Pretend You're Mine (Benevolence, #1) (2025)

By the end of this book, I felt disgusted, pissed off, used, & thoroughly abused. This book cemented itself in my top 10 list of most hated books. If you don't want spoilers, stop after the preview.

Preview:

• Male Mc you will hate.
• Female Mc you will not have an ounce of respect or empathy toward.
• Fluff that takes up 50%.
• A romance that's impossible to root for because the MC spends 90% obsessively, adamantly in love with another woman that the female MC doesn't have a chance in hell at fighting against for his whole heart.

MC's

Meet Harper...

She's that girl that leaps headlong into shit, but that's cute, honest, endearing, and witty enough that you'll initially overlook her obvious TSTL mentality.

So, you meet her as she's run off with no money, no cell, & no gas headed to possibly sleep on a friend's couch and re-sort her f'd up life. Stupid? Yes!

She runs out of gas in a bar parking lot, where she sees a girl being mistreated by a brawny mfer. Our girl here runs and jumps the dude and ends up getting her ass kicked. Stupid? Yes!

As Luke points out, it's a wonder the

Meet Luke...

He's the hero of the moment ^. The all-American military virile male complete with abs and tats. Of course, he is detached and scorned from romance for reasons to be determined MUCH later, but that are so blatantly obvious; standoffish personality vs ready-injectable hero; & has a perfectly nuclear family that loves him too much and is overly concerned with finding him a girl.

From there you have:

Her....

To his...

As the story progresses...

Luke transitions from your typical grieving, scorned male that refuses to emotionally feel anything for a woman, but that readers sympathetically root for to get his head out of his ass ~ to ~an absolute, and I do mean AbsoFUCKINGlutely , asshole who you'll just wish would lock himself in his room and be left to cry the rest of the book in solitude.

He will go down as one of the most infuriating, selfish, cowardly, asinine, idiotic, woe is me mfing characters I've ever read.

I hated him. I'm not talking love to hate him. No, I'm talking absolutely want to nutpunch him and stomp his dickbits.

Sure he is honest with her; he flat out tells her he will never love her.

But, he asks her to stay even though he will never love her. He allows and even encourages her to carve a place in his life as a live-in girlfriend and does things that are contradictory to his declaration that he will never love her.

He says the most hurtful, cringeworthy things to Harper over and over. He says he wants to push her away for her own good, but then pulls her back to use her for his own carnal desires. He is a self-absorbed coward. He physically hurts her during sex, acknowledges this, and even asks her why she keeps letting her use her.

And, this brings us to her part in this fucked up relationship. No way can I even feel bad for her plight. She allows, welcomes, and excuses all the above. She apologizes constantly for basically being a human vs an emotionally devoid robot. She pours her heart and soul into him, his being okay, his sanity, his happiness, his comfort, his pleasure, his pain, etc all while he constantly discards her and her feelings like yesterday's trash.

She is desperate. She's an emotional outhouse for him. And, it's sickening to see it unfold.

Storyline

^Clearly^

Even if you're a reader that can excuse his behavior to his pain and love for his dead wife, <<<?that in itself should moot the current romance you're f'ing reading here between Luke and Harper. The obsessive level of his visceral feelings for his dead wife and the fact that readers must read them AND him saying he will NEVER love anyone but his dead wife over and over for 90% of the book LEAVE NO MFING ROOM FOR HARPER IN THIS BOOK.

Her being okay with being underneath some dead woman on a pedestal of fucking perfection in his heart left me feeling disgusted. Not an ounce of romance in this for me, unless you count the romance between the mc and his dead wife.

My reaction to him deciding that he can love both his dead wife and Harper in the last 5% of the book~

Could This Shit Be Stretched Any Further?

It's not bad enough that the main storyline itself is what it is. No, hell no! The author has to swamp this book with a separation deployment that lasts at least 25% of the book.

The secondary romances between countless other characters, so many mundane day-to-day bullshit scenes that I could make a Pinterest board on it, the weird dead wife mama shit, a lame knife attack, and even more lame drama plot of revenge by an ex-foster dad... It just goes on and on and on.

Conclusion

Characters: Sweet
Plot: Sweet
Angst: Bitc@y former MIL who eventually turns out to be-you guessed it- sweet
Smex scenes: HOT
Overall: Delicious

Lucy Score seems to have forgotten how not to write beautiful, heart-rending stories. Too many feels, Score, just too much. Dial it down next time cos nobody likes a perfectionist! Gaaahhh.

3.5 Stars

Overall Opinion: This was a good small town romance. I really liked our h. She is probably one of the strongest and likeable h I've read in a while. I did struggle with her accepting less than the best at times because she was so accustomed to getting the short end of the stick, but I still really liked her. I think the main reason for my lower rating was that I felt like I needed a little more from the H at the end to make up for some of the stupid things he did towards the end. I wasn't so easily forgiving as our saintly h was, and I never felt like he fully redeemed himself. Maybe I needed more time with the couple together and happy after all the drama before it just cut off into the time jump epilogue. It was on the longer side, so I think that sort of thing could've been added and some other irrelevant parts could've been removed IMO

Storyline: This is Harper and Luke's story. Harper finds her live-in boyfriend/boss sleeping with another woman, and she gets in her car without her purse (so no phone with gps or money on her). She heads in the direction (she thinks) is towards the town her old college roommate lives, but then runs out of gas. She ends up in the parking lot at a bar in a small town which is a long way from where she was heading. After some drama goes down in the parking lot, she becomes a new town hero of sorts. She makes some new friends that offer to help her. She ends up accepting an odd proposal to act like a fake girlfriend, work as an office manager at his office, and live with Luke for a month until he is deployed for his national guard duty where they will then go their separate ways. Of course things don't run as smoothly as planned, and they end up developing feelings and act out on their strong attraction for each other. To avoid ruining it - I'll just say that there is some strong feelings developed, some strong friendships made, some big secrets being revealed, and two separations (1 valid and one drama filled)...but the couple get back together and find their HEA.

POV: This alternated between focusing on Harper and Luke in third person narrative.

Overall Pace of Story: Ok. This was a relatively long story that I think some things could've been edited out, but it was still an easy read and I didn't end up skimming at any point. I don't think I would call this instalove. There was instalust and some strong feelings from Harper developed pretty quickly, but not instalove.

H rating:3 stars. Luke. I liked him, but he had some past demons that he really needed to work on getting rid of so he could finally allow himself to feel for Harper the way he should. I couldn't get past the things he said to Harper when they separated towards the end. He was flat out mean, and I know that he made a grand gesture to get her to forgive him -- but it still wasn't enough for me.

h rating: 5 stars. Harper. She should be given Saint status. She didn't know anyone that wasn't a friend (even grump Frank), she had a positive outlook no matter what bad things were thrown her way, and she loved Luke fiercely.

Sadness level: Moderate. I did have to get out my tissues for this one. I especially had a hard time with their separation towards the end

Heat level: Moderate, the couple have some great chemistry when they heating things up.

Descriptive sex: Yes.

Sex scene with OW or OM: No

Cheating: No

Possible Triggers: Mentions of domestic abuse and child physical abuse, and there are some violent scenes (that I didn't think we're too bad)

Closure: This had good closure with a HEA. I would've liked a little more time with the couple together before the epilogue and time jump, but i still felt as though I got sufficient closure.

Worth the $?: At the $0.99 on Amazon, I'd say yes...but it's part of my kindle unlimited, so definitely!

