Finally Mine: A Small Town Love Story

By: Lucy Score

Narrated by: Melissa Moran

Length: 11 hrs and 30 mins

Publisher's summary

Who is he if not a hero?
Aldo Moretta has always been the hero. The strongest, the fastest, the bravest. He fought for his country and built a thriving business in his hometown. With friends and family never more than a few blocks away, there was just one thing he was missing. The right girl.

She’d fallen for the wrong guy. The bad guy. But now that she’s finally free, Aldo isn’t going to miss his second chance. Not until his last deployment goes horribly wrong. He was prepared to give his life, but he wasn’t ready for an injury that takes a piece of him. How can he be her hero now?

Who is she if not a victim?
Gloria Parker walked away from a relationship that almost cost her her life. But the shame clings to her like a shadow. She’s wasted 10 long years on the wrong man. When the right one returns home scarred and broken, she sees a kindred spirit. But as Gloria rebuilds her life, brick by brick, she wonders if she’s cut out for love. Real love.

Will they find a way to heal together or will their wounds keep them from the happiness they both crave?

Publisher’s Note: Finally Mine is the companion novel to Pretend You’re Mine, Harper and Luke’s story. It can be listened to as a standalone.

©2018 That's What She Said Publishing, Inc. (P)2019 That's What She Said Publishing, Inc.

Great Story

Love the reality of those facing their own demons from Abuse and tragedy with scars left behind, and still over coming the damage from those lessons. I enjoyed the narrators voice, the only thing that would have made even better was to have a male narrator to enhance the story.

Aldo Finally!!!

This book was so worth the wait. Three years in the making, and expectations were high. Lucy didn’t let us down. This is probably my favorite book of the year. Definitely a top read. I have a lot of military people in my family so I’m always partial to military storylines. Aldo is one of my favorite book Heroes ever. Watching Aldo and Gloria overcome so much, and grow together was wonderful. Gloria coming into her own was heart warming. This is a great story of courage and strength and facing your fears. I’m so glad this didn’t stay a novella like it was originally planned. I can’t wait to return to Benevolence again when the next book comes out.

Finally Mine

After meeting Aldo and Gloria in Book 1, I was excited to read their story. I knew they would both be damaged in different ways and I live redemption storylines. This was everything I wanted and more. It had a good balance of flirting and chasing at the beginning then healing after tragedy and finally getting the love they deserved.

This timeline and story overlaps with Pretend You’re Mine by can be read as a standalone.

great book to bicycle too

loved it. I listened to it while bike riding and made huge progress in my daily distance. kept me interested and laughing out loud from time to time.

After finishing Pretend You’re Mine, I needed more!

Perfect companion novel and I love Harper and Luke and Gloria and Aldo. Truly Aldo is a great love interest guy, crushing over here!

wonderful

I distinctly remember the first three days after my marriage ended. Everything in the house broke at once and I was a 25 year old single mother to two children. I'd spent the last five years giving every part of my soul to a man who shredded it to pieces.

Why had I stayed through abuse? Why did I allow him to abuse my children? Why wasn't I strong enough to walk away? Why had I given 5 years of my life to a man who manipulated and abused me.

Grief.
Guilt.
Anger.
Relief.

9 months later, I met my "Aldo", and the subsequent whirlwind of emotions had me contemplating ending the relationship far too often. Maybe I was making a mistake. Maybe I was rushing things. Maybe I was falling in love with another man who would end up abusing me too. I spent so much time doubting every interaction and overanalyzing every situation.

Suffice it to say, I found Gloria extremely relatable and the book was a beautiful insight into a relationship after abuse.

Aldo, who has loved Gloria for 10 years, acknowledges that she doesn't need someone to "fix" her, she needs to learn she can stand in her own two feet—that she is strong and worthy. He decides to patiently wait for her as she heals from a decade-long abusive relationship.

His plans change when he comes home from Afghanistan with a debilitating injury—he feels like he is no longer good enough for the woman he has loved since high school.

