Things We Hide From The Light Paperback – January 1, 2023

I loved Nash and Lina’s beautiful romantic comedy and mild suspense tale. The book is well written and includes three dimensional characters who grow, witty dialogue and an engaging storyline. Nash is the police chief in small town Knockemout. He was recently the victim of a shooting on the job and is struggling emotionally and physically with his recovery. Lina was Nash’s brother, Knox’s, college girlfriend 20 years ago and is in town for a few weeks to visit Knox and for her “insurance” job. There are a lot of secrets, scars and unpacked baggage between Nash and Lina. Neither of them are currently looking for a relationship but sometimes life gives you what you need even if you do not know what that is. To get to their HEA, Nash and Lina will need to do a lot of baggage unpacking and breathe through the resulting epiphanies all the while trying to catch the shooter. They have to learn that “we’re each responsible for our own damn mess. And we’re each responsible for doing what it takes to be better.” This well crafted and beautifully delivered story grabs you from the first sentence and keeps you a willing captive until the happy ending. This book has a little bit of everything - sweet moments, fan your face steam, painful pasts, strong friendships, crazy families, danger, mystery, snort worthy moments, and so much love. Expect to feel all the feels with this one - laughing, crying, swooning, gritting your teeth, yelling at the characters, knuckle biting, and rolling your eyes. As usual with this author, there are wonderful well developed secondary characters who help to round out the greatness of the story. Plus there is a cute but skittish rescue dog. I am looking forward to reading Sloane and Lucian’s book next.

Score has a way of making a fictional world come alive in vivid color, and there's none more lively than Knockemout, VA. For a small town, this place is full of excitement, with colorful characters that make you want to keep reading just to see what happens to them.Nash Morgan, chief of police, hasn’t been himself since being shot on the job. Despite still healing from his injury, he takes the job of protecting his town seriously, yet it's all he can do to show up and go through the motions. That is, until he gets to know his new neighbor. Just being in her orbit calms him and makes him feel alive.Lina Solavita is in town temporarily, until she can complete the assignment for the insurance company she works for, and her investigation has lead her to Knockemout. It helps that her good friend and the guy she dated for a minute in college, Knox Morgan, lives there since it gives her a cover for being in town without having to reveal her hand.There's a lot to love about this one, but there were some things I was unimpressed by. Although it took until past halfway for things to get steamy, once they started it seemed like Lina and Nash were constantly going at it so much that it felt gratuitous and really didn’t move the story along. (This will be a plus for some of you.😉) I was disappointed that Lina was the fix for Nash's issues rather than him working things out on his own and for himself, and some of the male-female power struggles were tiring. Then there's the nod to inclusivity, and I’ll be glad when the handful of contemporary romance writers who have changed their writing this way realize that by including controversial topics not pivotal to a story, they're excluding a whole group of readers who have a different viewpoint.There were enough things that still made this a fun read for me. I love the quirks, charm, and uniqueness of small-town Knockemout, and the geriatric neighbor, Mrs. Tweedy, is pure comic gold. She's freaking brilliant and stole most every scene she was in. The rest of the characters are larger than life, authentic, and relatable, with bad-a$$ Lina being my favorite. The excitement of the drama and suspense had me on the edge of my seat and putting the book down at this point wasn’t even a consideration. I’m talking epic, and Lina really shines here. And the epilogue? It's the sweetest, most heartfelt but still humorous cherry on top of this phenomenal romance sundae. And trust me, you’re going to want to get your hands on the bonus epilogue!All in all, this is a fun, entertaining read full of laugh-out-loud humor and tons of touching, relatable emotion. You'll be charmed by the town of Knockemout and fall head over heels for the people there. Full of heart, heat and humor, this one will give you hours of enjoyment during your reading escape.