4.25 stars ⭐️

edit: reread + buddy read with mira. luke may be an idiot, but he's our idiot

chapter 45 is my 13th reason why 🥲

i feel like there's no reason for me to have liked this book as much as i did when i can't stand Ugly Love by CoHo and they have similar plots. fair warning, this review isn't really that funny, in fact it's sad af so beware

luke (H) and harper (h) meet by very crazy circumstances. harper leaves with only the clothes on her back after she discovers her boyfriend cheating on her. phone-less, wallet-less and thinking she's drinking in the direction of her friend, she runs out of gas in a small town called benevolence. in a parking lot of a bar, harper finds a woman being attacked by her boyfriend. when she intervenes and saves the woman, she ends up being knocked out.

when she comes to, she sees luke standing over her. luke is a captain in the Army National Guard and 4 weeks away from being deployed over seas. luke quickly realizes that harper is in a bit of a predicament and offers to let her sleep the night at his house till she figures out what she needs to do. also, what better way to get his family off his back before deployment than letting them think harper is his girlfriend. this is essentially the start of a beautiful, a very painful romance that spans across the world.

🫶🏻 major spoilers below!🫶🏻

Luke Garrison

god, luke fucking garrison. both the biggest idiot, but possibly the love of my life? luke's story is heartbreaking, to say the least. by the beginning of the book he's served 3 tours overseas and coming up on his 4th. when he meets harper, he is no where near ready for a relationship. luke lost his pregnant wife only a few years before the story begins. she tragically passes away in a car accident while on her way to welcome luke home after his deployment.

for years, luke feels responsible for her death and vows to never love another woman again. harper makes him FEEL. she makes him feels things that he hates and attempts to push her away for nearly the whole book. when harper and luke enter a "no strings attached, friends-with-benefits" relationship, luke makes it perfectly clear that he cannot be with her. harper accepts that, but things...of course get complicated.

harper reveals something very personal to luke, which i'll get to, but when she realizes he's hiding things from her...she doesn't take it very lightly. she gets pissed at him for not opening up, to which he says—

❝...I don’t open up and talk about my feelings or what I’m thinking. And even if I did, I’m leaving. For six months. There isn’t going to be an ‘us’ when I come back. And I’m starting to think that maybe there shouldn’t be an us now.❞

harper and luke break up, but they get back together...for only a few chapters because they "break up" again because he's going on deployment. well, while harper is driving home...luke texts her on his way to the airport and asks her-

❛Stay...I want to come home to you. Stay.❜

keep in mind, harper has already told luke she loves him...and luke has already made it clear that he can never love her. harper, at this point, has no idea about what luke has lost so she accepts. harper doesn't realize that he can't love her because...harper's not

i can't even imagine what it's like to be loved by someone so deeply, that they feel like they can never love again. i understand harper loves luke...but you should NEVER choose to stay with someone that feels like you're not worth loving. that you're not the woman he really wants. does luke love harper at this point and that's why he asked her to wait for him? honestly...i don't think so. maybe he cares for her, but his stupid head won't let him do anymore.

Harper Wilde

harper is without a doubt one of the strongest female characters i've read. at certain points, i wondered how TF she could stay with luke knowing he didn't feel the same way. for some fucked up reason, i think that makes her even stronger. she's willing to live a life of unrequited love, as long as she's with him.

don't think harper hasn't overcome her own adversities either. harper lost both her parents in a car accident when she was little and was placed in foster care. in foster care, she lived with an alcoholic who neglected and physically abused her and his other foster children. luckily, she was able to get out of that home and the man went to prison.

luke finally returns from his deployment, but only to find that harper found out about his wife and unborn child AND she's now close friends with his former mother-in-law. luke becomes increasingly angry at harper because he feels like she's "taken over his life"

which...you've been gone for SIX WHOLE MONTHS. you two knew each other for one month before the deployment. this means she's actually known your family for longer than she's known you! she's lived in your house and made it a home. OF COURSE SHE'S "TAKING OVER". it's her home too! well, luke doesn't give a shit...

he says the most hurtful shit to harper like—

❝I can't love you. I can't love anyone again. But I want you.❞

❝Here's a hint. When it's my family and my house or my business, it's my decision.❞

and in his head he thinks shit like this—

❛Harper wasn't Karen. And that was the problem.❜

EXCUSE ME WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY??? SO BECAUSE YOU WANT HARPER YOU CAN JUST STRING HER ALONG AND USE HER (your words!!!!)??? yanno what luke...go away

he proceeds to feel like he keeps losing control and flat-out tells harper he doesn't love her. the also tells harper—

❝You're only here because she's gone.❞

❝I can't look at you without wishing she was here.❞

i don't even have the right words to express how much pain i felt in this moment. my heart ached for harper.

at this point, luke kicks her out of his house and breaks up with her. harper finally accepts that she can't do anything to change his mind and just...shuts down. luke proceeds to think he has the audacity to know where she is and even asks her to "share custody" of their 2 dogs...NUH UH UH THAT'S NOT HOW THIS WORKS BABY.

you don't get to break up with her and act like you're still dating and have any say in anything she does.

long LONG story short, luke realizes how much of an idiot he is and that he’s in love with harper. and gosh...what he says is 😭🥺❤️

❝I’m sorry for pushing you away. I’m sorry for hurting you on purpose. I was scared. Down to the bones. I felt things for you that I never thought would be possible to feel again and some things were completely new. I thought that by loving you, I was being unfaithful to Karen...But it was so easy to love you. I don’t even remember ever not loving you...You’re the light that got me through the dark, and I’m not willing to go back to a life without you.❞

WHO TF IS CUTING ONIONS?!!!! THIS ISN'T RIGHT 😭

my thoughts

while rereading this review, i realized it kinda sounds like i hated it 💀 it's one of those books that "hurts so good". when i tell you i didn’t stop crying at any point i’m 100% serious. i love when works of fiction perfectly match my inner emotions 💞

luke really was a piece of work, but he was also caring, kind and saved harper life by making sure her abusive foster dad didn't get out of prison. luke is the type of hero that loves unconditionally, but needed a little help realizing that it was okay to love 2 women.

that was his biggest issue...realizing that most of us love more than one person in our lives, whether it's our parents (or one), siblings, cousins or friends. harper had the patience of a saint. at countless points, i was screaming at my phone "GIRL LEAVE HIM. HE NEEDS TO SUFFER SOME!" and the darn girl just wouldn’t listen

in the end, i really adored this book, especially luke's best friend aldo HEHEHEHEHEH he was such a sweetie 🥺🤭

original rating: 4 stars
updated rating: 4.25 stars

4.5 Cocktails

PRETEND YOU'RE MINE was one of those books that took me completely by surprise. I picked it up as part of the Kindle Unlimited trial, intrigued by the blurb. What I got was a engaging, funny and emotional read with characters I just couldn't step away from. Harper was one of those heroine's you wish was your best friend. She was so down to earth and lovable, even when you were completely jealous of who she got to go to bed with every night. Then there was Luke. A military man drenched in guilt, sorrow and hotness. Like Harper, it was easy to fall for the man and to want to be the one that fixes him.

A truly delightful read. I'll be looking for more from Lucy Stone.

I don't normally enjoy books about heroines who are second-best. And for a moment there, I thought this book wouldn't be like that. I liked how their relationship developed and started to turn into something more. Books where the hero is a widower (and the relationship with his late wife was a really good one!) are often hard for me to like, because 9 times out of 10, the hero often throws that relationship in the heroine's face constantly and it makes it hard to like him. But this seemed a bit different. It was obvious he had lost someone close to him and there was the usual confusion to what he should or shouldn't be doing. But he wasn't mean or malicious about it...at first.

