Review: On Dublin Street

Jocelyn Butler has been hiding from her past for years. But all her secrets are about to be laid bare…

Four years ago, Jocelyn left her tragic past behind in the States and started over in Scotland, burying her grief, ignoring her demons, and forging ahead without attachments. Her solitary life is working well—until she moves into a new apartment on Dublin Street where she meets a man who shakes her carefully guarded world to its core.

Braden Carmichael is used to getting what he wants, and he’s determined to get Jocelyn into his bed. Knowing how skittish she is about entering a relationship, Braden proposes an arrangement that will satisfy their intense attraction without any strings attached.

But after an intrigued Jocelyn accepts, she realizes that Braden won’t be satisfied with just mind-blowing passion. The stubborn Scotsman is intent on truly knowing her… down to the very soul.

Title: On Dublin Street
Author: Samantha Young
Publication Date: October 25 2012
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1478329459
Length: 414 Pages
Add it to your TBR Pile: Goodreads
Buy It: Amazon US / Amazon UK

Source: Purchased (Kindle Edition)
Cover Love: Hot!
Point of View: 1st person, following Jocelyn

My Rating: 5 Stars

Have you ever gone into a book pretty sure you will enjoy it because of the blurb and from what you have seen from other reviews but then when you read it you are actually shocked at how much you absolutely loved it?  Well that is what happened to me with On Dublin Street.  I really needed this book!  I have been reading a lot of young adult novels lately and while I love them sometimes you just need an excellent, well written contemporary adult novel.  And WOW this book fit the bill perfectly.  The chemistry and romance between Jocelyn and Braden was on fire.  The characters were believable and more importantly they were lovable.  And I am not just referring to the two main characters, the side ones are just as lovable. 

Honestly I found it so hard to put this book down once I started.  As always there has to be a way for the characters to meet and in this case they share a cab ride.  Holy hot Batman!  I knew there was no way at all that I was going to be able to put this book down after that scene.  How can so much hotness come from a scene where not even a single kiss is shared?

"Most women would be taking advantage of my imprisonment in the taxi with them-chew my ear off, shove their phone number in my face...as well as other things."

"Wow, you really think a lot of yourself."

He grinned back at me, his teeth white but imperfect and his crooked smile sent an unfamiliar shot of feeling across my chest. 

"I'm just speaking from experience."

... and that is just a small snippet.  Trust me when I say it is an awesome scene and it is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the awesome scenes in this book.  I always tend to highlight favorite passages on my Kindle and by the end I am pretty sure that most of the book has just been saved in my clippings.  Like I said, there are just so many great scenes.

Jocelyn (Braden refuses to call her by her nickname Joss) is troubled.  She faced horrible tragedy at a young age and since then has closed herself off and never lets anybody get very close.  She does have a couple of friends but they know nothing about her past and to be honest she probably only keeps them around because they don't press her with questions.

Braden is devilishly sexy but he is also kind, generous, arrogant, sweet. cocky, and witty.  I loved Braden from day one and I never looked back.  Usually in a book there is a moment when your feelings change.  Yes you may go back to loving the person but something will happen and you will temporarily dislike them.  This never ever happened!  Braden Carmichael has successfully made it to my top ten fictional men, in fact I think he could have easily broken the top five.  Braden is not without his issues, he has been burned in the past and a lot like Jocelyn he never lets anybody get very close, with the exception of his family.  The love he has for his family is heart-warming and I also loved them so much.  They are hard not to love to be honest.

Something else I really enjoyed about this was the way the author incorporated Jocelyn's therapy sessions.  The switching to a session is seamless and it was our way of learning a bit more about her past as she doesn't open up to anybody else.  I loved the therapist!  She was insightful and quite funny in the end.

There are just so many great things about On Dublin Street.  I could go on and on about it's awesomeness for ages but I'm sure you would get tired of reading it.  I only hope I have managed to convince you to read this book.  I have already made a friend of mine read it and she also could not put it down and is now in love with it.  Two more of my friends will be reading it very soon and I am sure they will come to the same conclusion as me... On Dublin Street is one of the best books I have read in 2012!

“I feel like I'm missing something really important when you're gone. So important I don't feel like myself. I've never felt like someone was mine before. But you're mine, Jocelyn.  I've known that from the moment we met.

And I'm yours. I don't want to be anyone else's, babe.”

MORE QUOTES FROM ON DUBLIN STREET