Synopsis:
Escaping her seemingly perfect wedding, Naomi Witt arrives in rough-around-the-edges Knockemout, Virginia, running to the rescue of her estranged twin, Tina.
Too bad for Naomi her evil twin hasn’t changed at all.
After helping herself to Naomi’s car and cash, Tina leaves her with something unexpected: the 11-year-old niece she didn’t know she had. Now she’s stuck in town with no job, no plan, no home and a whole lot of extra responsibility.
There’s a reason local barber Knox doesn’t do complications or high-maintenance women, especially not the romantic ones. But since Naomi’s life imploded right in front of him, the least he can do is help her out of her jam. And just as soon as she stops getting into trouble, he can leave her alone and get back to his peaceful, solitary life.
At least that’s the plan, until their lives begin to entwine in ways they never imagined . . .
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Tropes:
- He Falls First
- Small Town
- Grumpy X Sunshine
- Age Gap
- Workplace Romance
- Runaway Bride
I’m no stranger to the work by Lucy Score having read By a Thread and Forever Never earlier this year. I was left slightly deflated after reading those books as I had high expectations for the author seeing as I’d heard such great things about her Knockemout Series. As you can imagine, I was slightly nervous about reading the Knockemout series for my letter T of the A-Z Reading Challenge, especially since I’d recently seen mixed things about the series.
Things We Never Got Over (TWNGO) follows Naomi who visits the town of Knockemout to help her twin sister Tina who is seemingly in trouble. Only when Naomi arrives, she discovers that Tina has a daughter and has stolen Naomi’s belongings and left her daughter with her.
Naomi struggles to navigate through town, as everyone believes her to be Tina, the conniving con artist, who causes nothing but trouble.
After realising Tina has taken off with all of her belongings, Naomi is stranded in Knockemout with no choice but to look after her new niece.
Whilst navigating through town, she is met with the grumpy bar/bartender Knox who also believes her to be Tina. Once Naomi convinces him that she’s not her juvinelle sister, Knox provides Naomi with help in the new town she’s residing in.
Tension quickly brews between the pair, but Knox puts a stop stating that he doesn’t do relationships – leading the pair to embark on a sex only relationship.
After spending time in Knockemout for a few weeks, Naomi decides it’s time to contact her parents to reveal they have a granddaughter.
Following their first one night stand, Knox and Naomi are interrupted by her parents who arrive in Knockemout to meet their granddaughter.
Naomi’s parents jump to the conclusion that her and Knox are dating following the end of her relationship with her fiancé, who was revealed to be starting to abuse her. This prompts Knox to jump in and agree that they are dating, before suggesting to Naomi that they embark on a fake relationship.
The pair begin to navigate their new fake relationship, whilst working to obtain custody of Waylay. As the pair continue their fake relationship, they become close friends, leading Naomi to believe she’s not good enough.
The cottage where Naomi and Waylay are residing in is broken into, suspected by Tina who ransacks the cottage in an attempt to find something. Knox becomes protective of Naomi and Waylay, leading Naomi to become more confused by her feelings.
Knox becomes scared of his feelings and cuts off his arrangement with Naomi, following a visit to his father, who Naomi unawaringly meets.
After their fake dating breakup, Naomi is devastated, after believing that they could’ve been something and that Knox truly liked her. Naomi must put in a brave face, as she has to continue working at the bar Knox owns. The small town of Knockemout side with Naomi and begin freezing Knox out over breaking up with Naomi.
When Naomi starts her shift, she is sucker punched at the sight of Knox kissing a woman who is revealed to be called Lina. Naomi is approached by Lina who asks her to go for drinks in an attempt to explain. Reluctantly, Naomi goes with Lina, where she reveals that she herself was a previous “not girlfriend” of Knox.
Knox’s brother Nash is shot and left in critical condition. This leads Knox to be worried about his brothers survival as it is revealed that a Knox won the lottery and tried to give money to support his brother, who used the money to fund the local police station, causing a rift between the pair.
After speaking to Lina, Knox reveals his truth to Naomi and his reasonings for not dating – his mother died in a car accident, which lead to his father to turn to drugs, ultimately making Knox believe he can’t let anyone in, out of fear of being let down.
Naomi is shocked by the revelation and decides to take time to comprehend it. Only as she returns back to her shift, she’s met with her sister Tina who tricks Naomi into believing Waylay is in trouble.
Believing Waylay may be in danger, Naomi goes with Tina, but is kidnapped and taken to a warehouse where Tina’s boyfriend is demanding the handover of a USB drive with important and valuable information on it. Tina’s boyfriend is the son of a famous mafia leader, who is now attempting to pave his own way. Waylay reveals it’s hidden at the local library.
When Tina realises that her boyfriend won’t allow Waylay or Naomi to go unharmed, she comes up with a plan to switch places with Naomi, only her boyfriend isn’t that stupid enough.
After discovering that Naomi has disappeared from her shift, Knox and Nash track down where she is and attempt to save her. When they arrive, Tina and her boyfriend flee the scene to retrieve the usb from the library.
Waylay reveals that she made a copy of the USB for safe keeping and that the information stored on the usb was a list of police names, which included Nash.
After reuniting with Naomi, Knox realises he can’t be without her or Waylay and decides to reconcile and give a real relationship a go.
The story ends with Knox and Naomi marrying one another, with Waylay becoming a permanent and official part of their family, whilst becoming older sister to her adopted siblings that Knox and Naomi adopted, following her fertility issues.
I must say, I was pleasantly surprised after reading Things We Never Got Over as I enjoyed it more than any other book of Lucy Score that I’ve read.
I was worried about embarking on this book because of its length (500+ pages) and because I’d seen on TikTok a lot of people having negative opinions on it. So including these reviews with my own opinions of previous books I’ve read, I wasn’t hopeful.
I struggled initially with reading this book, whilst the settings were being laid out and the characters were being introduced. Once I hit 40% of the way in, I started to enjoy it a lot more – to the point where I lost track of time and ended up reading at 1am, something that’s rare these days. Although, I will say I definitely think she book could’ve been a lot shorter!
I loved the character development between Naomi and Knox. I wasn’t expecting the whole evil twin sister plot, but it reminded me a bit of Method of Matrimony by Anne Malcom.
After reading the first book of the Knockemout series, I’m not worried about reading the other two books. I’m looking forward to reading about Sloane and Lucian and how their love/hate relationship will pan out.
I liked how this book ended – we were able to read a full epilogue that looked into the future, mentioning all the characters in future books of the series, without spoiling who they end up with.
My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Georgia
🌷
