Some of my favorite tropes

Boss employee
One bed
Fake dating

All the feels in this book. Looking forward to reading the next book

Ok, I’ve officially added a new author to my favorite authors list. This was my first book by Lucy Score and it did not disappoint. Harper’s free-spirit and Luke’s alpha male were the perfect combo. They both have emotional baggage- Harper from her childhood and Luke from his early adulthood. He’s protective of her right from the start and she slowly begins to bring him back to life and feeling things he had shutdown for many years. The tension between the two had me eagerly reading through to get more of them. The book had so many of my favorite tropes:

🔸 Grump Sunshine
🔸 Alpha Male
🔸 Fake Dating
🔸 Forced Proximity
🔸 Small town romance
🔸 Found family

This book really has it all and I absolutely loved every part of it!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 5
Spice Level: 🌶️🌶️🌶️ / 5

This was my first time reading anything by Lucy Score and I can't believe I waited this long to try her books! There were so many things going on in this book, between Harper and Lukes' pasts, their friends and family - it's at times funny, heartwrenching, romantic and steamy. Definitely won't be the last I'll read from Ms. Score!

This is the second book I've read by Lucy Score and I can honestly say she is becoming a favorite of mine. I'm not the biggest fan of romance novels and reading lengthy sex scenes,. This book has plenty of those, but it doesn't take away from it's true purpose. This book involves many beautiful, heartwarming love stories - the developing love between two people; between friends, new and old; between an entire small-town community; and between man and K9 companion. I instantly fell in love with the characters. There are several of them, anyone reading this book is bound to relate to one of them. For the most part, this is a lighthearted read. It's cute, witty, and funny, but there are also tense moments that had me staying up way too late at night because I couldn't put it down. I hope you enjoy this book as much as I did. Now, I'm on to the next in the mini series, Finally Mine.

OMG, this book has ALL.THE.FEELS! Harper and Luke both have very traumatic pasts but they deal with it in very different ways. Harper lives in the here and now and doesn’t take too many things very seriously and Luke cannot stop living in the past and won’t let himself appreciate what he has.

You cannot stop rooting for Harper to finally find a forever home and you desperately want it to be with Luke! If only he would get out of his own way. These two are not the best communicators, but when Luke lets his guard down, you cannot help but melt. I loved how Luke’s family immediately adopted Harper and saw how wonderful she was for Luke, even as he was pushing her away.

These two have crazy chemistry and you don’t have to wait too long for the spice. The town is fulll of quirky characters just as you would expect in a Score book. And there is always a bit of mystery lurking as well.

Great story. Can’t wait to devour the next in the series!

Lucy score does it again!

I loved this book so much! Harper is an absolute force to be reckoned with. I loved her life perspective, grit and absolutely adorable heart. Luke was a character that grew on you and under his pain, was every women’s dream guy.

This story of love and loss is one that kept me turning the page. Such a good read and very spicy!

I have never read Lucy Score before, but I hear a lot of people recommend her books, so I thought I would give this a shot. I have to say the beginning started out decent and grabbed my attention, even if the concept was over the top and unbelievable.

Harper jumps in her car to drive long distance to her friends after she catches her boyfriend cheating, except she leaves without her wallet and phone. I mean, that's unheard of. She gets lost and stops at a bar where she stops a guy from beating on his girlfriend by jumping in fighting...crazy. She gets knocked out and saved by the super sexy Luke. He let's her crash at his place, and then they decide to do a fake dating thing so she can stay and work for him till he gets deployed in a month. He doesn't want his parents trying to set him up anymore.

It was a cute setup, and I liked Harper even though she doesn't make good choices and is almost TSTL (too stupid to live). She falls for Luke super fast, and he continuously turns her down or pushes her away. They finally get together, but they are separated for 6 months for his deployment. This part of the book really dragged for me.

I enjoyed the side characters and the found family in this book, but I could not stand Luke. He was constantly going back and forth, hot and cold with her. He totally used her and then through it in her face that he could never love her. He was needlessly cruel to her, even after she took care of his home, office, family, and best friend while he was away.

He also should have had to grovel WAY longer, in my opinion.

Fake Dating
Found Family
Only One Bed
Small Town

Thank you, NetGalley and SOURCEBOOKS Bloom Books, for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was my first Lucy Score book. The beginning felt rushed for me. Things happened a little to fast, but then when everything settled in, I really ended up enjoying this book and the story revolving around Luke and Harper and the residents of the small town of Benevolence. Luke was not easy to like, he was so closed off that I didn't really feel much personality from him, although he was fiercely protective and loyal, especially to those he loved. Harper was likable and won everyone from the small town over in a matter of days. I will be reading the next book in this series and am looking forward to checking in on the residents of Benevolence.