I would say the first 60% or so of this story was fun. Harper is a funny, happy, take-it-as-it-comes kind of chick and I really liked her. She hadn't had the best life but she was all for living to be happy. Luke is the serious, brooding hero who is struggling to overcome his grief of losing his wife when Harper stumbles into his life and it all goes from there.

Normally from the start, this would have annoyed me, but for some reason, I didn't find Luke to be a dick...until the last 40% of the story. I think what killed this for me was the things he said to Harper when he kicks her out of the house (because let's face it...that's exactly what he did!). To actually voice that Harper would never be anything more than a cheap replacement for the woman he really loved (among other things), just destroyed any chance of him being able to redeem himself. Had he not said all that shit and just maybe pushed her away instead, this book would have worked for me. Not even what he did for her at the prison or the cutesy karaoke scene at the end or his much-too-late declaration of love saved this for me. If he had just shut the fuck up and not said such hurtful things, this would have easily been a 4.5 star read for me and something I could re-read often. But since he did, then it's not. And when he finally does tell her he loves her (at freaking 95%!) she instantly falls into his arms and all is forgiven...well, it was just disappointing. So points off for the ending. Had the author spent more time building their relationship back up and made Luke show how much he loved Harper instead of a page or so before the epilogue, I think that would have worked so much better for a lot of people. Especially me.

This is a book I partly loved and partly hated! So I can only give it 3 out of 2,5.

PLUS sides for me:

-A heroine that is impossible not to like, adorable side characters and very cute dogs. I loved them all.

Our heroine Harper is a little too optimistic and too cheerful, making you feel she can't be real at all. She is too good to be true. And this goodness in her sometimes causes her to be easily hurt by others. Although I normally dislike characters who remind me of Pollyanna, Harper’s actions made a little bit more sense. As she lost her parents at the age of 6 and grew up in foster care, she was hungry for love. That is why, my heart ached for her. I cried for her so many times.

If you read the quote below, you will understand her philosophy of life. I felt ashamed of myself and my problems and started to adore her no matter what. She tries to enjoy whatever life gives her even if it is temporary.

“I find you interesting.”
“That sounds like it’s not really a compliment.”
“I also find you smart, beautiful, funny, and brave. But I can’t figure you out. How does someone who goes through everything you’ve gone through walk around with a permanent smile on her face?”
“You mean because of my parents?”
“Your parents, the fire, your idiot of an ex. Your resiliency is impressive. How does that happen?”
“It’s not really impressive when there isn’t another option. 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.”
“So the world is too big and beautiful to be sad?” He was teasing her.
“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.”

Harper is not only optimistic and easy going, she is smart and funny, too.

“He’s an ass. And I don’t like any man’s hands on you.”
“Are you getting territorial? You’re not going to pee on me, are you? Because I am not into that.”

-The second plus for me was the fact that the book made me feel. It was convincing. It is written in the 3rd person narrative, sometimes focusing on the heroine sometimes on the hero. Normally, I dislike that kind of writing but in this book, the writer pulls it off very successfully so I can say the book is well-written.

-One other plus is that the chemistry between Harper and Luke is very well-written and their scenes are hot. Even in their first encounter, it was clear that they were going to be a hot couple.

“My name is Luke. I’ve lived here my whole life. I’m in construction and the National Guard. And Sophie’s my sister.”
“That’s all you’ve got?” Harper elbowed him.
“What else do you need?”
“How about arrest warrants? Bodies buried in the backyard? Unusual fetishes?”
He leaned in. Close. And could smell his soap. Something with a little spice. She could feel his breath on her face. Harper parted her lips. Her breath caught.
“Define 'unusual'.”

Well, with all these ingredients, this could have been an amazing book but one character and the way he leads the story spoiled it all for me.

So here are the MINUS sides of the book for me:

-The book is really longer than necessary with some repetitions and too many details.

- The hero is very hard to like... very very hard to like.

Luke has lost his beloved wife in a terrible accident and he feels guilty about it. He has promised not to ever forget her and he believes that letting himself fall for another woman means cheating her. That is why, he is distant to everyone. The only person who could break down his walls was Harper. But he resisted all the time. And he resisted A LOT!

There were a lot of push and pulls. He pushed her away, saying she needed a better man who could love her the way she deserved. He said he was protecting her from himself but he was selfish and he was protecting himself, really, rather than protecting her.

Luke didn’t want to change his life. He didn’t want a relationship. And when he understood that Harper is easy to love, he tried to push her away. He couldn't just look at it as "casual sex"; what he felt was too strong for him to deal with.

“I just want you more than I want to stay away from you.”

***

“You are a beautiful, chaotic distraction. I don’t like being distracted.”

***

“Harper, it’s not possible for me to be more physically attracted to you than I am... You make me hard and stupid and I don’t like it.”

***

“I hate how much I want you.”

But after a while, with A LOT OF encouragement of Harper, he gave in the temptation. However, it didn’t last. He pushed her away again, scared of falling in love with her. But then, getting jealous and all, he wanted her again. This pull and push continued more than it should have.

Between pages 173 – 255, the hero and the heroine are apart. As Luke is a soldier, his deployment to Afghanistan causes this separation of 6 months.

Well, those 80 pages of the book focus more on the side characters while our main couple only communicate by phone, live chat and e-mail. And when he comes back, he continues being stupid again. This idiot never deserves Harper, really. Hot-cold-hot-cold all the time!

And one day, he really hurt her feelings and broke up with her. For a short while she lost all her hopes on him, thinking that it was the end of them.

Insulting her one second, and then looking at her like he just wanted to pull her into his arms the next. Making love to her like he couldn’t survive without her and then discarding her like yesterday’s trash.
She couldn’t survive the wait for him to figure out what he really wanted. He might never know.

But then again, when the dumb-ass came back, wanting her stupidly again, she forgave him easily.

Luke’s indecisiveness really despised me and although I loved her very much, I was pissed at Harper, too, for forgiving him every time and being so easy for him.

Even at the end of the book, he didn’t have to grovel much because she was more than ready to forgive him again. Also for nearly half of the book, she says she loves him but he is only able to say it at the very end of the book. I was pissed at that, too.

Luke couldn’t believe it was OK to move on with a new person until his ex mother-in-law gave him the green light to move on. I tried to understand how much he missed his dead wife and how sorry he was about it all but it was too much for me when he asked for her permission on her tombstone to be with Harper.

He had to be talked to by everyone around him so that he was finally persuaded that he should live his life and he was allowed to do it, while still cherishing the memory of his dead wife.

-The ending didn’t satisfy me. Even after their HEA, I wasn’t very happy at all. I think I couldn’t have forgiven him at all. He didn’t grovel enough or suffer enough. She was too easy on him.

I would never ever forgive these words of him:

“You���re only here because she’s gone. And you can’t take her place. I can’t look at you without wishing she was here.”

Also, I am not that good or saint enough like Harper. For example, I wouldn’t want to look at the framed photo of an ex on the walls of my own house. My photos and his dead wife’s photos on the same wall – no, thank you – it would be too much for me. In an album, yes – in a frame on the wall, no!

Harper was too good to be true, respecting his past more than I ever could. She took flowers to her grave regularly and became close friends with her mother, for God’s sake!

