Lucy Score is an automatic buy for me! This one was pretty good! I could take or leave it honestly. I loved other ones of hers much more than this one. If you enjoy her books I would still give it a go!

This was a wonderful book showcasing how love can overcome an extremely dark past. Gloria was abused by her boyfriend for 10 years and finally broke it off. Of course, she suffers from the mental consequences of not just the abuse but the feeling of weakness that comes from staying within an abusive relationship for so long. This is particularly what is done well- Gloria grows within the story and shows that even a dark past can be overridden with love and hope.

Aldo also has his cross to bear. A wonderful person, he is a soldier and comes back from his deployment missing a leg. Used to being the strongest, fastest, etc, this damages his psyche. How can he overcome that so that he and Gloria have a shot at happiness?

While this is book 2 in the series, it can be read as standalone. A good proportion of the book is actually repetitive with the first book in the series- it's just that you start to see the interaction from another perspective. At first it was jarring but then I liked the reminder since I enjoyed book 1 too. I loved the different supporting characters (including the characters from the first book as well as a closer look at Mrs Moretta who is hilarious!)

Just a note that this is a rerelease so the book was available with a different cover.

* I received an ecopy of this book from NetGalley. Thank you NetGalley and Bloom Books for this book. All thoughts are my own.

Look I really liked Aldo and Gloria together in Pretend You’re Mine, and I still do here, but this book felt unnecessary. About a third of this book is just Pretend You’re Mine but from a different POV. It’s also pretty choppy and rushed. I felt like we actually barely got Aldo and Gloria and when we did their relationship was not super developed. Also the ending was almost exactly the same ending as Pretend You’re Mine (get back together and immediately get engaged).

You’re better off reading either Pretend You’re Mine or Finally Mine but not both.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and Lucy Score for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
I really enjoyed this story, this is the first book I’ve read by Lucy and I will definitely be looking for more.
I thought the storyline was interesting and didn’t drag on like some stories do.
I especially enjoyed the bonus epilogue at the end

Tougher read. Hate that no one helped Gloria especially the man who says he has loved her for years. Rough to get through this book.
Happy Gloria gets her happily ever after and that Aldo is there for her

This story grabs you from the beginning, even though as a book 2 in the series you know the basic outline of what is going to happen as you read. It follows the same timeline as Pretend your mine, so events overlap, seeing them from Gloria and Aldo's perspective. This book also has heart wrenching range if emotion. Their chemistry is obvious. I love reading about characters that get each other. Lucy has a wonderful way of writing believable characters and story lines. My biggest problem with the book is if that town is in each other's business as much as she writes, someone should have gotten Gloria help sooner.

Thank you Netgalley for this advanced copy in exchange for a review.
I requested this book because of the cover but I stayed for the plot! I absolutely loved this book and can’t wait to read more by this author!

Lucy Score once again delivers with Finally Mine. The love that I was able to build for Aldo over the course of this book is impeccable. I truly enjoyed the character development throughout this book was incredible. I loved being able to see real insecurities that the characters struggled with that are relatable to more people. I would definitely recommend this book.

This a fluff story totally lacking the raw depth in the characters that her other books have. The characters do not act in a believable manner given their circumstances. Also didn’t love the duplicate scenes from the other book. It makes it feel like they are side characters in their own story. Having read her newer books, I know she can do so much better, but if this book had been my first I don’t think I would have kept reading her other works.

I really enjoyed this. Gloria, the heroine, became such a strong woman and we got to watch her grow throughout the book. It was a little bit of an unorthodox relationship between Gloria and Aldo because it seemed to move so quickly but that does happen in real life! It has some heavy things in it like abuse and losing a limb but it is overshadowed by the love story which is good. Thank you netgalley for the ARC.

I loved Aldo so much. He’s been in Afghanistan with his best friend Luke but he came back hurt and lost his leg.
He’s been in love with Gloria since forever but she were with her hight school sweetheart who were beating her.
This is their chance of been together, but Aldo is scarred. He’s not the same man he used to be.
This is a heartbroken story and I loved it ! The only thing that bothered me was that we already knew the whole story with the first book, and there was a lot of repetition.

Solid but i was very bored through most of this story. I didn’t feel the chemistry between Aldo and Gloria at all. The constant pushing away felt overdone. But it was still fine if you want to finish the series!

This was another Lucy Score book I’d read years ago in its original form, and I was excited to have a reason to reread it. I still love it. I loved reading about Gloria and Aldo overcoming their trauma and finding love and happiness together. It is not without bumps in the road and insecurities creating challenges, but it is real. Given the events they’re both healing from, it would be unrealistic if everything between them came easy, even if they both deserve a lifetime of easy. My biggest and only major complaint about this book is that it exists in the same timeline as Pretend You’re Mine. While we get different perspectives of scenes included in that book, it gets repetitive (especially having just read it) and I would’ve rather those pages been used for entirely fresh scenes for Gloria and Aldo. A few of the moments were truly needed to tell their story, but most of them felt like filler. Regardless of that, I still love Lucy and the town of Benevolence.

