Pretend Your Mine follows the story of Luke and Harper. It starts with Harper finding her boyfriend cheating so she does what everyone does - packs up her stuff and heads to her friend's house; however, her car runs out of gas and she - predictably - ends up in the small town of Benevelonce.

She stays over at Luke's house and they begin to fake date - Harper stays with him, in exchange, his family will stop trying to set him up, before he's deployed.

3.5⭐️
3🌶️

Third person pov, small town, relationship of convenience.

Harper + Luke were a decent quick read. The story started off on the slower side and I didn’t really feel much of a buildup of tension between them. It just kind of got me feeling like “okay let’s get to the good part”. If you’re someone who needs a good grovel, this probably is not your man. While there is some, the parting words he shares with Harper I felt were a little too easily d forgiven and forgotten. Overall though it was a good heartbreaking story and if you tend to like these tropes then I recommend giving it a shot!

cute small town romance. somewhat predictable and the MMC was a little bit annoying, but I guess endearing in the end. a good smattering of humor and drama throughout that kept me engaged. Pacing was a little slow at times, but essentially easy enough to work through.

Big thanks to Bloom Books, Lucy Score and Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinions!

3.5⭐️s
4/5 spice 🌶

Writing: 3/5
Plot: 3/5
Ending: 4/5

Basic Plot: Woman in a bad spot ends up in small town and in a fake relationship with a man who is leaving shortly to be deployed. Real feelings emerge and they both have hidden secrets.

My Thoughts:

This book has a little bit of everything for romance readers - spice, fake dating, military man and a small town vibe. I'm a sucker for a fake dating relationship - but this one seemed to move a little too fast. This is also a pretty long read and could have had 150 less pages to get the same story across. I loved how it started, the middle got tedious but I loved how it ended.

The writing was good and did have me hooked along with the spice level that was included. I also LOVEEEE a small town vibe. I love everyone who knows everyone in a romance novel that can lead to a series of townspeople who fall in love. My biggest problem with this one was the characters themselves. There was just so much going on with Luke and it was annoying to see him move this woman in so quickly into his life (that she completely took over) and to see him just push her away out of nowhere. Honestly, it was weird to see Harper just fall into his life like that and quite literally push her way into every single aspect of his life - family, home, work and friends.

Ignoring all of that - I still did love the idea of how he was leaving and how he would react when it came time for him to leave. THEN all these secrets start pouring out and there was some suspense. But to be honest I would have been fine with the book ending the moment he got home and then a little epilogue that detailed their future. It seemed like there was WAY too much going on for one book.

Overall, it's a 3.5-star read rounded up to 4 stars. I don't think I will continue the series (more on this below in the spoilers) but am interested in reading more of Score's work. While I couldn't stop reading the book, the characters were just too much and there was too much going on in the plot. But I do think this is one romance readers will love and should give a chance to especially if they love a fake dating, military man, small town romance vibe.



SPOILERS BELOW - read at your own risk!!!









- I have no idea how Harper could just jump into this man's life literally HOURS after she met him. That was weird to me. I could have used some lead up. HOW DID NO ONE IN TOWN QUESTION THIS??? She beats some man up and then just jumps (literally) into his bed and life in one night. His family fell in love with her immediately instead of questioning any of this - WEIRD.
- Then Harper just starts redoing his entire life and bringing dogs into his house in less than a month of knowing him??? Meanwhile he will barely talk to her.
- The wife bomb was one I saw coming and I liked this aspect - but wish it was done differently. I didn't like how Harper inserted herself into the situation before even talking to Luke about it. The fact she stayed at Joni's house after Luke dumped her was SUPER WEIRD.
- Then the whole prison man thing was like the author needed one more twist and pulled this one out of her ass. It was a pointless thing to add into this book. Glenn was honestly enough.
- I love when a series continues with other people from the small town and I when I was done reading I couldn't wait to see who the next book would be about (JONI AND FRANK maybe???) but no we got Gloria and Aldo. Which would have been fine .... BUT WE GOT THEIR WHOLE RELATIONSHIP BASICALLY DETAILED OUT IN THIS ONE. Why would I read the second book when I already know they got engaged in this one???? If Score had just hinted they liked each other - perf setup for the next one. But now I know they are engaged I feel no need to continue this series.

PRETEND YOU'RE MINE A Small Town Love Story (Benevolence #1) by Lucy Score
This story is about Luke Garrison, who is the local home town hero as well as a National Guard Captain and the beautiful flightly Harper. They meet when she runs out of gas without her purse or cell phone when she takes off after catching her boyfriend with another woman. She is by a bar and happens to see a man abusing his girlfriend and she intervenes. Luke rescues her when the guy starts in on her. Luke lets her stay at his house as she ended up hurt.
I really liked Harper, but spent a portion of the time wanting her to smack Luke when he kept hurting her. This is a read with plenty of witty banter, chemistry, also a lot of Luke caused angst. This is 4 stars.

