Thank you to NetGalley for providing me an e-arc for this book. All thoughts and opinions shared here are my own.
I’m a true sucker for all things romance, and that applies to books, which is why I couldn’t wait to delve into Only When It’s Us the minute I had the chance. The premise of this book is what got me curious.
A division 1 soccer player, Willa Sutter, trying to make it out of school (particularly her Business Mathematics class) alive, while still juggling her soccer life and being there for her mom’s illness. Unfortunately for her, her classmate, Ryder Bergman, doesn’t make her life any easier when he ignores her request to give her their math lecture notes. Without those lecture notes, there’s no way she’ll be able to pass the class. Desperateness calls for action because she won’t give up, not without a fight, which creates a whole lot of chaos between the two.
I instantly started off liking this book in the beginning. I found Willa to be quirky and relatable because she’s a college student struggling with a course that she doesn’t want to take, but needs to for her career as a soccer player. I connected with that predicament of hers, because as a college student myself, I’ve had to take many classes I had no interest in, but needed to if I wanted to finish my majors pre-requisites. With that in mind, I enjoyed reading the lengths Willa had to go through just to pass this class, even if it meant interacting with a shy, grouchy, yet cute looking lumberjack.
I was also really psyched to read about Willa because it was my first time reading a girl protagonist as an athlete, and in Willa’s case, a soccer player. I couldn’t wait to read about Willa playing in action, but we never got to see that. Almost anytime that she did play, her games were told in Ryder's point of view, or others would talk about her play, to her. I would have wished to see Willa describe the intensity of her game while she was playing herself, instead of experiencing it from others. In my opinion, this was definitely a missed opportunity because it would have heightened the stories plot a lot more, especially because she was so worried about her soccer career.
Now onto Willa herself, I had a lot to think about her. She was passionate about the people she loved and would do anything to support and be there for them, which I absolutely loved. I also enjoyed her energy and sassiness at times, it was refreshing. But she’s not completely innocent. There were times when she was quick to react to any given situation without a second of thought and behaved recklessly many times. I also thought that she was too persistent in being frenemies with Ryder when at some point, they were WAY past that, and I found that disappointing. But despite all that, I still couldn’t stop myself from wanting to get to know her more, and I wasn’t disappointed.
However, because this book was told in a dual point-of-view, we also got a look inside the sulky mountain man’s mind, Ryder Bergman, as well. Sadly for me, I just wasn’t that into Ryder, as much as I should have been. He was slightly more reasonable than Willa, so I found that as a plus. He also had a lot more going for him as a character that was uncovered as the story progressed, which I really liked. But something in me just couldn’t ship Willa and Ryder a hundred percent, which made it hard for me to swoon over them as a couple.
Story-wise though, I was intrigued and I especially loved that the author, Chloe Liese, has a Spotify playlist to go along with this book. I got to hear the songs she recommended for each new chapter and it definitely got me prepared to know what to expect or to look out for when I started the chapters. I love music and books, and so I found the combination of the two just perfect.
All in all, due to my lack of investment for Ryder and for desperately wanting more of Willa actually playing soccer, I couldn’t fully love the book as much I so badly wanted to.
At the same time, for all you romance and frenemies to lovers fanatics, you’d love this book with its witty banters and it’s compelling writing which leaves you wanting to read more. So if you’re interested, it comes out on April 1st in case you’d like to pre-order or buy the book!
RATING: 3 STARS
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