Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

My issues, in no particular order: Manning’s dad, who writes to him in jail to confess to molesting his sister, explains his behavior as not being able to control himself when his ‘little girl’ grew up too fast … um, the sister is NINE when she dies. She needed to be much older for this to make sense. Lake is the most naive, sheltered 16 year old alive. She didn’t know what a pawn shop was … and she’s completely innocent to the point of not even thinking about kissing a boy, and her older sister is pretty worldly. These books dragged a lot for me. I skimmed a lot - especially when there was a lot of detail paid to the curve of Lake’s cheekbone, or whatever. There are a lot of plot lines that make it clear the story is plot driven - and characters barely evolve. After the miscarriage and divorce with Tiffany, Manning immediately goes back to Lake to have their life together. Just kidding. He then goes to the woods to build a house and apparently is working on being the best man he can be for Lake, so that when he does decide to go back for her, he’ll be the guy she deserves … and during these FOUR YEARS, part of becoming the best man he can be for the woman he supposedly LOVES is to sleep with a bunch of women in town (one of these women he brings back to the house he’s BUILDING FOR LAKE). The author glosses over where they might have had sex - in the bed he built for Lake? This part actually made me extremely angry - mostly with the author (it’s one thing to make him have sex with other women in his self imposed exile, but to bring it back to the home he’s building for Lake, just made no sense. He should have had more respect for the house, and for Lake, especially if he wants her to live there with him... I’m sure this was for added ‘angst’, but for me, this part of Manning makes him unlikable, and the author creates a character who crosses lines for me, lines he can’t cross back over (and this is a character that marries her sister). And I’ll be honest, Manning had lost my respect long before this part, but this was the final nail in his coffin. I also found his assumption that Lake would be available when he was ready to get her was insulting, especially when he has no contact with her. And then to have her just fall in his arms, was too much. The man didn’t have to grovel or apologize, or anything. After the second four years apart, Manning and Lake run into each other and have dinner that night, and literally one hour later, are having sex and everything is fine. We find out that Tiffany, the sister, is pretty much behind Manning being arrested in the first place, and this apparently isn’t a huge problem - it doesn’t get addressed at all. I didn’t like the cheating aspect - Manning is not swoon worthy in my opinion. The premise that he went out with Tiffany so he could keep an eye on Lake and protect her was hard to swallow. He always treated Lake like a child, and their age difference was an issue for me. Mainly because of the way it’s presented. Lake is described as not having ‘blossomed’ yet, and at 16 hasn’t developed breasts, so she does look little girl-ish. So, why would a 23 year old man be sexually attracted to her? I don’t know. If she’d been a bombshell, it might have made sense. I think Manning should have been younger, more in line with Tiffany’s age, and Lake could have at least been 17. At the very least, Lake should have been much more mature to catch the interest of a man 7 years older than her. I was so aggravated that Lake ‘saved herself’ for Manning, even after he married her sister. She should have moved on with Corbin, gotten some life experience. That actually made her a weak character for me. When they finally get together at the end of book 3, when book 4 starts, they’ve been together four years, and aren’t married. Considering how they were having sex one hour after meeting again, the four year wait to marry was simply an added bit of drama. Lake wanted to wait until she was done with vet school? Why? And during these four years, she hasn’t mentioned to her family that she and Manning are together and living together. Four years of lying ... nice! In book four, there’s a lot of nothing that goes on forever (I swear, the wedding and whatnot goes on for like 30 pages). We get hit with the fact that Lake can’t conceive, after being teased by her dog’s pregnancy. Now, as a person becoming a vet, I’m not sure why her dog isn’t fixed (and she blames Manning for not bringing her by the clinic to get spayed - she couldn’t take the dog in with her on her way to work??) … and also, when Lake finds out she can’t have kids, she withdraws and is unable to help her dog out during its pregnancy, and pretty much doesn’t care. Did I mention she’s going to be a vet? Then we find out that she doesn’t tell Manning for MONTHS that she can’t conceive, so the poor guy is still hoping every month that she does. This is a 34 year old woman, and she still behaves like a CHILD. The characters in this book don’t really evolve in any significant way, but I think that’s only to perpetuate needless drama. Also, they are unable to adopt because of Manning's prison record, but then they are somehow able to adopt an at-risk 9 year old? And then they miraculously conceive ... These four books could have easily been condensed into two. And a little more realism would have made it better.