Echoes of Scotland Street (On Dublin Street, #5)

by Samantha Young

[EBookObsessed]

At first, I thought that this book should have been told by Cole, but telling this story from the point of view of Shannon was an interesting choice since we were already familiar with Cole and this gave us an insight in the mind of Cole’s love interest. Yet, I did find myself constantly thinking, “But it’s Cole. Cole is amazing. Don’t be stupid.”

Shannon MacLeod knew that the turning point in her life occurred when she was only 15 and she took the wrong turn. Instead of staying to talk to the boy who lived next door to her grandmother’s house, she got in the car with her then boyfriend which lead her on a journey of losers and abusers. His name even sounded like the name of a hero, Cole Walker.

We flash forward nine years and Shannon has to get away from her family in Glascow and she decides to return to Edinburgh where she had spent time with her Grandparents long ago. She walked into INKarnate to apply for the receptionist position and never expected to once again be face to face with Cole Walker, or that he would have grown up to be so incredibly hot. But the one thing that Shannon is determined to do right this time is to avoid tattooed bad boys at all costs. The last one she dated was the worst of all. He abused her physically and mentally.

Cole comes off as cocky and aggressively flirtatious to the wounded Shannon, but from prior books we know that Cole’s role models are all confident men who were outrageously flirtatious with their women. He will of course learn to be overly demonstrative to a woman he is interested in. But not knowing Cole the way we do, Shannon is turned off by his focused attention.

After several hours of heightened sexual tension, Shannon fears that she new found willpower will breakdown and she goes on the attack letting Cole know that she isn’t interested in being with a player like him. Her verbal attack brings back memories for Cole echoing the years of verbal abuse he was subjected to by his own mother.

Intervention on Cole’s behalf by Hannah, Shannon’s coworker/roommate Rae, and just about every other character we’ve met so far convinces Shannon just how wrong she is about Cole.

Except by the time Shannon realizes that she has misjudged Cole, he has decided that no matter how attracted he is to Shannon, Cole refuses to ever be subjected to verbal abuse again and he won’t entertain a relationship with a woman who would be just like his mother. In this story, it is Shannon who is going to have to work hard to reclaim Cole’s affection. If Shannon wants any chance at a relationship with Cole, she is going to have to spill all the secrets she has carefully hidden away.

THOUGHTS:
I really enjoy this series, and you can’t help but love Cole.

In Fall from India Place, I had a little issue seeing young Hannah all grown up and having sex and being a bit of a bitch. It might also be that Hannah’s story jumped back and forth from child Hannah to adult Hannah. Maybe it was because we were used to grown up Cole from Fall from India Place who is now BFF with Hannah so we were eased into grown up Cole being all sexy and sweet. All I know is that I was all in on Cole having his HEA.

We like Shannon because she’s a nice person who has been hurt many times. We hate Shannon because after a string of losers, of course she decides when she meets Cole that she’s going to use her brain instead her heart. But she in fact hides behind her fear and treats our Cole badly.

I highly recommend the whole On Dublin Street series. Some of the stories are better than others, but Cole’s story is one of the top of the list.

Received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.