Things We Left Behind is the final chapter in the Knockemout series, following the tortured history of Lucian and Sloane and the tension that’s been building in previous books.

Very similar in style to the first two novels, Score once again uses the enemies to lovers trope, and it got a little overplayed. I appreciated that we didn’t have to wait the entire book for the “big secret” between our main characters, but honestly… the secret was really ho-hum. There was no rational reason these two should have hated each other as much as they did. It just didn’t seem believable. A friendship dissolving makes sense, but the hatred, no.

Overall it was entertaining. It wrapped the mini-crime thread up well enough, had the familiar and amusing banter amongst the friend circle, and of course delivered the smut the stories are known for.

*I will give a trigger warning for abuse. It’s not overly graphic, but a presence in the book for sure.

Thank you SOURCEBOOKS Bloom Books and Netgalley for this ARC copy.

This was a hard book for me for some reason. I have read the other 2 books in the series. I usually really enjoy Lucy Scores books. Sloane and Lucian have always been my favorite characters but this book felt a bit off for me. I love their charged energy and the angsty sexual tension between them. The storyline and flow of the book left me wanting for more. I didn't like the slow pace of this book and was left disappointed throughout the majority of the story. ⅗ stars. It was a good book just not great like the others that came before it. Thank you Netgalley for sharing this book with me in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to SourceBooks, Bloom, and Lucy Score for the ebook ARC and physical copy! When I tell you I screamed when I saw the email come through…

I was a little late to the Knockemout party, but man, I became obsessed real quick. I love these characters and this town so, so much. I couldn’t wait to jump back in and visit all of my favorite people. There is not a fictional town that I think about more than Knockemout. This is one of my Roman Empires, if you will.

This book was hands down my favorite of the series. I see you, Suit Daddy. Lucian is so swoony. He’s got a troubled past, but you know he’s going to give in to all of his feelings eventually, and when he does…ugh, I just want to hug him.

A nice little happy ending for all of the characters we’ve grown to love. I just wish there was more to come!

I love Lucy's newest book!

Sloane and Lucian are probably my favorite Fiesty couple from Knockemout! The library, the midnight library reference (one of my favs), Shania!!!! Ahhh so many good little bits. Loved the twists!

We know from the first two Knockemout books that Sloan and Lucian have a history. Both grew up in Knockemout. Sloan is the town’s librarian and Lucian moved away to run his business, but still comes back to Knockemout occasionally as he’s good friends with Nash and Knox.

This book mostly took place in the present, but gave us flashbacks to when Sloan and Lucian were in high school to help us understand their complicated history. I enjoyed their banter and sarcasm and the spice scenes were on point. Only complaint is that it could feel repetitive throughout the book and when comparing to the previous books in the series. The men are always overprotective and the women are always sassy and getting themselves into interesting situations. It’s easy to forget they’re in their upper 30s / lower 40s with the maturity level. With that all said, still incredibly addicting.

we've been building up to this couple for FOREVER and it lives up to all the hype!! they were sexy, bantery and absolutely delicious. i don't want to say goodbye to knockemout but what a way to say goodbye!!! lucian is sexy as hell and sloane is just like me fr i love everything lucy score has written! she continues to "knock em out!"

Alrighty, so I was not the target audience for this book. The only reason I read it was because I'm easily influenced to read hyped-up titles and I'm going to a book signing. But this was so absolutely painful to read, I was ready multiple times to call it a day and fake like I read it when I met the author. As a disclaimer, this was the first book I read by Score and it happened to be the end of the Knockemout (which I mentally pronounced as Knock-em-out for 592 pages) trilogy, so I didn't have the background and built-up anticipation for this series finale. Having finished this, however, I have no inclination to go back and read the first two books...

To continue with the roasting of this book (because I have hundreds of pages to build up animosity towards it), I disliked every single characters name. They were the whitest, most basic names that exist, e.g., Sloane, Knox, Lucian, Waylay, Nash, and even the dog's name was Waylon. The story itself felt like a glorified Colleen Hoover romance (without the abusive male protagonist), an author I have very strong opinions about. Half of the book could have been cut out as it just seemed to drag the story down. Lucian's career seemed a little farfetched so that whole story arc felt dramatic and when the happy ever ending came, everything had to fall into place.

Steamy, Slow, and Predictable, this will be my last read by this author.

