Things We Never Got Over by Lucy Score

Contemporary Romance. Standalone (So far).

Things We Never Got Over by Lucy Score popped up on my Amazon feed every single day. I loved the cover and I watched the ratings keep going up until I finally caved and bought the book.

“Oooh. Grumpy next-door neighbor. That’s one of my favorite tropes.”
“The first time he met me, he called me trash.”
“That bitch.”
“Well, technically he thought I was Tina when he was yelling at me in front of an entire cafe full of strangers.”
“That vision-impaired bitch.”
“God, I love you,” I sighed.

Naomi left her fiancé at the altar and came right to Knockemout to help her evil twin sister. Her sister made a lot of enemies on her way out of town and left Naomi with no car, no phone and no money. Oh, and she also left behind her 11 year old daughter. Unfortunately everyone in town thinks Naomi is Tina and they aren’t very nice. Especially the local barber/bartender/neighbor/lottery winner hottie, Knox.

“There’s a difference between taking care of someone because you love them and taking care of someone because you want them to love you.”

Naomi is so different from her sister and she just wants people to like her. This poor woman has SO MUCH on her plate including becoming a guardian overnight that I had trouble getting over Knox’s initial dickish behavior towards her.

If you are a Kristen Ashley fan, Things We Never Got Over will feel very familiar to you. It has a lot of similarities, from the slightly older grumpy alphahole to the awesome friend group, to the length. But I think that’s also what made this book feel more average to me. YES, I loved it and look forward to more stories from Knockemout. But there was nothing unique that wowed me or stood out about Things We Never Got Over.

“You make broken things whole again. Me. You made me whole. And every time you smile at me, I feel like I hit the lottery again.”

Note: This book is long. I think it was a little too long, especially in audio, but if I was 100% swooning over the book I would have appreciated the length more.

Likes:

Older more mature characters.
Had a Kristen Ashley feel.
I love a book with a teen kid, and I enjoyed Waylay. I wish her relationship with Naomi was explored more.
I’m a sucker for creative nicknames.
Loved the side characters.
I absolutely LOVE this cover.
Great secondary characters.

Dislikes:

The coffee obsession got too overblown. I felt like it was her whole personality.
Did we really need a Waylay and Waylon in the same book? These old eyes were easily confused when reading (until who I think is a young girl, starts barking).
I just never fully fell for Knox. I never 100% got over his bad behavior in the beginning.
The characters were all typical cookie-cutter rom-com characters, as were the tropes. There was nothing that stood out as unique.

The Down & Dirty:

If I had never read some of my favorite authors, especially Kristen Ashley, I think I would have fallen even more in love with Things We Never Got Over. I did love this book, truly. But I quickly forgot about it. Nothing stood out and made this book different or better than most of the books I read. It had a great mixture of fun, sexy, sweet and suspenseful moments, it had great side characters, banter, and I enjoyed every moment of reading it, but I’m not really seeing why this one has done so amazingly well compared to others except maybe the cover.