Pretend You're Mine is the first book I've read by Lucy Score, and I can honestly say that I was obsessed! I plan to read all of her books once I have the chance!

The story follows Luke and Harper. The story starts with Harper finding her boyfriend cheating, she packs up her stuff and starts driving to her friend's house. On the way, her car runs out of gas and she ends up in the small-town, Benevelonce. After a crazy arrival she stays the night at Luke's. Soon they start faking dating, so that Luke's family will stop trying to set him up and in exchange, Harper stays with him as she figures out what to do next with her life. Their relationship is supposed to last one month before Luke gets deployed. But of course plans change as romance blooms and secrets become revealed.

This was a great small town romance read with some popular tropes in the book being fake dating, one bed, unrequited love, and military romance. There's nothing I would change about the story! The tension and spice level was a 6 with some great chemistry between the characters and lots of descriptive sex. But be warned, this is also a sad story with past traumas that effect both Luke and Harper which will make you tear up.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bloom Books for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

AH! i really loved luke and harpers story even though i wanted to bop luke over the head sometimes! harper was such a well written female lead and luke balanced out her optimism and big heart perfectly

Lucy Score loves writing witty, strong willed, and funny FMC and that is why I always find myself drawn to her books. Pretend You're Mine is no different. Harper finds herself turned around in Benevolence. Naturally, one her first unofficial night in the town, she finds herself outside of a bar jumping on the back of a drunk man. Honestly, Harper was wild for that but that's what I love about her. Luke comes to her rescue (in more than ways than one) and not only helps her in her altercation with the drunk man at the bar, but also helps her get away from a cheating ex, hires her as his secretary, offers her a place to stay until she is on her feet, and all Harper has to do is pretend to be his girlfriend. Harper is such a great FMC. This book and any book written by Lucy Score is a 5 star read for me.

Found on netgalley but knew of it from a friend and so happy I was approved to read this book
Abostly loved reading it. Couldn't put it down. 5 star book. Highly recommended this book. Already told a few people that they need to read this book. Might reread later on in the year

This is my third book I have ready by Lucy Score and she is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors. I love a small town setting The character development made me feel very attached to Harper and Luke and their relationship. I felt their love, confusion, joy, pain, fear, that drove the plot forward. I could not put this book down. I am so excited to continue to read this series

You all know this person I books…who can do no wrong and gorgeous to boot!! They can be bit irritating…well that person is magically converted into adorable in capable Lucy score hands. This person happens to a small town and a grumpy small towner. He, a man, who had no interest in dating or marriage….she, a woman, looking for roots. What could go wrong?? A looot!! I am here for all that!

This is such an easy book to get lost in.
Harper and Luke are a great couple and watching them overcome their issues is great.
Harpers friendship in the books is so fun.
Your heart breaks for Luke when you learn his story.
The family dynamics in this book is also well written.
The banter between the characters is so funny.
I can’t wait to read the next book

2.5 stars

Unfortunately, as much as it pains me to write this, I was REALLY disappointed in this book. Why, you might ask? Well, because I really like Lucy Score as an author. Recently, she has come out with some seriously funny, funny, well written books.

This came to me as an ARC, but when I did a little bit of investigating, it looks like it is a re-release of some books from long ago. I truly hope that is what this is. Sometimes authors just re-release a book in its entirety and sometimes they update them and make changes. I honestly have no idea which this one was, I only know that it is the first book by Ms. Score that I really didn't like.

Okay, about the book. To me, the major problem with this book is the fact that the male MC Luke Garrison is EXTREMELY unlikeable. Truly, he is a complete jerk. Yes, we see that quite a bit in this genre. There is the journey of character development that a character makes to redemption and as readers, it is a great thing to read. But, that didn't happen here. He started off as a jerk and he stayed a jerk throughout the entire book. Heck, if I'm being honest, he got worse.

Then, to top it off, the female MC Harper was basically a doormat. Yep, same thing applies here. We generally can see a female character in this genre start as a character that maybe hasn't learned to stand up for herself, and we get to see what a loving relationship can do both for her self-esteem and for her confidence. This was the exact OPPOSITE. It was awful. I'm not sure there was anything that this guy could do to her that she wouldn't forgive....<i>because she just loved him soooo much.</i> Ugh. That's not love. That is giving up any feeling of self worth for a character.

