliver (as well as siblings Viggo and Ziggy) so it’d be less YA/NA-ish and more firmly adult in content. It all makes complete sense to me but it still bothered me, I can’t properly express why.
One thing I’ve continually appreciated—and raved about to reader family and friends who will listen—is how on-point Liese always is when exploring themes surrounding mental, emotional, and physical health issues. It’s own-voices writing at its finest and, as someone who has a lifetime’s worth of anxiety issues and an adulthood worth of chronic pain diagnoses, I’ve found the whole experience of this series to be very honest and deeply relatable in its representation.
Having said that, I also wonder whether Gavin’s chronic pain, and how it was represented so vividly and accurately in this story, is part of why I didn’t enjoy this particular sequel quite as much. For me, it was all too real and it hurt to read his experiences, knowing I’ve experienced them (or something like them) a zillion times before (and will do so again for the rest of my life). It was so SPOT ON, how he was functioning every day to the best of his ability while in such intense, unyielding pain, that it took my breath away at certain points of the story.
My dear friend and buddy reader even commented at one point, how she found it hard to believe just how much pain Gavin’s character was in, hurting so dang much while miraculously managing to function and play soccer in that state. It was a completely innocent, well-meaning comment that actually hit me really hard at the time. It made me stop and think about my own experiences, especially in terms of how isolated and misunderstood—and maybe even disbelieved—I have always felt in my experience of living with chronic pain. It often comes down to the fact that (for some people) if the physical problems in others aren’t visibly identifiable, then some can’t fathom how they truly exist or to the extent they impact ones every moment. It also made me realise, therefore, that many readers probably didn’t fully grasp the depths of what this character was going through… but I did, and, good lord, it was exhausting in its personal impact (even though it was exceptionally well done in its telling).
But I digress… Maybe I just answered my earlier questions in what has become this runaway, too personal thought-train of a review. But good job if you made it this far! LOL.
Still, for the fifth book in the series it was a damn solid installment. It certainly put me through my paces, emotionally speaking, but I still very much rate how effortless and relatable Chloe Liese writes a romance story. Her characters are some of my most treasured romance characters, and unlike some folks who only read this one book in the series, I found absolute joy and peace in every moment the larger Bergman brood were sharing page time with Oliver and Gavin. This is one book family I’ll never be forgetting—I’m so happy that my OCD series-order obsession led me to these characters and this lovable family. It’s been (and will continue to be) a reading blast!
Bergman Brothers series
Book 1 - Only When It's Us (4.5 Stars)
Book 2 - Always Only You (4.5 Stars)
Book 3 - Ever After Always (4.5 Stars)
Book 4 - With You Forever (4 Stars)
Book 5 - Everything For You (4 Stars)
Book 6 - If Only You (4 Stars)
Book 7 - Only and Forever (pending...)
If I’m being totally honest, I only started reading this (largely M/F romance) series because I wanted to read this particular M/M instalment, knowing it was partly inspired by Ted Lasso’s iconic Roy Kent and seeing how many of my most trusted Goodreads friends enjoyed it so.
The story certainly gave ideal grumpy x sunshine vibes between soccer (football) stars Oliver and Gavin, and I could completely see (through dialogue and behaviour) how Roy was the inspiration for broody, moody, hurting Gavin. In that way, it was a lot of fun and was pretty much exactly what I expected.
However, having now read the Bergman Brothers series from the beginning, I have to admit that this book—with the usually preferrable to me M/M pairing—ultimately wasn’t my favourite of the bunch. If anything, it would probably rank 5th of the five Bergman books I’ve read so far, and that feels like such a mindf*ck to me that I can’t even begin to explain how or why it happened!
To be clear, this was still very much a solid 4-star read. I enjoyed the complex dynamics at play between anxiety-ridden-but-hiding-it-behind-a-perpetual-smile Oliver and getting-too-old-and-hurting-too-much-to-be-in-peak-condition Gavin, both of whom were dealing with some serious mental and physical health issues throughout their slow-burn, semi-enemies-to-lovers story, which made they journey to love and personal acceptance all the more relatable.
I just didn’t love these two as a book couple in the same excitable and adoring ways that I have loved past Bergman siblings and their partners. I can’t quite put my finger on why that was, but it’s left me scrambling for reasons and definitely doing some analysing of the past stories and characters, in order to try and work out why I felt slightly less into the romance this time around.
I think one thing that bothered me was the time-jump. For those who only read this book, it wouldn’t have been noticeable, but I was a little off-balance when I went from book four to five, seemingly skipping a bunch of years and life experiences of my beloved Bergmans in between. I completely understand why this was done, especially in terms of expanding the family with a new generation, while also aging up Oliver (as well as siblings Viggo and Ziggy) so it’d be less YA/NA-ish and more firmly adult in content. It all makes complete sense to me but it still bothered me, I can’t properly express why.
One thing I’ve continually appreciated—and raved about to reader family and friends who will listen—is how on-point Liese always is when exploring themes surrounding mental, emotional, and physical health issues. It’s own-voices writing at its finest and, as someone who has a lifetime’s worth of anxiety issues and an adulthood worth of chronic pain diagnoses, I’ve found the whole experience of this series to be very honest and deeply relatable in its representation.
Having said that, I also wonder whether Gavin’s chronic pain, and how it was represented so vividly and accurately in this story, is part of why I didn’t enjoy this particular sequel quite as much. For me, it was all too real and it hurt to read his experiences, knowing I’ve experienced them (or something like them) a zillion times before (and will do so again for the rest of my life). It was so SPOT ON, how he was functioning every day to the best of his ability while in such intense, unyielding pain, that it took my breath away at certain points of the story.