Finally Mine is a book about vulnerability, love, heartbreak, and healing. Aldo and Gloria are both lovable and relatable.

What's stops this from being a 5 star book is how much of it is copied from Pretend You're Mine. Instead of simply expanding on the time-line with different perspectives, many of the scenes are repeated dialogue from the first Benevolence book.

Overall, I really enjoyed getting to know Aldo and Gloria better.

Can’t Get Enough of this Beautiful Town

I am so glad I stumbled into this tiny town of benevolence! This second book of the series is so beautiful and heartfelt! I just love the story of Aldo and Gloria. I love how Lucy weaves in the story of book 1 from a different perspective. I also was intrigued how she showed through this couple the subtle similarities between a war veteran, and a victim of domestic violence. The way that that these two lovers together, and just are so meant for each other is a wonderful spry to be engrossed in. I especially loved their little kitten, and wondered if the author is secretly spying on me and took a video of our our Toast Ed Marshmallow! Describe the little hell-raiser to a T!

Healing and strength

Lucy Score has got to be one of my new favorite authors. I don’t care that her books are “predictable” or that they follow the same trajectory of the modern romance. She does is flawlessly. She mixes the perfect amount of spice, angst, heartbreak, redemption, healing, passion and swoon. She is brilliant and I can’t wait to read more of her and the third book in this series.

I enjoyed it a lot - even with the abuse storyline

(Note - I'm always 100% anti abuse storylines. I gave this a chance and I'm very glad I did!!! The author worked with it very appropriately and well)

This book is good - emotional, sure, but good. I realized only just before starting that it was the second book in the Benevolence series, but it is truly a stand-alone. You don't need to know the other characters or their story before reading. Yes, you learn a little bit about what happens to them, but it doesn't spoil it like some series out there!

I don't consider myself too overly emotional (watching movies or reading books), so maybe someone else reading this book will find it harder than I did. If you find books and movies make you tear up or you have a hard time when there is a warning on a book, please take that to heart with this one. It starts out with the main character trying to pull herself out of a 10-year extremely physically (and emotionally) abusive relationship! She has gone through hell and Lucy Score really seems to be able to capture the victim mentality and why she didn't try harder to leave or seek help sooner. (She does a good job with this party of the story.)

Aside from this, the main characters have a bit of mutual attraction in high school, but the man Gloria ends up with (for 10 years) takes possession of her instead, because he gets there first. She can never escape, until the start of this book. Because of the way he is, no one else dares to get in the way. Aldo, gives up and just hopes, from the sidelines, that one day she'll be available again and he will get his chance. He goes about his life but never gets seriously involved with another woman, so that if Gloria is ever there, he can step in! He joins the reserves, and is about to deploy for the 4th time when it finally happens... They manage one single kiss before he goes - and then everything goes wrong while he's overseas. Will she still want a damaged man after all she has been through, when he does eventually come home?


I happened across another review for this book as I was starting and going to add it to my Goodreads "in progress" reading list - someone that had posted it and said that they only got 15% in and DNF because of the abuse and why didn't the hero step in sooner if he was interested in her from the beginning (in HIGH SCHOOL)?? Seriously, there are a lot of factors and Lucy Score did an extremely good job with the entire story and it sounds like she did a lot of research on how this type of relationship occurs in the real world and why victims aren't able to escape any sooner, and both the victim and abuser are able to hide the true horror from the outside. She couldn't escape and anyone that isn't in the couple don't know or understand exactly what happens behind closed doors - the hero didn't know how bad it was and that anyone needed to get more involved, and thought they were truly happy together.

Please give this book a chance, certainly more than 15% in! It is incredible and so very well written, and a fantastic story! Now I have to go back and read "Pretend Your Mine" to get the first-hand story of the other characters, because the parts we got in this book are so intriguing!

amazing

i loved it! This book took me away to a different world. definitely worth it!!