When Harper finds her boyfriend cheating on her she gets in her car and takes off without her purse, wallet or any other belongings. Thinking she’s heading the right way, she runs out of gas in a small town [definitely NOT going the right way] and ends up becoming a sort of hero when she rescues a woman in the middle of a domestic dispute. This is when she meets Luke, a grumpy construction worker who also happens to be in the National Guard.

Harper ends up accepting a proposal from Luke to act like a fake girlfriend, work as an office manager at his office, and live with him for a month until he is deployed for his national guard duty. After that they agree that they will go their separate ways.

There is a lot about this book that I love. First off. Our main girl Harper is incredible. She has been through so much and yet she still has such kindness and positivity to her.

“What am I supposed to do, be all ‘woe is me’ for the rest of my life? I still get access to the same sunrises everyone else does, the same 24 hours in a day. And if I don’t take advantage of those things, it’s my own fault.”

“I can still be sad. But I don’t have to wallow or completely ignore the good that is still waiting for me. That’s careless and wasteful.”

Now for Luke. This broken and traumatized man really put Harper through the ringer at times. I went back and forth with my feelings for him - from being sympathetic and understanding of his situation and trauma to being straight up pissed off at how he handled things. Harper deserved better in my opinion, and even though he groveled well at the end, I still think he said a lot of things he should never have said.

Thank you to NetGalley for a copy of this book for an honest review.

this series is SO GOOD! omg wow wow wow I can't say enough good things. I love the characters and the spice is perfect. it still has a plot which I love and I can't get enough!

I loved this story! I laughed, cried and felt the emotions as I turned page after page. Luke and Harper really resonated with me.
That being said the story will take you through secrets, fear, hopes, and dreams. In the small town of Benevolence everyone is in your business but everyone seems to care. Luke and Harper had a fire from the start that just couldn't be extinguished. It's a rare connection that they fought. With nosy family and ian diot finally seeing the light they eventually get their HEA.

Wow! That's the only way to start this review. Lucy Score was an author I found late into my reading career as I like to call it, and she doesn't disappoint with this oldy that's a goody. The first book of Lucy's that I read was "Things We Never Get Over" and to say that book wrecked me for a while and I made it my whole personality is an understatement. But I digress, this book was excellent, and it makes me happy to be able to read it as part of the re-release of this book with Bloom Books Publishing. Anyway, this book was a rollercoaster of emotion first the fact that our male main character is in the military hit home for me being a spouse of someone who was in the military. He was the definition of a military man through and through. And the back story of his heartache and the trauma that he had that made him who is today was one of the many reasons I fell in love with Luke. Now for the hardheaded female main character, you will not find another female character I fell in love with faster than Harper for the fact of what she did within the first chapter for Gloria, and that stuck with me and made me love her, even more, the further we went along to find out her past and trauma. Now for the plot in general of this story, I liked the idea of faking dating but I do not truly believe this book was faking dating trope through and through for the fact that Luke and Harper always had the chemistry between them and they want each other from the beginning and that is different from what we normally see with this trope, but they made it work to where the idea of faking dating wasn't the whole plot of the book and I applaud Lucy for that. This book had me in a chokehold the whole time waiting for something tragic to happen and this isn't to say there were no traumatic parts because there were, it just wasn't to the level I built in my head, guess I love to make myself cry and expect everything to be traumatic, but there were moments were I was worried for these characters and if they would get through it or not and that's is what you should hope to achieve as an author, in my opinion. Now for the spice of this book, this was hotter than I was expecting but no "Den of Vipers" If you get what I mean, overall I would have to rate this a 2 chili-pepper out of 5. For an overall rating, I give this book a 4.5 out of 5 because as always you get a third-act break-up because of miscommunication and we all hate that, but the day authors stop doing that we would stop reading their books. Once again I want to thank Lucy Score, Bloom Books, and Net Galley for letting me review this book before its re-release with Bloom Books Publishing.

