Review: Before Jamaica Lane by Samantha Young

Title: Before Jamaica Lane (On Dublin Street #3)
Author: Samantha Young
Published: January 7th 2014
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One simple lesson in seduction between two friends can turn into so much more…
Despite her outgoing demeanor, Olivia is painfully insecure around the opposite sex—usually, she can’t get up the nerve to approach guys she’s interested in. But moving to Edinburgh has given her a new start, and, after she develops a crush on a sexy postgrad, she decides it’s time to push past her fears and go after what she wants.
Nate Sawyer is a gorgeous player who never commits, but to his close friends, he’s as loyal as they come. So when Olivia turns to him with her relationship woes, he offers to instruct her in the art of flirting and to help her become more sexually confident.
The friendly education in seduction soon grows into an intense and hot romance. But then Nate’s past and commitment issues rear their ugly heads, and Olivia is left broken-hearted. When Nate realizes he’s made the biggest mistake of his life, he will have to work harder than he ever has before to entice his best friend into falling back in love with him—or he may lose her forever…

Before starting the 3rd installment of On Dublin Street series I had enjoyed all of them (including the novella). Because Down London Road felt to me as the weakest out of them all, although still very enjoyable, and I was afraid that perhaps I would not enjoy the follow-up novel, but I had no reason to be afraid. This was Samantha at her best—bringing the feels and laying them on every corner to wait in attack and tackle me with their power.

“You'll end up living a lonely life if you're waiting around for perfect.”

Liv is easy to connect with because she loves books just as much as we do and almost all of us have labeled ourselves as nerds on some level—either publicly or secretly. Plus, most of us have felt uncomfortable in our own skin with or with our body image at some point in our lives. That's where Nate comes in. Her relationship with Nate is full of friendly banter and they’re basically best buds. Since Liv wants a guy she met in the library, but has next to no experience in the field of seduction, she asks Nate to step in and teach her a thing or two. He accepts the challenge so yes, as you can gess, this book is on the train of destination: Romanceville.

I so very enjoyed the smexy in this book. Yes, there is lots of steam, but it’s not overbearing. I dislike books that have too much steam—they’re uncomfortable for me to read, but this was the perfect amount here. Also, the other characters—Braden, Joss, Ellie, Adam, Jo and Cam? They’re all there and better than ever. Watching them still grow—Joss and Braden have some emotional scenes in this book told from Liv and Nathan’s POV—was beautiful and very enjoyable.

As for flaws, um, the ending dragged a little for me, but I understand that Nate and Liv really hurt each other and they needed time to heal and be by themselves for a while. The part I dislike about these stories is that the main couples always follow the trend of breaking up for some time after seemingly getting things to work, but oh no, they must break up over some silly argument, because goodness forbid there to be any tension and drama added without a break up. This isn't critique to Samantha in particular, but for most contemporary lit authors since this happens in every other book I read. So yep they’re hurt, not on speaking terms and giving each other longing looks, but we all know that they'll make up sooner or later. The epilogue more than made up for the torture I had to live through the broken-up-part though.

This book was hot, fun and entertaining. Nate joined Braden and Adam on the top of “My favorite Scottish guys” list. I wonder if Benjamin will get his own story—he’s clearly a good, decent guy and I think he’d be amazing as a leading man, although it seems that Ellie and Braden’s little sister Hannah is the next to last and Cole—Jo’s little borther—the last one to have their stories. Speaking of, I. CAN’T. WAIT.

Overall rating: 4.0 out of 5.0

Stars: ★★★★

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