"I've always seen you in my future. That every time I imagine what's to come, it's you I see. If soulmates are real, you must be mine."

GENRE: Romance
RATING: 4.75/5
FORMAT: eBook Arc
Tropes: Childhood Best Friends to Lovers, Fake Wedding, Everyone knows but them

Overall Impression: There is something about friends to lovers that always gets my heart and this was no exception🥺

Review:
The Score was filled with yearning, one that has built over the years between Pen and Bear. It focuses on this push between wanting to preserve the friendship or taking the risks and discovering their feelings and entering a relationship. I was rooting for both Pen and Bear, who both had my heart from the start of the book to the end of it.

I love friends to lovers, whether it starts as adults or it's a childhood friendship to lovers and I think The Score brought a lot of depth into this trope by exploring the fear and how shifting from one to the other will change their relationship. This is done throughout the story in the best of ways and in a way that just makes both Pen and Bear think about themselves and allows them to grow (as a person and together, as they start to accept their feelings for each other)

AND THE YEARNING!!! The way Bear just yearned, oh my god. Like you could tell this is very much "everyone knows but them" because it is so obviously Bear yearns for Pen and Pen loves Bear but doesn't let herself show it AND YOU JUST WANT TO YELL AT THEM TO GET TOGETHER (in the nicest of ways obviously)

Essentially, this is a story of accepting risks and embracing who you are so that you can accept what you deserve. Pen struggles with this because she had a lot of bad experience that caused her to give up on love and honestly? I see why and I'm just glad she had Bear to help and support her. The entire story of getting to meet her family, seeing them accept Bear and going through the journey of Pen's dad and his health scare was emotional and wholesome. It showed that Pen and Bear had their own community and family (in Bear's case, it's Pen's family that are were always there as well)

I am so excited to read more of Leonor Soliz's work and I cant wait to read about the friend groups we met in this book as I just started here with The Score and I definitely cannot wait for more!

Thank you to the Author and Netgalley for the Arc copy!