Buy: Kindle Ebook  |  Paperback

---

---

Review

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE THIS BOOK!

Actually, I love this whole freaking series. On Dublin Street remains one of my all-time fave reads, and Samantha Young just keeps adding to the awesome by introducing new characters and building on the fantastic bunch of family and friends that she set up in the very beginning. I love that each new book provides us with not only new characters to love, but the characters from previous books are always closely hanging around, so we also get the continuation of their stories, and the whole cast together is something really special.

And bravo Samantha Young for giving us some sensational leading men. Braden Carmichael remains one of my favourite book men ever! And now she gives us yet another Fuckhot Scot in Nate. Holy God, the man is amazing! Yeah, he’s a manwhore, but he’s SUCH a good guy! He’s funny, loving, loyal, and deeply caring about the people in his life. He’s also hotter than all fuck, with a bit of a dirty mouth and some serious bedroom skills. I just adore him!

But as awesome as he is, he doesn’t overshadow Olivia. Our heroine is gorgeous. Generous, sweet and loving, she has a brilliantly witty sense of humour, but she is also painfully shy around men. She carries insecurities that most women would be able to relate to, and I love her.

Nate and Liv are the respective best friends of Adam and Jo, so their meeting was inevitable, and from their first introduction, they instantly bonded over their shared geekdom, and Nate’s easy going nature immediately put Liv at ease. Months later and they have become the best of friends, and their relationship is fantastic! They are there for each other, and have the best time together, hanging out, laughing, and they obviously care for each other deeply as friends.

And when Liv drunkenly reveals to Nate that she is lonely for a relationship but has no idea how to go about attracting a guy, he gallantly steps up to the plate to help her.

“There’s a guy at the library. A student. Postgrad. I like him, but I sound like Rain Man every time I try to talk to him.”
Nate made a choking noise in the back of his throat.
“Are you laughing?”
He cleared it and answered shakily, “Never.”
He was so laughing.
“It’s not funny,” I told him grimly and pulled wearily out of his arms to fall back against my pillow, my eyes finally drifting shut. “I’m going to die alone, Nate.”
And as unconsciousness pulled me toward it, I thought I heard him whisper, “Not on my watch, babe.”

They come to arrangement whereby Nate will teach Liv how to flirt, and help her gain the confidence that she is so badly lacking. And OMG, he is absolutely beautiful about it!

“I may not do flowers, hearts, and all that shit with women, but you’re my friend, and I consider myself the kind of person a friend can always turn to. Friends are important to me, Liv. And last night a friend cried in my arms and admitted she was unhappy.” He brushed my cheek affectionately. “You deserve happiness, babe. What’s the harm in letting me help you try to obtain it?”

Yeah, it all sounds pure and innocent when you put it like that, but then when this starts to happen…

“Let’s start with how you don’t feel sexually attractive.”
I gulped. “All right.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” 

… the lines start to get blurry.

“If you were just some woman in a bar, I’d pick you out from all the others, take you home, and fuck you so hard you wouldn’t be able to walk straight in the morning.”
I gulped.
In fact, I think I might have had a little mini-orgasm.

The storyline from here is really predictable, but it’s executed really well. The flirting turns to kissing, which turns to a whole lot more and pretty soon its…

“Tomorrow, we fuck.”

Alrighty then! Of course, there’s mad lust going on beneath all of that friendship and we know how it’s all going to end, but the whole time I was reading, it was still with a building sense of anticipation waiting for something to happen. Because the chemistry between them is sizzling right from the very start, and I was just waiting for all of that hotness to explode. And explode it does! It may be for ‘educational purposes’ (pfft), but there is a lot of sexy time in this book, and in true Samantha Young style, it’s absolutely steaming! Wow, these two are hot together, and every time they are together, you can feel the emotion and intimacy between them. The way they are together, and the way they react to each other shows us so much, and I loved every minute of it!

The story is told from Liv’s POV, and while at times I was desperate to get inside of Nate’s head, I like that we are left to interpret what he’s thinking. It makes the ending and the inevitable declarations much more intense.

This book is such a fun read. Liv and Nate’s relationship is fun – whether they’re just being friends, or being friends who have ‘educational sex’, they maintain the jokes, and they laugh together, and I love that! Things between them develop beautifully, until the growing feelings between them start to complicate everything, and OMG, the FEELS!!!

Yes, there is still the inevitable stupid – they both have their moments which made me want to smack them – but with their backstories, I could empathise with both of them and their reasons for doing what they did, and the rest of the book is so awesome, and the grovelling and making up is sensational, it didn’t bother me too much.

“No one,” I whispered, my lips trembling with the emotion, “has ever made me feel like the person I’ve always wanted to be until you. You make me feel beautiful, Nate. All the way through. No one else has ever given me that. No one.”
“I’m glad,” he murmured against my mouth. “Not just because you deserve to feel that way … but because it makes you mine.”

I flew through this book. It’s funny, it’s sexy, it’s romantic, and I genuinely cared about both Liv and Nate and was completely swept up in their story. And not just them, but also their friends and the whole extended family as we get continuation for Joss and Braden (make sure you have read Castle Hill before starting this – the stories overlap), and also the beginning of Hannah’s story which is coming up next.

Samantha Young is definitely on a winner with this series! I absolutely loved it – 5 stars

 

The On Dublin Street series

 

Check out our Contemporary Romance Recommendations page for more awesome reads.