My dear friend and buddy reader even commented at one point, how she found it hard to believe just how much pain Gavin’s character was in, hurting so dang much while miraculously managing to function and play soccer in that state. It was a completely innocent, well-meaning comment that actually hit me really hard at the time. It made me stop and think about my own experiences, especially in terms of how isolated and misunderstood—and maybe even disbelieved—I have always felt in my experience of living with chronic pain. It often comes down to the fact that (for some people) if the physical problems in others aren’t visibly identifiable, then some can’t fathom how they truly exist or to the extent they impact ones every moment. It also made me realise, therefore, that many readers probably didn’t fully grasp the depths of what this character was going through… but I did, and, good lord, it was exhausting in its personal impact (even though it was exceptionally well done in its telling).
But I digress… Maybe I just answered my earlier questions in what has become this runaway, too personal thought-train of a review. But good job if you made it this far! LOL.
Still, for the fifth book in the series it was a damn solid installment. It certainly put me through my paces, emotionally speaking, but I still very much rate how effortless and relatable Chloe Liese writes a romance story. Her characters are some of my most treasured romance characters, and unlike some folks who only read this one book in the series, I found absolute joy and peace in every moment the larger Bergman brood were sharing page time with Oliver and Gavin. This is one book family I’ll never be forgetting—I’m so happy that my OCD series-order obsession led me to these characters and this lovable family. It’s been (and will continue to be) a reading blast!
Bergman Brothers series
Book 1 - Only When It's Us (4.5 Stars)
Book 2 - Always Only You (4.5 Stars)
Book 3 - Ever After Always (4.5 Stars)
Book 4 - With You Forever (4 Stars)
Book 5 - Everything For You (4 Stars)
Book 6 - If Only You (4 Stars)
Book 7 - Only and Forever (pending...)
June 15, 2022
I needed this book! I needed it so much! Imagine a person who has a cold and lost her voice. Totally. Fully. Completely! Yep, that’s me, and I hate not being able to communicate properly with my kids, my partner, my friends, my coworkers, and even my cats. And it makes me soo frustrated. And annoyed. And grumpy. So, what’s better than to read a sunshine X grumpy enemies to lovers story to cheer me up?
This story made me laugh; it made me swoon, and it brought some rays of light back into my life. Oliver was such a sweet and goofy guy, full of sunshine despite his anxiety issues, and Gavin was a hard on the outside and soft on the inside kind of guy who deserved to be loved. While reading, I couldn’t stop thinking about another book I cherished, Thrown off the Ice. If you’ve read that one, the ending of Everything for You is different, but there were so many similarities. If not, please, please, pick it up. It brought me to tears so many times.
I can’t write a review without referring to soccer (or football as the proper name should be, even in the US 😀). In the US, soccer is seen as a softer sport than American Football or Ice Hockey. And still, it’s a masculine bastion where queer men hardly dare to come out of the closet. I know of a guy in Australia, but none in European competitions. So I loved to read about two queer soccer players, a female coach, and a non-binary assistant coach!
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This story made me laugh; it made me swoon, and it brought some rays of light back into my life. Oliver was such a sweet and goofy guy, full of sunshine despite his anxiety issues, and Gavin was a hard on the outside and soft on the inside kind of guy who deserved to be loved. While reading, I couldn’t stop thinking about another book I cherished, Thrown off the Ice. If you’ve read that one, the ending of Everything for You is different, but there were so many similarities. If not, please, please, pick it up. It brought me to tears so many times.
I can’t write a review without referring to soccer (or football as the proper name should be, even in the US 😀). In the US, soccer is seen as a softer sport than American Football or Ice Hockey. And still, it’s a masculine bastion where queer men hardly dare to come out of the closet. I know of a guy in Australia, but none in European competitions. So I loved to read about two queer soccer players, a female coach, and a non-binary assistant coach!
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April 6, 2022
bergman brothers series still is the BEST ROMANCE SERIES. every single book is a fave tbh!!!!
Everything for You is a M/M sports romance with grumpy/sunshine trope. It also features enemies to lovers, only one bed at the hotel, "I feel ill right now so I need the help of my grumpy neighbor to cook some dinner for my niece", and "gosh I hate being attracted to you but I AM" trope. Oliver and Gavin play on the same soccer team and they just became co-captains. Gavin is the grumpiest GRUMP TO EVER POSSIBLE LIVE ON THIS EARTHH. While Oliver is sunshine, bright colors, and smiles for days. Gavin is annoyed he likes him so much so he's doing his best to avoid him, but sadly that's not possible.
I totally got emotional with this book, but truthfully Chloe Liese ALWAYS makes me emotional and I cry at multiple scenes in her books. This one hits hard and I just!!! Gavin has been very lonely throughout his whole life and the last half of the book just got to me so hard. Can't wait for Viggo and Ziggy's books aaaaaa
Everything for You is a M/M sports romance with grumpy/sunshine trope. It also features enemies to lovers, only one bed at the hotel, "I feel ill right now so I need the help of my grumpy neighbor to cook some dinner for my niece", and "gosh I hate being attracted to you but I AM" trope. Oliver and Gavin play on the same soccer team and they just became co-captains. Gavin is the grumpiest GRUMP TO EVER POSSIBLE LIVE ON THIS EARTHH. While Oliver is sunshine, bright colors, and smiles for days. Gavin is annoyed he likes him so much so he's doing his best to avoid him, but sadly that's not possible.
I totally got emotional with this book, but truthfully Chloe Liese ALWAYS makes me emotional and I cry at multiple scenes in her books. This one hits hard and I just!!! Gavin has been very lonely throughout his whole life and the last half of the book just got to me so hard. Can't wait for Viggo and Ziggy's books aaaaaa
April 16, 2022
thank you so much chloe for this arc!
