4.5 stars 
 "With some people, love becomes your air, like the oxygen that you can't live without. You need it, and once you find it, you'll do anything to keep it." 
 Sam and Liz left things in a very rough place at the end of Something Reckless and when I started reading Something Real I was gutted watching the results of the fallout from the revelations at the end of Reckless, but there is so much to love about this final piece of Sam and Liz's story. 
 Sam finds himself backed into a corner as a media frenzy breaks out relating to Sabrina Guy. In order to protect those close to him, he agrees to play along, but his agreement keeps getting deeper as the tables are continually turned and the hits keep on coming. 
 Meanwhile, Liz is working on the Christine Guy's campaign for President but doesn't feel nearly as needed as she did when she was writing speeches for Sam's father. She is lonely, misses home, and hates the way things have changed since she left New Hope. 
 But neither Sam nor Liz have forgotten the feelings they felt for each other, even as they wonder how they can move past the whole Riverrat fiasco and revelation. And as events unfold, it appears there are even more things keeping them apart. 
 I loved all the twists and turns this story took. For not being a suspense novel, there were plenty of cover-ups and surprises tucked throughout the plot. The alternating points of view means that at any given time, readers know more than either individual character making this a page turner from start to finish. 
 Though Liz spends much of the book working in Indianapolis, the city is close enough to New Hope that she returns home to visit with her sisters and girlfriends as often as she can, and when she needs them they drop everything to be there for her. Hints are dropped as to the next installment of the New Hope stories, and I can't wait to see what is in store for that next couple! 
 I was gifted a copy in exchange for an honest review.