Thank you netgalley for this opportunity! I'm NOT a typical reader of Lucy Score: so this is really a blind review
1) The spice. OH this is spicy. Borderline smutty. If that's not your thing: steer clear. It normally isn't mine, but I did find myself sticking with this.
2) I'm not entirely sure what this story was supposed to be, which is why I'm a solid 2.5/3 stars. I thought Harper and Luke's initial arrangement was a stretch for 'single bed' trope and I was on board when it seemed like just a silly take...but then it got very deep with some of the more traumatic storylines. Then the leads were forced apart by a deployment for a good 1/3 of the story, then the leads were forced apart by a typical romance subplot, then everything fixed itself...I think the whole thing was just a bit chaotic.
A VERY sexy, very smutty, very quick read. But just not a clear and logical story.

The story had my attention from the beginning. Watching Luke and Harper’s relationship unfold, was frustrating at times. Luke deserved a good slap to the back of the head. Does he figure it out? But his character is well-written; you feel his pain and how he is trying to move forward. Is fake dating ever the right solution?

I love the small town big, family series; bring on the next book.

Thank you to NetGalley and SOURCEBOOKS Bloom Books, Bloom Books for the advanced copy; this is my voluntary review.

This book was very different from Things We Never Got Over, but in a good way. We have 2 adults, acting like 2 adults for most of the book.
Luke has a lot of grief to deal with in this novel, and you will want to check up on the triggers because of that. I will leave them at the end of this review for those who don't want to know. I really loved the journey that he goes on in so many way. He has to learn to move on from his loss.
Harper has known nothing but loss, and it effects how she is able to handle the things Luke is going through. She blows into town like a tornado on one of the worst days of her life, and didn't expect Luke, and his matchmaking family.
I enjoyed the grand gesture of this one, and you can see the third act breakup coming. I'm excited to read the other books in this series.

I am a huge fan of Lucy Score and her books have been very popular at my library. Patrons have been putting her books on hold for weeks now. I'm excited to share this new book by Lucy Score with my patrons and will definitely be recommending it for purchase! I think this might be her best book yet and I loved it!

This book had everything I needed: Small town, meddling family (I love those), fake dating, grumpy/sunshine and over protective/brooding hero. It took me a while to really get into it and started off kind of slow for me. I loved Harper from the start though. I loved how strong and lively she was and how she’s a take no bullshit person. I had a harder time connecting with Luke. Yes I know that’s how his character is but it just took me longer to warm up to him. Once I hit the halfway point though.... I devoured it. It was so good and really go into the story. I loved seeing how even though the distance was there, the MCs really connected together. I loved seeing Harper’s growth and really settling down and making roots for herself but the best part was seeing Luke really click on how he’s been living his life vs how he should be living it. This story was a story of resilience, letting go of the past and making a life for yourself. I liked how characters brought each other up and meshed well together and would love to see more of the life of the other siblings eventually. This book had a medium slower pace in my opinion and the banter was good but not as good as TWNGO.

Pretend You’re Mine was so sweet and funny with the perfect mix of emotion and heart added. I was caught up in the lives of these delightful and complicated characters and couldn't wait for them to get their HEA.

I really liked Luke and Harper. I loved the whole pretend relationship scenario introduced and how that developed into something real. Harper was awesome. She was strong and determined and doing everything to make a good life for herself, she had a heart of gold. Luke was a bit grumpy but so protective and thoughtful and I enjoyed their banter. I liked learning their histories and thought they had good overall character development. There is a bit of drama as well as a lot of sweetness and a whole lot of heat.

The writing was really good and I felt pulled in the entire time. I loved the build of Luke and Harper’s relationship. I felt for Luke and all he was dealing with and loved the healing he went through. There were a lot of really fantastic scenes that tugged at my heartstrings. I loved Harper's strength and how she stood her ground and how caring and forgiving she was. There are some smaller stories mixed in with them that I really liked as well. I love the characters that Lucy Score writes, they're so genuine and real and I always want to hang out with them.

This was a wonderful story with great characters that went through a lot of ups and downs. They had an exceptional happily ever after that had me smiling and cheering. It was fun and entertaining with a good amount of humor, hotness, and a whole lot of love!

