Review: Before Jamaica Lane - Samantha Young

UK Cover

Edinburgh was going to be a fresh start for Olivia Holloway. Crippled by shyness around the opposite sex. Olivia nevertheless meets gorgeous postgraduate Nate Sawyer and decides it is time to push her fears aside.

Before long, Olivia and Nate form a close friendship and she finds herself confessing her deepest secrets, and Nate, being her best friend, offers to teach her the art of flirting. As Olivia and Nate's friendship turns intense, it blossoms into a passionate love affair.

For the first time Olivia opens her heart, but what she doesn't realize is that Nate has his own fears, and just when she finds herself hopelessly falling for him, Nate's past returns to haunt him.

Will Nate have the courage to confide in Olivia, or will he cut and run? And can Olivia face up to her own fears and keep him?

On Dublin Street Series:
On Dublin Street
Until Fountain Bridge (Novella)
Down London Road
Castle Hill (Novella)
Before Jamaica Lane
Fall from India Place
Echoes of Scotland Street
Valentine (Novella)
Moonlight on Nightingale Way
One King's Way (Novella)
Stars Over Castle Hill (Novella)

Visit Samantha Young's website or the On Dublin Street website for more information

Review:
I've loved this series since I read On Dublin Street but I have to say I think Nate and Olivia are now my favourite couple and Before Jamaica Lane is the best book so far. I always enjoy the friends to lovers trope and I loved that Nate and Olivia had such a strong bond long before things started to get physical between them.

Olivia has always been attracted to Nate but she knows what a player he is so she put him firmly in the friendship only box so she didn't get hurt. She was such a sweet character, sometimes she could be a little too naive and innocent but she had the same kind of insecurities that most women have experienced at some point in their lives which made her very easy to relate to. I quickly warmed to her character and I laughed a lot at how clumsy she could be and the way she kept putting her foot in it. Olivia is a normal girl, someone I could easily picture myself being friends with and I just generally enjoyed spending time with her.

Nate is sexy as hell but he's also a player, his heart was broken when his childhood sweetheart died and there is no way he's ever going to put himself in a position where he could feel so much pain again. Olivia is his best friend and no matter how beautiful he thinks she is he has no intention of taking their relationship beyond friendship. He had no idea how lonely Olivia was though and after she makes a drunken confession he wants to help her overcome her shyness. He offers to teach her the art of seduction so that she can find the man of her dreams but what starts out as just a friends with benefits kind of situation soon becomes so much more. The more he starts to feel for her the more he starts to panic and he makes a very stupid mistake by pushing her away.

Thankfully Nate comes to his senses but Olivia makes him work hard to earn her trust back and I really enjoyed seeing how far she'd come from the shy girl she was at the beginning of the book. I loved Nate for the way he built up Olivia's confidence too, he helped her see herself for who she really was and he made her feel beautiful inside and out.

Before Jamaica Lane is definitely a feel good romance, I smiled and swooned the whole way through reading it and the ending was completely perfect. If you're new to the series then you could probably read this book as a stand alone but I would highly recommend reading the books in order, all of the books have been great and I love the close knit group of family and friends who we've come to know so well throughout the series.

Source: Purchased

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