Logan spent two years paying for the mistakes he made. Now, he’s ready to start over. He has a great apartment, a good job, and plenty of women to distract him from his past. And one woman who is driving him to distraction…Grace escaped her manipulative family by moving to a new city. Her new life, made to suit her own needs, is almost perfect. All she needs to do is find her Mr. Right—or at least figure out a way to ignore her irresistible yet annoying womanizer of a neighbor.
Grace is determined to have nothing to do with Logan until a life-changing surprise slowly begins turning the wild heartbreaker into exactly the kind of strong, stable man she’s been searching for. Only just when she begins to give into his charms, her own messy past threatens to derail everything they’ve worked to build…
Comment: This is the last full length installment in the On Dublin Street series by Samantha Young featuring a group of friends and family members through their lives and romances. I've read all the books - except novellas - and I have to regretfully say this last book is my least favorite of them all...
In this book we have Logan's story, he's Shannon's brother (the heroine from the previous story) and he's been in prison for attacking the man who tried to harm his sister. When the guys learned this, Braden decided to help and offered Logan a job in one of his clubs.
In comes Grace, a young woman living next door to Logan and the story begins with her annoyance at the constant women coming and going to Logan's.
The two of them don't have the greatest start, but a shocking appearance is going to change their lives and bring them together. Can they put their pasts aside to find happiness?
Usually I really love these stories because I feel interested in the main characters, their feelings and the romances they develop, the chemistry they have and I want to know what they will do and how will their love story dazzle me. In this case, none of those things happened. Overall, of course the story is good, it has enough supporting elements to make it work, but if one compares to the other 5 fully developed stories, this has to be the worst. At least, for me it is.
The main characters, Logan and Gracie, have different backgrounds and life experiences. I was very interested in each one of them individually, but more so in Logan because of the little bit we've saw of him in the previous book. I wanted to se someone triumph over hard times and how much his prison experience changed him, or not. I guess I wanted a hero just like the other guys but with a different, heavy situation on his shoulders. He seemed too bland and meh for me. I never fully got interested in him and in seeing him with Gracie. In fact, when she met someone before they got together, I actually thought the other guy would be better for her! I never felt his whole presence in the romance or the storyline. He was seriously underdeveloped, it felt like he just needed to fill up a space and not even the interesting plot twists going his way turned him interesting.
Grace has many qualities I like, she's a book lover, she managed to work freelance from home (I wish I was as disciplined and lucky as she), she dealt with a disappointing and sad childhood but I think those negative aspects of her life that should have made her intriguing and shy - as she is slightly described - weren't pinpointed enough to make it so. It felt very phony and her final confrontation to her past just an added drama scene.
I don't know but both Logan and Grace had everything to not only work together but to offer one of the best romances in the series and I ended up disillusioned with them. The amount of interesting information about them wasn't done well enough to make them compelling and balanced, I think.
The romance has highs and lows, but then again, all stories did, however in Logan and Grace's case, their romance wasn't convincing and even less was how they fell in love. I never felt they had the sort of love story they deserved and it didn't feel real, like the author had to write it because it was expected but in truth it never happened. I can't explain it well, but it felt flat. Logan also seemed too out there to be a good love interest and Grace seemed to be too responsible to fall for him while she was having doubts and in the end it never felt magic, special...
As expected, beloved characters show up in the book and offer funny and warm scenes of what a good relationship and family bond should be like. It is always interesting to see where the characters are in life and how their personal journeys led them to wonderful lives.
The end of the book shows Grace and Logan's (tedious) HEA and even an epilogue with a scene from all the different heroine's perspectives about their personal lives. It's bittersweet because despite how lovely I still feel sad it's over. How I wish it would have been ended with a stronger story!
Grade: 6/10
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