The follow-up to the runaway bestsellers ON DUBLIN STREET and DOWN LONDON ROAD
Despite her outgoing demeanor, Olivia is painfully insecure around the opposite sex—usually, she can’t get up the nerve to approach guys she’s interested in. But moving to Edinburgh has given her a new start, and, after she develops a crush on a sexy postgrad, she decides it’s time to push past her fears and go after what she wants.
Nate Sawyer is a gorgeous player who never commits, but to his close friends, he’s as loyal as they come. So when Olivia turns to him with her relationship woes, he offers to instruct her in the art of flirting and to help her become more sexually confident.
The friendly education in seduction soon grows into an intense and hot romance. But then Nate’s past and commitment issues rear their ugly heads, and Olivia is left brokenhearted. When Nate realizes he’s made the biggest mistake of his life, he will have to work harder than he ever has before to entice his best friend into falling back in love with him—or he may lose her forever….
God, I love a good friends to lovers story, and this one included a bit of a twist. Usually in a friends to lovers story, good friends decide to take the risk to the friendship and add love, romance and sex. In Before Jamaica Lane, Nate and Olivia are good friends who like to hang out and spend their free time together. Olivia spent her most of her teens years caring for her dying mother so she didn't have that period of her life to experience flirting and boys and sex. Now she is in her mid-20s and inexperienced and uncertain of her own attraction to men. Olivia is a librarian and is attracted to one of the post-grads who comes to her help desk. Every time she sees him she gets tongue-tied. She enlists the help of her womanizing friend Nate to help her learn to flirt, and Nate teaches her to be comfortable with her own attractiveness to men.
As the time to turn the flirting practice into reality, Olivia realizes how uncomfortable she is with her lack of sexual experience (she only had one lover/one time and it was BAD). She again turns to Nate to show her how to please a man in bed.
Although the practice sessions with Nate gives her the experience she desperate wanted, it also solidified her initial attraction to Nate and turns it into love. But Olivia knows the reason behind Nate's decision not to have relationships with women. He gave his heart to his childhood sweetheart and watched her die of cancer at a young age. He never intends to feel that bond with anyone else.
Olivia needs to make a break from her practice session with Nate before she loses her heart completely, but it might already be too late.
THOUGHTS:
I have loved this series, but I think this might be my favorite couple. Nate and Oliva are just so much fun together and you can see just how perfect they are together as a couple. When they add sex to the relation, their passion for each other burns bright. But you know with Nate's background, what will unfortunately be coming down the road for them.
Even though their practice sessions last for weeks and they are perfect together, Nate does eventually freak out about his own feelings for Olivia, and gives her the "you know I don't do relationships" speech. But watching him try to win Olivia back makes for a great story as well.
Received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
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Reading updates
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Started reading
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7 January, 2014:
Finished reading
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7 January, 2014:
Reviewed