I really enjoyed this romance from Lucy Score. My first Score romance and it did not disappoint. It was a quick read that captivated my attention very quickly A story full of strength and perseverance. I loved both the male and female characters. I found their stories realistic and raw. This was a unique second chance romance (one of my favorite tropes). I think there was just enough spice to keep it interesting, however more like a slow burn in that aspect.

I will admit, I had a hard time finishing this book. But that isn't on the author, that is my own. I am happy to see that the character Gloria came through the other side of her abuse, but if you've ever wondered what it's like for someone who has experienced partner abuse? This explains it very very well. Otherwise, very good book.

Many people have said the storyline takes place at the same time as book 1 in the benevolence series and is in a 3rd person POV. So, there was a lot of overlap of the same story and the same dialogue. For me, this was the first time I read this series, so I didn't feel that. I feel that now knowing what the first one is about, I have a clear picture, and I didn't even read it.

Gloria is healing from 10 years in an abusive relationship when she has a second chance with a high school crush, Aldo. Aldo is about to deploy but tells her to be ready for a date when he returns. An injury changes his plans and his outlook on life, and we follow along to see if these two can heal together or if too much has happened for a happily ever after!

This book was very emotional and had lots of trigger warnings, but i enjoyed some parts of it.

Thank you, NetGalley

RATING: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
SPICE: 🔥🔥🔥
Aldo Moretta has pined for Gloria all of his life, but she was off-limits, married to an abusive man. Now that she has broken free from her toxic marriage, she is trying to enjoy her freedom and singledom.

Then Aldo comes along and ruins her plans for staying away from men for a long time. He promises her a date after his deployment, and then he comes home injured and broken. Now Gloria must lean on the steps she took to put herself together on Aldo.

This was a good read. I had to suspend the belief that Aldo was not the type to put a kibosh on Gloria's toxic relationship. Putting that aside lets Aldo and Gloria go through this journey of finding peace amid the chaos and adversities life threw their way.

I liked the chemistry between Aldo and Gloria. The flirting and the banter created a nice tension that has us yearning for their happily ever after. And the spicy pay-off? So worth it.

I have adored the Benevolence book universe, because the ensemble cast has so much charisma. Their personalities and quirks are so relatable that it makes you wish that it existed. Out of the three books in this series, this was probably my least favorite, but it is still a good read nonetheless.

** I am voluntarily reviewing an advance copy of this book. Thank you to Lucy Score, Bloom Books, and NetGalley for providing an ARC. **

Whew Lucy Score books are gooood! The characters go through intense things together and have pasts that they address. She is an engaging writer and I enjoyed reading this one!

Thank you NetGalley and Lucy Score!

Just like in Lucy Score's Knockemout series, Finally Mine has serious issues the hero and heroine go through. Gloria Parker endures years of abuse from her husband. Aldo Moretta is a town hero who is deployed in the National Guard but comes home with an injury. Both have to start their lives anew and somehow help each other through their trauma.

I love that they get a second chance at love after having a crush on each other in high school. It was a classic Lucy Sore, so if you like her books, you'll enjoy this one as well!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Just like in Lucy Score's Knockemout series, there are serious issues the hero and heroine go through. Gloria Parker endures years of abuse from her husband. Aldo Moretta is a town hero who is deployed in the National Guard but comes home with an injury. Both have to start their lives anew and somehow help each other through their trauma. It was hard to read about what Gloria goes through, but I'm glad she got justice. Aldo has a hero complex and is a bit prideful, but his injury humbles him. I love that they get a second chance at love after having a crush on each other in high school. I'd give this a 4*, but beware of triggers: military, disability/war injury, domestic violence/sexual assault.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Triggers: Domestic Abuse, Rape (mention)
🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊
📖Thank you, NetGalley, for this read in exchange for an honest review!
•What did I think of this book? (Mult. POV)
This book was fantastic! As all Lucy Score's books 💜💜 It was on the same timeline as the first book; Pretend You're Mine. This is for Gloria and Aldo 💙 she's just getting out of a toxic 10-year relationship. He's been waiting for his shot since high school, and now she's single. He's being deployed for 6 months and each has their demons and have to overcome them, and they work together to reach happiness. I would recommend this book!

