Things We Never Got Over (Knockemout Book 1)

The book gave me that sad, nostalgic feeling of "wow that was a really beautiful book."1) The book is a beautiful story about overcoming trauma - specifically fears about falling in love. This happens for a lot of books (I'm thinking Ugly Love as another popular romance book). But really this book has realistic trauma situations and there are so many pages that you really see the characters change and unravel from their pain points. So by the end, I really understood the two main characters (there are alternating chapter POVs!). The author explained in the note at the end that some of her friends had some tragedies happen to them while she was writing this book, and that helped her realize this book would be about choosing to love even when you know it could hurt. It's definitely the message and theme of this book so it's super good in that way. This book doubles as a therapy session tbh. In the world of mental health/relationship psychology, I would highly recommend this book. You're basically watching an anxious-avoidant relationship both become more secure (hence the title of the book: Things We Never Got Over)2) This book is too long. I'm really not kidding. The first 20 chapters should have been cut in half like at best. The author said in the author's note she did not know what the book would be about when she wrote it, I kinda see that still. It's just a lot of romance building and when I tell you the second half of the book is SOOO strong with all the conflict and juicy drama, the length of first half was not needed. Like not needed. As someone who reads a lot of scripts for shows/movies, I am a big fan that every word on a page as a writer should be earned, and so much of the beginning was truly boring to the plot. I am impressed by the original readers who kept on going and then gave the book high reviews. I truly just kept on reading because this book was talked about so much that I had to see the hype. In Hindsight, I would have read a summary online for the first half of the book and then skipped to chapter 21 and started reading the book from then on. Still would have been an over 300-page book to read.3) This should be an exciting series! The author interweaves other characters' love lives so there will be more books in the future that let us see these other characters fall in love. I am so excited cause Lucy and Sloane brought the heat that sometimes I was more engaged in their bickering than in Noami and Knox's.4) There's sunshine / grumpy love and then there's like good girl submissive energy / bad boy dominant energy love and this relationship is more the latter. Grumpy guy's usually aren't rude to the actual girl (they are more like thoughtful grumpies...like Adam Carlsen or Luke Danes). This guy at the beginning was just straight rude to the female lead. I was like now what the heck. And home girl had like no backbone to him, for 90% of this book. Like he straight disrespected her many times so I wasn't really into him as a character. I just have a distate for men treating women like garbage but then buying them gifts and so its supposed to be okay? (um no.) until of course then in the end I got more proud of him over time, but to me he's definitely a guy where he's not really my type. (But for those who read the book, I'm probably more of a girl like Sloane.) So yes just a heads up for readers, it's more of the good girl / bad boy chemistry.5) LOTS of relationship psychology and psycho-analyzing. Sometimes I liked it, other times I felt that the author copied and pasted therapy quotes online and put them into the book. As in it was very generic quotes about choosing love over fear. This book is full of a lot of emotionally unintelligent grown adults being told things they should have learned in their 20s. How have both of the leads not worked through their relationship patterns by now or been told them before? These are conversations people usually have in their 20s, but it might just be a generational thing that people are learning how to heal later. But just a heads up that characters are being told advice that seemed very young to hear for their age. They easily could have been in their 20s in terms of their behavior.Overall:Really great book about trauma and choosing love over fear! Way too long of a book, really strong second half, and would highly recommend it if you like good girl/bad boy love tropes or like relationship psychology since there is a lot of relationship psycho-analyzing that the characters do with each other.