All in all, I can easily say that although in the end I believed Luke loved Harper, I was strongly disturbed by how attached he still was to his dead wife even after he was married to Harper and that is why, their HEA wasn’t an ideal one for me! Nope, not my cuppa :(["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>

3.5 stars

Lucy Score put a spell one me *lol*
Can't stop reading her books. What's next? *lol*

Well, this one... Hmm, I read the reviews of my friends, I knew all triggers, but I still decided to give it a try.

This book was full of contradictions for me.

Very likable and strong heroine as a person and friend, and at the same time not strong enough (but definitely wise) in relationship. I liked her a lot. I didn't support all her decisions and some of her actions annoyed me, I even was mad at her; but I admired her humanity. She was one of the best persons I read – I’d gladly have her as my BFF (and then I could help her to gain more confidence as a woman *lol*).

I didn’t love the story, but I didn’t hate it either.
I absolutely liked h’s interactions and friendship with all side characters. She was amazing!
As to her relationship with the hero… I dunno. It wasn’t pathetic (but very near), it wasn’t perfect (except for epilogue) and it wasn’t always romantic.

It’s not that I hated the hero (dude just annoyed me a lot), but then he adopted Max (a dog with only 3 legs) and I couldn’t be very mad at him anymore. I felt his pain, his lost in the past was hard -> main trigger of many readers dead spouse <- and he was actually a good guy; but the way he treated his woman at the end – argh!!!

I wanted to scream:

Yada, yada, yada, I won’t retell the story.

I liked it. Some isses were solved brilliantly.

"Blame doesn’t heal anything. Acceptance and gratitude do."

I like this author’s writing style and all her books (I read till now) were slightly irritating – and against all odds I love it *lol*
There is always a deep meaning and a good message – and it’s the reason I read.

Absolutely amazing epilogue!
I even cried a bit, so beautiful!!!["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>

This one is so hard for me to review because I think I fell in love with this book, characters and author. I don't want to write the review because it's like me closing the door, turning my back on these people and I don't want to.

Harper was intelligent, strong, resilient and hilarious. I loved her sharp tongue, her quick wit, but her compassion, honesty, sincerity was top notch. Getting the heck out of dodge when she flees a cheating boss/boyfriend, Harper ends up in a lively little town, hours away from her intended destination. The initial meeting with the main characters was a great scene showcasing what a spitfire Harper was going to be in the townspeople's lives.

Hometown hero Luke Garrison is taken aback at how Harper "jumps right" in to the aid of others, never caring what it might mean for her own safety. Living a bachelor life after trying to recover from a devastating past, hunky Luke is the target of his family's matchmaking schemes and soon takes Harper as a fake girlfriend to keep his family off his back until he deploys in a month. Harper, down and out, needs money, a job and a place to stay so it makes perfect sense. With one bed, a mature decision to share said one bed, Harper and Luke realize there might be more than just "sleeping together" between them. With Harper's tragic past, these two kindred spirits soon have a deep, yet passionate, connection Luke is finding hard to fight.

Harper is a character that I won't forget. A foster child after losing her parents in a car accident at the age of 7, passed through the foster system until she ages out, physical abuse, alone in this world and always ready for a challenge, Harper was a go getter, a rescuer, a helper, a friend, a listener, and all she wanted back was for someone to be the same for her, to protect her, save her, love her. Luke is so drawn to her, his family, the town, no one can help but fall for this amazing, generous woman with a heart of gold who has lived a life of ashes.

Luke just thinks he can't give her what she needs and wants, himself. The story into his past was sad, heart wrenching and one worthy of a happy ending.

Loved these characters and I say they deserve another story. I hope Lucy Score gives them one. I know I'll read it!

4.5⭐️

“Something in me said ‘she’s finally here.’ You’re what I’ve been waiting for. You’re the light that got me through the dark, and I’m not willing to go back to a life without you.”

edit:
reread and a buddy read with my darling mattie<3

after a month of not reading a single book, all i have to say is i'm in FUCkiNG PAIN. i wanna die <3 <3 me and mattie really wanted to feel pain on this fine day.

i'm so fucking conflicted because i loved this but hated it too? like jesus christ i wanted to punch luke sometimes but i kinda loved how dumb he was. i also loved how loyal he was. i do also have to say i can't hate a lucy score book. i've been binging her books and loving them. maybe its just me being obsessed and the books are bad WHO knows bc IM loving them <3

this book is just a better version of ugly love. i hated ugly love because i hated miles and i hated how we actually got the "then" scenes. like i didn't wanna fucking see how perfect their relationship was. however, this book even tho had the same theme as ugly love, it was done in a way better way. we didn't get any "then" scenes, we didn't get the accidental switcherooo name during sex, we didn't the "love" pining for the dead wife. luke was just a sad soul that needed his wild harper. so ya its weird that i loved this but hated ugly love. its just??? the fucking dimples mate.

fuck how much i wanna lower my rating but i just can't??? its weird i'm so fucking loyal to these too. i just ugh. they made me cry several times. i just felt very emotional towards them.

this book really isn't for everyone. most people would hate the hero. but idk if its the stupid cute dimple, or the fact that he's in the army, or that he's a family man, or the fact that he's so fucking possessive and cute and protective over the heroine... ya i just love him way too much.

he's so dumb but i love his dumbness omg. he's so so so so dumb. but god forgive me please but i want him. i want his stubborn idiot self. i want everything to do with him.

ok ok now to the heroine. i wanna protect this girl. she's gone through shit and still got into shit until like the last 2%. she's so brave and cute and idk its the sunshine in her that i wanna protect. she cried, i cried.

anyway, hurt with me please <3

“You’re only here because she’s gone.” He whispered the words, which somehow made them sharper. “And you can’t take her place. Not with Joni and not with me.”

She nodded slowly. “I know that. I’m not trying to do that.”

“You shouldn’t be here. I don’t want to do this anymore. I can’t do this, Harper. I need you to go.”

She stood there, watching him. Hope and hurt in her eyes. “I can’t look at you without wishing she was here.”

I know people love this book. If you did, thats great! I did not. It was not the worst book I've read, but I wouldn't blindly recommend it, and there isn't one part of this that I would ever bother reading again. I'll keep it short so I don't start ranting about how the best parts of this book were when Luke was deployed and whenever Aldo and Gloria showed up. The worst part of this (and the worst part of any book, really) was the singing. I can't with the serenading apology.

Harper, you are giving us March 3rd birthdays a bad name. We are not doormats! Why are you telling a man you love him REPEATEDLY when he treats you like this? WHY. We are stronger than this! And you take him back because he sings to you during karaoke night? SINGING? That's it? No. And Luke Garrison, you are simply the worst. Your behavior required an entire second book of groveling alone. You and Harper definitely deserve each other because you are both equally ridiculous.

Thats it. I'm writing this review after reading book 2, which was so much better it’s actually shocking. Love you Aldo. Love you Gloria. Luke and Harper...no more comments.

Tengo que darle las cinco estrellas porque es un romance muy bonito aunque hubo momentos en que me dieron ganas de matar a Luke por su cabezonería pero se lo perdono XD

Lee la reseña en: https://oceanodelibros.blogspot.com/2...

4 stars

Pretend You're Mine is a sweet small town romance. I love Lucy Score's writing and I enjoyed Luke and Harper's story. I'm not going to lie, Luke frustrated me to no ends at times, but Harper was amazing. In the end, Luke won me over and I loved how everything turned out.

Vaya sorpresa¡¡¡.....que malas son las expectativas, vengo de un chasco de una autora que me encanta y sin saber ni de lo que trataba me encuentro con esta delicia. Esa es la palabra, delicia, una protagonista que hay que querer si o si, un pueblo y unos secundarios adorables, varios dialogos de enmarcar y un estilo que me ha recordado s SEP. Hay una parte un poco rocambolesca sobre un personaje del pasado de ella que para mi ha sobrado...pero por lo demas maravillosa ....

