There’s a reason I have tremendous faith in Lucy Score to always provide me with a good, uplifting story. I’m going to come right out and say it, this one’s for the Nora Roberts fans, the ones who grew up reading her stories, idyllic yet gripping, that were as rich in the community and work ethic and the found family as they were in the romance. Plus, fulfilling secondary romances. Me, I mean me. Don’t get me wrong, it’s very romantic and sexier than my 90s-00s reads by far, but it’s rooted firmly within the other themes of the book; the house flipping and the landscaping tidbits and the town of Kinship, which I fell hopelessly in love with. Another thing the author has a talent for, making me fall for these adorable little towns when I myself living in one know it’s not that easy to build something so lovely in a close knit place like this. BRB going to socialize with a bunch of townies so they’ll adopt me as part of their family and introduce me to the local hottie. Just kidding, I’m a card carrying hermit.

Silas, our flirty charmer falls head over heels as soon as he lays eyes our very capable heroine Maggie, and pursues relentlessly but respectfully. This is somehow slow burning insta love and I was into it. Maggie is a scary efficient workaholic and as amazing at what she does as she is at moving on from her projects and her problems. She may have plans to chase her next big project after this latest ambitious undertaking, but Sy, and Kinship have different ideas. Our Silas with his big Taurus energy, works hard and plays hard, knows the value of self care and stopping to smell the roses, persistent where it counts, laidback but with a fierce temper when finally provoked, plant dad, dog dad, and just plain daddy. Hold on, let me finish swooning a little. Imma be honest, I didn’t think I’d be swayed by an Idaho dude, but our Hot Landscaper had me with his Darlins and his devotion to Maggie. And he has the best of modern families. They’re opposites, inexorably drawn together.

Speaking of families, I want to list out every single character we met and I loved, and their various romantic and non romantic relationships and the roles they played in making the book what it is, but that would be all of them and I don’t think we have time for that. I will mention Maggie’s BFF Dean and his little love story though. Swooon. Me Score writes the best BFFs that I want to steal for myself. Also the best siblings. And the most awesome parents. And adorably grumpy old men and equally adorable awkward teenagers. And obviously, the pets. Okay she does it all well and doing so much beautiful character work in about 400 pages while also writing a satisfying romance and family drama with a treasure hunt thrown in is nothing short of miraculous.

Just when you think I can’t come up with more superlatives, I’m about to start talking about probably my favorite part of the book, the last 25% or so. It was going to be a 4-4.5 star book until then, but thanks to some alchemical magic that occurred, everything came to geet he so well in the final act of the book that I couldn’t dream of rating it less than 5. All the signs and the little breadcrumbs converging into full circle moments that left my heart full of joy and wonder. Really there’s so much love in this book I wanted to bathe in it like a warm elixir for clear skin and immortal youth. Sue me I’m a sap, and Ms Score taught me it’s okay to be a sap sometimes.
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This was so sweet and I adored it!!! It was definitely a little cringey and the dialogue was very sickly sweet, but I cried at the end once everything came together.

Maggie is a house flipper and Youtuber, and the moment that her newest contractor shows up he decides he's going to win her over. It obviously works, and their romance is truly delightful!! The conflict was also nice to read as someone who is no longer in their early 20's - it was like, real life problems with no easy solutions and tbh some of it hit SLIGHTLY too close to home.

I can't wait to read more from Lucy Score!

For someone obsessed with renovation shoes, this was the perfect book for me. Maggie is a Youtube sensation who makes a killing off creating content about her flipping houses. Silas is a local landscaper with a ginormous dog and an open heart. I loved the small town romance vibe to the book and the banter was 10/10.

Thanks to Forever and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for a review!

So, we have Maggie. Maggie is a boss babe with a popular YouTube house-flipping show and some serious family drama. She travels all over the country fixing up homes with her ex-husband, Dean, and then placing them on the market. They never stay in one town for more than a few months, and that’s the way Maggie likes it.

That is until they come to the town of Kinship, Idaho, where she’s been tasked with renovating the Old Campbell Place, a huge Victorian mansion.

In this town, Maggies meets Sexiest Landscaper Alive, Silas. Silas immediately falls head-over-pruning-shears in love with Maggie, and Maggie slowly begins to soften when subjected to Silas’s and his dog Kevin’s charms. But even with her deepening feelings, she knows her time in Kinship is limited, despite everything that can go wrong going wrong with the renovations and meeting a rather eclectic group of the town’s residents along the way.

Will Maggie complete the work on time, or will sexy time with a certain someone and a mystery surrounding the mansion’s former owners derail her plans?

