On Dublin Street by Samantha Young

About the book

On Dublin Street is an Adult/ New Adult novel by Samantha Young. It was published by Penguin on 17^th January and the book is 414 pages long. Thanks to the publisher for providing me with an e-book for review.

Synopsis (Taken from Goodreads.com)

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.

What I thought

Although this book has been marketed as an adult novel, it also has a crossover into the new adult genre.

On Dublin Street is told through the narrative of Jocelyn, a recent graduate. Originally from America, Joss has gone from foster family to foster family after a tragic accident that killed her whole family. Her mother was part Scottish and Joss wanted a fresh start. After graduating, Joss’ best friend moved away to London, leaving her to find somewhere new to live. With an inheritance she has barely touched, Joss decides to splash out when she sees a room in a flat up for rent. However, on the way to the viewing, Joss has a run in with an insanely handsome man who goes to share her taxi. The two have instant chemistry but Joss doesn’t have relationships of any kind. Joss heads to her apartment viewing, where she instantly hits it off with Ellie and moves in straight away. Shame the guy she met in the taxi is Ellie’s brother and owner of the apartment.

I really liked Joss as a character and the protagonist of this book. She is extremely feisty and says exactly what she thinks. Both her past in America and her job at a bar have definitely helped with this. As the narrator, Joss has a really strong voice and I enjoyed getting to know her. It was clear that she was far from being a push over but past life experiences got in her way when it came to being happy. After their meeting in the taxi, Joss and Ellie’s brother Braden have quite a few funny meetings. I loved the way that Joss reacted to Braden and she really put him in his place… for a while anyway.

While Joss is determined to not have anything to do with Braden, he has other ideas completely. This is where Joss began to change as a character and not always in a good way. Braden is very possessive and even though he had Joss have nothing going on to begin with, he has no problems telling her that he doesn’t like to share and that he always gets what he wants. While the arrogance did make him kind of hot at times, I also wanted to punch him in the face for being an ass. Braden is soon telling Joss what she can and cannot do this part of their relationship was what I hated. Also, speaking of their relationship, at times it came across as something out of Pretty Woman without the money, sometimes Braden was a bit like Edward Cullen (Ergh!) and then there were times when he really was just an ass. As I was reminded of these things, I cannot say that I completely loved seeing Braden and Joss together.

Although I did have problems with the relationship in this book, it was ridiculously steamy and I loved that part! As a new adult/ adult book, sex scenes are much more explicit than in young adult novels, like I normally read. If you’re not wanting to read anything like this, then this is definitely not the book for you. Joss and Braden have a friends with benefits kind of relationship, although it is really Braden who calls all of the shots. There is a lot of talking dirty to each other, sexting and sex and foreplay in some quite exciting places. Although On Dublin Street does have a serious storyline as well, this aspect of the book really lightened things up.

Speaking of the more serious side of On Dublin Street… Joss has some big problems due to her past but she isn’t the only one. I was surprised to see that Braden wasn’t the perfect character and he had some issues himself. Due to these things, both characters go through massive changes over the course of the book, making the character development fantastic. Although there are some serious issues being tackled here, it isn’t all doom and gloom. Samantha Young adds in humour and some more fun scenes, along with the sex, to give this book something for nearly everyone.

I had really mixed feelings about On Dublin Street. While there were some aspects that I loved, such as secondary characters, the humour and character development, there was also things that I hated.