This is one of my favorite books of the year. This book
had it all. Yummy hero, lovable heroine, angst, and it
had depth. Pretend You're Mine captivated me from the start.

I am trying to make my goal of 300 books for the year!!! So,
I am cutting my reviews short. :) BUT I just could not just
let this one go with out some gushing!!!

I loved the length of this book. The characters, plot and
love that this book had, made me want it to never end.

Harper and Luke were made for each other. Harper was
such a strong female that I couldn't wait for her happy ending.
Luke was perfect for her. Even when he was pushing her away..
again and again I wanted them to be together. I had my moments
where I got really frustrated with Luke, but I did under
stand. The sense of family and acceptance that this book
made it a 5 star read. This was my first book by this author
and it will not be my last.

I finally finished Pretend You're Mine. And let me tell you, I can not pretend to love this book. Well, it is not bad but just so so.

Miss Score usuallg writes a fun witty romance. In Pretend You're Mine, she misses some originality. It seems she recycled some plot from her old works and used it here.
I also feel the chemistry between Harper and Luke is too insta and too fast. I want more tender moments between them.

Harper is too quick to forgive Luke. Luke does not done enough grovel at the end.

Overall this is OK book.

3 stars

self note: H is an ass who is still in love with his dead wife.not for me.

No, just no. This book is too horrible and unrealistic. So the h catches her bf with a delivery girl, so she just runs away with no phone and wallet. Wow!! Just Wow!!! And then she ends up going to a complete opposite way because she doesn't have gps as she forgot her phone. And then she runs out of gas. Ugh.... And then luckily she ends up in small town with over friendly people. And then she meets the H Who is still obsessed with his dead wifeSo apparently no one in these over friendly crowd has extra space in their house for her to stay the night 😂😂😂. But wait the H has....yes...obviously he has😂. Then when they go to his house, it's a big one some two or three story house. Cool. The problem solved, right????? No... Because apparently he has very less furniture. And only one bed🤣🤣🤣🤣. So anyways they finally decide to sleep in the bed together. Apparently it's the h's idea. Because she thinks that both are adults and can control their hormones 😏😏😏. And yes she is wearing the H's shirt for the night. Then in the middle of the night the H wakes up to the h sprawled over him. Okay!!! And the H gets an idea that he could ask her to be his fake girlfriend. Blah blah.....
I was so bored and the constant eye rolling was giving me a headache. And so I decided to stop reading this same old shit, which I'm honestly BORED of reading. Their are some funny banters in this book. But not even that could peek my interest.

2.5 ⭐️ UGH, this book is really hard to rate. I wanted to give it three stars out of peer pressure, but couldn’t bring myself to do it 🥲

Here’s the deal—nobody does small town better than Lucy Score, and I love the way she builds little worlds full of people that tiptoe their way into your heart. That said, I had some fundamental issues with this story.

Luke is a typical small-town hero (slash millionaire, apparently) who’s loved by his family and the entire town. That said, the emotional whiplash he gave Harper was painful to watch. I read romance to swoon, not to have second hand trauma 😭

After learning his backstory, I understood why he was resistant to love. But he was sending Harper some serious mixed signals from the beginning—calling her “baby”, moving her into his house, staking a claim on her when any other man got near. At the same time, he claimed he could never love her and there was no future for them 🤨 But the real kicker was when he was deployed for six months, he asks her to stay in town because he wants to come home to her?? THIS IS EMOTIONAL ABUSE, SIR. Honestly, it was hard to watch Harper fall victim to a man who refused to sort his shit out.

That brings me to Harper. I acknowledge this is personal to me, but I really can’t stomach FMCs whose version of “independence” includes wrapping your whole existence around a man. PLEASE HAVE SOME LIFE GOALS OTHER THAN STOCKING A MAN’S FRIDGE WITH HIS FAVORITE FOODS.

She allegedly was trying figuring out her future when in reality she was just nesting in a virtual stranger’s home. Everything she did was about making his life better, and every time she had a chance to be strong and take ownership of her life, all he had to do was snap his fingers, and she came running back to him teary eyed. Even after he dropped charming one liners such as:

“Why do you let me use you like this?”

“You built an entire life around a relationship that doesn’t exist.”

As if that wasn’t enough, he threw her out of his house in the middle of the night 😦 I was humiliated for her.

Ladies, let’s please have higher standards for men in 2024.

Oh god the feels!

This is the kind of book you call out sick to finish. I have spent literally my entire day with Luke and Harper and I'm sad to have to leave their world. It was sweet and sassy and will break your heart then put it back together. This is a definite must read

Es una historia fresquita y con un buen estilo de escritura, pero que a mi no me ha terminado de convencer 100% ya que quizás esperaba bastante mas, y se me hizo en ocasiones algo floja .. aunque tengo que decir que en la historia pasan muuuchas cosas.
No se, esperaba mas ...

Dovevo aspettarmelo dal titolo che lui sarebbe stato un indeciso cronico? Oppure perché tutti i libri della score hanno questa caratteristica?
Il protagonista fifone.

La nostra protagonista invece è troppo perfetta, mai una risposta fuori luogo, mai una figura di merda (nonostante venga detto più di una volta che è una pasticciona, ma quando?) mai una sana parolaccia.
Ha buone parole per tutti
Ti facciamo un altarino insieme al darkling ok?
(Chi ha letto la legge dei lupi sa)
Quando lui, il fifone, le chiede di andarsene (a caso) lei prende la sua borsa ed esce, senza dire una parola, sia mai che lo fai incazzare eh, ah giusto già lo era.

Poi a un certo punto compare, senza nessun preavviso, il cattivo, ma era proprio necessario? Per ne no
Così la nostra Santa diventa ancora più santa, perché in ordine
Ha salvato dei ragazzini prendendosi le botte lei, e pure lei mica era così grande (avrà avuto 12 anni)
Durante l’incendio è tornata dentro per salvare una vecchietta e un gatto
Ma chi sei? Madre teresa di calcutta?
Mah

Anche quando sì conoscono, non si sa perché ma LEI chiederà a lui di dormire nello stesso letto, e si conoscono da tre ore
Per quanto tu possa essere brava a giudicare le persone poteva essere un seriel killer

Non so che dire
Non è che l’ho odiato
Ma
Soprattutto all’inizio, ci sono delle cose che NON HANNO IL MINIMO SENSO
E SONO SOLO PRETESTI DI TRAMA

Finge Que Me Quieres es mi primer libro de Lucy Score y lo cierto es que pense que mi estreno iba a ser mejor.

La novela tiene una narracion bastante buena, se lee con un ritmo muy fluido y en ningun momento se me hizo larga, mi problema con esta novela fue la trama en si, no me convencio la historia de amor entre Luke y Harper y lo que es aun peor, no me termino de parecer creible.

En ocasiones senti que todo avanzaba demasiado rapido, apenas se conocian y ya Luke la invita a pasar la noche en su casa y cuando se la presenta a su familia dias mas tarde ninguno se extraña o preocupa por el hecho de tener practicamente a una desconocida en su casa, tampoco me agrado ciertas actitudes de los personajes, tuve la impresion de que no concordaban con su caracter.

Este es un claro caso de como una sinopsis puede ser muy engañosa, cuando lei la premisa me imagine un tipo de historia en concreto ( totalmente de mi gusto ) y luego segun fui leyendo no fui encontrando nada de lo que esperaba.

