Lucy Score

Story of My Life

Happy Tuesday! Story of my Life is out now and it’s small town romcom perfection! I received an ARC, but all opinions are my own. 

Lucy Score came out swinging (with a dead fish) in the first addition to this new series. Honestly I am not always the hugest romcom lover anymore, but this one was romcom done right for me – full of humor, irreverence, and a whole buttload of heart. 

I loved the new in town, fish out of water vibes of city girl Hazel moving to small town Story Lake on a whim, starting over when life wasn’t going her way. She was a once popular romance author struggling with writer’s block, so when the hunky small town contractor working on the dilapidated house she bought starts to stir up some creativity in her, she asks him to keep inspiring her with a fake date, and maybe more. The banter between Hazel and Cam was hilarious, and boy were those two attracted to each other. 

I loved the romance but I also loved the supporting characters and side plot. The town was so fun and quirky, and I loved how they banned together to try to save their town. 

It felt like one part Schitt’s Creek, one part Hart of Dixie, with the close proximity, exasperated,   I-want-to-tear-your-clothes-off vibes of Nick and Jess from New Girl (all my favorite things.)

Definitely check it out if you are a fan of the author’s Blue Moon series, or just quirky small towns in general. 

I really just loved everything about this!

13 Office Romance Recs

I’m not always into office romance probably because all my years working in an office but sometimes it works! Especially if it’s an author I already like, I will still pick it up. 

And look, I get it. The late hours, the forced proximity, the power dynamics, it’s hard to resist (fictionally)! Here are some that I’ve really enjoyed. 

Tapping the Billionaire- Max Monroe

By A Thread- Lucy Score

Brooklynaire – Sarina Bowen 

Bossman Bridegroom – Meghan Quinn

The Boyfriend Project – Farrah Rochon

Faking Ms Right – Claire Kingsley

The Devil You Know – Elizabeth O’Roark 

Hate Notes – Vi Keeland & Penelope Ward 

Dating You Hating You – Christina Lauren

The Deal Maker – Jessica Peterson

Neanderthal Seeks Human – Penny Reid

King of Wall Street  – Louise Bay

Before I Ever Met You – Karina Halle

Mid Year Favorites

Whew can you believe this year is halfway done already? Like what?? 🤯

I’ve read 180 books so far this year (which I fully acknowledge is a silly amount) and here are my favorites so far! Ten 2023 releases and two backlist reads. The awesome thing is that I got to meet six of these authors this year (Lucy, Teagan, Abby, Karla, Sarina, and Christina Lauren) and hang out with book friends! How cool is that? 

Let me know if we have any in common, or if none, let me know what your favorite read(s) of the year so far!

In A Jam- Kate Canterbary 

Things We Hide From The Light – Lucy Score 

Moth – Lily Mayne (really the whole series)

Glove Save – Teagan Hunter 

R’jaal’s Resonance – Ruby Dixon

Yours Truly – Abby Jimenez 

One and Only – Karla Sorensen 

Good as Gold – Sarina Bowen 

Georgie All Along – Kate Clayborn 

Crimson River – Devney Perry 

The True Love Experiment – Christina Lauren

Berries & Greed – Lily Mayne

10 Firefighter Romance Recommendations

What do you think the sexiest (… or should I say hottest 🤭) profession is? I don’t know but firefighter has to be up there! There’s something about a man who’s willing to put his life on the line to save old ladies and kittens, you know? Plus he can carry me. 

Here are ten of my favorites!

Hero – Lauren Rowe 

Parks and Provocation – Juliette Cross 

Hot Stuff – Max Monroe 

Reason to Believe – Rebecca Yarros 

Ignite – Melanie Harlow

Make You Mine – Laura Pavlov 

The Player Next Door – KA Tucker 

Hosed – Pippa Grant and Lily Valentine 

Bailey Brothers series – Claire Kingsley  

Protecting What’s Mine – Lucy Score 

Things We Hide From the Light

Things We Hide From the Light is out Tuesday! Thank you to the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Things We Never Got Over was easily one of my top reads of the past year so to say I was excited for Things We Hide From The Light is an understatement. And thankfully, Nash and Lina’s story did not disappoint! TWHFL picks up right after TWNGO, and I do recommend reading TWNGO first – I had to skim over the last couple chapters of TWNGO to remind myself what happened.

Nash is the nicer, kinder, more upstanding Morgan brother who is still recovering from the events of TWNGO, both physically and mentally. He meets his match in Lina, his brother’s badass ex-girlfriend who becomes his new neighbor while she’s in town for reasons unknown. The chemistry between them was immediate and I loved their flirtations even as they tried to fight it – but once they gave in, boy was it molten hot. 

