Title: Before Jamaica Lane
Author: Samantha Young
Series: On Dublin Street #3
Genre: NA Contemporary Romance
Published: January 7th, 2014
Source: Audiobook downloaded from library
So, if you followed my Goodreads feed as I was listening to this book, you know that I have found a book boyfriend that actually beats Daemon Black from the Lux series by Jennifer L. Armentrout. His name is Nate Sawyer, and just thinking about him and the story really makes me happy. Honestly, I'm pretty sure that even though I have loved all the books in this series, I'm pretty sure that this will be my favorite no matter what. Not just because of Nate, but because I really identified with the main character, Olivia, or Liv.
Olivia is a librarian (hmm, sound like anyone you know? Like me?) and she is very shy, and not very confident about her looks. She has a lack of sexual experience, only one guy, a long time ago, and only once. Olivia is the daughter of the man that Johanna Walker, the main character of Down London Road, always looked up to as a father figure. When Olivia's mother passed away, she and her father moved back to his home, Scotland, and now Olivia works at the university library. Her best friend is a guy, Nate. Nate is a bit of a player, but that's okay because Olivia isn't interested in him other than as a friend. No, Olivia has a crush on a tall, sexy post-grad student that comes into her library all the time. But Olivia is a lot like me, in that when she's nervous, or around people that she's very attracted to, she can't say anything that sounds intelligent, or can't even talk at all. So, she decides to enlist Nate's help in teacher her how to flirt. Once that seems to work, she is able to get a phone number at a bar after all the lessons. And then, another idea comes to her. She still feels so inexperienced and unsure at what comes next, physically, that she asks Nate to give her lessons in becoming more sexually confident. And this, actually includes getting physical with him.
The two of them try to keep it casual, just friends, not even "friends with benefits", but just Nate giving Olivia lessons, and then otherwise they are just normal around their friends, and still do their normal hang out things. But as you would expect, feelings start to develop. When Nate takes Olivia to meet his parents on a trip with their friends, she begins to think maybe he feels the same way. Until he lets her know that she is mistaken, and that he still is not interested in a relationship, with anyone. She feels betrayed at the way he behaves, but tries to go on and use the things he taught her to get that postgrad to go out with her. But Nate may come to realize that not only is he missing his best friend Olivia when she cuts him out from the way he talked to her, but maybe he does actually feel more for her than he thought he would want to.
Nate. I don't even know where to start. He's sexy, funny, and I just adore him. If only I could find a Nate. For the friendship, the benefits, to make me feel sexy and be able to flirt. I just love Nate. I'm pretty sure he'll be my favorite book boyfriend forever. I can't imagine any guy ever taking his place. All I can say is thank goodness that I started reading this author because she is going to be at the NOLA Story Con in September. Because I can't even think of how much I would have missed out on if I hadn't read this one. This is a book I can pick up and open to just about any page and find a steamy sex scene, but it's still sweet, and funny, and makes me happy. I can only gush about this. You should read it. Really.
