Everything for You by Chloe Liese

Enemies become lovers in this sizzling sports romance about taking a chance on love when life’s taught you it’s a losing game. Oliver Bergman is a beloved rising soccer star, all sunshine smiles and the heart of their team’s spirit. To make matters worse, he’s obscenely attractive. In short: he’s genetically designed to get under misanthropic, miserable Gavin’s aggravated skin. Ten years older than Oliver and a legendary player at the end of his career, Gavin Hayes is the team’s demanding captain. He’s also a giant–albeit gorgeous–grump who lives to rain on Oliver’s parade. Especially when Oliver and Gavin are named co-captains of the team. Sick of their hostility, Coach gives them an ultimatum: put an end to their enmity or say goodbye to being captains. Forced to finally to lower their guards, Gavin and Oliver realize that they also have chemistry off the field and it’s fueled by something much more powerful than competition—an explosive attraction.

1.5 stars. There really wasn't anything too egregious here 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. That's it. The way he treated Oliver in the beginning was so goddamn unprofessional, which completely contradicts the rule-oriented way he 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 just made no sense at all to begin with. 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. Oliver and Gavin go from having stupid levels of needless animosity whilst wanting to fuck each other for some reason(??) to then professing their complete and utter adoration for each other with barely any meaningful development. It felt so awkward and unbelievable. Also, the way Gavin ends up poetically describing his love for Oliver was completely out of character. Sometimes the author tried so hard to contrast their personalities while the other times their thoughts, dialogues, vocabulary and ways of thinking were indistinguishable, they were like cardboard cutouts made for the purpose of self-insertion, it was so weird to read.

And this read so much like the format of an MF romance written 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.

There was so much jarring insertion of social-commentary where characters just went on a hyper-sophisticated tangent about something, but it never sounded like a real human being speaking. Once or twice is fine since after all, the contents of these tangents were about real, important topics, but they felt so out of place and were unpleasant given the context they were randomly inserted in.

That's all the complaints I can think of off the top of my head. Again, nothing egregious, but the accumulation of so many unlikeable things in a story leaves a sour taste in my mouth.

I really like Chloe writing and I love the representation included in these books. This was however the book I enjoyed the least in the series.

Oliver is a sweetheart and I wished he fell for someone who swept him off his feet and immediately treated him more kindly. The story felt more like an insta love than Enemies-friends-lovers and I had difficulties feeling their connection besides the lust.

Regarding the writing, there were several words that were repeated to an extreme and I wish someone had addressed this in the revision process (e.g: Gingerly appear at least 4 times in the book, 3 of them in subsequent paragraphs and bigotry appear at least 2 times in similar circumstances. In both cases no synonym was used in between the use of those words).

“Everything for You” by Chloe Liese is a delightful read that kept me hooked from start to finish. As someone on a romance novel streak featuring gay characters, this book stands out as a fun and engaging read. The charm of this novel lies in its well-drawn characters that you can't help but root for. I identified with both characters; their struggles and triumphs resonated with me personally. Liese's storytelling is effective and heartfelt, making this book a must-read for anyone who enjoys well-crafted romance novels.