I loved By A Thread, so I keep searching for another Lucy Score book that is similar. This felt very, very drawn out to me, and the characters seemed to have instant love, which is always a struggle for me in romance books.

I really loved 50% of this book. It was the first ever Lucy score book I have read. However, I felt like the story wrapped itself up at 50% and with that being said I just couldn’t read the other half of it for boredom. I know Lucy score is a really popular booktok author and I have one of her other books by a thread. I am hoping to pick that one up as I just think that this specific book wasn’t perfect for me. However, I would love to still receive some marks from Lucy score and I think that her new cover designs are beautiful.

Let me start off by saying that I love the characters in this book. Lucy Score does such a good job of creating relatable and likable characters that each have their own chants and quirks. Even though this book had a lot of main players, I think Score did a great job of keeping track of everyone and giving each person their own time to shine. This is not often an easy task.

I also enjoyed the general story line and the way that the book touched on deeper topics. This wasn’t just a light-hearted romance. There is definitely some depth to the characters and their lives.

I did feel that the chemistry between Harper and Luke was too much too soon, making it a little unrealistic. Also, the plot of this book is almost identical to Score’s other novel, ‘Things We Never Got Over’. The characters and location are different, but the premise remains much the same.

This was still an enjoyable read and I fell in love with all of Luke’s family and friends just like Harper did.

Lucy Score never seizes to amaze me! From her sweet writing of her characters and down to the sexy, smutty sex scenes, she is a fantastic writer and I never grow tired of her stories she blesses us with.

Pretend You're Mine is filled with too many feels, heart-wrenching moments and some pretty hot, spicy and sexy moments!

DNF'd this as well as the other book in the series that I received from NetGalley.

I did not enjoy the MMC and felt that the emotional trauma was too much. The relationship was incredibly hot and cold and I don't feel like there were any redeeming qualities.

Lucy Score needs to consider writing shorter romance books. There is no reason this should have been 400+ pages long.

DNF @ 70% - but shannon, you got to 70% why didn’t you just keep going and finish this one? thank you for asking - I will answer honestly. this book was a toxic relationship all wrapped into one. the FMC was clingy and desperate to move on with her life that she was willing to do whatever was possible to convince herself of that fact - which fair, it is relatable. but luke, our MMC, oh boy … he spends the majority of this book telling the FMC that he in fact will never love her because the only person he will ever love is his dead wife. talk about a mood killer 😭 I mean, you couldn’t just lie and say that you’ll always miss your spouse but it’s nice to move on again? nope, no room for any embellishment here. I just really couldn’t get past that and so, I’m done with this series v sorry netgalley

Luke and Harper’s story was an emotional rollercoaster! I laughed out loud, wanted to throw my phone and had tears streaming down my face - sometimes all at the same time!

No one writes a small town romance with a cast of wild and hilarious side characters like Lucy Score. Pretend You’re Mine did not disappoint. I loved Harper’s no nonsense attitude. After the first chapter I knew she was an FMC after my own heart.

Luke was just ok for me. Sexy? Sure. Funny and caring? You bet. But his emotional trauma/PTSD prevented him from seeing what was right in front of him, which led to a third-act breakup. A necessary writing device but not my fave.

I also didn’t think this needed the extra criminal activity in the third act, it kind of felt like it came from nowhere. Having read the Knockemout series though, I get where Lucy was coming from as this is part of her style. I do, however, absolutely adore that her HEA’s don’t need to equal pregnancy. There are other ways to have a family and I think it’s so important that Lucy showcases this in her books.

Overall, I’ll be sure to recommend this series and can’t wait to see what’s in store for Gloria and Aldo in book two!

Thank you to NetGalley, Bloom Books and Lucy Score for the advanced copy. These are my honest thoughts.

Rating:⭐️⭐️⭐️
Steam: 🔥🔥🔥🔥
⚠️CW:Deployment injury, domestic violence

What to Expect:
🕊️Small town romance
🕊️Military romance
🕊️Fake Dating
🕊️One Bed
🕊️Found Family
🕊️Strong female friendships

💭My Thoughts
I have extreme mixed feelings about this one. I LOVED the way the female characters all formed a strong bond and stuck together in the face of danger. Chapter one immediately had me hooked, and Harper and Luke’s banter had me swooning REAL quick. But overall I thought Harper had more meaningful interactions with the side characters. She did have a few vulnerable moments with Luke but they’re relationship seemed to be mostly based on lust (borderline more spice than plot for several chapters). It was too much for me and most definitely contributes to why this book is so long (480 pages).

But what bothered me the most was that many characters cleary had significant mental health struggles and it was all glossed over. Like one conversation and suddenly everyone was fine. I think if you’re going to bring in trauma like that, therapy and positive mental health supports should be included. The other books I’ve read from Lucy Score have been light and happy so this was also just a much heavier read than I was expecting. Lucy’s writing definitely has range!

Despite these mixed feelings, I still read book two and will share that review soon!