P.S. The book goes faster if you skip all the NSFW sex scenes that do nothing for the plot. Believe me, you won't miss anything.

rating: 3.8 ⭐️

i feel like i have been waiting for this book since the start of the series. and it did 👏🏻 not 👏🏻 disappoint. lucy score saved the best for last.

here we finally have the story of sloane and lucian (who i will hear-by only refer to as 🖤suit daddy🖤). what we know is that these two cannot *stand* each other, but we don’t know why… UNTIL NOW. this is a small-town, friends-to-enemies-to-lovers romance and i recommend reading the other two books before this one because they lay a lot of groundwork. also, you’re missing out if you don’t.

okay here we go. i flippin love suit daddy. WHAT A SWEET SOUL MASQUERADING AS THE ANGEL OF DEATH. the little things he does for sloane’s mom — FOR SLOANE — honestly just everything about him had me swooning. and AND we get a peek into his seventeen-year-old brain in the flashbacks and it was just 🥺🥰 (i could’ve done with more flashbacks to sloane and lucian’s budding high school love but i love a good flashback). the banter between them always hits. and there’s always that sizzling undercurrent of tension. i hesitate to say this is a true enemies-to-lovers because they don’t hate each other (at all really). they just have some… baggage to work through. and them working through it is the plot, and it works incredibly well!! i was rooting so hard for them to get to the good part… i mean the things this man does in the last third of the story. you need to read this book just to get to the simping. it’s 10/10.

my one qualm is i simply do not care about the anthony hugo subplot. i read it and my eyes glaze over. i’m also like why does this dude care about these people in the small town? idk, i didn’t need it. other than that — this series is just fun! read it to have a good time, giggle, blush, feel the good things.

This book.... 𝐃𝐄𝐅𝐈𝐍𝐈𝐓𝐄𝐋𝐘 𝐎𝐍𝐄 𝐎𝐅 𝐌𝐘 𝐓𝐎𝐏 𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐃𝐒 𝐎𝐅 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟑, and one of my 𝐅𝐀𝐕𝐎𝐑𝐈𝐓𝐄 𝐂𝐎𝐔𝐏𝐋𝐄𝐒 this year. ⁣
⁣
My heart!!! What am I going to do with my life now that the series is over?!!? Lol
⁣
𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐒 𝗪𝐄 𝐋𝐄𝐅𝐓 𝐁𝐄𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐃 gave me all the feels. I laughed, swooned, cried, and HATE a certain character. Ugh. I just wanted to protect Sloane and Lucian. ⁣

Lucian and Sloane were neighbors across the street so Sloane pretty much knows Lucian more than anyone. I'm not going to say too much because I don't want to spoil anything, but Sloane did something that broke the trust between them. This totally changed their life. They were friends when they were younger, but now, they're enemies that couldn't stand each other's presence. They were both forced to be in each other's presence when Sloane's father died.

The buildup of their character development was definitely beautiful. Lucy Score saved the best for last. I do have to say the beginning was quite slow, but when it picked up, I couldn't put it down.

Highly, highly recommend this book!! This full series.

I started this series a couple of years ago, and genuinely it renewed my love for romance. I love the small town environment, the character dynamics that feel so local and intimate and homey and special, while also still being a perfect escapist read. This book though, by far my favorite of the three. We've been watching Lucian and Sloane for a while now and I didn't think their tension could be matched once we finally dove into their story, but truly this was incredible. The use of flashbacks was a perfect balance without being overdone, and the style choice really highlighted how vulnerable and and sacred young love can be, even if it turns to hate. Their banter and their build up felt the most realistic out of all three couples and was so engaging, I couldn't put it down!

This book is perfect for fans of small town romance and enemies to lovers with a morally grey mc.
Enemies Sloane and Lucian decide to have one night to get rid of all the sexual tension between them, but can’t seem to stop. They want completely different things in life but can’t let each other go.
I absolutely loved this book. I read it in two days and was completely hooked. I have been waiting to read about Sloane and Lucian since the first book and I was not disappointed. The tension and the banter is amazing. The tropes are amazing. The characters are amazing and the plot was amazing. This book gets 5 stars from me. It was absolutely perfect and I would one hundred percent recommend this to other people.

Some of the tropes include:

- enemies to lovers
- Enemies with benefits
- Morally grey love interest
- Small town
- Second chance

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

I will always be the biggest fan of Lucy’s writing but this one was just a wee bit too long. The banter was great, the romance was great, the mystery was great! But it was just too long and I was getting bored.

