Earlier this year, i’ve read Things We Never Got Over by Lucy Score, the first book in the “Knockemout” series. This book surprised me in a positive way. For this autumn, I was planning on reading the second book in this series, Things We Hide From the Light. Was this book just as good?

About the book

• Title: Things We Hide From the Light
• Author: Lucy Score
• Series: Knockemout #2
• Publish date: 21 februari 2023
• Publisher: Bloom Books
• ISBN: 9781728276113
• Number of pages: 591
• Genre: Romance

Nash Morgan was always known as the good Morgan brother, with a smile and a wink for everyone. But now, this chief of police is recovering from being shot and his Southern charm has been overshadowed by panic attacks and nightmares. He feels like a broody shell of the man he once was. Nash isn’t about to let anyone in his life know he’s struggling. But his new next-door neighbor, smart and sexy Lina, sees his shadows. As a rule, she’s not a fan of physical contact unless she initiates it, but for some reason Nash’s touch is different. He feels it too. The physical connection between them is incendiary, grounding him and making her wonder if exploring it is worth the risk. Too bad Lina’s got secrets of her own, and if Nash finds out the real reason she’s in town, he’ll never forgive her. Besides, she doesn’t do relationships. Ever. A hot, short-term fling with a local cop? Absolutely. Sign her up. A relationship with a man who expects her to plant roots? No freaking way. Once she gets what she’s after, she has no intention of sticking around. But Knockemout has a way of getting under people’s skin. And once Nash decides to make Lina his, he’s not about to be dissuaded… even if it means facing the danger that nearly killed him.

My review

My expectations for this book were quite high and that’s solely based on my reading experience with the previous book in this series. Besides the romance, the story deals with much more serious and heavy topics, which brought much needed depth to it. For this second installment in the series, I expected no less. My expectations were partially met. Whereas the story again deals with heavier themes, it reads less smoothly as its predecessor.

Whereas we follow Knox and Naomi in the first book, it’s now time to get to know Nash and Lina. We met them both briefly already, allbeit a little more regarding Nash. That’s not strange for families of course. So, we all know what Nash had to endure and that it impacts his life. However, we never knew how much it really impacts him. He is traumatised by the events in the past and wants to get the responsible person behind bars rather sooner than later. This is his main goal and he has a hyperfocus on this. Therefore, he is neglecting his life: his relationships, and most of all his work. He loves his job as chief of police but can’t seem to focus properly on it anymore. Throughout this novel we learn how he deals with these traumatic experiences and how he slowly heals from them. The author did a great job in putting this on paper and brining this layer to the story. On the other side we have Lina, a character who I didn’t like. She has seccrets of her own she really wants to keep hidden. However, this makes her super rude and even a bit icy. Both Nash and Lina don’t want to give into their feelings but I found Nash’ journey towards healing more believeable. Don’t get me wrong, I like Lina’s determination, but she keeps moaning and groaning about literally everything which makes her unsympathetic.

As this book is all about character development, the plot is paper thin. The focus is on the romance and I wasn’t the biggest fan of this either. I felt like there was not much chemistry between these love iterests. In my opinion, that’s really important within this genre though. This lack of chemistry made the book feel like a chonker. Yes, it actually is a chonker with a print length of 591 pages, but I barely noticed this in the first book. Now, in this book, some parts felt dragging. I was more looking forward to reading Nash’ chapters than Lina’s though and that says something. Thankfully the POVs were alternated so we got to know both characters and their side of the story.

Unfortunately, i was not 100% pleased by Things We Hide From the Light by Lucy Score. I find the heavier topics bringing some much needed depth into this story, but I wasn’t a fan of one of the main characters, Lina. I was looking forward to read Nash’ chapters though since he shows more character development and is a nicer character overall. The plot is thin and the romance okay, despite the lacking chemistry. This made this book feel really long at points. I’m looking forward to read Things We Left Behind anyway, because I feel like there’s so much more to Sloane’s and Lucien’s story than we already know.