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!

I’m pretty late to the Lucy Score party and have been playing catch up on all of her popular romance novels. When I saw that Bloom Books was reissuing her Benevolence series with gorgeous new covers, I decided it was a good time to snag a copy of the first book in the series, Pretend You’re Mine. And boy did this story hook me — I read it cover to cover in one day!

Luke Garrison is beloved by everyone in the town of Benevolence. He’s a hometown hero whose life has been touched by tragedy. He has no interest in building a life with someone and thus fully devotes himself to his business and to serving his country through the National Guard. When Harper Wilde comes barreling into his life, he has no idea that his life will never be the same.

When we meet Harper, she has just caught her boyfriend in bed with another woman. Furious, she grabs her car keys, and nothing else, and just starts driving. She runs out of gas in Benevolence and while she’s trying to figure out what to do next, she witnesses a man assaulting a woman in the parking lot and without thinking, rushes over and actually jumps right on the man’s back. The man she went after has a reputation for being abusive, so Harper becomes a bit of a hero in the town herself for taking him on. Luke witnessed the incident in the parking lot and immediately made it his business to look after Harper, even reluctantly allowing her to stay at his place and temporarily work as his office manager once she confesses that she has nothing but a set of car keys to her name at the moment.

Pretend You’re Mine features so many of my favorite tropes. In addition to the small town romance, it also features forced proximity, only one bed, and even some fake dating. The fake dating aspect was probably my favorite because Harper agrees to go along with it to give Luke some peace from his well-meaning, but very meddlesome, family. Luke’s family is so sweet and loving, and I love how quickly they all fell in love with Harper and made her feel like she was part of the family. Since we learn early on that Harper’s life was also marred by tragedy that left her in the foster system, that made the Garrison family’s love for her all the more touching.

With its mix of sexy, steamy moments and full-on rom com antics, Pretend You’re Mine kept me thoroughly entertained, although I will admit that it also frustrated me at times. Luke was especially frustrating in that he was practically paralyzed from moving forward in his personal life because he felt like he was betraying the memory of someone else he cared about. He sent Harper so many mixed signals that at times, I just wanted to shake him. Even though I occasionally wanted to throttle Luke, I was still rooting for him to sort himself out and not lose Harper and I can’t wait to dive into the next book in the series and see what the folks of Benevolence get up to next.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks for the e-arc of this book for my honest review. This was such a great romance, it was a fresh change from my usual thriller reads. This was my first Lucy Score book but will not be my last. The characters were well developed. It was both sad and heartwarming, just a bit long for my liking. Knocked off a star for that. 4 Stars

***
May 2023 Reread: it is hard to believe it's been 6 years since I first read Pretend You're Mine. Thank you to Bloom Books and NetGalley for providing a copy that made me want to pick it up again. This book was just as wonderful as I remembered. Lucy created such interesting characters in Harper and Luke. They each had their flaws and heartaches to work through, but from the moment they met there was a connection. Despite knowing what would happen, I felt just as emotional at certain moments as I did the first time.

I still felt rhe town and secondary characters added so much to the story. I am so glad she wrote more books set in Benevolence. It was such a great experience rereading this book, and I definitely want to pick up the rest of the series again.

***

This was my first Lucy Score book, and I enjoyed it so much that I immediately bought her others.

Harper meets Luke in the small town of Benevolence after having a terrible day. They agree to a pretend relationship that is only set to last until his next deployment.

I have read a few other books recently about fake relationships that develop into more, but I was pleasantly surprised that this seemed to be just the jumping off point for their story. As Harper and Luke get to know each other there are a number of other things that come into play.

They both have struggles that they are grappling with. The way that they grew both individually and together was done in a believable way. There were no instant fixes and both made mistakes along the way. Their development felt true to life, even at times their actions were frustrating.

One of my favorite parts of the book was all the secondary characters that made up the town of Benevolence. They added a lot of humor and love to the story. I really appreciated that they were fleshed out and not just one-dimensional.

I am looking forward to reading more from Lucy Score and plan on starting the Blue Moon series soon!

Small town romance 💘

Many thanks as always to Bloom books and Net Gallery for the ARC.
Lucy Score does it again ~
If you’re looking for a stand alone book (potential to continue) with favorite tropes (small town, fake dating, one bed, possession/touch her you 💀 vibes, spicy 🌶️…), and also want to cry your little heart out, this book is for you!

Harper left town after walking in on her boyfriend in the act with another women. Taking just her keys, she left and didn’t look back. Her & Luke crossed paths as Harper stood up for a women named Gloria who was being abused by her boyfriend. Harper with no place to go is offered a spot at Luke’s place. As the two of them fake a relationship to please Luke’s family, you get to understand why Harper is willing to defend her family & why Luke is so guarded.
Lucy does a great job making you feel as if you are there, and you have known these characters forever. There is great development with even the supporting characters, that will tug at your heartstrings. If you’re wanting a read that will make you blush & also cry the next moment, this is for you!

This may be my favorite Lucy Score book yet! I loved the characters. They were relateable and drew me into the storyline. This book definitely had me in tears both from laughing and crying. The story had a lot going on but not in a bad way. It flowed well and had me wondering what was going to happen next. I can't wait to read the next book in the series. This book was enjoyable through and through. 4½ Stars

This is the first I have read of this author even though my daughter has been telling me for quite a while I needed to pick up one. Now I have read this entire series and I am hooked. This one is the first in the series and is about Luke and Harper. Harper runs out of gas and glides into the parking lot of the bar in Benevolence. Before she can go inside to find a phone she comes to the rescue of a woman being battered and when she is knocked out she comes to looking into the eyes of Luke. He has a possessive streak that will not stop and when he steps up and gives her a place to stay the night, it turns into longer. Soon he has a proposition for her. He needs a girlfriend to keep his mom from constantly fixing him up, at least until he deploys again. What starts as a fake relationship turns into more, until Luke cannot cross into what he really feels. Will these two finally realize what they have before it is too late?

Actual rating: 3.5 STARS
I really enjoyed this book! I think Luke and Harper were great characters and the drama pieces were amazing! There were definitely parts where I wanted to punch Luke and wrap Harper in a hug because how dare he hurt that sweet angel.
One thing I loved was how quick we got some drama/action (within the first chapter). Right off the bat we find out just how strong Harper is and I thought that was great. I also loved the last few chapters. We love a protective MMC.

I did feel at times like this book was slightly longer than necessary. There were parts where I felt like it was extra filler material that didn't need to be there.

Overall, I enjoyed reading this book and will continue reading Lucy Score books! While this wasn't my favorite Lucy Score book, I'd still definitely recommend it to other romance and Lucy Score fans!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.