I fell in love with Lucy Score after reading Maggie Moves On last year. Her writing is so sharp and funny, and she can write a small town so well. Some of this felt outdated and you could tell she really hadn’t figured out her balance of spice and plot lines yet. Overall, I did love the small town and will come back for more

Holy crap. This book had it ALL and Lucy Score wasted no time diving right into it. Starting right out of the gate with an only-one-bed scenario. Main character, Harper, ran away with nothing but her car keys after being cheated on. She made it to the tiny town of Benevolence where she quickly became the town hero by breaking up a fight between Gloria and her abusive BF, Glenn (look for Gloria in 𝘍𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘔𝘪𝘯𝘦). That was when she met the gorgeous, tattooed Luke.

We were literally only 10% into the book at this point when a 𝘧𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘱 was proposed. Luke needed to impress his mother before she took matters into her own hands and found someone for him herself so Harper agreed to do the deed. They quickly fell for each other, adopted cute dogs and when Luke left for the National Guard he insisted that Harper stay and wait for him.

Their relationship was kind of fresh and there was so much Harper didn’t know about Luke - the biggest thing being that he was previously married to his high school sweetheart who died tragically in an accident while carrying his baby. This was a huge turning point in Harper and Luke’s relationship. Right at this point, Luke also discovered that Harper was previously abused by her foster father who was getting out of jail soon.

In typical Lucy Score fashion, Luke came to the rescue by proving Harper’s former foster father was plotting to kill her. He landed him right back in jail. Luke cared so intensely for Harper and couldn’t imagine a life that she didn’t exist in. The trauma that they both went through helped in making their bond so much stronger. They both knew loss in different ways and never wanted to experience it again. And, can we just take a minute to appreciate how cute it was that they adopted the foster kids from next door!?

The banter in this book was amazing and it easily became one of my favorite Lucy Score books. Pretend You’re Mine had it all from heartbreak and trauma to feel-good moments and HEA’s. I would recommend this book over and over and over again. Can’t wait to pick up the new cover in May!

I am a fan of Lucy Score. Overall, I really liked this book. It did run a bit long in parts for me. Lots of characters to introduce to you.
Harper arrives in Benevolence, MD without her purse or money. Her car is out of gas, and it stops in a bar parking lot. She gets out of the car and sees a man physically abusing a woman and attacks him. In comes Luke to the rescue. Luke is a Captain in the National Guard and owns his own construction business.
This is a love story between Luke & Harper with some steamy romance scenes.
Thank you to NetGalley for a copy of this book for an honest review.

3.5/5

I have mixed feelings about this! While I LOVED Harper, I really couldn't stand Luke.

I know that he's been through a lot of trauma with his military experience and the loss of his late wife, but I wanted him to make up his mind. Either fully fall of Harper or leave the relationship be! The whole back and forth and constantly pushing her away just to bring her back again was so unhealthy and toxic for Harper.

Harper truly deserves everything in my mind and I hated how he still pushed her away EVEN after having sex with her!

I personally wished her groveled more because there was no reason to treat Harper that way just to immediately ask for forgiveness.

I love Lucy Score and her work, but this was a miss for me.

Thank you Bloom, Netgalley, and Lucy Score for this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

I loved Lucy Score's "Maggie Moves On" and was really excited to get this one to review. Overall, I enjoyed it but it didn't impress me as much as "Maggie Moves On" did. It's definitely a spicy romance - I would recommend it for readers who like adventurous interludes between the characters, but avoid recommending it for those that like "sweet" romance books!

I did discover that it's a reprint of a previously published book under the same name (2015) and there were a few references in the book that dated it.

Harper is used to running. So when she grabs her keys to her car and takes off after walking in on her boyfriend cheating on her, and she forgets all her belongings, it's kind of par for the course. She's kind of also into bearing it all for the underdog too, so when she saves a girl from her obviously drunk boyfriend by taking a punch by him, its no surprise as well. The actual surprise comes from the surly grump who came to her defense, Luke Garrison. After Luke comes to her defense, it's natural that they develop a relationship from there, especially in the small town of Benevolence, Maryland.

