Before Jamaica Lane

By: Samantha Young

Narrated by: Angelica Lee

Length: 11 hrs and 5 mins

Publisher's summary

Penguin presents the unabridged, downloadable audiobook edition of Samantha Young’s Before Jamaica Lane, the latest novel from the best-selling author of On Dublin Street. Read by the actress Angelica Lee.

Edinburgh was going to be a fresh start for Olivia Holloway. Crippled by shyness around the opposite sex, Olivia nevertheless meets gorgeous postgraduate Nate Sawyer and decides it is time to push her fears aside. Before long, Olivia and Nate form a close friendship and she finds herself confessing her deepest secrets, and Nate, being her best friend, offers to teach her the art of flirting.

As Olivia and Nate’s friendship turns intense it soon blossoms into a passionate love affair. For the first time Olivia opens her heart but what she doesn’t realise is that Nate has his own fears and just when she finds herself hopelessly falling for him, Nate’s past returns to haunt him. Will Nate have the courage to confide in Olivia, or will he cut and run? And can Olivia face up to her own fears and keep him?

Before Jamaica Lane charts the love trials of characters introduced in Samantha Young’s best-selling prequel, On Dublin Street, and Down London Road.

Samantha Young is a 27-year-old Scottish book addict who graduated from the University of Edinburgh. She currently lives in Scotland. Her previous novels, On Dublin Street, Down London Road and the novella, Until Fountain Bridge, are also published by Penguin.

©2014 Samantha Young (P)2014 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

“Scotland’s answer to E.L. James” ( Sunday Post)

woooow!!!! the best audiobook ever!! no one better

wow...well..what can I say.
this book is my favourite in the whole series. This book was perfect! its the best book ever!!

Wonderful Addition To The On Dublin St Series

I really enjoyed this story. The writing was on the wall that these two would end up together, so it was a fun journey watching them get there. Olivia is a beautiful girl that is yearning for love; Nate is a gorgeous guy who has suffered loss at the hand of love, well really they both have. They formed an instant friendship, and shared an easy camaraderie that created an extremely strong bond between them. Olivia trusted her friend and felt that they could share anything with each other, so who better to ask help her attract Benjamin, the cute guy that she sees at work. What she lacks in confidence, Nate makes up in his bravado. They agree to him helping her with her "flirting" skills, and finding her inner sexy goddess. At Joss and Braden's wedding reception, after indulging in some liquid courage, Olivia confides to Nate her sheer lack of experience with men, and before you know it, the private lessons in the art of seduction become physical between them, and that is when things get a little complicated.

I enjoyed the humor, witty dialogue, and getting to see our friends and couples from the previous reads; we also had the stage set for Hannah and Marco's story along with getting a glimpse at Cole in what I hope to be a future story as well. What I thought would have made the story perfect, was if we could have gotten into the head of Nate; he was struggling with some real pain, and I was obvious that he cared deeply for Olivia so I would have loved to read his thoughts. Maybe we will get more of this couple in the future, I sure hope so.

So Romantic & Sexy - I Love the streets of Dublin

Any additional comments?

Before Jamaica Lane is the third book in Samantha Young's *On Dublin Street series. This is a great best friends turned lovers story that will have readers staying up late to see what happens next.... Olivia has big issues with her body and a huge lack of confidence. She comes up with a plan.. She plucks up courage and asks Nate to help her boost her confidence by giving her sex lessons.

Though this book is essentially a contemporary romance, it also deals with some issues that many women face, like problems with body image and confidence. Young does a masterful job of creating some amazing "Sexy, So Romantic As" love scenes while also showing compassion and understanding.

Olivia was such a great character. She was one of those girls who never found the confidence it took to stand out in a crowd. She is now a librarian, who doesn't know how beautiful she is. I liked the fact that she was very spontaneous, but still reserved. With Nate she was happy and able to voice her opinions and she was confident but not with others, that should have been her first clue. Young writes her as smart and a bit sassy, but scared of failing when it came to men.

Nate is a great hero. He's definitely a ladies man, but his are not your typical reasons. Having lost his former love Alana, heartbreak seems to be his nemesis and he never wants to get close enough to anyone else to have it happen to him again. He just can't seem to help himself with Olivia though. She is everything he needs and when his lessons in confidence go a little further than expected, the sparks start flying.

I love this author and this series and i totally loved Angelica Lee's narration. BIG SMILES ALL ROUND :) :)