Gave this one a go and I’m sad that I don’t think the authors writing is for me. However the story is cute and definitely one I recommend to others who may enjoy romance in 3rd person!

I really liked Arlo and Gloria in Pretend You’re Mine. I thought they made a cute couple and was excited to see their development from their own perspectives.

Both characters have had a traumatic experience and are healing from all they’ve experienced. I did appreciate how the author spent time exploring this and didn’t gloss over it. However, I really struggled to stick with the story. It’s the same information from the first book, and yes, it’s from a different POV and that changes things, it still felt like too much of the same thing. I think part of the reason was that it was really long. I truly don’t see the point of it being more than 300 pages.

While I did enjoy this book overall, I felt that it was just way too long and repetitive in regards to book one. I do want to read book three because Linc caught my eye when he first appeared in book one, but I’m also not holding out hope that it will be much better if it’s also extremely long.

Thank you NetGalley, Bloom Books and the author for an ARC of Finally Mine by Lucy Score for an honest review.

This was my first Lucy Score book. There are some tough scenes in this book that deal with domestic violence. I did feel that it was mostly discussed in the beginning of the book. From there it was more how Gloria was dealing with healing and moving on.

This book did drag for me and I found my self skimming through parts of it. It was very wordy and I think it could have been a great book even if it was a little shorter.

I had not previously read book one and I don't think you would need to. This was mainly the story of Gloria and Aldo but also went into friendships and relationships with other people in the town. The spice in the book came as a surprise to me! The first 80% of the book was not spicy at all so I was not expecting that at all.

1 loved this book so much. It had so much healing. I have been in a similar situation as Gloria, and to see the growth and healing that she did for herself when she had every right to be a victim. Ugh. It was so cathartic.
The romance was a bit of a slow burn, and definitely had me wanting WAAAAY more of that spice.
Aldo is such an charismatic character and I loved seeing all the different sides of him, other than just the show he puts on for everyone else.
Really enjoyed this one and highly suggest checking it out! She just got a new facelift and I'm loving the new covers for this series.
Thank you @netgalley for the ebook copy

ALDO FREAKEN MORETTA! That man is soo fine and I’ve officially inducted him into my book boyfriends hall of fame.

Lucy Score captured my heart once again and would not let go. This can be read as a standalone, but reads better as the companion novel to Pretend Your Mine (which I highly suggest). I’ve read a few of Lucy Score’s books now and Finally Mine is hands down my FAVORITE of them all.

The character development with Gloria and Aldo was beautiful and I laughed and cried with them over their journey separately and together. Both characters had demons to face and struggles of their own to deal with and watching them conquer those individually and come together was mind-blowing.

Lucy Score portrayed a heartbreaking but beautiful journey of survival after DV, and PTSD and living with the horrors that come with it and both their journeys had me FLOORED and my heart shattered to pieces. I cannot get enough of these two, these characters, this town and if I could I’d transport myself to Benevolence and live there.

I cannot recommend the Benevolence series enough, and I can’t wait to continue with this series with Linc’s story.

Read if you like: decade of pining, secret crushes, military war heros, epic girl gang, found family, small town romance, facing your demons, big grand gestures, HEAs

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 5
🔥 🔥 / 5

Lucy Score has quickly become an auto buy author for me, so I’m excited that Bloom Books is now rereleasing her back catalogue - so many great reads to enjoy!

In Finally Mine we head back to Benevolence so it was great to see characters we already know and love. Lucy is the queen of small town romance!!

I loved Aldo and Gloria in Pretend You’re Mine, so it was great to see them get their own story. I loved Gloria’s quiet strength and that we got to see more of the girl gang’s shenanigans. It can be incredibly hard to leave an abusive relationship and while it did seem like Gloria stayed with her ex for a long time, it seemed true to life. It can take years for someone in a domestic violence situation to leave - if ever!