Grumpy man who is unable to stop thinking about woman, said woman’s life turning upside down after her twin sister stole her money, car, and then found out she had an eleven year old niece! Talk about a lot going on for Naomi Witt. This story had everything I could possibly want and more from the grumpiness of Knox, Naomi trying to figure out the whirlwind mess that became her life, and somehow in the mist of all the drama, love found a way, and there were some added heartfelt moments as well as funny moments too!Right from the start, Naomi had just come out of a big mess, but just when she thought things couldn’t get any worse, her twin sister Tina, stole all of Naomi’s things, and left her to care for her niece, Waylay, who she didn’t even know existed. Add into the mix the ever so grumpy and tough Knox, who seemed to not only make Naomi angry, but frustrated both mentally and physically *wink, wink. Knox seemed annoyed yet somehow fascinated by Naomi from the way she carried herself to low key checking out her Facebook to see everything about her, to having some spicy dreams about Naomi that left him wanting her in ways he had never felt before. Not to mention, Knox downright telling Naomi to her face that she wasn’t his “type” haha very funny Knox because based off the way he acted towards her throughout the story would seem otherwise. So you could only imagine the tension that occurred between Naomi and Knox was both a pleasure and entertaining to watch unfold.I loved seeing Naomi adapt to the new changes in her life a.k.a. trying to care of Waylay and trying to be the best guardian she could be for her, especially since Tina (Waylay’s mom) never cared for her, and treated her badly. Naomi wasn’t the only one who cared for Waylay, but also Knox, Nash, Liza J, and Naomi’s parents, and the whole town of Knockemout. Having those people rally around Waylay and provide her with both love and support was so heartwarming to see. Plus you could tell that Waylay appreciated having that sense of true family around her since she never really had that to begin with. Naomi struggled in the beginning trying to grapple with ways to connect with Waylay, and provide her with all the necessities she could possibly need and want. Thankfully with the residential grumpy man that was Knox, he definitely went above and beyond to help Naomi with Waylay.Through the drama that came with Tina and trying to make sure Waylay was taken care of, Naomi had a lot on her plate, but somehow during all of it, she caught the eye of Knox. What I found so amusing with Knox was that he was aware that he was grumpy and *cough a bit rude to Naomi, but what also made me laugh was that he would sometimes complain about constantly thinking about Naomi or felt kind of annoyed having to pull her out of trouble. In all honesty though, Knox wanted to help out Naomi because he genuinely wanted to be there for her. If anything, Knox wasn’t use to the feelings that Naomi brought out in him, and therefore resorted to being his grumpy self and blamed his body’s reaction to only wanting Naomi in a purely physical way. Haha joke was on Knox because based off the chemistry he and Naomi had, their connection went beyond just physical. While I will say, the passion between those two was AMAZING (especially reading it!) the spice, the dirty talk, and pure wanting lust between was… WHOA! And of course we can’t forget how demanding and possessive Knox was over Naomi.In addition, I loved how Knox became sort of Naomi’s unofficial yet official caretaker, provider in a way. Naomi was so use to taking care of everyone from always cleaning up Tina’s messes to literally doing everything for Ex in her previous relationship, Naomi did it all! Knox saw that Naomi always put others needs before her own, and he wanted to be the one to take care of Naomi. Something in the pit of Knox’s gut just had this natural instinct of protection over Naomi, wanted to be her “hero”.This story was absolutely amazing! I loved that with each chapter, I was drawn in more by the characters, the plot, and the overall feeling I got while reading. I couldn’t put this book down, and if I wasn’t reading it, I was thinking about it constantly! I especially loved the tight knit community that was in Knockemout. How everyone helped one another, came together as a community, and the overall support everyone provided for Naomi and Waylay. This story captured my heart, Naomi and Knox definitely had some bumps in the road, but they ultimately had their “happy ending”. Just when I thought the story ended on a beautiful note, the epilogue& bonus epilogue had me weeping tears of joy. Do yourself a favor and read this book.

It's funny how at the start of writing this I'm asked "what did you like ..." because let me tell you, there's NOTHING that I didn't love in this book!I went in "blind" after it was recommended to me by a friend because she said "you will love Knox" and boy does she know me well because I fell head over heels with the growly but sweet(?) hero, Knox Morgan *happy sigh*I admit to being a bit skeptical at first about starting this book because of my limited time and it is over 500pgs 😲 but once I started, the pages just flew by.Not a page is unnecessarily written and the writing is so well done, the story just flows perfectly with zero boring or slow parts.It has a heroine who is feisty, a hero who is stubborn, a runaway bride, a couple of awesome JP moments that had me grinning (big JP fan here), scenes that had my laughing, great secondary characters who I hope to read more about soon, action, spice 🥵, ... I could continue rambling on forever about all the deliciousness crammed into Things We Never Got Over!If you haven't heard of this book, what planet are you on?!! A must read for fans of enemies to lovers and JP heroes who want something that will stay with you long after you finished the book. Sooo good I ended up getting both the eBook and audiobook (and the narrators only enhanced the book even more, which I wouldn't have thought possible but both Lila Winters and Sebastian York are exceptional as Knox and Naomi and deserve 5 stars themselves for the narration).Dual POVNo cheatingNo OW drama (kinda but not 😜)Standalone with HEA

This is the first Lucy Score book I've read.I was attracted to the cover with the daisies. It looked different to other romance books with hot men or couples. And the book is different - it has more emotional depth, more wisdom, more humour, more likeable characters and hot but flawed guys. There is a whole cast of great secondary characters and I hope there are follow up books about mysterious Lucian (Lucy) and whatever is going on with sassy Librarian Sloane and about Knox's brother Nash.Naomi's 11 year old niece has had a difficult childhood with her mum, Tina (the evil twin). But she has turned out likeable, smart, mature and funny. The relationship between her and her Aunt Naomi (the good twin) and Knox is at the heart of the book and it is heartwarming story. There are lots of people and dogs in this book who come together to protect and support Naomi and her niece - family by birth and by choice - and it makes the book feel warm, loving and fun, despite the difficult start Naomi's niece has had.I can't wait for more Knockemout books and in the meantime I will be reading more Lucy Score books!

