Always Only You

“Always Only You” is an emotional, funny, slow burn sports romance that shows that love can be found regardless of disabilities and personality differences.

Francesca “Frankie” Zeferino is a twenty-six year old woman who works as the social media coordinator for the LA Kings hockey team. She is nicknamed “Frank the Tank” by her co-workers due to her cold persona.

Soren “Ren” Bergman is a twenty-five year old hockey player who is still growing into his fame after three years of being on the hockey team. Ren smiles constantly and his happy nice guy persona annoys Frankie. Unbeknownst to Frankie, Ren has been loving her from afar since they first met but respects the work rules that staff and players can’t date.

As the novel progresses, the reader discovers that Frankie’s cold persona is due to being diagnosed as autistic as a child and as having rheumatoid arthritis as a teenager. As a result of her rheumatoid arthritis and in an effort to be less of a problem to her family, Frankie moved away from her home state of New York to California.

Ren is a Swedish-American man who comes from a family of soccer players. As a teenager, Ren was teased in high school for loving Shakespeare and poetry. As an adult, Ren still loves Shakespeare and even has a club consisting of friends from high school and others. Since Ren was a late bloomer, he finds it strange that people except him to become an egotistical jerk now that he’s become a famous hockey player.

During the course of the novel, Ren and Frankie get closer to each other. After Frankie receives life changing news, Ren seize the opportunity to express his feelings to her. When Ren tells Frankie how he feels about her, she needs time to process what this information means as well as if Ren fully understands what a relationship with her (someone with a disability) truly means.

Despite Frankie wanting to trust Ren with her heart, there is a part of her that feels he will eventually grow tired of her and begin to resent her. Through learning how to communicate with one another as working with a therapist, Frankie learns that she is worthy of the love that Ren wants to give her. By loving Frankie, Ren realizes that real love is found when you meet someone who loves and accept me all facets of you whether it’s athletic or nerdy.

I love the author creates characters that area realistic and relatable. As I read this novel, I saw lots of myself in Frankie. This book was definitely a slow burn but once the sex scenes arrive, they are hot and steamy.

In addition to the engaging storyline and realistic characters, I liked that the author provides a song to go along with each novel chapter and all songs in the novel can be found on the Spotify“Always Only You (BB #2) playlist. Through the playlist, this gives the reader another way to connect with the characters and the novel’s storyline so that readers can listen to each song before beginning a new chapter or listen to all the songs after they have finished reading the novel.

This was a insightful and engaging novel which provides an intriguing perspective on life as an autistic woman who’s also living with a disability that while maintaining her independence l

Having said this, I plan to read more novels in the Bergman brothers novel.

This book was so freaking cute! I've never read any of Chloe Liese's books before this one, but I think I'll have to delve into her catalog now.

Frankie and Ren had some of the most tangible chemistry I have ever read. Their emotions and relationship progressed in a way that felt natural, with none of the painful misunderstandings or unnecessary hoops that many romance authors depend on to create tension in a story.

I know I'm not alone in saying this, but any author who does dual-POV books is a saint. Seeing Ren pine for Frankie throughout his chapter was so endearing and only helped to heighten my anticipation of their eventual relationship. Grumpy/sunshine is a pretty popular trope, but I love seeing it flipped around with the male lead being the sunshine and the female lead being the grump. Watching their dynamic together was one of the most entertaining things I've read in a while.

If you haven't read this book already, I highly recommend it!

It all was just wow. One of the best books!