September 18, 2023
Liese’s standalone sixth Bergman Brothers contemporary (following Everything for You) offers bighearted wish fulfillment. Ziggy Bergman loves her overly protective family as much as they love her, but at 22, spending family dinners at the kids’ table is getting old. She’s wants to prove that she’s more than just the baby sister whose autism and shyness are liabilities in her pro soccer career. She’s a grown woman and she wants to be treated like one. Enter Sebastian “Seb” Gauthier, notorious bad-boy hockey player, handsome heartbreaker, and her brother Ren’s best friend. Seb, who has celiac disease, is not interested in playing nice for the public—until one too many PR disasters puts his career at risk. Ziggy thinks she has the answer: they’ll fake a friendship for the press, thereby improving Seb’s image and giving Ziggy some much needed edge. They enter into the arrangement believing themselves to be polar opposites, but there’s more to both of them than either expected and fake friendship (with benefits) could well turn into real love. Liese ably balances sincerity, humor, and heat, and her sensitive focus on neurodivergent and chronically ill characters only adds to the story’s heart. Longtime fans and new readers alike will feel welcomed to the family.