Yes, you can love someone who doesn't love you back, this definitely happens. But you should NEVER allow that person to hurt you, to demean you, to throw you out, to say VILE, vile things to you and then the second he says, <i>"Oops, I'm sorry, I am willing to try now"</i> ....... all of the ugliness just gets swept under the rug. No. Just no.

Not only did that make me angry, it made me sad.

I also received the next book in this series as an ARC and now. I'm truly not sure if I want to read it....that is how much it bothered me. Well, we'll just see......

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this ARC. The opinions above are mine and mine alone

If there was ever a perfect premise for a Hallmark movie, this would be it. Pretend You're Mine is a small town romance with a sweet but spunky FMC, a military hunk with a heartbreaking past, and loveable side characters. There's tropes like grumpy/sunshine, fake dating, unrequited love, and one bed/forced proximity. You'll go through several emotions and just when you thought things were going good, BAM. Luke needs punched in the face. I understand why Luke said what he did, but I'm not sure if I totally forgive him after those words 👀. Harper definitely needed to make him grovel more in order to win back her affections. Overall though, I enjoyed this book and hope you do too!

Harper is the definition of a strong heroine. She has always had to look out for herself. She is also brave and takes care of those she doesn't even know.
Luke is recovering from grief. He has no idea how to handle/deal with Harper.
I enjoyed the progression of their friendship-relationship-the unknown. Although Luke is in denial he is the best guy out there.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read this book! This book put me through all the feels. I loved Luke’s development and the relationship with Harper! The whole town stole my heart!

Luke Garrison is a hometown hero, a member of the National Guard ready to deploy again. He’s strong, sexy, broody. The last thing he’s looking for is a woman to ruin his solitude. When the wildly beautiful Harper stumbles into his life, though, he realizes that she’s the perfect decoy. A fake girlfriend to keep his family off his back until he’s deployed. Harper was on her way to starting a new life… again. But something about Luke makes her want to settle down in this small town and make his house a home. One night of sharing a bed turns into something much, much more… and soon Luke can’t keep his mind off Harper’s wide gray eyes or his hands off her luscious curves. He never thought he’d feel this way about a woman again. But he knows that he can’t tell her the truth about his dark past. And she can’t reveal what she’s running from. At least this isn’t a real relationship. It’s only for a month. It’s only pretend. Until it isn’t…

This book jumps right into it! I was a little thrown off at first on how the aggressive things happened so quickly, but very quickly got over it and instantly fell in love with both Luke and Harper. All the characters were absolutely perfect and blended wonderfully. Luke is your basic swoon worthy Alfa male that you can't get enough of. Harper is sweet, sassy and doesn't take shit from anyone. Every aspect of this book had me hooked. I did not want it to end. This book had me laughing, crying, frustrated and excited...and every other emotion possible.

I gave this a 4.5 star-rating! I really want to have a relationship like this. It's so amazing to read how much he loves her without him truly understanding it. Lucy Score really knows how to write a book. Had my heart all over the place.

Thank you NetGalley and Bloom Books for this ARC. So, I didn’t know this until after I read the book, but it was originally published in 2015 by another publishing house and is now being published again, just with Bloom Books. That feels dishonest to me!!

I wasn’t sure about this book, but somewhere I got hooked! The start goes from slightly cringey to full on smut without a real plot which had me confused because the only other book I’ve read by Lucy Score started more plot heavy then added smut. Once the story started progressing I fell in love with the characters. I cried quite a bit in the last half, which I was not expecting after reading the beginning! In the two books of hers I’ve read, I enjoy Lucy Score writing small towns. They come off vibrant and charming.

Harper was a firey main character and I thought she was so fun. My biggest caveat is Luke, I don’t like him! He’s a walking red flag and I think Harper shouldn’t have considered going back unless he promised therapy. A couple of apologies just wouldn’t do it for me.

A solid romance read. The main characters were likable, all of their family and friends were great and well developed. It was a dramatic touch to add in Harper’s ghost from her past.

Things were going so great and I was so sure we were in the clear of a third act break up…and then boom, it nearly broke me at the end. I like being duped like this, it keeps me guessing! I devoured the second half - stayed up late on a work night just to find out how it ended, and I love my sleep.

I will say one negative thing..for a book being republished in 2023 I was pretty shocked at one or two of the “handicapped” comments made between Arlo/Harper in regards to how he’d find a woman post-injury. Not a funny joke, and it would have been so so so easy to cut out or replace this banter. It was uncomfortable to say the least. This didn’t write off the entire book for me, but I feel like feedback and raising awareness to it is important!

Harper and Luke are both wonderful characters! I love their dynamic and how they overcome the ghosts of their past.

Thank you NetGalley and Bloom Books for giving me the chance to read this eARC in exchange for an honest review.