This is my second Lucy Score book and I am becoming a fan. Loved Luke and Harper. Their chemistry leapt off the pages, I was really invested into this story. My own selfish reasons I wish there was a little bit more drama with the Clive situation. That is really my only complaint. Excited to continue the Benevolence series,.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
🌶️🌶️🌶️

After driving a few hours in the wrong direction, Harper ends up in the small town of Benevolence. She gets herself in the middle of a fight, and is hauled out in the safety of Luke Garrison’s strong arms. There is an immediate pull between them, that can’t be denied.

They decide to help each other out - Luke gives Harper a place to stay, and a job, and she pretends to be his girlfriend to get his family off his back until his next deployment.

They both know it can’t be real, and can’t last - Luke is leaving with the National Guard in one month, and Harper needs to figure out her next steps in life. Of course, lines begin to blur, and they need to figure out what they want, and what they need.

There is so much more to this book than a simple fake dating story! I won’t go into detail because, spoilers, but I will say it had me so emotional. I loved seeing them fall in love, even if they didn’t want to. Their trauma, losses, and secrets pulled at my heartstrings.

Read if you enjoy:
⭐️ Military
⭐️ Fake dating
⭐️ Only one bed
⭐️ Forced proximity
⭐️ Workplace
⭐️ Protective mmc
⭐️ Found family
⭐️ Small town
⭐️ Emotional read
⭐️ Single POV/3rd person

*check trigger warnings if you have any.

Thank you to NetGalley & Sourcebooks Bloom Books for an advanced copy to review. All opinions are my own.

Such a wonderful romance. I love the whole fake relationship trope because it never works out. And by that I mean does not stay fake for long when two people have such incredible chemistry. Luke and Harper are great characters who I like very much and they sucked me right into their story, which is well-written with a nice flow to it. Had me going through all the emotions.

WOW! Where do I begin? This book sent me through all of the emotions. Hopeful highs and crushing lows. I stayed too late to read this book knowing that my heart would be crush, pieced back together then crushed again. Luke is a hardworking, military man who has lived a life of greatness tainted with heartache and Harper has lived a life of hatred and pain while begging for her days to brighter. When Harper breezes into Luke's town just looking for a place to land, she finds herself landing quickly into Luke's arms thanks to her survival skills. Luke doesn't know how to handle this new sudden shift to this life and Harper comes to terms with the end after being pushed away over and over. They quickly realize that things are not always as they seem.

So happy that Aldo and Gloria get their own book, Finally Mine.

Pretend You’re Mine was my first Lucy Score book, and now I know what all the hype was about! This wasn’t just a romance with a love story, there were so many hard and real things that happen and the characters were so well developed. When you meet Harper and Luke you are not sure what to think, but you quickly learn to love them and all of their nuances. This book was a journey, with the kind of love that I believed and think is the lasting kind.

If you love romances that have some big feels and will break your heart a bit, then this is a book you should read. It was one of the better books, not just romances, that I have read this year. When I hit the 50% point, I didn’t know how the story could have more to give, but it just kept on giving. This isn’t a surface level novel; it delves deep into all the backstory and hard things. I absolutely loved all the details that made this feel more like a saga than just a single book.

The only reason you may not like this book is if you are triggered by child abuse, death or deployment and war. There are some hard topics. It is not overly descriptive, but these topics do come up so I would check any trigger warnings before diving in.

Overall, I loved Pretend You’re Mine. I cannot wait to read other books by Lucy Score. She is such a talented author and I am so glad that I was selected to read an ARC of the rebrand of this novel.

This is my first book by this author.

Harper and Luke. Destiny, sort of, brings them together.

Harper - LOVE HER! She is strong and resiliant but still has a big heart and wants to be loved. Life repeatedly knocks her down, and she gets back up and charges at it again. She was so witty! And despite all her troubled past, wants to confront any issues like an adult and discuss and deal. I believe all she ever really wanted in life was family, and she found that in this small town.

Luke. Sweet, troubled Luke. We know from the start this romance will not be easy. But we also watch him fall totally and completely in love with Harper. Love him, but also at times hated him and what he put her through. One big solid for me was when he worked (while not even together with her) to help resolve a years old threat to Harper with by connecting with the right people and thinking it through, rather than charging in. His biggest issue was that he felt he was not worthy of her love.

I adored the town - it was a character all it's own. And the side characters were fabulous.
The way the people of this town rallied around Harper and made her one of their own warmed my heart.

Despite Luke being an asshat for a portion on the book, you will root for them. They are meant to be.

And I can't wait to read the next installment of this series.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Bloom Books for an ARC in exchange for my honest review!