This was definitely a change up from my normal thriller I grab for. There were parts of this book that I enjoyed but found the first half slow going. The second half was a little more spicy. I am a sucker for a good happy ending and this one did not disappoint in that category. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!

"Finally Mine" by Lucy Score is a captivating romance novel that explores the themes of healing, self-discovery, and second chances. The story follows Gloria, a woman who escapes from an abusive relationship, as she rebuilds her life and finds love with Aldo, a hometown hero. The book sensitively addresses the topic of domestic violence and depicts Gloria's transformation from a broken individual to a strong, independent woman. The romance between Gloria and Aldo is heartwarming, and readers will be invested in their journey towards happiness. While some may find the pacing slow at times, the book delivers a satisfying romance that tugs at the heartstrings.

One commendable aspect of the book is the inclusion of therapy and the characters' willingness to seek help. It emphasizes the importance of mental health and showcases a responsible approach to addressing trauma. The author's ability to evoke a range of emotions from readers is also praiseworthy, as the book delves into heavy emotional territory and handles sensitive subjects with care. The raw emotions portrayed by the characters make their triumphs and moments of happiness all the more impactful. Although some readers may prefer a first-person perspective, the engaging storyline and well-crafted characters overshadow this minor preference.

"Finally Mine" can be enjoyed as a standalone novel, despite being part of a series, and offers enough backstory for new readers to immerse themselves in the story. The supporting cast of characters adds humor and warmth, enhancing the overall reading experience. Lucy Score's skillful storytelling and relatable characters make this book a delightful read, appealing to fans of small-town and military romances. Overall, "Finally Mine" is a touching and emotionally charged novel that beautifully portrays the journey towards healing and love after trauma.

4.5 stars

As Gloria is trying to move on after being in a horrible, long term relationship; hometown hero, Aldo Moretta walks back into her life.

Aldo has had feelings for Gloria since high school. Could this be his second chance with her?

Aldo was certainly a swoony hometown hero. He was so caring, thoughtful and an all-around great guy.

Along with the romance, we see Gloria finding herself again. It was wonderful to see her come into her own and rebuild her life.

As Aldo faced a life-altering event. It was nice to see his friends and Gloria help him through his challenges.

I really enjoyed this second chance romance. It has all the feels from happiness to sadness to laughter. Highly recommend for all the romance fans!

Gloria spent too much time being abused and now she's finally free. Aldo is a breath of fresh air and a good guy but he's deploying. And then he loses his leg, These two find purpose in healing one another and then things get,. well, you know. There aren't any surprises here but it's a good read. I suspect some will put this down because of the early pages detailing the assaults Gloria endured but give it a chance. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. A good read.

Aldo has crushed on Gloria from afar for over a decade. She's finally out of long term relationship with an abusive man. We met both characters in Pretend your Mine and it was interesting to read some of the same conversations from that book but from a different perspective. I read the books back to back and then back to the first again! During the book, Aldo also had something to overcome to feel he was worthy of Gloria's love. Good story.

This book is a sweet love story between Gloria and Aldo. It’s second chance romance with various spins throughout the book. Aldo is a wonderful male main character and Gloria has an excellent journey throughout this story. The book drags on a bit too long for my taste and a large portion of that is how much repeating material there is from the first book in the series. The ending and third-act breakup was such a letdown when I felt this book was much better than the first in the series. Overall, it felt a bit forced, but still managed to be a good romance. 3.75⭐️, 3🌶

3/5

I jumped into this book thinking it was 1. a new book by Lucy Score and 2 A standalone - it was neither LOL but I still enjoyed it but it was just okay! I'm wondering if I am still in a book slump but this was just okay and usually I eat military fiction books up but this one was okay.

I feel like I might have missed some stuff with not reading the first book so I might go back and read it because maybe I missed some context but the book was a little disjointed and weirdly paced. I also had trouble connecting to the characters.

Maybe my solution is to read the first book first?

And she scores with this testament to the human spirit. Lucy Score brings home small-town America in a picturesque manner and it’s completely irresistible. A true joy from start to finish. Arlo and Gloria stole my heart! And secondary characters who are such a valuable asset to this story with their friendship and support that cannot be overshadowed.

I did not read this. I accidentally send my review for the first book on this one and now I can't delete it...

Finally Mine by Lucy Score features one women broken from years of abuse, the man who has always wanted her, and a cast of side characters too hilarious not to love!

I loved how this book started as one woman's journey to reclaim herself and heal but became one of two journeys of healing and one of love and romance. I enjoyed going in blind and I recommend doing the same!

The only tiny thing that kept me from completely falling head over heels for this book was that it's in third person pov. It did not affect my review at all, just a note to mention in case that's not for you.

After reading Pretend Your Mine and loving it, I couldn't wait to start this book and get more of Aldo and Gloria's story. It was great to see how Gloria rebuilt her life after getting out of an abusive relationship and how she refused to let Aldo treat her poorly just because he was having a difficult time. I also really enjoyed getting a closer look at Aldo's recovery after the explosion and losing part of his leg. These two made a perfect couple and it was so much fun watching them care for each other and over come all the obstacles in their way.

