Audiobook Reviews: Until Fountain Bridge (On Dublin Street #1.5) and Down London Road (On Dublin Street #2) by Samantha Young

The next two digital audio books that I borrowed from my public library were the next two in the On Dublin Street series by Samantha Young.  I'd begun listening to her books because she is going to be at NOLA Story Con in September, and I wanted to know if she was someone I'd want to meet and get autographs from. And I can say that she definitely is!  I loved the first one, and these two didn't disappoint either.  I'm reviewing them together since one is more of a novella than a full novel.  I love that the author is basically giving each of the characters their own story.  And as I looked further down the series titles on Goodreads, I was very excited to see some of the younger characters from these books that will get their own books as well!

Until Fountain Bridge (On Dublin Street #1.5)

 This story follows Ellie Carmichael who is Braden's sister from the first book, and Joss's roommate.  We know that she pretty much ended up with Braden's best friend Adam, so I guess they didn't need a full book to themselves, hence this novella. But really this was a pretty good length.  In it, Ellie is going through her old diaries, thinking that she might give them to Joss to help her write her romance novels.  Adam comes in while she is looking through them, and so she finds parts in each one to show him how her love for him really started, and all the different moments that led them to where they finally are in love and happy together.  There are sweet moments from when she was pretty young, and Adam had no idea how he affected her. There are memories from when he did seem to know, and even when he did catch on, and the way he turned her down makes you cry.  We even go back and read about the horrible events at the end of the first book, when Ellie had received the life threatening news that really brought Joss and Braden together.  Going through each of these memories really helped me to fall in love with this couple, more than I already loved Ellie from just her being Joss's friend in the first book.

Down London Road (On Dublin Street #2):

I actually listened to this one before Until Fountain Bridge, but I decided I'd review them in chronological order for the series.  In this one we get the story of Joss's friend from the bar where she works, Johanna.  What we know about Johanna from the Joss's story is that she is a bit of a gold digger.  But we find out that it has to do with her family situation.  You see Johanna's mother is an alcoholic, and her father is in prison.  Johanna has a younger teenaged brother, Cole, that she must take care of in her mother's stead. 

When the book begins, Johanna is dating a rich man.  He's nice, and she likes him well enough.  But when she goes to an art gallery with him to help support his ex's art, she meets the new, somewhat surly boyfriend of his ex, and his name is Cam.  Cam also seems to be instantly attracted to Johanna, but he immediately determines that she is a gold digger.  Partly because she goes out and gets on her phone during the night.  When he sees that, he assumes that she must also be cheating on the guy.  Well, it turns out that Cam needs a job.  Since one of the bartenders where Johanna works has left, they need someone, and so she is nice enough to give her boss his name, even though he still seems to be quite rude to her.  He finds new problems with her when she is on her phone at work a lot.  He doesn't know that she is just checking up on her brother, and because he is so rude in his assumptions, she chooses not to correct him.  Even though the two of them have a strong, physical attraction, and it is hard for her to be around him. 

Then Cam moves into the apartment below where Johanna lives with her mom and brother.  This is scary for Johanna, as her mother can often go into screaming fits, breaking things, and causing all kinds of problems that the neighbors around, and below, can hear.  One night it all comes to a head. Cam has finally started to see Johanna in a little better light, when he hears the noises from her apartment above his, and he goes up and now thinks that Johanna is horrible for being out on a date while her brother is dealing with their drunk mother.  The two of them, Johanna and Cam, have to continue to work through their issues.  When Johanna gives up a few more secrets, leading Cam to see that she's been through a lot, and has done whatever she can to try to take care of her brother, they finally decide not to deny the connection they have any more, and they give a relationship a chance. 

Those secrets will come back to bite them, though.  More about Johanna's father, and even something about a past relationship that Cam had.  They will both handle things the wrong way, causing more drama, that could probably have been prevented.  And while it frustrates me when that happens in books, I know that it is a big part of story telling, and so I go with it, and continued to enjoy the story.  I will have to purchase this book for an autograph before September.  And I look forward to reading on to the next story in the series.

Both of these books had the wonderful emotions that made you fall in love with the well-developed characters, as well as the steamy sex scenes that the author writes so well.