4.25 stars from meeeee
Man oh man was I excited for this one! Oliver bergman is a bergman I’ve been very interested in getting to know. So I’m so glad we got a deeper look into his life through his book. Oliver has to be one of my favorite Bergman‘s, I really love who he is as a person and how he goes about situations. He reminds me a lot of one of my close friends and for that he’s just very dear to my heart. Gavin on the other hand is the grumpiest of all grumps if I’ve ever read them. I really did enjoy Gavin‘s character, he’s not hard to love even though he believes he is. I loved witnessing their banter, and seeing them both fight their feelings for one another. It’s one of my favorite things to witness in these books. The one bed trope was done perfectly, the morning after scene had to be one of the funniest scenes in the entire book it had me smiling from ear to ear. Everything about this romance was delectable, I absolutely love how unafraid they were after the love confession, to express their love for one another. I also just love how Gavin went about it, something about that A-frame house always does it for me. Any scene in that house is golden and I absolutely adored it. The glimpses of the other Bergmans where everything to me. I will not spoil in this review but I will say we do get highly anticipated things people have wanted in the last books. It was so fulfilling I literally burst into tears when I read the pages! All in all, the story was phenomenal and Chloe has done it again as she always does. The representation was beautifully done, as always and I couldn’t be more happy reading the book!
4.25 stars from meeeee
Man oh man was I excited for this one! Oliver bergman is a bergman I’ve been very interested in getting to know. So I’m so glad we got a deeper look into his life through his book. Oliver has to be one of my favorite Bergman‘s, I really love who he is as a person and how he goes about situations. He reminds me a lot of one of my close friends and for that he’s just very dear to my heart. Gavin on the other hand is the grumpiest of all grumps if I’ve ever read them. I really did enjoy Gavin‘s character, he’s not hard to love even though he believes he is. I loved witnessing their banter, and seeing them both fight their feelings for one another. It’s one of my favorite things to witness in these books. The one bed trope was done perfectly, the morning after scene had to be one of the funniest scenes in the entire book it had me smiling from ear to ear. Everything about this romance was delectable, I absolutely love how unafraid they were after the love confession, to express their love for one another. I also just love how Gavin went about it, something about that A-frame house always does it for me. Any scene in that house is golden and I absolutely adored it. The glimpses of the other Bergmans where everything to me. I will not spoil in this review but I will say we do get highly anticipated things people have wanted in the last books. It was so fulfilling I literally burst into tears when I read the pages! All in all, the story was phenomenal and Chloe has done it again as she always does. The representation was beautifully done, as always and I couldn’t be more happy reading the book!
January 6, 2023
There’s nothing more pathetic than a person who refuses to age with dignity, hanging on to their long lost youth and resenting the new generation to the point of hatred. That’s exactly what happens in this book. Gavin hates Oliver fiercely ..Actually no, Gavin is very attracted to Oliver but because Oliver is young, healthy, kind, and a good football player-everything Gavin is not anymore- he resents him. He’s jealous, rude, hateful and he ruins his health just to cling a bit more to his glory days. He wants to be with Oliver but he doesn’t know if his jealousy and resentment won’t make them miserable in the future. The entire book consists of Gavin being jealous of Oliver and punishing him for having his whole life ahead of him.
Also the writing is really really MF ey lol. I mean the guys were waxing poetically when describing each other . Sorry but almost nobody thinks “It is a beautiful spring day,birds are singing and the wind was ruffling his sun kissed beard and his wheat-at-sunset hair ” unless they’re Snow White . The word sun,sun kissed, sunshine and all its other derivatives were used a hundred times . It had good parts too I guess and the writing didn’t suck (but then again, the bar is very very low lately) so I’ll go with 3 stars .
Also the writing is really really MF ey lol. I mean the guys were waxing poetically when describing each other . Sorry but almost nobody thinks “It is a beautiful spring day,birds are singing and the wind was ruffling his sun kissed beard and his wheat-at-sunset hair ” unless they’re Snow White . The word sun,sun kissed, sunshine and all its other derivatives were used a hundred times . It had good parts too I guess and the writing didn’t suck (but then again, the bar is very very low lately) so I’ll go with 3 stars .
May 10, 2022
I adored this book from the very start. Gah.
“You look like a fucking funfetti cake.”
Leave me here.
“You look like a fucking funfetti cake.”
Leave me here.
April 9, 2022
The Bergman Brothers series keeps getting better with every book. I absolutely adored Everything For You. It made me smile, sad, giddy and oh so happy. It’s all because of the Family and the characters which Chloe Liese has created. They all are unique in their own ways and have so much love for the people around them.
Oliver and Gavin. Sunshine and grumpy gave me everything I could’ve hoped for and so much more. First off, the chemistry between these two was off the charts amazing. The hilarious push and pull banter and the pining. Omg the pining was phenomenal. It gave me all the feels.
The story was a wonderful slow burn and worked to perfection cause I got under the skin of Oliver and Gavin. I felt them! How they slowly started to give in to one another and accept their feelings. The topics was so relatable and relevant. How it was intertwined with them was well done and made me connect with them more.
The Bergman Family and their significant others appeared and it was so special to me because I’ve read all the previous books. To see how far they’ve come and also what’s to come for the remaining two Bergman’s was so exciting.
Gavin’s poker friends were funny and suited his personality to a T. Oliver’s colorful dress code and his pranks with Viggo. So many highlights but the biggest one of them all. The main story. The love story. Gavin and Oliver. Absolutely perfection. So much joy and happiness while reading. I want to stay in this world.
5 Heart of My Heart Stars
*The ARC of this book was provided by the author via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*
Oliver and Gavin. Sunshine and grumpy gave me everything I could’ve hoped for and so much more. First off, the chemistry between these two was off the charts amazing. The hilarious push and pull banter and the pining. Omg the pining was phenomenal. It gave me all the feels.
The story was a wonderful slow burn and worked to perfection cause I got under the skin of Oliver and Gavin. I felt them! How they slowly started to give in to one another and accept their feelings. The topics was so relatable and relevant. How it was intertwined with them was well done and made me connect with them more.
