So this book was a bit slow for me to get into. I don’t know why because once the story of Harper and Luke started it captivated me. I enjoyed the small town love the residents of Benevolence have and the rocky relationships of some of the other characters in the story have. I would recommend this book since it held my interest, made me laugh and made me swoon!!

Such an adorable love story! Two characters are together just for convenience but could it turn into more? I love forced proximity. It got spicy and really hot, omg so so good.

I LOVE Lucy Score’s books and this one didn’t disappoint!!! Pretend You’re Mine is probably one of my top favorites from Lucy. Luke Garrison is my favorite book boyfriend. I love how protective and kind and sweet he is to his town, family, and friends. I loved how he started to look out for Harper and care for her even though he thought he couldn’t care for her. Actions speak louder than words my man!!! I loved his growth and his journey back to allow himself to live and feel life again.

And Harper! I LOVED her character! Harper has been though some stuff in her life but she does not let it get her down. She is optimistic and loves life with a strength I envy. Harper is strong and brave. She know she has to be so she embraces it.

Lucy, I love your books but this one really got to me. You will always remain one of my all time favorite authors.

Thank you to Bloom Books, Lucy Score, and NetGalley for this wonderful book in exchange for my honest review and opinion.

Yikes…
This was…long.
It was just so unbelievable and so many side plots. It’s a “no” for me. It’s just a lot of spicy wrapped up in a really, really, really long story. However, Ives read another book by this author and loved it so I will try again!

Thank you the ARC!

Now I know why people all over BookTok were hyping up Lucy Score. I started this book yesterday, stayed up until near 4AM reading it and was almost late in getting ready for work because I could not stop reading and crying.

I’ve never been more grateful for concealer cause GUYS.. Pretend You’re Mine has completely destroyed me. This one really hits different and maybe it was because I could see a lot of parallels but Harper & Luke? 💔❤️‍🩹 These two are the perfect friends(strangers?) to lovers and I don’t want to say anything about it at all because you all need to read this story without knowing anything about it just like I did.

I really enjoyed this though I thought the MMC could have used more depth. It was dual POV which I enjoyed but his POV focused more on what was happening around him than within him.

✨ small town romance
✨ fake dating
✨ one bed trope
✨ soldiers
✨ overprotective
✨ strong female MC

I enjoyed reading this book. Good storyline and good ending that leads into the next book. The second book is “Finally Mine” which focuses on a different couple from the small town of Benevolence.

⭐️⭐️
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Thank you to Bloom books and NetGalley for the eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!
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Pretend You’re Mine is a republication of a book Lucy Score wrote in 2018. It introduces us to the sweet, small town of Benevolence, where Harper finds herself after escaping a bad relationship. What she doesn’t expect is that upon arrival to Benevolence is that she’ll end up breaking up a fight between an abusive man and his girlfriend, and end up knocked unconscious in the parking lot. Town hero, and member of the National Guard, Luke, is there to help Harper after the incident and she quickly finds her chaotic life seamlessly intertwined with Luke’s steady and stable presence. When he deploys for 6 months, he asks her to stay, and she becomes an integral part of the town and his family. Can they survive the secrets that he’s kept from her, though?
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I… absolutely hated this. I thought it was so poorly written (sorry Lucy, I normally love you). I thought Luke was an asshole at BEST, and I thought Harper was infantilized and gross. Nothing was believable and very little was likable and it was overall a pretty big disappointment. I’ll still read the second in the series but my hopes are LOW.

PRETEND YOU'RE MINE was one of those books that took me completely by surprise. I picked it up as part of the Kindle Unlimited trial, intrigued by the blurb. What I got was a engaging, funny and emotional read with characters I just couldn't step away from. Harper was one of those heroine's you wish was your best friend. She was so down to earth and lovable, even when you were completely jealous of who she got to go to bed with every night. Then there was Luke. A military man drenched in guilt, sorrow and hotness. Like Harper, it was easy to fall for the man and to want to be the one that fixes him.

A truly delightful read. I'll be looking for more from Lucy Stone.

I tried. I tried so hard. All of my friends rave about Lucy Score. But, I just couldn’t get into this. I don’t know why, I’m into this genre of novels, but I just couldn’t make it past 1/3 of the way in.

𝐋𝐮𝐜𝐲 𝐒𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐞 hooked me again with 𝑷𝒓𝒆𝒕𝒆𝒏𝒅 𝒀𝒐𝒖'𝒓𝒆 𝑴𝒊𝒏𝒆! Okay, to be honest, I wanted to hate Luke, but I just couldn't. I had a soft spot in my heart for his tortured soul. And even though he was an utter jerk at times, he did have some redeeming qualities. Whew - did those qualities get me all steamed up! Hey, ya'll, watch out, this one has one of my favorite tropes - One Bed!! There were a few points in the story that I wanted to reach into the book and slap Harper, but that is the whole point of this type of romance. After all, Luke is a tortured hero, and I was totally down for that kind of storyline! I loved the grumpy, broody, and absolutely possessive Luke. I adored the strong, friendly, and loving Harper with her own past trauma to overcome. Knowing her complicated past crushed my heart at so many points throughout the book. 𝐋𝐮𝐜𝐲 𝐒𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐞 did her job and did it well with this one! It hit all the emotions and was full of the spice I enjoy!!

