Review: Lake + Manning by Jessica Hawkins (Something in the Way #4)

Note: This ARC was provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.

We had grown and changed, laughed and hurt—and loved each other through all of it. I was a woman now, but maybe it wasn't so bad to still be that girl, too—my world warmed and given life by the sun.

I followed Lake Kaplan and Manning Sutter's heartrending love story for a little over eight months last year--a love story which ultimately ended quite happily in author Jessica Hawkins's Something in the Way series. But what was originally meant to be a trilogy has turned out to be a quartet! You can imagine my surprise when Hawkins announced that there was going to be fourth novel to be added and that this would be what would close out Lake and Manning's nearly two-decade-long tale of first loves, heartbreak, forgiveness, and rekindling. I was both excited and anxious. I wasn't going to say "no" to more of this couple that captured the hearts of so many readers, but the third novel had what felt like the perfect ending, and I was a wee bit worried. You know, messing with perfection and all that. But my "fears" were unfounded, all thanks to the awesomeness that was Lake + Manning.

This fourth and final novel in the Something in the Way series takes place a few years after the events in the third novel, and Lake and Manning are living their happily-ever-after. They're in love and are finally able to spend their lives together, like the couple they were always fated to be. But their story still has a ways to go, and in Lake + Manning, fans and readers get to see what happens after the "happy ending". As in love as Manning's Birdy and Lake's Great Bear are with one another, there are still struggles that they need to confront. From Lake's estranged relationship with her parents and older sister to Manning's worries about his furniture design and building business, the two have to make decisions in order to truly move forward. Through everything, they're each other's strongest pillar of support, but one particular test still awaits and may prove to be the most challenging test of all...

In hindsight, I realized that this series DID need this fourth book. It tied any and all loose ends quite nicely, and we do get ourselves more than one happy ending to more than one love story. Yeah, sorry, I'm not going to drop any hints as to whose love stories those are, but what I can tell you is that there was one particular that seriously made me giddy with joy. Clearly I was invested in more than one couple throughout the Something in the Way series! Lake and Manning are far from perfect. They have their ups and downs and they do make missteps, but it's the fact that they're humans with faults that make them even easier to connect with. I've only read two of Jessica Hawkins's series--Slip of the Tongue and Something in the Way--making for a total of seven novels, but Lake + Manning is the author at her best, and I can't wait to see what she has up for readers next. L + M = five-plus stars. ♥

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Read my reviews for the Something in the Way series:

 Something in the Way (book one) - five stars - My Review

Somebody Else's Sky (book two) - 4.5 stars - My Review
Move the Stars (book three) - five-plus stars - My Review
Lake + Manning (book four) - five-plus stars - My Review (posted above)

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Release Date: 13 February 2018

Date Read: 11 February 2018

Learn more about Jessica Hawkins.

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