One of those rare romances when I really felt like the heroine ended up with the wrong guy. Naomi is a sweetheart, generous kind and selfless , she deserved a decent man like Nash. Nash is tall, gorgeous, brave and has it together , but our heroine chooses his bad boy brother Knox instead. [sigh, men don't change dear] Knox is a 14 year old in a Neanderthals body, forever pushing her around. When he commits the ultimate sin - having sex with her one last time, knowing he's going to dump her straight afterwards - on the pretext that she deserves one last fabulous orgasm before he runs out on her [yep you read that correctly] - he is then dead to me for the rest of the book. The reason for his cruel behaviour? He'd lost people he loved. Well boo hoo, we all have, no excuse. I rooted for Nash I really did , but I knew it wouldn't happen. The arrogant Knox is so convinced of his irresistibility that he actually tells Naomi he's going to marry her before he even asks her. It was a real shame because its a good story but I couldn't shake the feeling that Naomi ended up with the booby prize. So I was left feeling a bit flat. I just skimmed the epilogue its too long and too cheesy.

Well how can I ignore this book when it has so many of my favourite tropes. Runaway bride, enemy to lovers, mistaken identity.This book left me at 1:30am in the morning full of human feelings as I couldn’t help but melt with the outcomes.Naomi was not only a runaway bride but constantly running to the aid of everyone else, including to the small town of Knockemount to help out her black sheep identical twin Tina out of trouble.However, this not only led her to be mistakenly constantly as Tina, feeling the anger of a whole town but to be stood toe to toe with an grumpy, tattooed, Viking looking man who got under her skin from the moment they met in a yelling match in the local cafe. One thing this book taught me is not to get in the way of Naomi or her caffeine.Naomi finds herself in a strange town, nowhere to go and an 11 year old niece to look after she never knew existed. Well this was a bumpy ride but my god my heart could not take the energy between alpha male Knox and Naomi.There was much baggage between the pair, but ultimately they needed something from each other.The side characters were freaking amazing. Waylay being a standout. From badass female pals to brooding best friends, Charming police chiefs and the grandparents of a lifetime. Plus doggos !With danger on top of figuring out a new life there was a lot to unpack but this town really rallied around Naomi and Waylay. I think the dynamics, the constant need to continue reading was so fun to read as I just didn’t want to out the books down.Some bucket holes, broken noses, a wedding dress and a love heart charm later and it was everything I didn’t know I needed. Some parts a little far fetched which is why it wasn’t quite 5 stars but woah! That will live rent free in my brain for a long time.

4.5 delicious stars!Lucy Score has absolutely excelled herself with this book, I loved every single main character and side character, I’m honestly so glad it said at the end there’s more to come from Knockemout because I’m not ready to leave this small town at all.I was gripped from the get go of being introduced to Naomi who really enters with all the drama and sass, I loved her immediately. Knox follows quickly and I absolutely loved him and their first encounter, you could feel their chemistry straight away but definitely not insta-lovey, the tension was fantastic.Waylay oh how you made me feel so much, I loved the growth she took and the huge family unit she ended up gathering along the way.Now Knox made me mad when he called things off and I gasped, voice noted my friend in outrage and had to take 5. For me there wasn’t enough grovelling on his behalf but I did like how he knew immediately he made a mistake.I want to live in Knockemout and I can’t wait for the next book whoever it may be.. I’m secretly hoping it’s Lucy and Sloane and I hope Nash gets a happily ever after too! Loved the sibling rivalry and relationship.

Grumpy/sunshine is one of my favourite tropes and this is now one of my favourites! Naomi stumbles in to town looking for her wayward sister only run into the town grump Knox. They clash immediately, he thinks she is her troublemaker sister and tries to throw her out, she’s just had the worst couple of days or her life and isn’t in the mood to take his crap. They are at odds from the start but Knox can’t help himself and tries to help Naomi sort out her sisters mess. Naomi is suddenly the guardian of her sisters 11 year old daughter and really needs all the help she can get. Knox keeps giving her mixed signals, he’s rude and doesn’t want her around but he helps her in every way possible. Naomi tries to stay out of his way, but they are constantly drawn together. They might not like each (or maybe they really do) but they can’t fight the spark between them. When Naomi’s parents turn up they pretend to be in a relationship but things become all too real and Knox can’t handle it. Tina, Naomi’s sister, brings drama and danger in to their lives. This book made me laugh, it made me cry and I didn’t want it to end. Naomi is sweet, sexy, smart and too loving for her own good. Knox is a millionaire, hot, loyal and scared of losing anyone else. They do not make sense but they do make each other whole. I can’t wait to read more of this series!