The Bergman Family and their significant others appeared and it was so special to me because I’ve read all the previous books. To see how far they’ve come and also what’s to come for the remaining two Bergman’s was so exciting.
Gavin’s poker friends were funny and suited his personality to a T. Oliver’s colorful dress code and his pranks with Viggo. So many highlights but the biggest one of them all. The main story. The love story. Gavin and Oliver. Absolutely perfection. So much joy and happiness while reading. I want to stay in this world.
5 Heart of My Heart Stars
*The ARC of this book was provided by the author via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*
August 29, 2022
Grumpy X sunshine. Enemies to lovers. Age gap. Sports romance. Oliver's book was better than I expected. And trust me, I had high expectations!
How can I rate a Bergman Brothers book lower that 5 stars? On top of that, it was Oliver's story. "Everything For You" was the slowest burn I've ever read. And you know me...I am such a sucker for slow burn romances. So, here goes 5 stars...
Needless to say, I really loved the romance. Ollie and Gavin had wonderful dynamic. Their banter was to fun to read. I loved the humor as always. Chloe Liese's prose was so good in this book. It was lot more poetic and lyrical than before. I immediately fell in love with her beautiful writing. The author created perfect romantic scenes so effortlessly that I couldn't help but melt down into a puddle of mush. For instance, the "there's only one bed" scene.. it was so hot. All of Oliver and Gavin's sweet interactions melted my heart. I loved how they always communicated, confined in each other despite being anxious about the outcome. All in, "Everything For You" was just a perfect and swoon-worthy mm romance. My new comfort read! I'm going to come back for a re-read soon.
Now, you better go and read this incredible series. It's a threat.
How can I rate a Bergman Brothers book lower that 5 stars? On top of that, it was Oliver's story. "Everything For You" was the slowest burn I've ever read. And you know me...I am such a sucker for slow burn romances. So, here goes 5 stars...
Needless to say, I really loved the romance. Ollie and Gavin had wonderful dynamic. Their banter was to fun to read. I loved the humor as always. Chloe Liese's prose was so good in this book. It was lot more poetic and lyrical than before. I immediately fell in love with her beautiful writing. The author created perfect romantic scenes so effortlessly that I couldn't help but melt down into a puddle of mush. For instance, the "there's only one bed" scene.. it was so hot. All of Oliver and Gavin's sweet interactions melted my heart. I loved how they always communicated, confined in each other despite being anxious about the outcome. All in, "Everything For You" was just a perfect and swoon-worthy mm romance. My new comfort read! I'm going to come back for a re-read soon.
Now, you better go and read this incredible series. It's a threat.
November 23, 2022
“I know I’ve given you reason to doubt me, Oliver, but I promise that’s behind us. I’m here. I’m yours. I promise it all—my body, my soul, my life, for you, everything for you, to care for you and love you, if you’ll let me. You’re the fucking sunrise of my heart, love. (...) I love you. Do you believe me?”
I’m trying to find out what it is that Chloe Liese has that she always makes me fall in love with all her characters and books? I mean, it’s literally impossible not to fall in love with Oliver and Gavin.
Oliver Bergman and Gavin Hayes are teammates, they’d been playing for the same soccer team for the last two years, but they’re worlds apart. Gavin is a veteran player almost reaching the end of his career, while Oliver is a younger player with lots of disposition and a brilliant future. Wherever Oliver is gentle and is always smiling and trying to please everybody around him, Gavin is usually doing all but smiling; he’s grumpy and grouchy—especially to Ollie. Oh, and they’re not just not-very-friendly teammates, but they also happen to be neighbors. Which means life keeps pushing them into each other’s direction.
Their relationship clearly didn't have an easy beginning, but it was super pleasing and it felt gorgeous to see the transition their relationship had from enemies, to sort of friends to lovers. It felt right, and that’s something that I’d discovered that Chloe always does in her books. They’re perfect. They’re cute. Their steamy and funny scenes were equally amazing. The scenes with Linnie literally melted my heart. Their development—individually and as a couple—were great. Their love is beautiful. Anyways, I love them so much that I'm feeling sick for that. Just that.
I’m trying to find out what it is that Chloe Liese has that she always makes me fall in love with all her characters and books? I mean, it’s literally impossible not to fall in love with Oliver and Gavin.
Oliver Bergman and Gavin Hayes are teammates, they’d been playing for the same soccer team for the last two years, but they’re worlds apart. Gavin is a veteran player almost reaching the end of his career, while Oliver is a younger player with lots of disposition and a brilliant future. Wherever Oliver is gentle and is always smiling and trying to please everybody around him, Gavin is usually doing all but smiling; he’s grumpy and grouchy—especially to Ollie. Oh, and they’re not just not-very-friendly teammates, but they also happen to be neighbors. Which means life keeps pushing them into each other’s direction.
Their relationship clearly didn't have an easy beginning, but it was super pleasing and it felt gorgeous to see the transition their relationship had from enemies, to sort of friends to lovers. It felt right, and that’s something that I’d discovered that Chloe always does in her books. They’re perfect. They’re cute. Their steamy and funny scenes were equally amazing. The scenes with Linnie literally melted my heart. Their development—individually and as a couple—were great. Their love is beautiful. Anyways, I love them so much that I'm feeling sick for that. Just that.
June 7, 2024
“ I love you. I choose you. I choose us. I will fight with everything I have for us.”🥹
April 11, 2024
1 star
There wasn't anything too egregious here that most readers would hate (in my assumption) so please do give this book a shot if you feel inclined, but holy fuck did I dislike so many things about this story; this review barely scratches the surface.
