The thing with Manning’s writing is that it is just so engaging. Her characters are incredibly flawed and as such, relatable. I don’t know if I like them all, in fact, I am sure if I knew them in real life, I wouldn’t like them too much but reading about them is incredibly entertaining. It is sort of like listening to your girlfriends gossip about some tart.This novel was my least favourite of the three that I read simply because I wished Hope would just get on with it. Her boyfriend is scum, worse than scum and Hope believes in ways that make it impossible for me to like her more than a smidgeon for most of the novel. The point is belabored once and again and all we did for 95% of the novel is go around in the same bloody circles going over the same bloody points and God, it annoyed me. The only reason I kept reading was because Wilson is just so damned hot that I wanted to know whether he finally gets the girl. Hope does redeem herself at the end but honestly? It was too little too late and I finished the novel with a feeling of relief.
