“You may be faking the relationship, but you’re not faking the orgasms.”Downsized, broke, and dumped, 38-year-old Marley sneaks home to her childhood bedroom in the town she couldn’t wait to escape twenty years ago. Not much has changed in Culpepper. The cool kids are still cool. Now they just own car dealerships and live in McMansions next door. Oh, and the whole town is still talking about that … whole town is still talking about that Homecoming she ruined her senior year.
Desperate for a new start, Marley accepts a temporary teaching position. Can the girl banned from all future Culpepper High Homecomings keep the losing-est girls soccer team in school history from killing each other and prevent carpal tunnel in a bunch of phone-clutching gym class students?
Maybe with the help of Jake Weston, high school bad boy turned sexy good guy. When the school rumor mill sends Marley to the principal’s office to sign an ethics contract, the tattooed track coach, dog dad, and teacher of the year becomes her new fake boyfriend and alibi—for a price. The Deal: He’ll teach her how to coach if she teaches him how to be in a relationship.
Who knew a fake boyfriend could deliver such real orgasms? But it’s all temporary. The guy. The job. The team. There’s too much history. Rock bottom can’t turn into a foundation for happily ever after. Can it?
Warning: Story also includes a meet-puke, a bouffanted nemesis, a yard swan and donkey basketball, a teenage-orchestrated makeover, and a fake relationship that gets a little too real between the sheets.
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I can’t remember the last time a book took me by surprise and made me laugh so much I was afraid I’d wake the kid! I loved it!
Rock Bottom Girl is not my very first Lucy Score story, but it is definitely my favorite. I was thoroughly entertained throughout the entire book, and so swept up in Marley’s and Jake’s interaction’s, that I had been up all night finishing their book before I realized it.
Through laughter and tears, I read one of the best RomComs ever! A definite five stars!
Funny, quirky, and impossible to put down. I loved everything about this book!
Loved this story of a woman who must return to her hometown as ‘not exactly a success’. And waiting for her? Her old nemesis, the hot guy she wanted who didn’t want her. Add a coaching job she doesn’t want, with a team chock-full of rebellious high school girls, some resentful colleagues, and shake vigorously!
The characters feel real, like people I loved getting to know.
Bonus: a hilarious revenge prank.
Marley is one of the best heroines I’ve read in a long time. Even though she didn’t see it in herself, she was amazing. And Jake, what’s not to like about Jake. He was swoon worthy BBF perfection. I loved all the side characters here as well. So many laughs so many feels and so many important messages about life. I loved this book.
OMG and 5 more stars for the bonus extended epilogue. That was absolute perfection and everything I could have wanted in an ending to this story.
I had so much fun reading this book! First the heroine is 38…I can’t tell you how much I loved how close in age we were. She thought like me, had past experiences like me, and while I love reading YA and NA, to read about a heroine at this point in her life WAS REFRESHING!!!!
Marley has hit rock bottom. Broke up with her boyfriend, her job goes under the next day along with her savings, and now she’s back in her hometown, in her old room, living with her parents. The same hometown she couldn’t wait to flee as soon as high school ended because she never seemed to fit in here. Except she hasn’t seemed to fit anywhere, come to think of it. She’s still searching for her calling, her purpose, the life she’s supposed to have. With no job prospects and still licking her wounds, she reluctantly takes an emergency teaching and coaching job at her old high school. High school holds some interesting and unforgettable (although she’d like to) memories for Marley and suddenly it seems she may be able to right the wrongs from her past or at least try to help some others endure the journey better than she did.
The characters. I LOVED them, such a rag tag crew but they truly made the story memorable. Marley was a touch whiny and liked to wallow at times but I could forgive her because she really had been knocked down over and over and over again. It was funny and sweet and Jake Weston was such a great hero. I was sold on him from the beginning! Solid story, I really really enjoyed it.
One of the best books I’ve read all year.
Lucy Score has a habit of creating small towns that I want to pack up and move to and characters I’d like to live next-door to. I’d move to Blue Moon in a heartbeat. And now, after reading RBG, Culpepper, PA is the running for fictional places I’d like to live.