***

What I didn’t like

Look, there was a lot going on in this one. At times, I felt like there was a little too much going on. Too many characters, too many subplots. This book kept on going on and on and felt tedious at times. I also was not too fond of Silas’s alpha male personality throughout much of the book. If a man acted with me the same way he acted with Maggie—possessive af—some major red flags would be going up.

What I liked

I really appreciated Maggie’s take charge, positive demeanor. She was no shrinking violet. I also liked most of the side characters in this one, with Dean and his snarky sense of humor being high up on that list. Kevin also added some lighthearted comic relief to a book that could feel heavy and slow-paced at times.

With the above caveats in mind, I recommend this one to fans of contemporary, open door romances with a dab of mystery thrown in for the hell of it.

Maggie Moves On combines some of my favorite things: light-hearted romance with a side of steamy sexy times, home improvement projects, and adorable yet poorly behaved dogs
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Maggie's life is singularly focused on three things: renovating dilapidated homes, building her home reno audience on YouTube, and moving on to the next project with no attachments. Sexy landscaper Silas Wright is determined to put a kink in those plans and do the impossible: make Maggie stay.

This book might be Ms Score's first traditionally published book to date, but she delivers the same quality writing, laugh-out-loud witty dialogue, dynamic characters, and swelteringly hot scenes her readers have loved for years.
If you're looking for well-plotted love story with a side of mystery, don't hesitate to give Maggie a read!

3.5-4 stars. This was a fun read. One of the things I enjoy about Lucy Score books is that she tends to have great "found family" plots. The cast of characters are always interesting, diverse, and well-developed.

I thought Silas could be a bit overpowering at times, but I liked that Maggie tended to pushed back on it. I'm not a big fan of the insta-love, and I guess that's where Silas would bug me, but despite that, I thought he was an interesting and devoted hero. Maggie had the biggest character growth out of the two of them, and I think it turned out well for her in the end. (the relationship with her dad was a bit too easily solved in my opinion, but I guess you can't really drag that out since he wasn't a focus point in the novel lol)

The side plot with the house and the story of its owners was also entertaining. I enjoyed watching that slowly unravel. You can never go wrong with a big old house filled with fun secrets!

But like I've mentioned with other Lucy Score books, it felt too long at times. Not as long as some of her other books, but still a bit long for the plot.

*ARC provided by NetGalley

This was a cute book. The lead love interest, Silas, wasn’t exactly my favorite but that doesn’t mean he’s bad. It was funny and sweet and interesting to see how much seemed like it was out of a show you watch on HGTV. I liked how there was 2 different romances going on at once. It did take a while for me to get into the story though. Started out a bit slow.

House flipping isn't something that holds a lot of interest for me, and neither do YouTube shows or insta-love. Maggie Moves On has 3/3 - but I absolutely loved it and will spend the rest of the review raving about it.

First off, the insta-love was *very* different from the usual. Our hero, Silas, is immediately attracted to Maggie and has no qualms about sharing it, in joking statements about falling in love and being together forever on the first day they meet. It just FIT with his personality instead of screaming gross like it normally does to me. It definitely helps that it is dual POV so you can get Silas' perspective - it's really just that every little fact he learns about Maggie seems perfectly formed to call to him and he is just so easy-going. And Maggie handles it so well, giving it back to him just as much.

So Maggie is in Idaho to flip a big, old, historic house for her YouTube show before she moves onto the next project, as she's been for ages now. But this house feels different, it quickly starts to feel like home. Especially when she grows more and more fond of Silas, makes friends, and basically adopts a wayward teenager to make sure he does his math homework and doesn't fall in with the wrong crowd. Outside of her trauma and insecurities, she's basically perfect and frankly I would date her.

Maggie Moves on has everything, a stellar romance (with some spice), a plot line that includes a treasure hunt, historical investigations, and house flipping, a secondary romance between two side characters that is utterly sweet and very gay, and amazing friendship and parenting. It's about finding exactly what you're looking for in the places you least expect and making your own type of family. It was amazing and I hope everyone loves it.

**Thank you to Forever and Netgalley for an early copy in exchange for an honest review**

This was my first read from Lucy Score. It was a delightful story. I enjoy watching shows about flipping houses and redoing them, so I was excited to read this. I liked the feature of the house flipping being a major part of the story. I could vividly see the Old Campbell Place as I read. Maggie and Silas had their moments. They could be really cute together when they were on the same page with their feelings. These two had good banter and I enjoyed that. I liked the dynamic of Silas's family. They were blended and mixed and got along so well. They truly loved each other and that was great to see. I was also charmed by the townspeople of Kinship, Idaho. They were resilient and there for each other. It was a pleasant small town. For my first book by this author, this was a nice start. There were more things I liked in the story than disliked so I was interested until the last page. Overall, this was a fine read. I will probably read more Lucy Score books in the future.

