Pretend You're Mine

by Lucy Score

Overview

From the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of Things We Never Got Over

I only wanted to protect you…

Luke Garrison is a hometown hero, a member of the National Guard ready to deploy again. He's strong, sexy, broody. The last thing he's looking for is a woman to ruin his solitude. When the wildly beautiful Harper stumbles into his life, though, he realizes that she's the perfect decoy. A fake girlfriend to keep his family off his back until he's deployed.

So what if kissing her sends his mind to wicked places? He can control himself. Can't he?

Harper was on her way to starting a new life… again. But something about Luke makes her want to settle down in this small town and make his house a home. When she's in his arms, she finally knows what it's like to feel safe. Protected.

One night of sharing a bed turns into something much, much more… and soon Luke can't keep his mind off Harper's wide gray eyes or his hands off her luscious curves. He never thought he'd feel this way about a woman again. But he knows that he can't tell her the truth about his dark past. And she can't reveal what she's running from.

At least this isn't a real relationship. It's only for a month. It's only pretend. Until it isn't…

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781728282565
Publisher:	Sourcebooks
Publication date:	09/30/2022
Series:	Lucy Score's Benevolence Series , #1
Pages:	480
Product dimensions:	7.90(w) x 4.90(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Lucy Score is an instant #1 New York Times bestselling author of contemporary romance. She grew up in a literary family who insisted that the dinner table was for reading and earned a degree in journalism. 

Her books have been translated into thirty languages and her international bestseller Things We Never Got Over has been optioned for television.

She writes full-time from the Pennsylvania home she and Mr. Lucy share with their opinionated cat, Cleo. When not spending hours crafting unforgettable characters, Lucy can be found reading books other people wrote, snacking, and sometimes even working out.

Editorial Reviews

2024-01-20
A down-on-her-luck woman agrees to pose as the girlfriend of a member of the Army National Guard who’s about to be called up.

Harper didn’t intend to end up in Benevolence, Maryland, but that’s what happens when you storm out of your apartment post-breakup without your phone or wallet. When she gets off the highway looking for a pay phone to call her college roommate, she sees a man assaulting his girlfriend in a parking lot and quickly intervenes. Luke Garrison, who comes across the scene as the guy is slugging Harper, admires her tenacity; he and his sister, Sophie, offer to help Harper get back on her feet, but first she has to make it through the night without money for a hotel or even gas to put in her car. Luke offers to let Harper stay with him, and—of course—there’s only one bed. Which they share. Though there’s a palpable attraction between them, they behave. The next morning, Sophie comes up with an idea: Why doesn’t Harper pose as Luke’s girlfriend to get his meddling family off his back? She’d only have to do it for a month, till his unit deploys to Afghanistan, and it’ll give her a place to stay while she figures out the next steps for her life. Big feelings abound as angst is piled on top of angst. Between Harper’s repressed desire to be loved while maintaining her independence and Luke’s unaddressed grief, which makes him lash out in truly hurtful ways, there are many moments of emotional whiplash. Everyone here needs therapy, but instead, the main romantic couple defaults to extremely poor communication styles, toxic behavior patterns, and lax boundary setting. A happily-ever-after between Luke and Harper feels like a bad idea for both of them. Even the small-town environment is a downer, with a slew of misogynistic side characters.

An uphill battle.

Kirkus Reviews