*minor spoilers below*
First of all, Gavin wasn't 'grumpy' despite what the story so profusely likes to claim. He was just an asshole. I read about a lot of either morally ambiguous or unlikeable characters in fiction (regardless of genre), and when it's executed well, that type of characterization serves a purpose and/or is intentional by the author, and the actual story reflects that sentiment. Unfortunately in this book, it was absurd because the way Gavin treated Oliver in the beginning was beyond unprofessional which completely contradicts the rule-oriented way his demeanour was presented in the book. Also, not nearly enough was done to reconcile his past actions when they do end up together, not to mention the fact that his justification for those actions did not make sense to me. The author tried to give a believable reason, but alas, it was anything but that.
This is not a slow-burn romance either, despite what the description suggests. Which would have been fine, if it weren't for the unconvincing pace of the relationship's development. Oliver and Gavin go from having unjustified levels of needless animosity whilst wanting to fuck each other, to then professing their complete and utter adoration for each other with barely any meaningful development in between. It felt really awkward to read. Also, the way Gavin ends up poetically describing his love for Oliver was completely out of character.
Sometimes the author tried very hard to contrast Gavin and Oliver's personalities while other times their thoughts, dialogues, vocabulary and thinking patterns were almost indistinguishable; they read like cardboard cutouts made for the purpose of self-insertion; it felt very odd to read because of how [unintentionally] contradictory it was.
This book read very much like the format of an MF romance slapped with the 'gay' label, because Oliver's place in the story felt so stereotypically like a woman's. I did not like that at all.
I love thematic content in my books. But here, there was a lot of jarring insertion of social-commentary where characters went on a hyper-sophisticated tangent about some topic seemingly out of nowhere, yet it never sounded like a real human speaking. Once or twice is fine since after all, the contents of these tangents were about important topics of discourse even if their execution was subpar. But unfortunately, they felt very out of place because they were randomly inserted in contexts that didn't connect to the tangents.
Those are all the complaints I can think of off the top of my head. Again, nothing egregious or harmful—I've read worse things—but the accumulation of so many unlikeable things in a story leaves a sour taste in my mouth. But as always, reading is subjective and you might like this much more than I did.
There wasn't anything too egregious here that most readers would hate (in my assumption) so please do give this book a shot if you feel inclined, but holy fuck did I dislike so many things about this story; this review barely scratches the surface.
*minor spoilers below*
First of all, Gavin wasn't 'grumpy' despite what the story so profusely likes to claim. He was just an asshole. I read about a lot of either morally ambiguous or unlikeable characters in fiction (regardless of genre), and when it's executed well, that type of characterization serves a purpose and/or is intentional by the author, and the actual story reflects that sentiment. Unfortunately in this book, it was absurd because the way Gavin treated Oliver in the beginning was beyond unprofessional which completely contradicts the rule-oriented way his demeanour was presented in the book. Also, not nearly enough was done to reconcile his past actions when they do end up together, not to mention the fact that his justification for those actions did not make sense to me. The author tried to give a believable reason, but alas, it was anything but that.
This is not a slow-burn romance either, despite what the description suggests. Which would have been fine, if it weren't for the unconvincing pace of the relationship's development. Oliver and Gavin go from having unjustified levels of needless animosity whilst wanting to fuck each other, to then professing their complete and utter adoration for each other with barely any meaningful development in between. It felt really awkward to read. Also, the way Gavin ends up poetically describing his love for Oliver was completely out of character.
Sometimes the author tried very hard to contrast Gavin and Oliver's personalities while other times their thoughts, dialogues, vocabulary and thinking patterns were almost indistinguishable; they read like cardboard cutouts made for the purpose of self-insertion; it felt very odd to read because of how [unintentionally] contradictory it was.
This book read very much like the format of an MF romance slapped with the 'gay' label, because Oliver's place in the story felt so stereotypically like a woman's. I did not like that at all.
I love thematic content in my books. But here, there was a lot of jarring insertion of social-commentary where characters went on a hyper-sophisticated tangent about some topic seemingly out of nowhere, yet it never sounded like a real human speaking. Once or twice is fine since after all, the contents of these tangents were about important topics of discourse even if their execution was subpar. But unfortunately, they felt very out of place because they were randomly inserted in contexts that didn't connect to the tangents.
Those are all the complaints I can think of off the top of my head. Again, nothing egregious or harmful—I've read worse things—but the accumulation of so many unlikeable things in a story leaves a sour taste in my mouth. But as always, reading is subjective and you might like this much more than I did.
September 5, 2023
4.5 stars. It's not often - in fact, it's incredibly rare - for a book to make my heart ache. Especially when it makes my heart ache as often as it makes me smile. One of those ridiculous, dopey, "please don't let anyone come into the room right now" smiles.
Anyway, this was one of those books. It has flaws, and it won't work for everyone. But for me? It was pretty close to perfect. Gavin's summarization of his first encounter with Oliver's family is an apt description of the characters, and their love story, and the book itself: intense, sweet, funny, weird.
And look, Roy Kent is one of my *favorite* TV boyfriends so I'm simply incapable of being unbiased here 🤷🏻♀️
Anyway, this was one of those books. It has flaws, and it won't work for everyone. But for me? It was pretty close to perfect. Gavin's summarization of his first encounter with Oliver's family is an apt description of the characters, and their love story, and the book itself: intense, sweet, funny, weird.
And look, Roy Kent is one of my *favorite* TV boyfriends so I'm simply incapable of being unbiased here 🤷🏻♀️
August 21, 2022
It’s official! Chloe Liese is one of my top 5 favourite romance authors ❤️ If she writes it, I will read it.
Everything for You was a grumpy-sunshine, enemies-to-lovers romance with many tropes we know and love but honestly… who cares about the tropes when this book felt like so much more than that? This book is everything and more & so incredibly beautiful (maybe I even teared up a time or two, whatever 👀🥹) 💕
”Grief doesn’t get easier. It just gets familiar.”