This was one of my highly anticipated releases in 2023, and I was not disappointed!We head back to Knockemout for book 2, featuring Knox’s college girlfriend Lina and his brother, Nash. And let me just say, I did NOT expect to love this book as much as I did, and I did not expect to fall in love with Nash the way that I did, and I did not expect to love Knockemout more than I already did. So needless to say, this book was everything I needed it to be and more, and I can’t wait to return to Knockemout later this year for book 3!This book opens just weeks after the end of Things We Never Got Over, where Nash is still trying to heal from his wounds… and Lina is still in town “visiting” her friend Knox while working “in insurance.” I love how Lucy Score weaves romance, drama, and quite a few twists throughout this series, while also bringing in some lighthearted humor.“Baby’s breath is stupid. Fight me.”“Until I got here and met Nashhole.”“What’s happening? Did the fat blob just punch Nash? Who are the other two blobs?”Like I mentioned, I ended up loving Nash and Lina, and I loved them together. Nash is having a hard time recovering from his gunshot wounds, being the natural protector that he is. He wants to keep everyone safe, and he’s doubting himself because he couldn’t even keep himself safe. He wears the weight of the world on his shoulders and wants to do the right thing for everyone, but especially for his family and his community.Lina is fighting her own demons. Her own trauma erected walls around her life so that she remained firmly in control of things, but those walls ended up shutting out all the good relationships that could’ve blossomed, leaving Lina feeling lonely while clinging to her independence. It’s a struggle for her to let go of her control to let anyone in, let anyone touch her (both physically and emotionally), which becomes impossible when she moves next door to Nash.“I live alone and I like it. I hate sharing the remote. I like not having to consult with someone else before ordering dinner. I don’t want to have to move the seat of my car every time I drive. The idea of passing my decisions through an ‘us’ filter leaves me feeling vaguely nauseated. I love my parents but their constant need to check up on me drives me insane, and that problem could become yours if this goes anywhere. I like to splurge on clothes and shoes, and I’m unwilling to justify that. I get up early and I work a lot. I don’t want to have to change that to accommodate someone else.”Nash waited a beat. “Okay then. The only TV I watch is the occasional football game. The remote can be yours the rest of the time. I don’t mind cooking, but if you tell me you want takeout burgers, I’ll get you takeout burgers. I promise to always move your seat back to the original position after I drive. I wouldn’t mind having some nosy parents worry about me for a change. I like the way you dress just fine so I’ve got no problems with your shopping habits. Long as you let me spoil you once in awhile. As for the schedule thing, I think you’re just reachin’ because, Angel, I’m a cop. Enough said. And when it comes to making decisions together, I need a say in your personal safety. I expect you to want a say in mine. Any decisions that affect us together, we make together.”Nash won’t take no from Lina, but he’s the MOST respectful he can be about it (swoony for sure). I love how Nash wants to have the conversations and be on the same page so that there is no misunderstanding regarding their relationship. While he does do some of the dumb stuff men do, like push her away when he thinks he’s becoming dependent on their relationship, these two match each other step for step along the way.“For the record, this is you pushing me away and this is me sticking.”I love that they both found what they needed, and they both pushed back. The tension between them screamed off the page, and I love that even their physical relationship came secondary to that tension, the push-and-pull. While their physical relationship was SO GOOD, it was everything else that made me love this book!“Listen to me, baby. You freak out all you want. I’ll still be here when you’re done.”It would be a disservice not to mention the town of Knockemout and the secondary characters in this story. One of my other favorite things about Lucy is that she creates a WORLD for each of her books, and that world just feels so full of love and hope and gratitude and friendship that you can’t help but want the same thing in your own life. That’s true within the pages of Things We Hide From the Light as well. The Knockemout PD (and how Piper wandered around the bullpen to get treats) and the U.S. Marshal inserting himself into the community and how residents show up for businesses like the cafe and Honky Tonk and the gym and the library and everyone who showed up to the school for career day and the various community events like the library… it truly adds up to something special that makes you just love these people even more. Not to mention that ALL THE LOVE is on display in these pages… makes the world seem like a more hopeful place than it can be IRL, and I’m not complaining at all.“Friends make friends better.”Rating: 5 big, fat, heart-eyed stars from me