The Verdict
Today’s book is Things We Never Got Over, by Lucy Score, and the first question everyone asks is the right one. Is Things We Never Got Over spicy?
Yes, very. It’s an open door romance with five proper sex scenes, plus one steamy near miss, and the language is as crude as the scenes. It’s also funny and warm, with a kid in it you’ll adore, and a town you’ll want to move to. I give it four out of five. This whole video is spoiler free, which means no late reveals, no deaths and no twists.
What It’s About
Naomi Witt is a planner. She makes lists, she color codes her notebooks, and she spent five years answering emails in human resources. As the book opens she has just walked out of her own wedding, with daisies still stuck in her hair, and driven overnight to Knockemout, Virginia.
Her estranged twin sister Tina had called, claiming to be in trouble and begging for cash. Instead, Tina steals Naomi’s car, robs her motel room, and vanishes. She leaves behind an eleven year old girl named Waylay, a niece Naomi did not know existed. Naomi has no job, no phone and no plan.
Meet the Neighbor
Then there’s Knox Morgan. He is tall, tattooed, bearded and permanently annoyed. In the very first chapter he mistakes Naomi for Tina and tries to throw her out of a cafe, so she calls him a Viking. He calls her Daisy, because of the flowers in her hair.
Knox owns the bar where Naomi ends up working, the barbershop next door, and the building they share. He keeps a lazy basset hound named Waylon. Yes, Waylon and Waylay, and the book makes the same joke you just did. He is rude, he is generous, and he lives next door to the cottage Naomi gets to stay in.
How Spicy Is It
Here’s the honest spice level. I’d say four out of five peppers. The book is open door, which means you are in the room for every scene. The scenes are long, detailed and written in plain, crude language. Think dirty talk, anatomical words and nothing left to a fade to black.
The slow burn helps a lot. Naomi and Knox spend the first twenty two chapters bickering, flirting and almost kissing before their first real scene, so the heat feels earned. After that it arrives regularly, and one scene involves a conversation about going without a condom, which some readers will want to know about.
The Spicy Chapters
Since a lot of you search for the spicy chapters, here’s the map, by chapter number. Chapters one through twenty two have kissing, innuendo and some very crude jokes, but no sex. Chapter twenty three is the first full scene, in Naomi’s cottage, starting in the kitchen and moving upstairs.
Chapter twenty five has a steamy near miss under a deck. Chapter twenty eight is a scene in a truck, in a field called Third Base. Chapter thirty five is oral only, in an office. Chapter thirty eight is another full scene, and the epilogue has one more. That’s my count, so check it against your copy.
Age Rating and Content Notes
There’s no official age rating. As the reviewer, I’d say eighteen and over. Beyond the sex, the swearing is constant, and that includes the eleven year old, who collects yellow cards on the soccer field for her mouth. If bad language is a dealbreaker, this is not your book.
Some content notes, kept vague on purpose. Naomi’s ex was physically abusive. A child is neglected and abandoned. A character’s parent struggled with addiction. There is grief, a police shooting and, late in the book, a kidnapping at gunpoint with a choking scene. If any of those are hard lines for you, read with care.
What Works
My favorite thing about the book is Waylay. She’s a tech genius who fixes old people’s tablets at the library, charges ten dollars a job, and hides a girly side under a bored face. Every scene between her and Naomi is the emotional core of the book, and the way she slowly lets her guard down is lovely.
Second, the town. Knockemout is full of nosy gossips, bikers, a barista everyone adores, a librarian with pink streaked hair and a grandmother who keeps her curtains shut. It’s the kind of community you want to move into.
Third, the humor. Naomi’s panicked inner voice and her endless lists made me laugh out loud more than once.
And fourth, the best friend. Stef, who arrives with expensive cologne, a case of wine and a plan to fix her life, is the kind of supportive friend I wish every romance had.
Chemistry and Heart
The grumpy sunshine pairing really works. Knox says he doesn’t do strings, then quietly buys Naomi a phone, helps her find a car, and turns up at a kid’s soccer game. He shows love by doing, not by saying, and the book knows it.
Naomi, meanwhile, is a people pleaser who has spent her whole life cleaning up after her sister. Watching the town and Knox teach her to ask for what she needs is the real romance. The last quarter has real emotional weight, and the author’s note at the end explains why.
Writing and Pacing
Lucy Score writes in dual first person, so you get Naomi and Knox in alternating chapters, and their voices are very different. Naomi is wordy, anxious and funny. Knox is blunt, gruff and swears in nearly every sentence, which makes the contrast a joy.
The chapters are short and end on hooks, so it reads fast, even at around fifty chapters. The first third zips by. The middle slows down for a long stretch of town life, and then the final act speeds up again. It’s an easy, bingeable read.
The Hype
For context, the book came out in twenty twenty two, and reportedly spent thirty two weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. It started a whole series, called Knockemout, after the town.
And as of October twenty twenty six, Prime Video has reportedly ordered a TV series based on it. I cover that in my series video. Does it live up to the noise? Mostly. It’s a warm, funny comfort read with real heat, and the best parts are the people around the couple.
What Doesn’t Work
Now the honest criticisms. First, the crude humor can be exhausting. Almost every character swears, and a few jokes about bodies and bathrooms go on too long for me. If you read the first chapter and groan, it doesn’t change.
Second, the middle sags. There are many dinners, parties and shopping trips before the plot wakes up. Third, the suspense plot about Tina’s trouble arrives late and the finale feels rushed. And fourth, Knox’s behavior early on can read as bullying, even though the book does call him out for it.
The Scorecard
Here are my scores. The hook is four out of five, because that first cafe scene sold me. Chemistry is four and a half. Characters get four and a half, thanks to Waylay and the whole town.
Pacing is three out of five, held back by the middle. Heart is four out of five, because the family and friends around Naomi made me tear up. That makes an average of four out of five. I’m happy to have read it, and I’d happily read the next one in the series, which follows a different couple.
Who It’s For
Read Things We Never Got Over if you love grumpy sunshine romance, found family, small towns and funny, chatty heroines. It also suits you if you like a book that has a real child in it and treats her like a person with her own opinions.
Skip it if you want closed door or clean romance, if constant profanity bothers you, or if abuse and child neglect are hard lines. It’s also book one of a series. I have a series order video and a characters video, and an ending explained, but that one is full of spoilers.
Where To Get It
Links to the book and the audiobook are in the description, along with every book I mentioned. Tell me in the comments: how spicy do you like your small town romance, and would you have stayed in Knockemout?
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