Gavin is quite literally the carbon copy of Roy Kent and I LOVED THAT. Thanks to this book, I’m now re-watching Ted Lasso for the fourth time ⚽️ Oliver is just the sweetest man in the entire world. Their love story was absolute perfection & this book feels like a comforting warm hug ❤️
OH, and can we talk about all the crumbs we got about the other couples from this series??? I was kicking and screaming through every single one of those moments 🥹🤭
READ THIS SERIES AND THANK ME LATER!
Everything for You was a grumpy-sunshine, enemies-to-lovers romance with many tropes we know and love but honestly… who cares about the tropes when this book felt like so much more than that? This book is everything and more & so incredibly beautiful (maybe I even teared up a time or two, whatever 👀🥹) 💕
”Grief doesn’t get easier. It just gets familiar.”
Gavin is quite literally the carbon copy of Roy Kent and I LOVED THAT. Thanks to this book, I’m now re-watching Ted Lasso for the fourth time ⚽️ Oliver is just the sweetest man in the entire world. Their love story was absolute perfection & this book feels like a comforting warm hug ❤️
OH, and can we talk about all the crumbs we got about the other couples from this series??? I was kicking and screaming through every single one of those moments 🥹🤭
READ THIS SERIES AND THANK ME LATER!
July 5, 2023
i love the bergmans <3
May 27, 2023
first of all, this is not a “i disliked this book” rating. its an “im indifferent about it” rating.
main reason being, (i have read *one* FF romance before) this was my FIRST MM ever. just like with FF, it felt odd & fascinating at the same time. i think i was too focused on the fact that this was my first time to let other issues this book mightve had bother me.
i was transfixed by how much this read just like any MF romance, except for the technical sex stuff and the fact that you have two dudes. i guess it makes sense bcs love is blind and all that. i have very limited exposure to LGBTQIA+ community whether in real life or through media. so, all of this just feel strange for me. despite the similarities to MF romance, it didnt give me the same feelings/satisfaction as when i was reading MF. moreover, theres also the age gap (10 year) aspect in this book. so, it was just too much on top of the anxiety rep, the sports related ailments rep, etc.
i did think that there wasnt much on page romance development bcs of the time jumps. it was weird that Gavin talked about his past/backstory at the end of the book instead of earlier. other than that, the cameos also felt overwhelming & confusing for me cause i no longer remember whos who or which couple have what struggles in their book.
idk if its the author, but i think i’ll just stay away from queer romance as its not for me.
(read as an audiobook)
my thoughts on:
#1 Only When It’s Us — 4.25 stars
#2 Always Only You — 3.5 stars
#3 Ever After Always — 4.5 stars
#4 With You Forever — 3.75 stars
main reason being, (i have read *one* FF romance before) this was my FIRST MM ever. just like with FF, it felt odd & fascinating at the same time. i think i was too focused on the fact that this was my first time to let other issues this book mightve had bother me.
i was transfixed by how much this read just like any MF romance, except for the technical sex stuff and the fact that you have two dudes. i guess it makes sense bcs love is blind and all that. i have very limited exposure to LGBTQIA+ community whether in real life or through media. so, all of this just feel strange for me. despite the similarities to MF romance, it didnt give me the same feelings/satisfaction as when i was reading MF. moreover, theres also the age gap (10 year) aspect in this book. so, it was just too much on top of the anxiety rep, the sports related ailments rep, etc.
i did think that there wasnt much on page romance development bcs of the time jumps. it was weird that Gavin talked about his past/backstory at the end of the book instead of earlier. other than that, the cameos also felt overwhelming & confusing for me cause i no longer remember whos who or which couple have what struggles in their book.
idk if its the author, but i think i’ll just stay away from queer romance as its not for me.
(read as an audiobook)
my thoughts on:
#1 Only When It’s Us — 4.25 stars
#2 Always Only You — 3.5 stars
#3 Ever After Always — 4.5 stars
#4 With You Forever — 3.75 stars
April 13, 2022
Chloe Liese never misses. Absolutely adored this.
This is a queer romance which I love. It also has chronic pain and anxiety rep, which is done beautifully. Liese always does an incredible job representing the disabled community, and it's one of the main reasons I adore her books so much. This book had sooooo many of my favorite tropes!
Enemies to lovers? ✔️
Sports romance? ✔️
Opposites attract? ✔️
Grump that’s actually a softie? ✔️
Frustration hiding sexual tension? ✔️
And one of my favorite tropes that I don’t want to say, because it would be a spoiler, but the scream I scram when it happened!!!!
I loved Viggo’s continued romance novel obsession, and how he’s constantly manipulating everyone’s love lives with romance novels. I really can’t wait for his story, he’s only been a side character so far, but has easily become one of my favorites.
My only gripe was how quick things went without us getting to see more in depth moments between Gavin and Oliver when they’re venturing from basically strangers to friends. I felt like there was room for more development there.
I don’t know if I really just jive with Chloe Liese’s writing because she’s autistic, and I’m autistic, and so her writing just speaks to me, but so far I have loved every book and I’m kinda just a little obsessed.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
This is a queer romance which I love. It also has chronic pain and anxiety rep, which is done beautifully. Liese always does an incredible job representing the disabled community, and it's one of the main reasons I adore her books so much. This book had sooooo many of my favorite tropes!
Enemies to lovers? ✔️
Sports romance? ✔️
Opposites attract? ✔️
Grump that’s actually a softie? ✔️
Frustration hiding sexual tension? ✔️
And one of my favorite tropes that I don’t want to say, because it would be a spoiler, but the scream I scram when it happened!!!!
I loved Viggo’s continued romance novel obsession, and how he’s constantly manipulating everyone’s love lives with romance novels. I really can’t wait for his story, he’s only been a side character so far, but has easily become one of my favorites.
