Review: Chloe Liese's IF ONLY YOU.

Thanks to the publisher & Netgalley for the complimentary e-ARC. All opinions provided are my own.

I’ve found one of my new fave ways for the brother’s best friend trope to develop: basically the siblings just wait & watch the slow burn happening before their faces & by the end THEY are the ones trying to move things forward.

Spoiler alert: that’s what happens in Chloe Liese’s If Only You.

This contemporary sports romance featuring two pro athletes, both of whom want &/or need an image overhaul, is a lovely slow burn with a round of secondary characters who also had me feeling the love.

If Only You is about people deciding to be something else & the decisions they choose to make to do it. It’s also a story about true friendship, great hugs, patience, & unconditional love (of the friend & partner variety).

There’s a lot of pining, the hero Sebastian gives off lots of “I don’t deserve her” energy, & a heroine, Ziggy Bergman, who’s tired of sitting at the kiddie end of the table, literally, & wants to be acknowledged for the person she currently is.

I love that message & that idea.

If you’re looking for a book where the feelings are on the table (even if the pining itself is hidden from the other lead), where the characters make space for others’ authenticity, check this one out. I will admit, that same earnestness doesn’t always come across as  natural to me in the dialogue, but for the most part, I love how openly this book shares its feelings.

This is a really sweet, lovely book with a reforming bad boy & a reforming ultra good girl, & just lots of love all around.

4.5⭐️. Out now!

CWs: Sebastian’s dad left him & he has trauma surrounding his ultra-critical stepfather & emotionally negligent mom. Ziggy is autistic & describes how she experiences social interactions. Sebastian experiences pain & is diagnosed as having Celiac’s Disease in the book.

[ID: Jess, a white woman, wears a yellow floral dress & stands in front of a slate blue building with a monarch butterfly painted on it holding the ebook.]