On Dublin Street by Samantha Young
Genre: NA Realistic Fiction/Romance
Blurb (on back of book): 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.
MY OPINION: ****
I'm going to be completely honest here and tell you that I do not remember a single thing that happened in this book. While it wasn't even a full month ago, it feels like I finished this book five years ago. I was reading through the blurb to try to refresh my memory and nothing even seemed remotely familiar. It makes me wish I had annotated this book (though I have never annotated a non-school-related book) or written this review earlier (too busy!).
Jocelyn has just moved to Scotland to escape her horrible past. There, she meets a flighty, happy girl (whose name I could not remember if my life depended on it) and her moody, brooding brother, Braden. While at first she tries to stay away from Braden, their obvious attraction to each other is too hard to fight and they end up getting into some sort of situation where they're not dating but they're also clearly not just friends. I usually am not a fan of the friends-with-benefits sort of trope since they seem a little overdone but I remember liking how this one was written and seeing the obvious chemistry between the characters and understanding exactly why they couldn't be together.
I don't recall much of what I didn't like about this book but I do remember Jocelyn getting on my nerves quite a lot. I usually am not a fan of the protagonists of books, especially in rom-coms/romance novels, and this one was no exception. While I one hundred percent understand her trauma and her feelings of not being good enough to fully commit to being with someone else, it felt at times as if she was extreme trauma dumping on Brayden (and on the reader). This is another fairly overused trope, especially in NA romance, and I'm just really not a fan of the overload of trauma and the I-can't-be-with-you-because-I'm-so-broken trope. I definitely do not want to ignore her trauma or pretend like it wasn't a big deal, because there were a lot of things that made it really horrible but I just didn't appreciate how her past seemed to define her instead of just being a part of her.
The book read like a Wattpad story. Now, as someone who used to be obsessed with Wattpad, I have no judgement against that. I do know that a lot of people hate that melodramatic, tension-filled, romance novel that sounds like it was written by an angsty teen. However, I am not one of those people, so I was willing to overlook that and retain a higher rating for the book by the end.
I am aware that there are a bunch of books in this series, including extra novellas. I do not plan on reading any of them, only because I wasn't overly invested in this series and don't know if I'm interested enough to read five more of them. I find that spin-offs, particularly for romance novels, tend to be quite... bad, to say the least and I have no interest in subjecting myself to that for the next month or however long it would take me to finish them. Besides, I am reading a lot of other more interesting books.
Overall, this book was full of drama, tension, angst, and chemistry, typical of any other romance novel. I would recommend it to readers looking for a more mature romance novel, geared specifically towards new adult to adult romance. I also would definitely recommend checking out the trigger warnings as there are a lot of traumatic topics touched upon within this book.
Main Character: Jocelyn
Sidekick(s): Braden, Ellie, Adam, etc
Villain(s): Trauma, misunderstandings, etc
Realistic Fiction Elements: This book was all very real to life.
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