Late last year, I discovered the Bergman Brothers series by Chloe Liese. I fell in love with Only When It’s Us, the first book in this series. Since I read that one in Dutch, I wanted to wait for this second book, Always Only You, to release in Dutch as well. I recently did and I had high expectations for it. Have they been met?

Title: Always Only You
Author: Chloe Liese
Series: Bergman Brothers #2
Publish date: July 25, 2020
Publisher: Independent
ISBN: 9798657410969
Genre: New Adult, Romance

Get ready for an emotional ride filled with laughter, longing, and a sweet slow-burn in this sports romance about love’s power not in spite of difference, but because of it.
Ren
The moment I met her, I knew Frankie Zeferino was someone worth waiting for. Deadpan delivery, secret heart of gold, and a rare one-dimpled smile that makes my knees weak, Frankie has been forbidden since the day she and I became coworkers, meaning waiting has been the name of my game—besides, hockey, that is.
I’m a player on the team, she’s on staff, and as long as we work together, dating is off-limits. But patience has always been my virtue. Frankie won’t be here forever—she’s headed for bigger, better things. I just hope that when she leaves the team and I tell her how I feel, she won’t want to leave me behind, too.
Frankie
I’ve had a problem at work since the day Ren Bergman joined the team: a six foot three hunk of happy with a sunshine smile. I’m a grumbly grump and his ridiculously good nature drives me nuts, but even I can’t entirely ignore that hot tamale of a ginger with icy eyes, the perfect playoff beard, and a body built for sin that he’s annoyingly modest about.
Before I got wise, I would have tripped over myself to get a guy like Ren, but with my diagnosis, I’ve learned what I am to most people in my life—a problem, not a person. Now, opening my heart to anyone, no matter how sweet, is the last thing I’m prepared to do.
Always Only You is an opposites-attract, forbidden love sports romance about a nerdy, late-blooming hockey star, and his tough cookie coworker who keeps both her soft side and her autism diagnosis to herself. Complete with a meddling secretary, tantric yoga torture, and a scorching slow burn, this standalone is the second 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.

I have to be very honest, this book left me quite disappointed. I wasn’t the biggest fan of Ren and Frankie. Frankie is a fierce woman who doesn’t let her chronical illness and autism define her and wouldn’t let it stand in her way. However, I am not suitable to judge the representation, since I’m not an #ownvoices reader. What I liked about Liese’s way of potraying Frankie is that her disabilities do not play a keyrole in the overall story. It’s part of Frankie’s character and it’s just there, not the main thing about her. In my opinion, that’s how it should be. Disabilities shouldn’t define a person, on in this case, a character. Ren on the other side is a different story. He’s really sweet towards Frankie, but actually he’s a softie. I miss the pushing and pulling betwen the characters, like it was with Willa and Ryder in the previous installment in this series. Compared to their story, it went quite smooth for Frankie and Ren. Therefore, I found the chemistry and the tention lacking. Maybe that’s why it took me so long to finish the actual book.

Despite of me not feeling the tention and chemistry between the characters, the writing was good. Although I couldn’t finish the book that fast, the writing style was never the problem for me. However, Always Only You didn’t intrigue me and I even considered DNF’ing this book multiple times. There was not much of a background story for both Frankie and Ren either, which made the book even less interesting. Therefore, I’m not the biggest fan of this novel and I really doubt whether I would like to continue with this series.