The magic of the author’s writing is not only in her humor, which is guaranteed to make me laugh out loud, but also in her ability to write such realistic characters and settings that you feel like you might actually stumble across this rough-around-the-edges town and hang out with these characters that feel like friends. Her characters are wonderfully flawed and make mistakes and I love how realistic that is. 

Along with the laughs, steam, and emotions, this story also had a good bit of danger and mystery that I loved watching unravel. Despite its length, I tore through the pages of this and was never bored for one second. It has all the excellent characters from TWNGO, plus we pick up a few more new friends as well and it was a delight to read them all interacting. There is not much I love more than small town shenanigans and Knockemout has those in spades.

I was left with a smile on my face and a blush on my cheeks and I just really enjoyed the ride from start to finish. There’s a reason Lucy Score is one of my all time favorite authors and this story just cements that even more. 

Things We Never Got Over

At a very high level, this is a book about Naomi (the good twin), who finds herself stranded in a small town after her sister (the bad twin) steals her car, her money, and leaves her with an 11 year old niece she never knew about. Grumpy and emotionally shut off Knox, the tattooed local business owner who finds out and helps her, can’t stay away from his new neighbor despite his better instincts.

This is a romance of course, but it’s also a story of family (found and blood), a story of finding yourself when life doesn’t turn out as expected, a story of community and letting new people in.

The author has a way of creating these believable characters and realistic settings that it feels like you could really wander into Knockemout and get a coffee at Cafe Rev from Justice. Is Knox the perfect man? No. Of course not, because he’s wonderfully flawed as all humans are and I appreciate that.

I was sucked in from the very beginning and read it in less than 24 hours. This was a read while you’re cooking dinner, stay up too late reading, cancel your Sunday plans ‘cause you’ve got a book to binge kind of read for me. Rock Bottom Girl will always have a very special place in my heart, but objectively I think this is the best book Lucy Score has ever written.

It made me laugh, it made me cry, but most importantly it left me feeling happy and hopeful. I highly, highly recommend this one, I read it nine days into the year and it’s already on track to be my 2022 favorite.

By a Thread by Lucy Score

I grabbed this one from Kindle Unlimited. I’m already a big Lucy Score fan and wanted to read this immediately. It took a while until I had time but I finally got there!

My (quick) take:

There is nothing I love more than witty banter and this book has it in spades. Also tons and tons of heat and sparks, a strong bad ass heroine, and a soft hearted (underneath his hard candy shell) bossman hero. 4 stars

Blurb (stolen from Goodreads):

Dominic
I got her fired. Okay, so I’d had a bad day and took it out on a bystander in a pizza shop. But there’s nothing innocent about Ally Morales. She proves that her first day of her new job… in my office… after being hired by my mother.

So maybe her colorful, annoying, inexplicably alluring personality brightens up the magazine’s offices that have felt like a prison for the past year. Maybe I like that she argues with me in front of the editorial staff. And maybe my after-hours fantasies are haunted by those brown eyes and that sharp tongue.

But that doesn’t mean that I’m going to be the next Russo man to take advantage of his position. I might be a second-generation asshole, but I am not my father.

She’s working herself to death at half a dozen dead-end jobs for some secret reason she doesn’t feel like sharing with me. And I’m going to fix it all. Don’t accuse me of caring. She’s nothing more than a puzzle to be solved. If I can get her to quit, I can finally peel away all those layers. Then I can go back to salvaging the family name and forget all about the dancing, beer-slinging brunette.

Ally
Ha. Hold my beer, Grumpy Grump Face.

Author’s Note: A steamy, swoony workplace romantic comedy with a grumpy boss hero determined to save the day and a plucky heroine who is starting to wonder if there might actually be a beating heart just beneath her boss’s sexy vests. 

Protecting What’s Mine- Lucy Score

My Take:

I loved this book so hard. Dr. Mack and Chief Linc were so perfect for each other- each is strong, daring, and smart mouthed. The Wonder Woman to his Superman. It was very steamy, very funny, but also very emotionally charged. It’s a perfect balance between humorous and heartfelt. Mackenzie is not perfect, nor does she claim to be and I appreciate her journey. Linc however might be the perfect man- jacked, tattooed, loves children and dogs, and will run into a burning building to save you.

I didn’t realize this was part of a world I already knew until Mack ran into Aldo. It’s my favorite book about Benevolence by far. 5 enthusiastic stars!