Obviamente no todo lo relativo a esta lectura fue malo, me gusto que todos los personajes ( incluso los secundarios ) estuvieran bien definidos y que todos aportaran algo a la historia, tambien me gano que la autora no solo se centrara en la pareja protagonista, sino que ademas desarrollara muy bien las tramas secundarias, pero en general eche en falta ese " algo " que hace que te enamores del libro que tienes entre tus manos.

En cuanto a los protagonistas, Harper me gusto bastante mas que Luke, era divertida, fuerte y valiente, en cambio, el me decepciono muchisimo, en un principio pense que seria un personaje estupendo pero segun fueron pasando los capitulos fui entendiendo cada vez menos su actitud y me empezo a sacar de quicio.

Era el tipico protagonista indeciso que no quiere estar con la protagonista pero que tampoco quiere que ella lo olvide y se enamore de otro, y ese comportamiento egoista me cabrea hasta limites insospechados.

Otro aspecto que en mi opinion esta de mas son las escenas de sexo, me parecieron excesivas y repetitivas, ademas no aportan demasiado a la trama en si, solo sirven para darle mas paginas a una novela de por si nada corta.

En fin, Finge Que Me Quieres tenia todas las papeletas para ser la tradicional historia que enamora pero falla al tener un protagonista con el que es casi imposible simpatizar, principalmente debido a que su forma de actuar deja mucho que desear, sinceramente Harper se merece a un chico mucho mejor.

El cliche de la esposa muerta nunca sera de mis favoritos, siempre tengo la sensacion de que la protagonista queda como el premio de consolacion a los ojos del protagonista masculino y que su relacion siempre tendra un fastasma entre ellos y en este caso en concreto tuve ese sentimiento aun mas de lo normal, particularmente por eso esta lectura me dejo un gusto amargo al terminarla.

2.75 Estrellas!

Ha sido una lectura que me ha encantado y me ha dejado con ganas de volver a leer a la autora. Como os decía arriba, tenía ganas de leer algo así pero es que me he llevado una sorpresa porque de repente la historia da un giro que me dejo con la boca abierta y sin poder soltar el libro hasta terminarlo. También, tiene instantes muy divertidos que os sacarán grandes carcajadas porque los habitantes de Benevolence son maravillosos. La relación entre los protagonistas me ha ganado, me ha gustado mucho como se ha ido desarrollando y los giros que existen en ella. La pluma de Lucy Score es muy fresca y emotiva. Y el final, me ha conquistado porque no puede ser más bonito 😍 Sin lugar a dudas, os recomiendo que le deis una oportunidad a la historia porque os impresionará.

"Finge Que Me Quieres" es una novela adictiva, tierna y divertida. Una historia que te ver que las segundas oportunidad si son posibles, cuando algo alguien se pone en tu camino es por una razón, Harper y Luke tendrán que descubrir cual es la suya.

Reseña completa: https://aprovechalavidacadadiaa.blogs...

Lo he devorado y me ha gustado mucho. Lo único por lo que tal vez no le doy mas puntuación es que me he acostumbrado a no leer erótica y tal vez aquí me sobraban algunas escenas de cama. Por el resto me ha encantado tanto la historia de ambos personajes principales como su historia de amor... y como poco a poco y sin quererlo surge algo entre ellos, y sobre todo me gusta cuando hay secundarios que le da un plus a la trama y a la historia, como es el caso de este libro.

Lo he adorado todo :D

PD: aunque en algún momento me habría gustado darle un par de collejas a Luke a ver si espabilaba y dejaba de hacer tonterías jejeje

NOT EVEN GOING HERE!

My first Lucy Score book, SAY WHAT???

Luke & Harper= multiple undoings!

Broody hero with a painful past. Military hero. Sexy asf! Yes!

Sunshine heroine very good at hiding years of childhood pain, trauma and not really belonging to anyone = my catnip.

This book left my heart in a ooey gooey puddle. The feels came left and right from the rawness of these characters. Sure they had amazing chemistry and sexiness, but when Luke could not say he loved Harper back I knew this was gonna hurt like a….

“I want you to take all the dark, all the pain, and turn it into something beautiful. I want to fill you, hurt you, please you. Give you everything. I want it so bad I can’t think of anything else. The thought of never touching you again—” He trailed a hand down her neck to capture a breast. He tugged her nipple. Harper gasped for breath, her pulse fluttered under his fingers. “Is this what you want?”

There are so many layers to this story, and I can’t wait to continue this beautiful series!!

This was a fun read with great characters, witty dialogue, and a plot that didn't suck. It had one major problem, but I'll get to that.

First off, Harper is just a big bundle of awesome. Life keeps handing her setbacks and not only does she pick herself up and keep on going, but she does so with a determination to find fun and happiness wherever she can while she does. This was impressive and consistent and applicable to both the physical and emotional events, some of them truly devastating. I also liked her sense of humor and willingness to confront issues others might prefer to leave buried. I could totally see her being the catalyst for lots of change in a small town with some festering issues. That she did so with both grace and wisdom spoke highly for her. That I got to be there while she builds the found-family she has craved all her life was delicious.

Luke was similarly engaging, but with a side of jackwagon that had me worried—and with good reason. What's not to love about a hunky National Guard Captain with a thriving construction business and the smarts to make it all work relatively harmoniously. He starts off with a shadow that was pretty clumsily handled (the source was pretty easy to intuit and not confirming until way late in the book was kind of dumb. We didn't need to experience the reveal with Harper to have the impact of her discovery . . . if only because you'd have to be emotionally blind not to have seen it coming from Luke's first hesitation about commitment), but for the most part I enjoyed how well he fit with Harper and his obvious growing affection and love for her. And I loved how he resolved a long-standing threat to Harper with brains when brawn would have been so much more natural to him. This happened at the height of my frustration with him, so finding that spark of caring and brains during that time was particularly impactful.

And I liked the small town and the secondary characters and the friendships and love that Harper finds. There's a big section when Luke is deployed and Harper is, well, not exactly in limbo, but sort of treading water and this section could easily have bogged down. But it didn't. Score does a great job using that time to show Harper's growing ties to the town and the people in it. It's clear by the time Luke returns that Harper is as much a part of the town as he is; perhaps more so as she is emotionally engaged in a way that he hasn't been.

Which brings me to the stupid. Score pulls out the romance trope of the grieving widower unable to love again and then multiplies it by infinity. The last fifteen-ish percent of the book is painfully stupid with Luke going on an emotional bender of selfishness and jackwagonry that was just painful to endure. During this time, he's impervious to every clue bat wielded by people he supposedly loves (family, friends, neighbors, pets, ex-mother-in-laws) to an extent that is pretty pathetic. The resulting pain inflicted on Harper had me gnashing teeth. And he even indulged my very-least-favorite assininity of "doing it for her own good" that I hate with a raging passion.

So yeah, I really hated Luke for that bit. He manages to pull off a grand gesture that was pretty much perfect, so the final emotional catharsis kept me from hating the book absolutely. I'd been flirting with five stars until the stupid started (the humor was the clincher there, with several laugh-out-loud moments) so I'm only dropping it to a four. I'm kind of shocked I'm in that forgiving a mood, frankly, given the scope of the pain, but there you have it. It turns out I can be very forgiving when everything else was so strong and the final redemptive resolution worked so well. I really wish Score hadn't exaggerated that bit so badly. It needed to be a speedbump, but instead we got a wall. Most people aren't really that emotionally immature and Luke had enough friends, family, and community support that he really shouldn't have been that constipated.