🛠Maggie Moves On 🛠

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 (4 Stars)
Steam: 🌶🌶🌶/5 (a few very descriptive steamy scenes)

I used a mix of Ebook and audiobook while reading this one!
Narration: the narrator was good! Did a good job of distinguishing between characters

No spoiler review 👇🏻

I really enjoyed this book!! It was a fun Rom Com

This book follows Maggie, a YouTube house renovator and Silas a landscaper, she hires for her most current project. Maggie flips houses and then moves on to another house…but this time she starts getting attached to Silas and the town…

This made for a fun read! If you like HGTV, small towns and steamy romance I think you’ll enjoy this. Plus Kevin the dog! (It’s Kevin’s world and we are just living in it)

I also liked the secondary romance of Silas’ brother Michael and Maggie’s producer Dean, it was cute and a great LGBT couple.

This was hilarious and sweet! I really enjoyed it. My reason for 4 stars is because the middle dragged a small bit. But overall a fun RomCom…with some steamy scenes!

Thanks to Netgalley, Hachette Audio, Forever Publishing for the copy in exchange for my honest review.

Maggie Moves On was an OK read for me. I liked the book's premise but couldn't stay engaged with the story and care very much about the characters. There was an interesting storyline about the house's history and the lost treasure that could've been more developed and would add more adventure to the story. My favorite character was Kevin the dog, a service animal school drop-out!

✨ Review ✨ Maggie Moves On by Lucy Score

I absolutely LOVED this book. It was a total delight - full of swoony attraction, steamy steaminess, joy-filled HEAs, heartwarming found-family, hilarious fun with pets, and so much more.

Maggie and her best friend Dean have a popular you tube home renovation show and in this book they jump right in to their biggest project yet -- an old 18-room mansion in Kinship, Idaho. Maggie and Dean hire Silas to head up the landscape renovation, and he quickly becomes the Hot Landscaper Guy, fawned over by Maggie's 900,000+ followers. Maggie and Silas connect instantly though in a comically outrageous meet cute, involving a muddy dog, an attempted car theft, and a near naked landscaper. :D As Maggie resists against her urges that prevent her from making long-term connections, holding her to any particular place, Silas sets out to charm her. Will Maggie change her longtime "no ties" operating mode or will she move on at the end of this job?

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: f/m contemporary romance
Location: small-town Idaho
Pub Date: Out now

This book had so much heart and humor and I just reveled in it. It was perfect reading through the hard events of the past few days, offering a bit of distraction from the absurdity of U.S. political chauvinism. This book truly was a feel good adventure and I loved it. Also, I guarantee you will fall in love with Kevin the dog!

One small qualm is Silas's adamant, possessive flirting early in the book, guaranteeing that Maggie would become his future wife. This kind of joking possessiveness always makes me cringe, and this discomfort continued until Maggie really started returning his affections. This irritation was offset by the rest of the book, but probably drops it to a 4.89 star rating for me 😂

Read this if you like:
⭕️ a dog with great comedic timing
⭕️ a heartwarming story of found family
⭕️ home renovation shows
⭕️ small town camaraderie

Thanks to Forever Publishing and #netgalley for early copies of this book!

Lucy Score has been sending out some phenomenal books lately and this one stands out among them. What a unique and cute love story to experience with Maggie and Silas. The banter, heat, and humor were adorable and off the charts! Completely engaging and a trusty read for a rainy or and relaxing by the beach and reading type of day!

I love this book! I've read many of Lucy Score's self-published novels in the past, but this one outshines all of them. Maggie and Silas are sweet, sexy, and funny, and this book may've made me cry (it definitely made me cry). I'm so happy to see Lucy in the traditional publishing sphere and I'm excited to see what her next project with Berkeley is!

Maggie reminded me of the house flippers featured on HGTV, which I loved. I also enjoyed Silas' charm and his quirky dog Kevin - I adored how Silas seemed to fall for Maggie at first sight and even started calling her his future wife shortly after meeting her. I loved the mystery aspects surrounding the original owners of the Campbell house and the hidden treasure. On the downside, I felt like this book was unnecessarily long and I personally could have done with Cody's storyline as I didn't feel like it added anything significant to the plot. Also, I disliked that, due to the fact that Maggie is a house flipper who is constantly moving, there was almost a sense of impending doom throughout the book regarding Silas and Maggie's relationship. The house flipping/ renovations in this book reminded me a bit of "Faking Reality" by Sara Fujimura and the treasure hunting towards the end of the novel reminded me a bit of "Something Wilder" by Christina Lauren. I would definitely recommend this book to fellow romance readers; especially ones who've previously enjoyed Lucy Score's previous novels.

There’s nothing better to listen to while getting unpacked in a new home than a flirty, fun, home-renovation story. I’m not sure why this setting does it for me every single time–maybe it’s just the motivation to get my own home in order?

