About the book
Down London
Road is the second new adult book in the ‘On Dublin Street’ series by Samantha
Young. The book was published by Penguin on 9th May 2013 and the
book is 464 pages long.
Synopsis
Johanna has
always been the one to take care of her family and especially her younger
brother Cole. Her father is nowhere to be seen and her mother an alcoholic so
she’s been acting like Cole’s mother for as long as she can remember. God knows
where they would be without her. Jo isn’t rich though and she makes her money
working two jobs and dating men with money, as shallow as that sounds, it
works.
Even with a
boyfriend she actually really likes and takes care of her, she cannot deny the
attraction to new bartender Cameron. Her stomach flips whenever she sees him
and she’s definitely tempted but knows she has to put her family’s needs first.
If it wasn’t hard enough working that close to someone you’re attracted to and
can’t have, it gets even harder when Cameron moves downstairs from Jo and
begins to break down every single wall she’s every built up!
What I thought
On Dublin
Street was the first book in this new adult series and I couldn’t wait for the
second instalment. Although it is in the same series, the book follows
different protagonists from the first book.
Johanna has
a pretty tough life. Her mother is an alcoholic who can’t take care of herself
let alone Johanna and her younger brother Cole so it is up to Jo to pay the
bills and the feed everyone. Jo had to leave school in order to support her
family so she’s determined that Cole will turn out better; everything she does
is with him in mind. In On Dublin Street, we get snippets of Jo’s character and
I have to say, I wasn’t impressed at first. She openly states that she dates
men with money and I didn’t like her for it. However, Down London Road gives a
lot more insight into Jo’s life and the reasons for what she does. I had to
admire her for working so hard and supporting her family, even when it wasn’t
her responsibility.
Cameron is
the love interest in this book and Jo meets him at an art showing that she
attends with her boyfriend. Cameron comes across as a complete arse to begin
with and although Jo is quickly attracted to him, she also cannot stand him! He
also judged her on first appearances and wasn’t afraid to show his dislike for
the way she lived her life. It isn’t until Cam begins to work with Jo that he
realises that he was wrong in judging her and can sense something much deeper
is going on. It is only by accident that he finds out what is really going on
in her life. Even though he’s pretty horrible to Jo to begin with, you can
easily see the attraction on his side and the sexual tension between the two.
As the plot
unfolds and Jo and Cam become quite close friends (as he moves in downstairs),
the secrets come out slowly. Cam is there for Jo whenever she needs him, even
if she doesn’t want to have to turn to him. Cam becomes a really close friend
to Cole also and that was such a lovely friendship to see. As Cole doesn’t have
a father figure in his life, Cam becomes the friend he can talk guy stuff with
and also someone to turn to when things go wrong at home. Not only do we see a
friendship blossom between Cam, Cole and Jo but there is the wonderful sister/
brother relationship to love! Jo and Cole are extremely close and really look
out for one another, even though Cole is younger than Jo.
The plot of
this book does not only surround the building romance between Jo and Cam but
the lives of each character. There are some really surprising twists and turns
throughout and most of them extremely exciting. I loved how dramatic and
intense the story was and it kept me gripped the whole way through. Although
not completely about the romance, that definitely helped. Jo and Cam have a
quite sweet relationship once it gets going but is also explosive once it gets
into the bedroom. I really enjoyed the contrast between soft and sweet and hard
and intense!
Down London
Road was actually better than On Dublin Street for me and I can’t wait to read
whatever Samantha Young does next.
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