I liked this one more than Pretend that you're mine, only because I LOVE ALDO AND GLORIA. While the beginning is VERY triggering, the rest is a dream. I adore their love story. I also adore them as people. They are relatable. They are open. They are loving. While they both have their own internal struggles that they aren't always good at communicating, their story is so heartwarming. They both deserve this story, even with the bumps and potholes and pain. They deserve to be happy and you can feel it come off the page. Absolutely worth it.

Disclaimer: I was given an advanced copy of this book in order to provide an unbiased review, which I'm volunteering now.

I have mixed feelings about Gloria and Aldo's story. What I loved was the friendship they developed. I love how Aldo wanted Gloria to be independent after being in a relationship for so many years. I love how good Gloria was with Aldo with his healing process as well. What I didn't like was how no one helped Gloria from her abusive relationship if everyone knew about it. It seems everyone watched on the sidelines and didn't offer Gloria help for the last 10 years.

I started to read this book after reading Pretend You’re Mine. Finally Mine is the story of Gloria and Aldo. I really liked both characters in the first book and I was rooting for them. However, after watching their story play out already, I could not read Finally Mine, even knowing that I would be privy to more of their relationship and POV. Some of the scenes were word for word from Pretend You’re Mine and that is just to similar for me. It is my opinion that Gloria and Aldo should not have ended up together in the first book so that we could watch it happen in the second book.
This was a DNF for me. I will definitely check out the third book in the series when it comes out.

Thanks to NetGalley and Bloom Books for this ARC! All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Life for Gloria hasn't been so easy the last few years, as she has found herself at the mercy of a man that doesn't know how to treat a woman properly. He has abused and manipulated her for so long that she doesn't really know how to live without him telling her how to do it, but she is determined to try now that she is out of his clutches. She is free to be the woman she has dreamed of always being, she can live her life on her own terms and not have to answer to anyone, and it feels so good.

She is ready to explore all that life has to offer her, chase her dreams... and she just might be willing to try love again when the time is right!

Finally Mine is a wonderfully penned story of resilience, personal growth, healing, finding love and taking chances. This one will put a squeeze on your heart, Gloria hasn't had the best luck with love, and so to see her finally get to experience the good side of it is quite uplifting. This poor girl has been through the ringer and is wary of any male attention, but Aldo shows her what love is supposed to be like, he shows her appreciation, care, and a tenderness she has never known. I loved watching these two fall for one another, their story came with many ups and downs, but they eventually get things right and when they do your heart will soar! Highly recommend this one, it's a can't miss romance!

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

I had been putting off diving into Finally Mine after feeling a little underwhelmed by Pretend You're Mine, but honestly Gloria and Aldo were some of the best things about Pretend You're Mine so I wanted to get some more time with them, and see them get to their happily ever after. Bonus: wounded hero storylines are some of my favorite of all time - so while I knew this series might not be Lucy Score at her best, I still went into this one feeling cautiously optimistic.

Unfortunately, it felt a little bit like reading Pretend You're Mine all over again, just from a different perspective. The characters didn't engage me the way I really wanted them to, and the storyline fell flat as I struggled to relive a storyline that really didn't deliver for me the first time around.

Ultimately this was a DNF for me. Lucy Score may be a bit hit or miss for me - and this one, unfortunately, was a miss.

I had a difficult time reading this book, so let's get into it. I am a huge fan of Lucy Score and no matter how thin or thick her books are, I always look forward to getting sucked into it. The reason why this was a difficult read was because even though it was really cute, all the feels were there, overcoming and repairing damages that they carried (beautiful message)- there was just repeated scenes from the first book to this one (can be read as a standalone), I was a bit confused at first because I thought I was reading book 1 and especially since it was around the same timeline, but when I caught on, I was feeling a bleh, so it kind of played a part of having a difficult time to read this to the finish. Overall, it still a good book, if you can get past having scenes repeated, I would suggested reading this because this story is about a military man (he loses his leg), a woman having courage to leave a very long term abusive relationship, they both have a hard time with love in some ways because of the demons they are fighting within them. It's beautiful and there's definitely a lesson in this story that, in my opinion, meaningful.

I tried reading this story, but it just felt so familiar after reading Pretend Your Mine. Gloria and Aldo's relationship was so important to that storyline that now reading their book I feel as if I already know how it goes, while there are more details the main story is the same. I love this town and world Score created and Pretend Your Mine is a wonderful book, I know if so much of Gloria and Aldo's characters were not featured in that book that I would have devoured this book too.

Gloria and Aldo are characters from the first book in the Benevolence series (Pretend Your Mine). I loved them in the first book but we didn't have all the details or back story for them and that's what this book is, Their backstory, filling in the blanks, their point of view on how things happened in the first book and then you get their happily ever after. There is a lot of repeating from Pretend Your Mine in this book but I think it was necessary to really understand their thoughts and feelings on everything and it was really well written.
I definitely recommend this series.

Thank you Lucy Score, SOURCEBOOKS Bloom Books, and Netgalley for this ARC

Thank you so much to NetGalley for the ARC. Lucy Score is my auto-read authors. I was so excited read this book as it had a different take on the second chance romance.

Overall the book was good. I struggled with the third person narrator but mid way through I got used to it.

I thought this book was a bit long. I understand that it’s an interconnected series but around the 85% mark I felt like I was forcing myself to finish as the main couple conflict had been resolved.

Overall a good read.