This was just a fun romance story involving some of my favorite romance troupes. Throughout the story we learn that Luke has many demons that he is hiding, but Harper does as well. Their chemistry is undeniable. The sexier scenes were entertaining, the banter between Harper and Luke was fun as well. I felt the pacing was fun, but did feel at times the story got a bit long and had a lot of plot points. I enjoyed the small town feeling of the book, it was described in such a way that I felt like I grew up in Benevolence with all the characters. It was a super fun and sexy read, and I look forward to reading the second book in this series.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for an advanced copy of the rerelease of this book. The new cover is AMAZING! All opinions within this review are my own.

Absolutely loved this book. Lucy drew me in and I didn’t want back out. The characters and their story was everything I was hoping it would be and more. So much so that I immediately went to the next book and devoured it too. Read it!

Thank you NetGalley for a copy of this ebook. Unfortunately I could not get into this book and did not finish it.

Lucy Score books are always amazing, in my opinion. The only negative thing I have to say about them, they're a little too long. Though I didn't notice with this one. It flew by. The characters in this one were such a great combo. I don't normally go for military books, which is why I hadn't picked this up before, but this was great.

I think it's safe to say everyone knows that I love Lucy's writing and everything she puts into her books. She's one of those authors that I will read anything she publishes because at this point, I don't think she can write anything that I wouldn't love.

Harper and Luke. What started as a whole lotta chaos and bad luck for Harper (which is what she expects and feels she deserves) turned into a pretty lovely HEA at the end. Of course they had their ups and downs, but any couple will. I loved Harper and wished she would have thought better of herself but she was relatable and dealt with things that could happen to anyone.

Luke was okay. He said some awful things to Harper at times and I didn't like that. He sort of redeemed himself at the end, though. He's had his own fair share of heartbreak and loss so I tried keeping that in mind while reading this, although it doesn't excuse some of the stuff he did/said.

Overall, I would recommend this to everyone. It's a longer read, much like Lucy's other books, but very much worth it!

I am a fan of Lucy Score’s books, and this one was enjoyable as well. I really enjoy Score’s writing style, so I knew this book was going to be an enjoyable, fun read. The main characters and side characters were easy to get to know; everything about them was straightforward, which I really like. If you like Lucy Score’s books like By the Thread or the Knockemout series, you would enjoy this as well!

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for the opportunity.

Pretend You're Mine by Lucy Score is a romance novel with a National Guard Captain, Luke, and a woman, Harper, who arrives in Benevolence, Maryland, with no money, no gas, and nowhere to live.

She sees a man physically abusing a woman and attacks him. As a result of her brave action, the townspeople welcome her with open arms.

I found it difficult to remain engaged with the book because multiple scenes were unrealistic. There was a significant plot line that was alluded to for the first half of the book, but revealed in a manner that left me uncomfortable. (Any further description would involve major spoilers.) There are several explicit sexual interactions in the book.

While this is not great literature, it is entertaining and a good beach read.

This was such a delightful treat to read. I thoroughly enjoyed all the characters and I'm excited to know there are two more books in the series.

Harper is a spitfire and Luke is a brooding widow. Together they are fireworks and every holiday combined.

While this book followed some typical romance tropes it was still enjoyable. There were even a couple of dangerous moments to keep you on your toes.

I have problems with the endings in most books, they're too predictable and all that, but this book actually totally surprised me in the epilogue. I love that!!! It was the absolute perfect ending to the book and the start of Harper & Luke's life together.

I would definitely recommend this book!!

I didn’t vibe with this book at all. I felt neither of the main characters were sympathetic, and the book was way longer than it needed to be. This book obviously works for some people, but I’m not one of them. Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC. This is my honest review.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC!

I love Lucy Score, she’s great at drawing emotions out and establishing connections between her characters. I don’t love the instalove trope but I like Lucy’s writing so much that it didn’t bother me too much here. Overall it was a good read!

Harper met Luke when she was jumping on a hulk of a man beating a small woman. That guy knocked her out and Luke knocked him out. She was without resources at the moment and he gave her a place to live and a job. They got close and then he got deployed for 6 months. When he got back, he pretty much decided he couldnt have a relationship with her. He had his reasons, but he was wrong, of course, It took awhile, but he finally got his head out of his but and they had their HEA

I got this book from NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving a review