Reviews with content warning for Domestic abuse - Things We Left Behind

Reviews tagging 'Domestic abuse'

Things We Left Behind by Lucy Score

161 reviews

megold12's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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

5.0

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memoirsofabooklover's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful mysterious 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

5.0

My most anticipated read/release of the year and it did not disappoint. It was the perfect ending to the series and my new favourite book. I loved the first two books but the tension and torrid-pasts of Lucian and Sloane had been building for 1100 pages or so and I couldn’t wait to delve into their characters. I loved that we got some chapters set in the past (which differs from the previous two books where the mcs didn’t have a past with each other) and as usual, I loved that the chapters flitted between both mcs so you get both of their perspectives. Lucy wrote their backstory perfectly, it was heart-wrenching and felt like a valid enough reason to make them true childhood friends-to enemies-to lovers, but it didn’t make the characters irredeemable. Their history, present, and character growth in this book were incredible to read, would recommend it to everyone. Perfection!

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cmab's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny hopeful lighthearted relaxing tense medium-paced

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

5.0

My favourite of the three!

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katiejohns's review against another edition

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emotional lighthearted reflective 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

4.0

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livlovread's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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ktmcd26's review against another edition

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emotional reflective fast-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

4.0

I don’t know if it’s because I read books 2 and 3 right in a row in the span of 24-hours and compared to 2 this book doesn’t seem that outlandish, but I thought this one actually kind of made sense. The other very likely scenario is I am just a sucker for a second chance love story.

I really liked both Slone and Lucien, so I was always rooting for them. However, they didn’t always make it easy. There were some frustrating and unreasonable decisions, but they were dealing with different serious emotional and mental damage, so not necessarily unexpected.

I do wish their story had very different pacing. Like many rom-com books everything is ridiculously rushed at the end of the story. Why o why can’t people in this town date? Why must they be engaged?

As always with these books, the crime sub-plot really didn’t make sense. Why were those people even remotely involved in these crimes? How in the world was that the resolution? I don’t know, so I am just kind of ignoring it.

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coffeekitaab's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective fast-paced

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

5.0

Lucian and Sloane ...and Simon Walton have my heart, ugly cried. A beautiful story and an easy 5*.

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saramariebt's review against another edition

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funny hopeful lighthearted fast-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

4.5

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sami_leigh's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟/5
🌶️🌶️🌶️.5/5

It was strange, having a secret with the boy I’d once loved and now sharing it with the man I couldn’t stand.

I should be the one sitting across the table from her. I should be the one taking her home, waking up next to her. Reading what she was reading. Yelling at the evil cat. It should be me in her life.

And for the first time in my life, I felt like the hero instead of the villain.

“Loving you has been a touchstone for more than half my life.”

🌸 First person dual POV
🌸 Enemies to lovers
🌸 Second chance / childhood friends
🌸 Both have secrets & stories behind their mutual hatred
🌸 Representation of working through trauma and anxiety associated growing up in domestic abuse
🌸 Nickname 🥹
🌸 Found family
🌸 Banter 👌🏻
🌸 Tension & spice 🥵
🌸 Small town vibes
🌸 ‘Touch her and I’ll kill you’ vibes
🌸 He. Falls. HARD.
🌸 Well established secondary characters; Knox & Daisy (Book 1), Waylay (Book 1), Nash & Lina (Book 2), Stef & Jeremiah, Emry, Maeve.
🌸 MC growth; overcoming past trauma, trust, risking a relationships & family, priorities, communication, self worth.
🌸 Epilogue
🌸 Bonus epilogue 10 years later

Available in audiobook, ebook and paperback.

⚠️ Violence (moderate), gun violence (explicit), death of a parent (past), death, blood (minor), parental abandonment, medical trauma (moderate), cancer (past, not MC), domestic abuse (past).

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lizzie_b99's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.25

I haven't read the second title in the Knockemout series, but I definitely preferred this one to the first novel. Given their extensive history together, Sloane and Lucian's relationship seemed much more believable to me than Naomi's and Knox's (not that I don't love them, I do, the ending just seemed a bit fast given the time frame). I love Sloane/Lucian's banter and chemistry, and damn is this book steamy! I would have liked the epilogues to be a little more drawn out

so that we could see a bit more of the life Sloane/Lucian build together. It felt a little rushed, like we got the precis of the main events in everyone's lives before the series was drawn to a close. Given the jump in time and the new characters who are introduced, the extended epilogue could have been a bit longer.

I do wish Score would expand upon Jeremiah and Stef's relationship and Maeve and

Kurt's

. I think these could potentially be turned into their own novels, which would add to the diversity of the series since as is it focuses on the relationships of straight white people. Maybe Score felt like those weren't her stories to tell, but I would've liked to see more from those characters.

My main critique is that the ending seemed a bit fast. I expected the final confrontations with Hugo to be a bit more drawn out. Some of the writing in this section leaned a little too heavily on tropes/stereotypical bad guy vs good guy dialogue than I'd like. Also, although the novel frames it in a cutesy, proof of love sort of way, Lucian's refusal to leave Sloane alone (despite her numerous objections) after the library fire made me uncomfortable. We're supposed to root for him because it's a romance novel, but if anyone acted like Lucian did in real life we'd call them a stalker and a danger to the person they "loved". I wish the other characters objected more to Lucian's behaviour at this point because refusing to give a person the space they ask for is not an expression of love.

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