If Only You

(Bergman Brothers #6)

352 pages

English language

Published April 11, 2023

5 stars (1 review)

Ziggy: I'm the youngest player on the National Soccer team, the baby of my family, and sick of being underestimated, so I've decided to take matters into my own hands. Which is where my brother's best friend and teammate, Sebastian, comes in.

Seb needs to rehab his reputation. I want to give mine an edge. So I propose a fake friendship with real benefits: spending time in the public eye, my good-girl image and his bad-boy notoriety rubbing off on each other. He's my devious, dark-haired fantasy come to life, but his destructive ways make it easy to keep him in the (fake) friend zone. Or so I thought.

Sebastian: I've been spiraling downward, and finally I've hit rock bottom. My hockey career and sponsorships are in jeopardy, and while I'm not ready to reform my ways, I'm happy to pretend that I have, to secure the life I'm on …

1 edition

Mostly positive, though the MMC POV wasn’t really to my tastes

5 stars

4½⭐️/5

There’s a lot to like about this story:

  • Decent autism rep. Not amazing, as it’s not front and center. But nothing anyone could really complain about.
  • Good general disability rep. Autistic FMC. MMC has gluten issues. Side characters with a ton of disabilities. All handled well, if lightly.
  • Good romance arc. The MMC is a golden retriever & doesn’t do anything too stupid and dudebrosportsguy-ish.

My only complaints are around the MMC POV, with which allosexuals would probably be fine. Pretty much everything in his POV boiled down to either (1) how horny he was, or (2) how tragic his life was. And hey, horny and tragic is a perfectly valid lived experience. It’s just not really a vibe I enjoy.

I’d read more by this author.

Tags: #BestFriendsSibling #BiPanSexualMC #DualPOV #FakeRelationship #FamilyIssues #FirstPersonPOV #FriendsToLovers #Neurodiverse #SelfLoveIsHealthy #Sports #Therapy

Subjects

  • Romance
  • Contemporary