Thank you, @netgalley, @read_bloom, and @scorelucy, for the opportunity to read an eARC of this fantastic book!

This is the story of Harper and Luke. Harper is just walked out of a relationship and gets stranded in Benevolence. Here she meets Luke, and he essentially helps get her back on her feet. What they didn't expect was to fall in love.

Harper struggles with not feeling like she has a place in the world. She has no roots. Her parents died when she was young, and she has a fostering background she would rather not remember.

Luke has a past he can't seem to move forward from. He has stayed stagnant in his life unsure of how to move past such devastation. He isn't sure he can ever love again.

However, Harper and Luke can't deny their chemistry. They fall for each other hard and quickly. Their story gets a little messy, but in the end, they found their happily ever after.

Thank you Netgalley for allowing me to enjoy and read this title. The new covers of this title are so much better than the old ones. This was and absolutely delightful read.

Pretend You're Mine was my first Lucy Score novel and will not be my last! I am so excited her backlist is being re-released!
This novel follows Harper as she drifts into small town Benevolence and finds herself in a forced proximity, only one bed, fake dating mess with the super broody and mysterious home-town hero Luke Garrison. He is about to redeploy in a month and to get his intervening family off his back he convinces Harper to stay with him until he leaves the country. Harper and Luke fight their strong physical connection while learning about each other's traumatic pasts that still haunt them. Harper finds purpose in assisting with Luke's business and Luke finds his desire to protect Harper unthawing his heart in a way he thought impossible. Can a relationship rooted in falsehood and secrecy blossom into something more permanent? Can they both move past their demons to claim a HEA?

I really enjoyed the tension, banter, and found family tropes in this book. It is also my first military hero novel and I found it incredibly moving. Lucy Score can right some spice that would make anyone's heart race and I can't wait to return to Benevolence for Aldo and Gloria's story in Finally Mine. My only complaint with this read was the third act breakup; I really though the second one was overly traumatic for both Luke/Harper but I understand the author needed this to fully help Luke move on from his losses.

Thank you to NetGalley and BloomBooks for my advanced arc in exchange for my honest review. I will post on my social page when I finish Finally Mine!

👌🏻what i liked:
I’m a sucker for a small town romance, so this was an automatic like in that category. Our heroine in this book was super likable and strong, that can be hard to find at times. I really enjoyed all the interactions with the side characters.

🙃 what i didn’t like:
I honestly wasn’t that big of a fan of Luke… Judge me if you want, but he was kind of annoying. I did like him more once he adopted Max. I’m still not over the way he treated his girl at the end.

💬 quote:
“You can’t put your worth in someone else’s hands like that. Whether those hands are stroking you or hurting you. It doesn’t matter. Your value comes from inside. Whether you mean something to him or not has nothing to do with how inherently valuable you are.”

📖 recommend?
Yes! Please read the trigger warnings before reading though! This is not for everyone!

🥰 special thanks
Thank you to NetGalley, Lucy Score, and Sourcebooks Bloom Books for granting me this e-ARC in exchange for my honest review!

What happens when your worst day just keeps deteriorating? In the first book of the Benevolence series, the female main character loses her job and her relationship all in one fell swoop. Distraught and homeless, she drives in the wrong direction and ends up lost in a small town where she immediately ends up in a physical fight. Luke is one of the people swooping in to help her pick up the pieces, but he also has lots of his own previous losses that he is stuffing down and ignoring. What starts as a pretend dating relationship soon starts to become something more.

I enjoyed these characters for most of the book, although Luke had some jerk moments and Harper might have been too fluffy at times. Overall, I wanted to see what happened and enjoyed the whole book, not wanting to put it down at all after the 50% mark.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bloom for my review copy.

Lucy Score can do no wrong. I think this could be a book of the summer! 4 stars from me - highly recommend.

Swoon!!! Lucy Score does it again - she creates such dynamic characters all around that you just fall in love with all of them (well all except the truly evil ones).

Harper is on her way to build a new life after catching her boyfriend (and boss) cheating. She runs out of gas in a small town only to find out she’s been going the wrong direction. But there she meets Luke, the hometown hero. He agrees to let her stay with him and the two strike a deal that she’ll pretend to be his girlfriend until he deploys. It’s all pretend until it isn’t! Thank you Netgalley and Bloom Books for the egalley in exchange for my honest review.

I am sorry but this just wasn’t my favorite read. I didn’t dislike it but also didn’t love it. The writing was okay. The cover was cute at least. Literally no other thoughts.

Lucy Score is the queen of broody romances with a tinge of action. A good book with good characters (who are at times cringey or get on your nerves, but you love them anyways- and maybe a bit more because of it) who always have intense chemistry that has you on the edge of your seat and wanting to skip pages left and right.