𝚁𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚐: 4⭐️
𝙶𝚎𝚗𝚛𝚎: Contemporary romance📚

𝙼𝚢 𝚃𝚑𝚘𝚞𝚐𝚑𝚝𝚜:
An enjoyable read

𝚁𝚎𝚊𝚍 𝚒𝚏 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎:
Military romance
Friends to lovers
Great chemistry
Fake dating
One bed
Emotional reads
Small town setting
Grumpy sunshine

𝚃𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚜 𝙸 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎𝚍:
Max the dog!
The epilogue

𝚃𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚜 𝙸 𝚍𝚒𝚍𝚗’𝚝 𝚌𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝚏𝚘𝚛:
Could have been shorter- was a little repetitive
Luke was hard to like
The conflict was annoying

This is the first book in the Benevolence series, and it was so good!
This isn't a new series, but the covers are getting a little facelift.
I loved Harper! She's got the best witty personality.
Luke is fun, protective, and who doesn't love a military man?
If you love fake dating, forced proximity, small town and military romance, you'll LOVE this one!
Thank you @scorelucy and @netgalley for my #gifted copy!

Fun book but not for me! I’m not one for a book that has a lot of smut and this book definitely has that! But that’s on me because that’s how Lucy Score books usually are !

I LOVED THIS BOOK! Luke is such a dreamy character and Harper was so cute.

Tropes:.
Fake dating
Found family
Military
Unrequited love

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this arc in exchange for an honest review!

Never read a Lucy Score book, but saw she had published something outrageously popular and had this opportunity to read something published a while back. I was curious if her earlier books would be any good.

Yowza. Had a hard time putting this down. It was longer than usual for a contemporary romance (possibly even from com-ish in some ways), but I really enjoyed the small-town quirk and our heroine's resilience, spunk and heart.

I'm not sure how #2 in this series will match up since most of the world-building and the outcome are already captured on these pages. Not sure I'll dive into that anytime soon. Now, I'm curious about her Goodreads Choice Award nominee.

Luke Garrison is just biding his time, waiting for the moment when he will be deployed again and his family will no longer be able to play matchmaker. Every time he turns around they're bringing an extra girl along to a family function, dropping hints about newly single women in town, or questioning his preference for solitude... all he wants to do is be alone. But they think they know better and don't seem to plan to give up their quest anytime soon. Little do they know the eternal bachelor has a little plan of his own...

The pages of Pretend You're Mine hold a story that is certain to entertain and leave your heart skipping a beat. This unlikely pairing found themselves with a little dilemma, one is avoiding love and the other is coming out of a nasty break-up and in no way ready to give it another chance... so pretending to be in love sounds like the perfect plan. That is until unexpected feelings start to enter the mix!

This is my first venture into this author's world and it didn't take long at all for me to feel right at home, her characters wandered onto the page, had me intrigued and easily lured me in... I couldn't get enough of the story they had to tell. It had sweet moments, steamy moments, funny moments, and a few moments that were downright torturous... and all those moments lead to one delightful happily ever after. Highly recommend!!

I requested an advanced copy of this title from the publisher, and I am voluntarily leaving my honest and unbiased opinion.

Mini Book Review
Pretend you ar Mine by Lucy Score

📚Tropes, Triggers and Thoughts📚
Second chance romance
Military
⚠️Abuse
⚠️Death of a loved one
Small town
Found family
Rescue dogs
Fake dating
First book in Benevolence series
Harper and Luke- Broken and hurt their pieces become whole when they are together; Each has a past they are running from and unresolved hurts
Extended family secondary characters that make the town feel real
A few unexpected twists that snuck into the narrative kept me turning the pages

Thanks to @netgalley and @bloombooks for my digital ARC in return for an honest review. Opinions expressed are my own.

Thank you to NetGalley for a chance to read this Lucy Score book!
I laughed and I cried, it was a great story, wonderful characters all around. Can’t wait to get back to Benevolence in the second book!

Grumpy/sunshine, fake dating, small town tropes >>>

I am just starting to read Lucy Score's books and I love her so much already. I love male mc's that are either active duty or veterans, so naturally I was obsessed with Luke from the second I started reading. This book has dynamic characters and great spice. Do yourself a favor and read this.

Pretend You're Mine by Lucy Score is beyond words. I love when a book can bring me to tears and this one had it happen more than once. Luke & Harper are perfect together and the story is so beautiful. I loved both of their growth and development throughout the book. The small town setting was perfect! This book grabbed me right from the start. I can't wait to read the next from this amazing author!

This was my first Lucy Score book and I can see from the writing style why people like her so much. This book was a bit of small town, fake dating, and one bed tropes. It was filled with some cute quirky characters and the two main characters both had a bit of depth to their back stories.

I was able to appreciate this objectively for what she had in the story and can understand why people like her as an author. I am interested in reading other books from her. However, this specific book contained quite a few tropes I don't love (it was a bit instalove and had a third act break up and LOTS of lack of communication). So this particular book didn't rate highly for me as it was hard to enjoy it as much with these tropes, but I could see others enjoying it more. There were definitely cute moments that I appreciated and it has me interested in her as an author, but just wasn't a total win for me.

3.5/5 stars

Lucy Score does not disappoint. There are so many things to love about Pretend You’re Mine - grumpy/sunshine, fake dating, small town, the spice! After a wonderfully developed and intriguing plot, the ending was very abrupt and felt rushed - I was left with my jaw hanging open.