Pretend You’re Mine: A Small Town Love Story (Benevolence Book 1) by Lucy Score

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…

My Review

This book is filled with love, family, and tears. There are profound moments of true love and moments of heart-wrenching misery. This story was so amazing, and I loved how the author incorporated the military, small town, and all the feels in this story.

This book starts with an introduction to Harper, but it is from her point of view. She has had a bad breakup and is running without her belongings. She runs out of fuel in the small town of Benevolence, Maryland. Wow, Harper is badass taking on a stranger to help out women in distress. 

I love that the authors give us the name of the establishment in the storyline. Luke is a soldier in the Army National Guard. Luke comes to her rescue. She also meets some friendly town folks. She also meets Sophie; I think she is Lukes sister. Sophie is kind-hearted and confident. Their chance meeting turns into an act of kindness.

Will he stay in her life? What is her past? If her cot or checkup is anything to go by, she has had issues before. His sister comes up with a great fake relationship plan. But he is set to deploy in like a month, and Harper is kinda a mess. 

Things almost get steamy as their carnal desires take over their brains. The authors say it ideally “men get stupid around women.” In this case, Luke’s brain says one thing, and something else says a different thing, but he has a history we don’t know about yet. We do find out more about Harper’s past. 

This book does get steamy finally and sad. I was surprised just as I thought this book would wreck me, the author added to the storyline. I love the back story we finally get, but it is not happy; instead, it is super devastating. I ought this story would get better once he was home, but rather it gets even more heartbreaking. 

Ladies, be prepared to ugly cry through this book; some portions are heart-wrenching. 

This book does end happy, and I noticed this Benevolence series goes on to other characters we know and love. 

If you would like to read Pretend You’re Mine by Lucy Score you can find this book on Amazon. As an Amazon Associate, I earn on qualifying purchases.

If you like this book you may also like books with these tags and categories Contemporary Romance, Military and Small Town.