I absolutely adored Jake, and for me, Marly was incredibly relatable, and I loved their relationship. But what I truly loved was watching Marly evolve as a teacher and as a person. Seeing her connect with her students and watching the respect and trust and love that grew between them was incredibly moving.
Score beautifully illustrates that while people are a sum of their experiences, their pasts don’t have to define them, and she does so with compassion, humor, and love.
Loved this book! While I enjoy romance in general, the element of humor was refreshing in this romantic tale.
I’m predicting that this review is going to make little to no sense! Unless you’re me. Or someone just like me. This book was like reading my autobiography! Without being anything like my life at all.
At the time that I read it, I am 38, just like the main characters. And while my life isn’t quite the mess that Marley’s is, I could so relate to her about almost everything. I am absolutely not where I’m supposed to be in life, and should have definitely figured things out better by now. I have never made as many highlights in an e-copy as I did during this book. I couldn’t believe how well everything was written (not in a booky way, but in an honest and true to life way) to perfectly describe those moments that we all have when there is doubt and self-pity and guilt. It all just really hit home and struck a chord. Well, except for the swan. I have nothing like that in my life, and thank God for that!
My kid plays soccer so those moments on the field were perfect for me, just as much as the awkward family stuff and the hideous high school memories. This book was looooong (in a good way!) and was just what I needed. I laughed, A LOT, and even teared up at one point. This is the first book by Lucy Score that I’ve read, but it will most certainly not be my last!
I don’t even know where to begin with this book, it was that good. First of all I’m a sucker for a Pennsylvania. Then to see myself in the character really got me. This book will make you laugh out loud and cry a few happy tears.
Marley is a 38 year old women who thought she wasn’t enough. There was always something missing and she thought that finding a perfect, upstanding, world changing career would fix it. She could only see what others around her had as perfect and that she could never measure up. Hitting rock bottom and going home really was the best thing to ever happen.
Enter Jake, high school crush, bad boy and kiss stealer, who just so happens to have turned out to be an amazing adult. His life as a bachelor was cemented in his routine and he was happy, or was he. It took Marley’s midlife crisis to make him realize that he could have so much more.
Some say you can never go home, but this story will prove that wrong.
Rock Bottom Girl by Lucy Score is a contemporary, small town, fake relationship, romantic comedy told in first person dual POV.
Marley Cicero – 38-years-old, downsized, broken up with, and newly homeless – moves back in with her parents in her small hometown of Culpepper, PA. She takes a temporary position at the high school as a gym teacher and girls soccer coach but plans to get a better job and leave town as soon as the semester ends. High school was humiliating for Marley, so she’s not thrilled about being back in the place where she experienced some of her worst days. She’s also not thrilled to learn Jake Weston works there too, because he’s responsible for one of her most painful high school memories.
Jake Weston is the American History teacher and cross-country coach at Culpepper Junior/Senior High. He liked Marley in high school and they meet again when he rescues her and the girls soccer team from heatstroke. After Marley pulls a prank on the misogynistic, bullying, boys soccer coach, Jake covers for her by providing an alibi stating they were together because they’re dating. This results in the school principal asking them to sign a morality contract stating they are in a monogamous relationship and thus begins their fake relationship. As is always the case in these situations, the lines between fake and real easily become blurred.
Will Jake and Marley’s relationship last beyond its expiration date? Will Marley leave at the end of the semester as planned? And what really happened between Jake and Marley in high school anyway?
I loved Marley and Jake’s story! The characters are close to my age, so the scenes from their high school years brought back memories of my own experiences and so much nostalgia. As a single woman, I could definitely relate to the feeling of being perceived as somehow being “behind in life” because my experiences are different than most women my age. I really enjoyed how Marley and Jake both learned and grew together bringing out the best in each other. The story was fun, sexy, humorous, and heartwarming. I thoroughly enjoyed it!
I enjoyed this book. The characters were realistic and engaging. I was rooting for Marley.