I liked Finally Mine a lot more than I liked Pretending Your Mine, Aldo and Gloria seemed slightly less toxic than Harper and Luke. I mentioned in my review of the first book that I am not the biggest fan of romance books that include military stuff (I’m a military spouse) but this one wasn’t as cringe-worthy as the first one.

Aldo goes through a traumatic, life altering event when on a 6 month deployment and is sent home early because of it. He has to come to terms with the reality of how different life is going from two legs to one, and the traumatic impact of not only that but going through the event that took place to get him there

Gloria also has a lot of trauma, this story starts with her being saved from her abusive boyfriend who has spent the past 10 years since high school gaslighting, manipulating and abusing her. She has to learn to live with her new reality and re-discover herself after her abusive relationship. She discovers the difficulty of living life without someone telling you what you can and cannot do, she experiences real love, she rekindles her relationship with her mother and gains friendship. All while she’s watching over her shoulder waiting for her abusive ex to force himself back into her life.

It’s very clear that Aldo and Gloria trauma bonded from the beginning, and also very clear that Aldo knew about her abuse for a long time and stood on the sidelines instead of helping. Was it his fault? Of course not. Could he have stepped in if he really cared about Gloria and prevented her from enduring years of abuse? Yes. Again, not his fault. But I hate that he turned a blind eye to what was happening.

Overall, I liked Aldo and Gloria’s story. It made me happy to see them sort through their trauma and find a love for each other. Lots of mistakes were made and things could have been easily avoided if they just had just had a conversation with each other.

Also if you read the first book, this is told at the same time that the plot of Pretending Your Mine, but in a different POV. So you get spoilers for each book in each other.

Read this if you enjoy:
- military romance
- traumatic storyline
- childhood friends to lovers
- FMC finding herself

Please look up trigger warnings for this one, the domestic violence is detailed. Thank you to NetGalley, SOURCEBOOKS Bloom Books and Lucy Score for the eArc of Finally Mine in exchange for an honest review.

I wanted to love this like I did Pretend Your Mine. Finally Mine, to me, felt like a retelling of Pretend Your Mine. I wanted more of Gloria and Aldo from where they left off in book one. Then epilogue was new, but everything else was a repeat.
Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

Ebook received for free through NetGalley

I read this book back to back with the previous so there was some duplicitous stuff in it. That said I loved the characters and wanted to know the story hidden between the lines in the first book. Love it but can see spacing it a bit more.

Finally Mine is the second book in Lucy Score’s Benevolence series. It overlaps the timeline of the first, providing an alternative look at small town life. I’m not always a huge fan of series that do this, because sometimes not enough is “new.” However, Lucy Score manages to pull it off. This book had enough familiar characters, while introducing a few ones. Since the overlapping is not as noticeable as it is with other series, and has new main characters, it feels like a whole new story (as it should). The middle was a little slow for me, but I definitely just started book 3!

Special thanks to Net Galley and Sourcebooks/ Bloom Book for providing an advanced reviewer copy to me in exchange for my honest review and opinion!

The physical and verbal abuse that Gloria suffered in her relationship I felt was well written as well as her journey to self-healing. Yes she suffered in an abusive relationship for years but Gloria always choose to go back, she had a choice and went back every time. When you think you love someone it is easy to be blinded by the sweet words they say in order to keep you by their side. Aldo’s crush on Gloria was very heartbreaking after learning his role in her previous abusive relationship. He is very considerate of her healing.

This follows the same time line as Pretend You’re Mine but from Aldo and Gloria’s POV.
I absolutely loved watching Gloria grow in character from leaving her abusive boyfriend to learning to stand on her own and make her self happy on her own. I thought this book moved faster than Pretend You’re Mine and the connection between Aldo and Gloria even with them spending a good part of the book apart grew and felt very natural.
The other awesome part of the book was both had awesome parents as a support system and Harper to save the day. It was fun to see her through the book again. I would recommend it as long as the trauma spoken about in the book isn’t a problem to read for the reader.

Domestic/ spouse abuse
PTSD/ overcoming a Huge traumatic event

Finally mine is book two of the Benevolence series of interconnected standalones. I fell in love with Gloria and Aldo in Pretend Your Mine and I’m so happy they got their own book! Gloria is one of my top FMCs and how strong she is. Her personal growth throughout this story was amazing to read. And Aldo is swoon worthy! Even though he is strong, he showed his vulnerability. He is sweet, sexy, and is exactly what Gloria needs to help her learn who she is after everything she’s been through. Yes, these two have their ups and downs but what couple doesn’t. This story deals with some tough subjects (check trigger warnings) and is beautifully written. I love that we got more of Luke and Harper and the rest of the characters from the first book. Even though this was an emotional read, it left me with a happy heart and a smile on my face!