A note about Steamy: This was way outside my steam tolerance. There were at least a half-dozen explicit scenes and they frankly didn't work very well. They weren't illustrative of my emotional expectations of the relationship though I get the feeling Score meant them to be. Because I couldn't reconcile them very well with my understanding of their relationship, I'm afraid I ended up skimming them after the first few. That wasn't hard to do and I don't think I missed anything doing so. Indeed, I think it preserved my respect for the characters enough to stay fully engaged with them.

Trigger Warnings: Death of parents, car accident, cheating ex, dead pregnant ex-spouse, violent attack, not adopted in foster care, abuse by foster parent, fire accident, abusive relationship (side character), bombing (side character loses leg)

We got a hot and cold hero, a spineless doormat heroine, and a friends with benefits no strings attached relationship. I wasn’t a fan of the writing style and I couldn’t connect with the characters because of it. I started this because it was recommended on the romance subreddit for being enemies to lovers with cuddling. There’s only one accidental cuddling scene in the beginning and it was literally a coupla pages into the book so I didn’t care for it. The progression of the relationship and friends with benefits situation happens so quickly, the chemistry felt forced. I rarely DNF and I was so close to doing it but I just kept reading. I might be getting things wrong though so correct me if I’m wrong. There’s a buncha boring stuff in the middle and what the hero does in the end honestly required a lot more grovelling.

Harper walks in on her boyfriend/boss cheating on her and she is pissed. She walks out without grabbing any of her stuff except for her car keys. She drives in the wrong direction and ends up in a small town called Benevolence. She meets Luke, who is gonna be deployed in a month. After sharing a bed for the night, believing that they are both mature adults that won’t feel anything, they both feel this sexual tension. They fight against it until they finally give in and cue the typical friends with benefits bullshit.

Now for spoilers


Harper was a hot mess, she left after her ex cheated on her. She has nowhere to go, no money, no job, no clothes. She sees this guy beating up his girlfriend and defends her without hesitating which I loved, and she ended up getting hurt. She meets Luke and his crew, they’re all police except for Luke who works in the military. Luke’s sister plays matchmaker and wants to push Harper and Luke together. Luke offers for Harper to stay over at his place. When she stays over, he gives her his shirt to sleep in, he sleeps shirtless. He was gonna sleep on the couch but Harper said since she’s the guest she should but he insists she shouldn’t. They’re like you know what we’re adults we can handle sleeping together. Luke wakes up to Harper draped on him and goes back to sleep. Harper wakes up to Luke squeezing her boobs and spooning her. Since there was no build-up, I felt nothing during these scenes. And after that, the mentions of them sharing a bed is just brief until the sex happens, and I came here for the cuddling bruh.

Luke takes her to the doctor and is all possessive and tells her she won’t ever get hurt again. He starts calling her “baby” so early on, I was just cringing. If this guy didn’t want a relationship, why the hell was he acting like a possessive boyfriend already? It made no fucking sense. Then he would sense their chemistry and turn into a stiff board and avoid Harper. Harper picks up her stuff and Sophie convinces them both to have a fake relationship so that Luke’s mother would stop tryna set him up. Luke also gives her a position in his company. Hell, the mother was gonna set Luke up with his cousins. I incest y’all stop this shit right now. They go on a date and Luke continues to ask questions to Harper while giving nothing away, sound familiar? Yea. You don’t want a relationship? Then don’t fucking ask questions. Don’t flirt with the girl and lead her on. Don’t have sex with a girl who you KNOW is falling for you when you KNOW you don’t want a relationship. But of course, he continues to have these heated eyes when she’s walking around. Harper gets comfortable so easily. Even on her first night, she just used Luke’s computer without his permission and started cooking breakfast like it was her own house. But it was fine since Luke didn’t mind. She walks around naked assuming Luke wouldn’t show up and he does and they make out. A coworker interrupts and they stop and Luke gets cold and avoids her by sleeping on the couch or coming home late.

It’s literally Katy Perry’s Hot ‘N’ Cold

Harper has no backbone. Whenever Luke treated her like shit, she didn’t care and then when he was willing, she would make out or have sex with him. Then he would feel things and run away and then come back and then run away. Sophie continues to encourage the relationship since she’s so desperate for her brother to have a good love life. We find out Luke is gonna be deployed at the end of the month and I was like bruh time is going by quick. When they went to his family dinner and she looked through his yearbook and he became so hostile, I was like yup, typical, the guy didn’t wanna talk about his past cuz something happened. So I read a spoiler and knew he had a dead ex. When Harper sees his prom picture, I assumed that it was with him and his dead wife. When he gives Sophie long looks because she mentions he hasn’t dated in a while and all, it was obvious something bad happened in his previous relationship. I felt bad for Luke, but a tragic past does not justify your shitty behaviour. I’m so sick of asshole heroes who go into a friends with benefits relationship and treat the girl like shit because they start to feel things. And I’m sick of girls who take that shit and eat it up and go back for more by continuing to hurt themselves.

When they started to have sex on the regular, Luke expected Harper to open up and tell him everything while he shared nothing.

“I don’t like feeling like you’re hiding something from me.” He was such a fucking hypocrite.
Harper my girl, why don’t you just call him a hypocrite straight up to his face rather than thinking it? Why’re you being such a coward? Don’t give him answers if he doesn’t give you any. Or, tell him you will tell him if he opens up too.

Harper invites people over to Luke’s place without his permission. I don’t know how she got comfy so quickly. She doesn’t ask him for permission when bringing a dog to his place either. Aldo and Gloria have their own book, it’s the next book in this series but I don’t plan on reading it. But it's interesting since they became official already, I wonder if their book will take place during the same time period as this book. Everyone in town knew that this asshole Glenn was abusing Gloria including Aldo, but no one did anything to help her until Harper saved her. Like why? Everyone knew and were talking about it but no one was there for Gloria. Anyway Luke was pissed when Linc touched Harper which is what pushed them to start having sex. Linc is really funny, he also has his own book and I find him charming but I don’t like the writing style enough to continue this series. Luke’s nicer after rather than hot and cold but I still didn’t like him much since he was the one pushing the emotional part of the relationship. He sees burn marks on Harper and insists she tells him and gets pissed when she kept saying no. I felt so bad for Harper, her life was just so hard and messed in foster care.

It was cute seeing Lola grow on Luke. I loved how he started to sneak her out on runs with him and how he was influenced to get another dog who was gonna be put down. They started to become this small family and it’s so stupid because Luke knew he didn’t wanna have this cuz he wasn’t ready. I understand why he didn’t expect Harper to wait since he was gonna be gone for 6 months and didn’t wanna ask that of her. But then he would say he didn’t have space for Harper in his life.

When Harper finds half a million dollars worth of checks in the mail for Luke I cringed. She openly admits to looking at his mail. But she finally confronts him about not opening up and how she always opens up to him. But of course, Luke is the asshole and says he isn’t a flowers and hearts guy and that he already established that their relationship isn’t about that. He tells Harper they should stop having sex because he never plans on telling her shit about his life. Meanwhile, he expects her to open up. I was glad Harper finally called Luke out but it was obvious he wouldn’t stick with his own plan. It was funny how Harper accepted and Luke was like why’s she accepting so easily, he expected Harper to beg him to not take sex off the table. But rather than doing that she wears sexy outfits, driving Luke crazy so he avoids her. But then at one point, he freaks out cuz she’s not wearing a bra and they have sex and go back to having sex.