This was a delightful and steamy end to this series. I thoroughly enjoyed the story of Lucian and Sloan. The enemies to lovers trope is a good one and the book deals with some difficult issues well. Lucian's possessiveness of Sloan was a bit over the top, but I still enjoyed it.

I was provided a free advanced copy of this from @netgalley in exchange for my honest review.
My request for this was accepted a few days before publication, and I hadn't read the second book 🫣, so I was definitely not able to get this one done before publication date, but this was so good!!
It is the third and final book in the Knockemout series and I think it is the best yet! I loved Lucian and Sloane's relationship. Throughout the first two books we see the tension between the two, but don't learn why until this one.
We once again have some great dialogue/banter between the characters, lots of spice, and some tense situations with the mystery finally coming to a conclusion!
You definitely need to read the series in order, but I would recommend them all. They are long, but I flew through them as you really feel like part of this tight friend/family group!
This one was published earlier this month, so you can get all three now!
#NetGalley #ThingsWeLeftBehind

THINGS WE LEFT BEHIND Knockemout Book 3 by Lucy Score
I have absolutely loved this story!! Lucy Score has done an exemplary job with Knockemout and its residents. I have enjoyed the comaraderie between all the characters so much. I am definitely not ready to see the series end. Hey Lucy, how about Waylay getting a story too?! Since this one ends with grandchildren, it would work out...
Lucian Rollins and Sloane Walton are the focus of this book and it is filled with plenty of angst, steam, and so much witty banter. They are my favorite Knockemout couple.
I bought the audio book and Sebastian York and Lila Winters have done a wonderful job with the voices. This is a definite 5 stars.

Things We Left Behind by Lucy Score is book three in the Knockemount Series. This is the story of Lucien and Sloane. This is a interconnecting series so it does had to your enjoyment if you have read the previous books. But, this can be a standalone book. If you have read the previous books then you have been waiting too to get Sloane and Lucien's story. They had been young and in love but something happened that neither could move past. So several years later their feelings came to the forefront and not to be ignored. Loved this author!!

Sloane and Lucian's story is the one we 've all been waiting for! These two have been bickering for 2 decades now but you can tell they are really into each other and wanting things to be different. We finally get to learn all about the history that they have between them.

Knockemout has been a fun series and while I still loved it, I did feel like it was a bit longer than necessary. Usually I breeze through my books pretty fast but this one took me a whole week to read!

Great conclusion to this series.

Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review. All opinions are my own.

Publication date: 5 September 2023.

I have never read a Lucy Score book before, and I heard great things about her, so I was excited to start this book. I loved that the writing was emotionally charged and felt that both Sloan and Lucien were witty, honest, and emotional, and they had great chemistry with each other. Their shared traumatic past helped them become closer. I enjoyed getting to know their background and them as individuals. My only complaint is that no rom-com should be 600+ pages. This book could have easily been accomplished in 200-300 pages. I struggled to stay interested quite a bit, and it was quite a long journey to get a resolution between Sloan and Lucien

Thank you to NetGallery and to Sourcebooks Bloom Books for a copy of the book.

I read my 1st from this author this year: I reissue of Pretend You're Mine. Just like this book, it is long. Maybe even unnecessarily long, but I remember really liking it and thinking how I totally understood why this author had a Goodreads Choice Nominee for Best Romance in 2022.

Fast forward to this moment. Welp, this is also a long book – that’s ok! I’m sure it’s all about quality – and then… Nope, this book isn’t very good.

I’ll take some ownership for why I’m grading this just shy of 2 stars. Why should I expect coming in at the finale of this trilogy that I might enjoy it, especially, when it may be some of my fault for missing prior context from Book 1 and 2? But, we all know plenty of skilled writers that hold our attention with well-written continuations that are still powerful standalones. This is not 1 of those. I barely started and went to switch to another author’s book partway. Folks, there’s something wrong if you can’t hold my book attention!

There were some good moments: Some well written lines and the throwbacks had a nice tone.

So all I have to say is..... #suitdaddy! Uh, I knew Lucian and Sloan's story would be my favorite- but it was MY FAVE! The banter, the pining, the history, the sex, the second-chance... And the Alpha'ness is just *chefs kiss* Read this, you won't regret it. Only downside is that I was totally over the mob side-story after book 1.