Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Samantha Young - Before Jamaica Lane

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…
 


Comment: This is the third book in the series by this author that started with On Dublin Street. I had heard some not so good opinions about these books before picking up the first one, but honestly, so far I've been dazzled and it just serves to prove, we all see things differently and how great is that!

This is the story of Olivia, she's Jo's cousin who first appeared on the previous book. Olivia has a dream job in my opinion, she works at a library, and she has a crush on a guy that goes there to do research, but she can't seem to be able to talk to him normally because she isn't very experienced with relationships.
In comes Nate, he's a friend in common among the group we know so far and he and Olivia are attracted to each other from the start, but they are friends and always ignored their hotter thoughts. But Olivia confesses her lack of experience with men after a drunk night and Nate is there and Olivia asks his help, considering he's so successful with women. So, the lessons begin but can they admit it that what they want for real is what they already have?

I'm really loving this series!
Really, somehow, everything that goes on with these books just seems to hit the perfect note to me and I cherish and welcome the books always with anticipation and will.
The books have a certain simplicity that calls to me and the characters, despite their not so realistic behavior, seem genuine and perfectly flawed in a way they makes them worth of redemption but not in a condescending or forgiving way, their issues are serious but their actions aren't always too hard to forgive or to deal with. I like how the author gives them a simple, domestic value and turns them into types of people I would like to know in real life.

Another good things about this book, and the whole series as a matter of fact, is how the sense of family and friendship and relationship among lovers, parents, brothers, friends is highly detailed and made important. There's a clear focus on the little things, family dinners, sharing with your friends, that make the series one of those you can enjoy for all the details and secondary things even if the romance itself isn't the most amazing ever. Although, for me, the romances are quite good.

This story has all the said things before which makes it wonderful in my opinion.
Of course there are some things I'd change or wished were different, namely the way Nate and Olivia have their troubles. I understand why and it does suit the plot, but for two close friends they surely missed the communication at a certain point. I could day in real life we don't always do and say the right things or we react in the heat of the moment with less thought than we'd like but considering all that happens here, how they both know each other so well...it's just for plot purposes, but the problem isn't that convincing for me.

Nate and Olivia have been close friends since they met. I think we get enough scenes where this is proved. I think Olivia's request that Nate teach her how to seduce guys or be more appealing for them was a bit too much, but they are attracted to each other so...but it's still weird. Despite this, The way things go on kind of mutes that and it's something I could think of but not be displeased about.
In fact their romance worked out for me and I loved to see them together.

As I said, many secondary characters, known well or not, have a huge part in these books and it's wonderful to see them be an important part of the stories, even after their stories are told. Can't wait for the next book to see them all again.
This book ends up being sweet, cute, romantic and perfect to be liked. I do recommend this contemporary series, even if others might not see the good things in it like I do.
Grade: 8/10

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