4 words to best describe this book are: it’s a must read! Not only is it hilarious but it’s very real. An added bonus is it’s set in an area I am familiar with. Being from the Philadelphia area I am well acquainted with the fun quirks of the Lancaster county. I love when I can connect to a book this way. Bit even if I had no clue where Lancaster PA was I’d still love this book. I will definitely be following this author. I will also be catching up on all her other books as well. There goes my TBR!
Marley is my favorite person ever! I love her wit, her personality and her heart! Culpepper will never be the same after Marley comes back home to lick her wounds and try to start ever. This book is so well written and the characters are great! This story really gets it right about high school and female friendships. Throw in a hot history teacher and you’ve got yourself a great read!
Lucy Score definitely knows how to write a good ROMCOM. And this one was one that I would recommend to be read. The characters were well written, and they were ones that are relatable. Their story was one that made you just root for them to have their HEA. The characters and the story was what made this book easy to read, and that’s a good thing because this book is not a short one. If your looking for a ROMCOM that will have you swooning over the male character and cheering on the female character, I would recommend grabbing Rock Bottom Girl and give it a try.
One of my go too’s are Rom Coms, nothing better then a funny read. This is my first read from Lucy Score and differently won’t be my last. This is a story about Marley and Jake, Marley hit rock bottom and went back to her home town homeless, broke and single. Jake a history teacher is starting to realize hook ups and dating isn’t cutting it anymore, he looking for something more. If your looking for a funny easy to read story check this one out.
Rock Bottom Girl is a rom-com that truly made me laugh. Marley who at 38 has to move back to her parents home in small town Pennsylvania after losing her last boyfriend and job. She is broke and at odds with her life. She has been avoiding home for 20 years due to the humiliation she suffered in high school. Odd enough she ends up with a temp job at the high school as a gym teacher. This story just made me laugh. Being from a small town I just connected with the crazy things the happen. I loved this story and I can’t wait to read more from Lucy Score.
Dog dad, soccer coaching, small town romance. This book has a bit of everything. A lovely light read with a good scattering of laughs.
I read Rock Bottom Girl in a single sitting and loved every word. Score brings us a fresh, funny take on the small-town romance that left me smiling from ear to ear in the wee hours of the morning. 🙂
This story was a joy to read as it was a mainly lighthearted, feel-good, hot read with a touch of angst and plenty of shenanigans!
“Yeah, I liked this woman. She was sneaky funny, and there was something a little sad about her. Both were my personal kryptonite when it came to women.”
Marley Cicero is back in the town that she escaped twenty years earlier. She left under a black cloud and has avoided going back whenever she could. She’s 38 with not much to show for her life. As a desperate stop-gap, she’s accepts a job at the local school – the place that was the scene of her teenage miseries. Throw in a bunch of hostile teenage girls, her high school nemesis, and also her one-time bad boy crush, and things are about to get interesting!
“And now we’re what? Fake dating? For the rest of the semester? What happens if we fake break up? Do I get real fired?”
Jake Weston is hotter now than he ever was as a teen but, these days, he’s more ‘inspiring respectable teacher’ rather than ‘bad boy kissed a teacher’ type! He more than remembers Marley, and when a little white lie has them suddenly in a fake relationship, he’s more than happy to take their mutual attraction to the next level: real.
“That warmth in my belly turned molten. This was something different from the fun and familiar tug of lust. This was something more.”
I adored this story! Marley came home feeling somewhat unfulfilled, unaccomplished and, yeah, at rock bottom. She had such low self-esteem that my heart hurt for her but she actually had immense strength and so much to give. She was sassy, fun-loving, thoughtful and really quite determined. I loved her rapport with her team, how she dealt with them, and how she won them over. Jake was sexy AF! He was down-to-earth with a touch of rebel rockstar about him. I loved his attitude to life, his relationship with the people closest to him, and I adored his determination to keep Marley. They were absolutely blazing together! They couldn’t keep their hands off each once they crossed the line. Oh, yeah!