My only gripe was how quick things went without us getting to see more in depth moments between Gavin and Oliver when they’re venturing from basically strangers to friends. I felt like there was room for more development there.
I don’t know if I really just jive with Chloe Liese’s writing because she’s autistic, and I’m autistic, and so her writing just speaks to me, but so far I have loved every book and I’m kinda just a little obsessed.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
June 16, 2022
I've given this a C at AAR.
Everything for You – book five in Chloe Liese’s Bergman Brothers series – is the first entry in that series to feature a same sex couple and is also the author’s first m/m romance. As I haven’t read anything by Ms. Liese before, I decided to rectify that by picking it up for review. It’s an antagonists-to-lovers romance set in the world of professional football – or soccer as it’s termed on The Other Side of The Pond - between a newly established star of the game and a veteran player facing the prospect of retirement, but while age-gap and grumpy/sunshine are among my favourite tropes - and I appreciated the way certain aspects of the storyline are handled, especially with respect to Gavin’s fears over his future - the book as a whole is too problematic for me to be able to offer a recommendation.
At twenty-four, Oliver Bergman is a new star on the soccer scene. He was over the moon when he learned that his idol and teenage crush, Gavin Hayes, had signed with his team - the L.A. Galaxy - and looked forward to playing alongside him, but his hopes of friendship and camaraderie were dashed when the guy proved to be a total dick. Ever since they met, Gavin has been cold, dictatorial and downright unpleasant, but Ollie refuses to be cowed or daunted, meeting every scowl with a smile, every curt word with a friendly retort – just because he knows it winds Gavin up no end.
At thirty-four, Gavin is facing the end of an illustrious career, and the prospect of retirement is terrifying. Living with chronic pain from various injuries sustained over the years, he is struggling to work out how to be – or even who he will be – without the sport that has defined and sustained him for so many years. Although he knows he can’t continue to hide the truth of his situation from those around him – let alone that he’s still hiding it from himself – he’s in serious denial, and the last thing he needs is his hugely inconvenient attraction to Mr. Sweetness-and-Light himself, the guy who never gets flustered or riled-up, and who, in a massive knee-to-the-balls administered by fate, happens to live in the house right next door.
Neighbours they may be, but friends they most certainly are not, which is exactly how Gavin wants things to stay; the less he has to do with Oliver Bergman the better he can continue to pretend he’s fine and that Ollie is no more to him than an annoying pain in the arse. Until a very large spanner is thrown into those works by their team coach, who has had enough of the obvious enmity between them and decides to solve the problem by making them joint captains, the implication being that either they bury the hatchet and learn to work together or one of them is canned. It’s Ollie’s first captaincy and likely Gavin’s last; neither of them is going to risk rocking the boat.
I love enemies-to-lovers stories, and this one promised to be a good one – but it didn’t deliver. A big part of the problem is that by the time we meet Gavin and Ollie as teammates, their animosity is two years old, so it feels like a big part of their relationship is missing. We know nothing about their (supposed) mutual dislike other than what the author tells us and we see nothing of how it started or how it progressed. The romance is similarly under-developed; Gavin and Ollie go from ‘I hate you’ to ‘hooking up would be a very bad idea’ to ‘I love you madly’ without any real progression from one state to the next, something made all the more frustrating because the author has set up the perfect way to grow their romance organically by making them joint team captains. But instead of a gradual building of reluctant admiration for each other’s skill that turns into a reluctant but deep emotional connection, we get a sudden burst of insta-lust and late-book declarations of undying love.
Unfortunately, that’s only one of many issues I had with the story. While Everything for You can be read as a standalone, there’s no ignoring it’s book five of a series when all the other Bergman siblings and SOs pop up to update us on how they’re doing and/or to deliver expositional conversations that read like the author is using them as a mouthpiece to directly express her own opinions about certain issues. Here’s an example. One of the Bergman brothers is a romance fan (yay!), which leads to several very ‘meta’ discussions:
I mean, romance novels, while focused on romantic relationships, also spend a lot of time excavating the main characters’ interiority—their past wounds, how those drive their present behavior and motivations, what fuels their dynamic with their love interest and the rest of the characters. I was simply going to use a certain trope to illustrate my point, but speaking plainly will do.
But honestly – does anyone actually talk like this in real life?
One of my biggest pet-peeves in romance novels is The One Where One Character Has To Be Told How The Other Character Feels About Them – sadly, there’s a lot of that going on here. Almost every emotional realisation made by one protagonist comes in the form of a conversation with someone who is not the other protagonist – and who seems to be on hand at just the right moment to explain the character’s feelings to them.
Then there’s the fact that, despite being professional athletes, Ollie and Gavin seem to have a lot of spare time compared with, say, Shane and Ilya from Rachel Reid’s Game Changers series, whose crazy schedules make finding time for each other almost impossible. And for a sports romance, it’s very light on the soccer side of things; I don’t recall there being any mention of which positions Ollie and Gavin play in, for instance. There are a couple of games and practice sessions, and we meet a couple of team members, but there’s no real team dynamic and no team interactions, which means the sports element in the book is little more than window-dressing.
And don’t get me started on the precocious three-year-old who imitates her parents’ sex noises and speaks like no three-year-old I’ve ever met.
Amid all this, it’s hardly surprising that we get to know the two leads so very little. Perhaps, because I haven’t read the previous books, I missed out on getting to know Ollie, but that doesn’t excuse the fact that Gavin is pretty much a one-note character; he sees (and so we see) everything through the lens of his injuries and fears over his impending retirement, and although there are questions raised over what his life was like before he moved to LA, those are never really answered.
Ultimately, the author has tried to do way too much here and in doing so, has lost sight of the fact that she needed to develop an emotional connection between her two lead characters and then convey that connection to the reader. There are lots of four and five star reviews on Goodreads that disagree with my assessment, but the romance in Everything for You doesn’t work, and I can’t recommend it.