I was surprised that the month ended so quickly. Luke and Harper decide to break things off at the dinner. Harper admits she loves Luke which isn’t a surprise and of course, he doesn’t say it back. When he leaves for deployment I was surprised he asked her to stay in the end. But the long distance portion of the book was long and boring. He opened up a little about losing people both in the military and someone from home aka his wife. But he still doesn’t open up enough and Harper doesn’t know him well enough but she’s willing to stay for 6 months.

After this, we get to see more of Harper interacting with the side characters. Aldo’s leg was blown off in an accident and Luke saved him. Luke and Harper regularly talked once a week and emailed, even though they were separated they were in contact and doing long-distance. All Luke had to do was open up more and say I love you. Harper and Aldo’s conversations were hilarious, I loved how he called her random nicknames and their brother-sister relationship, especially when they said “I love you” to each other. Luke’s family looked out for Harper and Luke was always worried about Harper which was sweet. But I was just really bored.

When Harper came across the secret locked door and found the key, I knew it was something related to Luke’s ex. When Harper finds the pictures of Luke with his ex-wife Karen, it was devastating. Especially after finding out they were gonna have a baby with the letters. The fact that Sophie married Ty because she realized life is short and they wanna be together is just so bittersweet. And of course the phoenix tattoo was about Luke’s wife. When she visited Karen’s mom I kinda thought she was pushing it. She let Karen’s mom go into the private room Luke had with Karen’s things. I know Harper was tryna do some good but it’s so personal, it should’ve been Luke who did that. Joni did feel bad and got some closure and understood that Luke did love her daughter since she accused him of not loving her. And she thought she killed Karen because she sent Karen a text so they all got closure but I still felt a bit iffy that Harper did all of this without Luke knowing. The gesture was sweet but they only knew each other for a month before going long distance and she doesn’t ask for permission before doing things.

Gloria and Aldo started dating and we finally meet Hannah. They all had a girls night but stupid Glenn showed up, apparently the foster dad hired him which was surprising. Harper was so badass to fight him and I loved how Lola attacked him, that man needs to stay in prison bruh. Even the other girls had bats I loved that. I understood why Luke freaked out especially after losing his wife and baby. When Luke surprised Harper and was finally home I was like bruh about time, the book was just so boring, it was just too long. I loved that Frank and Joni started dating. But literally the second Luke came back, he went back to being hot and cold. He works in the military so I understand that he’s been through shit. He even lost his wife and future kid, but like he treated Harper like shit. First, he was okay with Joni being there at dinners and him and Joni finally had a closure conversation which was sweet. Everyone was really accepting of Joni. But then when Harper invites everyone again without Luke’s permission like she normally does, Luke starts to get all aggressive and was so fucking rude. Harper doesn’t leave or fight him because she loves him. I would understand him if he always felt that Harper was intruding and she wouldn’t listen. But he always accepted her for being all pushy when she didn’t ask him for permission on things. So when she invites people over and he is pissed that she invited Joni without telling him, I was like bruh come on now. He even fights his brother like some immature brat because he was lifting Harper up, just because his brother touched her.

Harper continues to get these weird letters and we don’t know what they are until after the party. We finally find out that her foster dad who abused her was sending threatening letters. When Harper finally decides to tell Luke, he interrupts her and hurts her. He tells Harper that she built her life depending on their relationship when he’s the one who asked her to wait for 6 months when she was gonna leave. He told her that she tricked him by constantly saying everything is temporary and then staying for longer. BUT HE’S THE ONE WHO ASKED HER TO STAY. He how she made herself at home easily, brought dogs to his place without permission. He basically says she’s using him, he also was about to have sex with her at some point and stops because he doesn’t wanna “use” her like she’s some fucking sex doll. Even then, Harper just stood there rather than leaving and Luke had to spell it out for her that she needed to leave because it was over. So at this point, Harper had this guy who was gonna come outta prison and she had no place to stay. Luke felt guilty but he didn’t stop Harper, even when he missed Harper, he didn’t apologize and bring her back. He didn’t do grovelling. He would just see her crying and hide like a coward. He knew she didn’t take care of herself well and complained or worried about her but he didn’t do shit. His friends were doing more than him, he would be worried about her wearing her coat or remembering to charge her phone but doesn’t do shit. But then he would send her messages saying they have to talk. Like what the fuck do you want Luke?

Harper went to stay over at Joni’s place. She made hereself at home there and I’m like girl stop this. But Joni was a sweetheart, I loved her and Harper’s conversations and how nice she was despite Harper dating her dead daughter’s husband. When Harper asks to work at night so she wouldn’t run into Luke I was proud of her. When she gave in her resignation I was like yess. But while she was doing these things, Luke made no moves to beg her to stay, he didn’t apologize. He just kept asking to talk, he kept saying he would go and see Harper but he wouldn’t do shit. He was going insane but he didn’t wanna apologize. When Harper goes to the grocery store and her and Linc hide in the freezer he was just so funny. I loved how he stood up for Harper the second Luke accused Harper of “moving on so quickly”. He was disgusting, he constantly hurt Harper, I thought because their breakup was early on, we would get quality grovel but nah, Luke kept making an ass outta himself. I found it funny how Linc kept going after Luke’s exes and that’s what it took for Luke to realize he’s wrong. I also loved how Harper told Gloria to value herself and not look at how people value her before getting into a relationship. Aldo and Gloria were so cute. When Luke and Linc fight and Ty breaks the fight and punches Luke in the fact I was happy. When Luke kept tryna go up to Harper I was like hell no stay away. It was so funny how Linc and Luke were arguing about bagging stuff, they’re such kids. When Harper gets the call and Luke is concerned, I was like bruh get outta here.

All of the characters shit on Luke and he deserved it. Linc was speaking mad facts to Luke, saying he can’t expect Harper to just wait. Finally, Luke finds out about Harper’s past and she’s a goddamn hero. She saved people from a fire, she saved the kids from the foster parent abuser, and now she is currently threatened by him. I was glad Luke saw the abuser and threatened him and he wasn’t getting outta prison. But again, he didn’t go back to Harper. Harper would even visit Karen’s grave she was a sweetheart and Luke saw this. Joni had to tell Luke that Harper was gonna leave and that’s when he was like fine I’ll say something. So he never did anything for days when he felt guilty and knew he was hurting Harper, he hurt Harper more even after everything, everyone around him said he was making a mistake and he knew. But he didn’t do anything until he found out she was moving. So we get the bullshit ending, Harper makes her rounds telling everyone goodbye. They go to karaoke night and Luke’s “grand gesture” was shit, he just sang some song and boom, they’re together again. He says I love you and apologizes and Harper accepts him right away. It was stupid and I hated it. I can’t believe it took him that long to realize he can love two people. I can’t believe it took him that long to apologize when he knew he hurt Harper. After that, he fucking proposes. They only had one month of a wonky relationship, then 6 months online, and you’re telling me y’all are gonna get married now? Fuck this shit. They had kids and the end. Screw Luke, realistically these two would never last.

This is the first book I've read by Lucy Score and it won't be my last. This book was wonderful. There was nothing in this book that I didn't love.

All the characters were absolutely perfect and blended wonderfully. Luke is your basic swoon worthy Alfa male that you can't get enough of. Harper is sweet, sassy and doesn't take shit from anyone.

Every aspect of this book had me hooked. Reading straight through from beginning to end. And I did not want it to end. This book had me laughing, crying, frustrated and excited...and every other emotion possible.

This is a must not pass up read. Adding it to my favorites list.