Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Pretend You're Mine by Lucy Score

14 reviews

folded_between_pages_of_books's review against another edition

2.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abandonment, Grief, Car accident, Death, and Sexual content

marmelb's review against another edition

lighthearted fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Grief, Death, and Car accident

Minor: Physical abuse and Child abuse

cmab's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Car accident, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Violence, War, Child death, Child abuse, Death, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, and Murder

vettechmama3's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content and Grief

Moderate: Violence, War, Child abuse, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Child death, Death of parent, Car accident, and Fire/Fire injury

arwenaardbeienstruik's review

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Emotional abuse, Stalking, Violence, Car accident, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Physical abuse, and Sexual content

Moderate: Miscarriage, Pregnancy, War, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Fire/Fire injury

ecravens's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Murder, Blood, Car accident, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Violence, Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, Alcohol, Domestic abuse, and Sexual content

roseyposeyreads's review

emotional funny reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Sexual content

Moderate: Child abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Car accident

regularly_reading_romance's review

emotional sad 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

2.0

I was not anticipating this one to be as heavy as it was. For the first 50% we get Harper and Luke constantly having sex, I’m honestly not sure how they ended up being in love, lust for sure, but love seemed like a stretch. Then in the next half we learn more about each of their pasts and these two have been through it. Luke needs therapy, that man is obviously not processing his grief. Spoilerish warning: The storyline with Clive seemed unnecessary. Harper losing both parents at a young age and bouncing around through the foster system would have been trauma enough, the child abuse was excessive. I found myself doing a lot of skimming through this one. I would recommend for readers who love lengthy detailed sex scenes and emotional trauma.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Minor: Grief and Child abuse

stephanief04's review against another edition

emotional funny mysterious sad tense 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Violence, and Child abuse

Moderate: Death of parent, Car accident, Death, and Grief

Minor: Fire/Fire injury

nickypizarro's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

I'm not ashamed to say that I've happily joined the Lucy Score hype/bandwagon.

Luke Garrison may be the hometown hero but even the best of us can't get away from our parent's nagging and concerns. In comes Harper, knocking him and the small town off-kilter... almost quite literally. He's only got a few more weeks left before deploying and his scheming sister suggests he fake dates the new firecracker in town to ease his parents and hold them at bay.

If I'm honest, I think I wanted to throttle Luke more times than I can count while reading this book. He was soo in denial and it was staring him right in the face. I'm usually good at figuring out what's holding some characters back but I wasn't expecting Luke's dark past. Let alone throwing Harper's in the mix as well. The way things ended up connecting was smart and I enjoyed the way the book's timeline is so easily intertwined with the second book in the series Finally Mine. 

4.5/5 stars 
3/5 Twice Level 
TWs: Mind to moderate mentions of domestic abuse, physical abuse, death, war, miscarriage, medical trauma, medical content, injury/injury details, car accident, blood, child death, and grief 
While I have received an arc of this book, my thoughts are all my own. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief

Moderate: Medical trauma, Car accident, Blood, Child death, Domestic abuse, War, Miscarriage, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Death, and Medical content