Mini-reviews: Until Fountain Bridge and Castle Hill by Samantha Young

Title: Until Fontain Bridge (On Dublin Street #1.5)
Author: Samantha Young
Published: June 18th 2013
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Ellie Carmichael had a crush on Adam Sutherland, her brother, Braden’s, best friend, for years, and although Adam treated her with proprietary concern he made it clear he thought of her only as a little sister.
Over the years, as Ellie’s crush develops into love, her romantic idealism makes it difficult for her to move on. To make matters worse, as she’s gotten older, Adam’s attitude has changed toward her. His affection for her is now joined by attraction, but his loyalty to Braden, and his fear of losing the only family he has, stops him from claiming Ellie the way she wishes he would.
But one night his attraction is put to the test, and as much as Adam would like things to remain the same everything changes between them in a simple brush of the lips.
Soon lust, love, jealousy and heartbreak combine to force change upon their relationship… and Adam discovers the hard way that life is too damn short to spend it on regret.

At first I was sad to hear that Adam and Ellie wouldn't get their own full-length novel, but after reading this last summer I have come to realize how glad I am that it was just a walk down the memory line with some key scenes and not an excessive drama-fest which would be totally unnecessary for these two. I adored this novella so much and it can be described with one word: brilliant! I loved Ellie and Adam's relationship even more than I loved the main couple's in On Dublin Street (yes, while Braden is still my number one man in this series, Ellie and Adam's is hands down my favorite relationship) and I couldn't have been happier how things happened/ended for Ellie and Adam. This was such a sweet, heartbreaking read. We get to see them in the now and the before. I cried like a baby while reading this book. It had hurt tears, happy tears--everything. The story was totes adorbs! I hope Samantha will write some random scenes for these two in the future :)

Overall rating: 5.0 out of 5.0
Stars: ★★★★★

Title: Castle Hill (On Dublin Street #2.5)

Author: Samantha Young
Published: December 3rd 2013
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Braden Carmichael never imagined he’d fall as hard and as fast as he did for Jocelyn Butler. He also could not have anticipated how difficult it would be to convince her to give in to love. But now that he has her, he’s never letting go. He’s got it all planned—the passionate proposal, the dream wedding, the sexy Hawaiian honeymoon—even the perfect family they’ll start.
After trying to flee from her painful past, Joss is finally allowing herself to embrace the future. But when things start moving faster than she anticipated, she finds herself panicking over something Braden can’t understand. After everything they’ve been through, Joss is sure that their love can survive even her worst fears. But, this time, she may push Braden too far—and risk losing everything all over again…

Did you honestly think, even for a second, that I was going to not like this book? OH, BUT I DID. I cried. I laughed. I swooned. I cried some more. I swooned some more. Then I cried happy tears. All of it during mere 97 pages that gave us a continuation of Braden and Joss’s story. Of course you can all guess what’s about to go down, because it’s the logical follow-up to their relationship and it was all so very beautiful and plain sexy until something happened and they had a huge miscommunication. Honestly, I thought that they had already learned from their mistakes, but I guess not. I didn’t mind this obstacle though, because it brought them even closer together and it was just emotional to watch them fight over what they both wanted. WHICH WAS THE SAME THING lol. Braden is one of my favorite Scottish guys. Oh, scratch that! He’s one of my favorite bookish guys and even though he clearly made some wrong calls in this novel, it was because he cared. Joss wasn’t any better, if you ask me, because she should have cleared everything right away and not wait for a time to explain but force her explanation in his face. As you can guess, they do work everything out—they’re Joss and Braden after all—and I adored this ridiculous ride to happiness :) I’m very excited for them and I hope that we will see Braden’s “you-know-what” side in the last two companion novels of this series. I. CAN’T. WAIT!!!

Overall rating: 4.0 out of 5.0
Stars: ★★★★

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