Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Pretend You're Mine by Lucy Score

15 reviews

k8williams86's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Another great Lucy Score book. Loving this series - potentially my favourite of hers so far!
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cmab's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

So many parts of this book were 5* moments and you can definitely see how this book informs the Knockemout series! Her writing was a little clunkier in this, lots of info dumping and it felt like she started setting the scene all over again about a 3rd of the way through, which was noticeable enough to be jarring. The cast of background characters and setting are immersive and there are beautiful moments of connection throughout. However, at first I felt unconnected to the main relationship
which actually fits perfectly with Luke distancing himself from Harper
And then there’s the deployment and you fall in love with Harper’s near perfect character!
But Luke is just so frustrating and is such a dick throughout the majority of the book - he uses Harper, leaves her, blames her for his emotional immaturity and grief, threatens and shouts at her and then blames her for him using her!
All of this is more realistic to men than most men written by women are, so from the perspective of character realism, it worked, but it made the ending unsatisfactory. Whilst the HEA was expected in a book like this,
Singing a song and saying - sorry, I do love you actually, I just put you through hell and in danger because I couldn’t have a grown up conversation, please marry me- doesn’t really meet the necessary level of grovelling
The family, friendship and sub-plot were great, the FMC was too sweet and perfect to be true but definitely loveable. I will 100% be reading Aldo and Gloria’s story but also felt this book told a lot of their story too, so we’ll see how that impacts the enjoyment of the next book.
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vettechmama3's review against another edition

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challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I love a story that takes me on a rollercoaster of emotions. Between the back stories, romance, and supporting characters, I felt everything from sadness to giddiness to laughing out loud and even some anxiety. Harper is a pure ray of light that Luke needed in his dark world.  The ending of this was such a beautiful touch, and as a whole, this book made my heart happy. 
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sami_leigh's review against another edition

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challenging emotional funny hopeful medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟/5
🌶️🌶️🌶️.5/5

She had called a lot of places home, but it was for the lack of a better word. She never really felt at home anywhere.

She laughed a lot. It was a sound that warmed him up. A sound that made him realise how quiet his life had become before. A sound that made him wonder why he had valued the silence so much. 

“Fact is, I just don’t have room in my life for her.”
“You’ve got the room; you’re just too chickenshit to make it.”

“I wanted to be memorable.”
“Baby, it would take more than all the time in the world for me to forget you.”

“You can’t put your worth in someone else’s hands like that . . . Whether you mean something to him or not has nothing to do with how inherently valuable you are.”

🌅 Third person 
🌅 Meet-disaster
🌅 Fake dating 
🌅 Friends with benefits 
🌅 National Guard; he deploys in a month
🌅 She’s starting fresh…again
🌅 Protective MMC
🌅 He has secrets
🌅 FMC who understands her worth makes the most of every day 🙌🏻
🌅 Insta-chemistry 
🌅 Small town
🌅 Meddling townsfolk
🌅 Tension 🔥 
🌅 Found family 
🌅 Representation of foster care 
🌅 Well established secondary characters: Claire & Charles, Sophie & Ty, Gloria, Aldo (Book 2), Linc (Book 3), Josh, James, Joni, Angry Frank.
🌅 MC growth: grief, communication, guilt, overcoming past trauma.
🌅 Epilogue 
• MMC’s perception of the FMC is a klutz who need supervision isn’t fully resolved.

⚠️ Death of a parent (past), car accident (past), death (past), injury/injury detail (explicit), medical trauma (explicit), active duty (MMC deploys in National Guard), child abuse (past, moderate), domestic abuse (not MCs, explicit), violence (moderate), stalking (moderate).
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lyshbish's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I was surprised how much I liked this book! I found Harper very lovable. Don't let the G-rated cover fool you, this is one of the filfthiest books I've ever read.
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arwenaardbeienstruik's review

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sad

1.0

The whole book is basicly the mmc saying he doesn't love the fmc and getting mad at her for 'taking over his life'. While the fmc just accepts that without groveling one bit from the mmc.
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avery_hutchinson's review against another edition

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emotional inspiring lighthearted fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

One of my least favorite Lucy Score books (I love most of them) because it felt like the main man did not have to do much to win back the girl that fell in love wayyyy to quickly and put up with pretty much anything from him
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ecravens's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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bixmer613's review against another edition

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emotional lighthearted tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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lololovesthings's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

Are you looking for a book featuring fake dating and insta-love that's set in a small town with forced proximity, raucous and fun side characters, with a hefty dose of "I'm the only one allowed to touch you" possessive alpha energy? Then "Pretend You're Mine" by Lucy Score is the book for you. In fact, most of Lucy Score's books are probably for you because she loves making books that have these same plot devices and tropes. When Harper and Luke meet, sparks fly super fast, but he doesn't want to get attached because he's about to deploy again and has *~emotional damage*~ aplenty. Harper and Luke start fake dating so he can save face with his family who have been nagging him about dating again, but their desire burns for one another quickly and brightly despite the practicalities of their situation.  One thing Lucy Score knows how to do well is banter. There is some good, funny dialogue here. I really enjoyed getting to know Harper and Luke and the respective stories, but Luke was such an grumpy idiot that I wanted to smack the crap out of him. I also thought Harper was a little too perfect and it got on my nerves. Typically, I don't like books involving the military, but this one didn't bother me as much because it doesn't focus on American jingoism. Unfortunately, I found this book to be way, way too long at times. It's slow to start and it drags quite a bit in the middle. At one point, I felt myself losing interest at times. Also, the ending wraps up shockingly quickly, which is strange since this book is over 400 pages long! It almost feels like a very loose plot written around a lot of spicy scenes... and I mean A LOT of spicy scenes (not a complaint!). Speaking of such, Lucy Score loves to talk about the heft and heaviness of b4LLs and milking waaaay too much. 😂 Overall, this book is fine, but it's not Score's best. I wasn't ever bored, but I likely won't remember this come year's end.

Thank you to NetGalley, Lucy Score, and Sourcebooks Bloom Books for the ARC of this book. All opinions are my own. I was not compensated for my review.
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