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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.

Chloe Liese’s writing is stellar, I’ll say this off the bat. I particularly like her brutally-honest and perceptive takes into human emotion and nature and how they all weave together in a style that eminently readable and engaging.

‘Always Only You’ is proof-positive of it and the long read is one that takes you through a whole gamut of emotions that ultimately makes all the characters relatable and understandable along with their quirks. Written into it is also some literary element – the first book had bits and pieces of Austen while this has Shakespeare – which would probably delight the classic book nerds, even if some could find it a tad contrived.

Having come off Liese’s first book before jumping straight into this one however, made ‘Always Only You’ feel like an uncanny copy of its predecessor: of a heroine (with her own different hang-ups) facing the same commitment issues and having to reevaluate them at the end, a hero who’s patiently and steadfastly all in, while the majority of the read is a slow build-up consisting of long, lazy spins of the merry-go-round of Frankie and Ren.

As a result, I’m not too sure if I have a lot to say about this that I haven’t already said about the first book, which is odd, because it became the same-same for me somehow. I felt the same way about the H/hr in both books, thought the same of the plot for both as well, and pretty much wondered if this was a pattern that the next book would follow.

Liese’s writing carried this through for me, though there was some reader-fatigue that set in after a while: I went through the first few chapters quickly, then slowed down and crept along by the time I got to the end.