Even though I have several of Lucy Score’s books on my shelf, this is the first that I have read by her. Pretend You’re Mine is the first book of the Benevolence Series.
Our main characters in this book are Luke & Harper. Harper finds her boyfriend cheating on her and storms out of the house with nothing but the clothes on her back. Not thinking straight, she forgets her wallet and finds herself running out of gas in a small town with no gas money. When she pulls into a parking lot of the local bar, she finds a man beating a woman. she jumps into action(on him) and starts attacking him thinking he will stop. Unfortunately, he turns his anger onto her…in comes Luke to the rescue. Luke is in the National Guard awaiting deployment. With nowhere else to go, Harper ends up staying at his house, sharing a bed until he leaves. He made it clear that he was not interested in a relationship but quickly ended up being “friends with benefits”. Ugh!
Both of these characters have experienced a big loss. Harper lost her parents at a young age, forcing her into the foster system with some awful families. Luke tragically lost his wife/child in a car crash. Each handles their emotions differently making them perfect for each other. Don’t get me wrong, I had some serious issues with Luke. I haven’t disliked a MMC this much in a long time! I feel that Harper should have made him grovel more. He was a complete jerk and his yo-yoing with her emotions was so frustrating. Especially when Harper was so loving, funny and made some really great friendships in the short time she was there. Even though I enjoyed the epilogue, I couldn’t get over how Luke treated her.
My biggest complaint is that this book is way longer than it needed to be.
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Fake Dating
Forced Proximity
Small Town Romance
Friends With Benefits
Workplace Romance
Dual POV (3rd person)
Military Romance
One Bed
CW: Death of family members, Domestic violence, physical violence
Even though I am behind in my reviews, I would like to thank @netgalley, @read_bloom & @scorelucy for the ARC of this book for my honest review!