Everything for You – book five in Chloe Liese’s Bergman Brothers series – is the first entry in that series to feature a same sex couple and is also the author’s first m/m romance. As I haven’t read anything by Ms. Liese before, I decided to rectify that by picking it up for review. It’s an antagonists-to-lovers romance set in the world of professional football – or soccer as it’s termed on The Other Side of The Pond - between a newly established star of the game and a veteran player facing the prospect of retirement, but while age-gap and grumpy/sunshine are among my favourite tropes - and I appreciated the way certain aspects of the storyline are handled, especially with respect to Gavin’s fears over his future - the book as a whole is too problematic for me to be able to offer a recommendation.
At twenty-four, Oliver Bergman is a new star on the soccer scene. He was over the moon when he learned that his idol and teenage crush, Gavin Hayes, had signed with his team - the L.A. Galaxy - and looked forward to playing alongside him, but his hopes of friendship and camaraderie were dashed when the guy proved to be a total dick. Ever since they met, Gavin has been cold, dictatorial and downright unpleasant, but Ollie refuses to be cowed or daunted, meeting every scowl with a smile, every curt word with a friendly retort – just because he knows it winds Gavin up no end.
At thirty-four, Gavin is facing the end of an illustrious career, and the prospect of retirement is terrifying. Living with chronic pain from various injuries sustained over the years, he is struggling to work out how to be – or even who he will be – without the sport that has defined and sustained him for so many years. Although he knows he can’t continue to hide the truth of his situation from those around him – let alone that he’s still hiding it from himself – he’s in serious denial, and the last thing he needs is his hugely inconvenient attraction to Mr. Sweetness-and-Light himself, the guy who never gets flustered or riled-up, and who, in a massive knee-to-the-balls administered by fate, happens to live in the house right next door.
Neighbours they may be, but friends they most certainly are not, which is exactly how Gavin wants things to stay; the less he has to do with Oliver Bergman the better he can continue to pretend he’s fine and that Ollie is no more to him than an annoying pain in the arse. Until a very large spanner is thrown into those works by their team coach, who has had enough of the obvious enmity between them and decides to solve the problem by making them joint captains, the implication being that either they bury the hatchet and learn to work together or one of them is canned. It’s Ollie’s first captaincy and likely Gavin’s last; neither of them is going to risk rocking the boat.
I love enemies-to-lovers stories, and this one promised to be a good one – but it didn’t deliver. A big part of the problem is that by the time we meet Gavin and Ollie as teammates, their animosity is two years old, so it feels like a big part of their relationship is missing. We know nothing about their (supposed) mutual dislike other than what the author tells us and we see nothing of how it started or how it progressed. The romance is similarly under-developed; Gavin and Ollie go from ‘I hate you’ to ‘hooking up would be a very bad idea’ to ‘I love you madly’ without any real progression from one state to the next, something made all the more frustrating because the author has set up the perfect way to grow their romance organically by making them joint team captains. But instead of a gradual building of reluctant admiration for each other’s skill that turns into a reluctant but deep emotional connection, we get a sudden burst of insta-lust and late-book declarations of undying love.
Unfortunately, that’s only one of many issues I had with the story. While Everything for You can be read as a standalone, there’s no ignoring it’s book five of a series when all the other Bergman siblings and SOs pop up to update us on how they’re doing and/or to deliver expositional conversations that read like the author is using them as a mouthpiece to directly express her own opinions about certain issues. Here’s an example. One of the Bergman brothers is a romance fan (yay!), which leads to several very ‘meta’ discussions:
I mean, romance novels, while focused on romantic relationships, also spend a lot of time excavating the main characters’ interiority—their past wounds, how those drive their present behavior and motivations, what fuels their dynamic with their love interest and the rest of the characters. I was simply going to use a certain trope to illustrate my point, but speaking plainly will do.
But honestly – does anyone actually talk like this in real life?
One of my biggest pet-peeves in romance novels is The One Where One Character Has To Be Told How The Other Character Feels About Them – sadly, there’s a lot of that going on here. Almost every emotional realisation made by one protagonist comes in the form of a conversation with someone who is not the other protagonist – and who seems to be on hand at just the right moment to explain the character’s feelings to them.
Then there’s the fact that, despite being professional athletes, Ollie and Gavin seem to have a lot of spare time compared with, say, Shane and Ilya from Rachel Reid’s Game Changers series, whose crazy schedules make finding time for each other almost impossible. And for a sports romance, it’s very light on the soccer side of things; I don’t recall there being any mention of which positions Ollie and Gavin play in, for instance. There are a couple of games and practice sessions, and we meet a couple of team members, but there’s no real team dynamic and no team interactions, which means the sports element in the book is little more than window-dressing.
And don’t get me started on the precocious three-year-old who imitates her parents’ sex noises and speaks like no three-year-old I’ve ever met.
Amid all this, it’s hardly surprising that we get to know the two leads so very little. Perhaps, because I haven’t read the previous books, I missed out on getting to know Ollie, but that doesn’t excuse the fact that Gavin is pretty much a one-note character; he sees (and so we see) everything through the lens of his injuries and fears over his impending retirement, and although there are questions raised over what his life was like before he moved to LA, those are never really answered.
Ultimately, the author has tried to do way too much here and in doing so, has lost sight of the fact that she needed to develop an emotional connection between her two lead characters and then convey that connection to the reader. There are lots of four and five star reviews on Goodreads that disagree with my assessment, but the romance in Everything for You doesn’t work, and I can’t recommend it.
June 10, 2023
rozpłynęłam się! kocham te rodzine! kocham te książki!
ta książka!!!!❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥🥲🥲🥲🥲 boziu KOCHAM!
ta książka!!!!❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥🥲🥲🥲🥲 boziu KOCHAM!
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