Blurb:

If you can’t stand the heat, don’t fall for a firefighter…
Fire Chief Lincoln Reed is known for his heroics in the fire department and in the bedroom. Life is a never-ending good time. Until she lands in the middle of the accident scene he’s working…and then his backyard. Too bad she’s immune to flirty first responders.

Flight trauma surgeon Mackenzie O’Neil is on a crash course with burnout. She’s got a scar on her face and a shake in her hands. A temporary job as a small-town family physician is just the prescription. She’ll learn to meditate. Sleep more. Take up gardening.

She definitely won’t take her shirtless, firefighting neighbor’s hot body for a test drive.

But Linc and his tattoos are very persuasive. What’s a harmless little adrenaline-fueled fling between neighbors? It’s all naked fun and games until the shadows from Mack’s past find their way into her present. Can Linc be her hero when she needs him the most or will their scars ruin everything?

One thing is certain: Someone is going to get burned.

Highball Rush- Claire Kingsley (with Lucy Score)

Where to begin! It’s hard to review this book because I don’t want to reveal any secrets on accident, but I will say this: this is a perfect ending to a perfect series (See my review for book five here). All the questions you’ve had throughout the series are answered. Gibson’s in the running for my favorite Bodine but it’s a three way tie at this point with Jameson and Jonah. So many great options there. This book, and series, are so full of heart and love. Sure, there is mystery and humor aplenty, but it really comes down to love and family. I can’t recommend it highly enough

Highball Rush is Now Available. $2.99 | Free with Kindle Unlimited 

Universal → www.books2read.com/highballrush 

Amazon US → https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07T9TZ9RP

Amazon UK → https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07T9TZ9RP

Amazon C → https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B07T9TZ9RP

Amazon AU →https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B07T9TZ9RP

Official Blurb:

Gravel-voiced Gibson Bodine takes his lone wolf image seriously. The tough guy. The bad boy. He lives alone. Works alone. His one love—besides starting a good brawl—is sitting on a rinky-dink stage in a backwoods bar playing guitar and singing about things he’ll never have.

When a video of him playing goes viral, Gibson ignores the unwanted attention. He’s got bigger things to worry about. Like the bomb his half-brother’s mom just dropped on him. And the fallout from the memento he’s been carrying around for thirteen years. 

He doesn’t have time for fame… or love… or meddling neighbors stopping by with casseroles and questions.

But one night in a bar, fifty miles from home, he meets her. And she changes everything.

In Bootleg Springs—home of the best moonshine and nosiest neighbors in West Virginia—secrets don’t keep. When the truth about Callie Kendall’s fate brings danger home, it’s up to Gibson to step up and be the hero. And maybe find what he’s been missing all along.

Love.

The Bootleg Springs series is now complete.
Binge read all six books today. FREE with Kindle Unlimited.

Join the fun, experience Bootleg Springs, solve a mystery!
Enter the giveaway → http://bit.ly/2LDXuzB

Listen to the Highball Rush playlist → https://spoti.fi/2YbZIfF

Read an excerpt → http://bit.ly/2LCBe9C 

Check out FREE Bootleg Springs activities → http://bit.ly/2SxBfMm 

Start the series with book 1, Whiskey Chaser by Lucy Score with Claire Kingsley
Amazon Universal → www.books2read.com/whiskeychaser 

Add to Goodreads → http://bit.ly/2M17D8T 

Save to BookBub → http://bit.ly/30DsraD 

Read an excerpt → https://bookandmainbites.com/story/36646

Gin Fling- Lucy Score (w/Claire Kingsley)

(ARC REVIEW) Gin Fling returns us to the world of Bootleg Springs and the Bodine family, and it is a gosh-darn delight. I love this family and this town so much. There is so much humor, heart, family, and moonshine throughout the first five books, with a mystery unraveling across each. It’s so rare to find the perfect combo and balance between mystery, humor, and romance.  I’m not sure how much to say without giving away the plot of the overarching mystery, but let’s just say it took another intriguing turn this book and I am on the edge of my seat waiting for the 6th book to come out next month.

Jonah is my favorite Bodine so far, but I’m willing to fall in love with Gibson next as well.  I’ve been anxiously waiting for Jonah’s story from the beginning, and he did not disappoint. He is such a calming presence,and the perfect balance to Shelby’s more unsettled lifestyle. He’s supportive without overwhelming or overpowering. I was so glad he got some of the answers he was looking for. Shelby’s on her own journey and I always appreciate an intelligent, confident weirdo.

Do yourself a favor and check out not only this book, but the four before it, so you too can travel to the world of Bootleg Springs. 5/5 Stars.