Aldo is a great MC, but there were times I was yelling at my Kindle for him to get his head out of his butt. I was glad to see he finally came around!

Thank you to NetGalley, Lucy Score and Bloom Books for an advanced copy - this is my honest review.

*review has been submitted to Amazon.ca and is pending approval.

First I would like to thank SOURCEBOOKS Bloom Books for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I am a Lucy Score stan and I will tell anyone who asks! I was excited to see some of her older books being republished and took my chance at requesting a copy of Finally Mine and lucky for me I was approved.

This is the story of Gloria and Aldo, former high school classmates, who both experience life changing events separately and end up relying on each other in many ways to not only survive but thrive together. Please read the trigger warnings before reading in case you are sensitive to any of the topics covered.

What I Loved:
- Healing, there are a lot of characters who go through a trauma in this book and I appreciated how each of these people were working through their journey in different ways
- Mothers, both Gloria and Aldo have very strong mother figures and I just loved their versions of tough love and telling their kids how it is even when its hard/harsh
- Friends, Gloria builds up a great group of friends especially her girl group and they really reminded me of my “girls” and I kept looking forward to more interactions throughout the story
- Romance, it is a bit of a slow burn but in true Lucy Score fashion I was not disappointed in the spice within this story
- Series, this is the second book in the series but I did not feel like I was missing anything when reading but get the bonus that there are more to read!
- Epilogues, I’m a sucker for a good epilogue and this one had two with the second one having a good jump in time and I was smiling while reading both
- Ivan the Terrible, Gloria gets Aldo a kitten to help with his recovery and lets jus stay the name is apt for the type of kitten he appears to be 😹

Overall I really did love this book, I pretty much devoured it in about 3 days on my vacation and even chose to skip much needed naps to keep reading. The three other girls I was on the trip with were sick of me talking about this book and me carrying around my kindle everywhere but it was completely worth it. If you are a Lucy Score fan and want to read a romance with amazing characters, a cute town and lots of spice (eventually) then I would highly recommend this book to you.

Another beautiful story from Lucy Score…some parts of the story are hard to read but she handles them with grace and respect.

Gloria is done, she’s tired of living in fear and decides to make a change. She is scared, but so incredibly brave.

Aldo is a sweet, caring military man who’s had a longtime crush on Gloria. He’s watched her from afar but is ready to make his feelings known.

This is a slow burn between two people holding in a lot of emotion, stress, fear and trauma. They are just what one another needs but they both have true tissues. Their story will bring out all the emotions - sadness, hope and love.

This is a stand alone but connected to the characters in the first book (Pretend You’re Mine)- recommend reading it first.

I was very disappointed in this book, second in the series! What i did like was getting to hear Gloria's side of everything and watching her overcome her previous abusive relationship. What i did not like was that there were EXACT conversations from Pretend You're Mine. I can't believe I had to read the same exact pages again, very disappointed in that aspect. Overall, Glorias story was strong and needed to be told, could have had better fluff than exact conversations!!

Let me start by saying I LOVE Lucy score books. They are always interesting and pull me in from the start. She tends to make me laugh out loud while reading. I must say I did not fully click with this book. The way she let aldo kiss her so quickly and started to go towards him immediately was a little to quickly. I think it was shown how hurt she was after going through everything which made it confusing how she was so open to him. I will still continue reading her books, but don't think this one was for me.

I loved finally getting to see Aldo and Gloria's story from their POV's and it was worth the wait. They both deserve a do-over from the hands they've been dealt in life, and have a great support system in their friends and family.

If you've read the first book in the series, then Finally Mine is pretty much a retelling with a few added scenes. I only wish there would've been more to the story, as I felt like I was just getting a refresher, which says a lot with how bad my memory is, lol.

I absolutely LOVE that this Lucy Score series is getting a makeover and more love.
This is book 2 (of 3) and the new discrete covers are so perfect!!
Love LS!!