Overall, Maggie Moves On was just as adorable as the cute cover promises. Maggie was a great MC. She was independent, career-focused, and did her best not to let romance get in the way of her goals…at the start. I adored the storyline with Cody, where Maggie gave the teen some support and guidance that he wasn’t getting at home.

Maggie and Silas had great chemistry and banter, and I enjoyed the extremely steamy sex scenes. The steam was well-written rather than gratuitous, and fit well with the storyline.

Silas was a little harder for me to love. I liked his confident hot-landscaper personality overall, but there were a few things that bothered me about their relationship. Mainly, how controlling he was towards Maggie when they weren’t even really dating. A few scenes showed him in a sort of caveman light, which I wasn’t the biggest fan of. Maggie was supposed to be strong and independent, and it didn’t feel realistic that she would put up with that.

This is a big book, but it’s worth your time. I really enjoyed all of the side-plots: Wallace the stodgy old man, Cody the disadvantaged teen, the treasure hunt aspect, and Maggie’s family drama. It all came together well to give this story a lot of depth.

And of course, I LOVED Kevin the dog and his adopted kitty friends.

The ending seemed a little far-fetched to me, and I think I would have preferred to see it go in a slightly different direction.

Small-town romance between a house-flipper and the landscaper -- sign me up.

Of course, the star of the show here was Kevin (the dog), as seen on the cover. Kevin belongs to Silas the landscaper, who meets Maggie when she comes to tiny Kinship, Idaho to restore a mansion. Maggie travels around the country flipping houses with her partner Dean and sharing the progress to her almost 1 million subscribers on YouTube.

This was my first Lucy Score book and it definitely pulled me in. Silas wasn't my favorite romantic lead -- I thought I was into an alpha, but maybe not, as he came on too strong for my taste. At the same time, I was able to look past it because it felt pretty obvious that Maggie was into it (even if I personally wasn't).

The audio narration by Emma Wilder was great and flowed really easily. (I don't know how she managed to voice Silas in addition to Maggie, but she did!)

I particularly liked the ending -- I loved the updates provided for the minor characters I came to care about! I may have even shed a tear or two, out of sheer happiness for them.

Lucy Score stories are always such a delight! Sprinkle with the perfect combo of quirky sassy and swoony feels, Maggie Moves On is such an enjoyable escape. Lucy gives us everything we love about her writing- a well constructed story, charming characters, the perfect setting, and so much heartfelt sincerity.

The premise of this story is so creative and fun- youtube vlogger Maggie renovates/restores houses and documents it for her channel, and her latest project brings her to a mansion in Idaho that is also part of her past, a memory with her mother. And the latest project brings her in the path of Silas, local landscape and total dreamboat. And soon restless, always on the go Maggie finds a town, and some people, that unexpectedly feel like home.

My goodness can Lucy Score write unforgettable, quirky and charming characters, of the human and the pet variety! The townspeople, the secondary characters, Maggie and Silas are all so enchanting. Silas is a charmer- a swoony book boyfriend who woos with his open heart and sweetness. I love how persistently and adorably he pursues the reluctant Maggie, and I really loved her and the tension she felt between the life she’s worked hard to create and the life she found unexpectedly. Their chemistry was chef’s kiss perfect- sweet, sexy, and brimming with well-meaning banter. A romance that perfectly balanced lightness and depth.

The town and the people all play a critical and lovable role in this story- and I loved how Lucy wove everything together so seamlessly. Details big and small weave together to give us such an endearing and meaningful story. Lucy stories always leave a smile on my face, and this one certainly left me with a full heart.

goodreads.com/review/show/4736179686

I am quickly becoming a big fan of Lucy Score! Something in her writing just clicks with me and it's incredibly easy to fall head over heels for the characters. After reading Things We Never Got Over I needed something of hers to sink back into and this one was an absolute delight! We love when the guy falls first and Sy was constantly finding ways to flirt with Maggie. I also loved the little side of suspense and mystery happening in this story as well. Oh, and can't forget Kevin, the best worst dog ever. I might have finished this in one sitting as well. It's the perfect blend of humour and chaos and definitely a fabulous addition to anyone's summer list!

Fun, witty read full of heart. Maggie is a Youtuber that renovates houses, moving on to her next as soon as she's finished, but when she comes to Kinship, ID to the house she's been waiting to come on the market for years she can't wait to do her magic touch and move on. What she doesn't count on was Kinship. With a sexy local landscaper, ex-husband/business partner, a menagerie of characters and a blended family that loves to blend in more this is a delightful, quirky, entertaining read that will engage you and expand the definition of family. Laugh out loud scenes, characters, mystery will have you falling for this unconventional family of people