Review: Echoes of Scotland Street

ECHOES OF SCOTLAND STREET
On Dublin Street #5
Samantha Young
Contemporary New Adult
384 pages
NAL/Penguin
Available Now
Source: ARC from publisher for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
Shannon MacLeod has always gone for the wrong type of man. After she drifted from one toxic relationship to the next, her last boyfriend gave her a wakeup call in the worst possible way. With her world shattered, she’s sworn off men—especially those of the bad-boy variety.

Cole Walker is exactly the sort that Shannon wants to avoid—gorgeous, tattooed, charming, and cocky. But his rough exterior hides a good man who’s ready to find “the one.” He’s determined to pull Shannon from her self-imposed solitude and win her heart.

As Shannon opens up in the face of Cole’s steady devotion, the passion between them ignites to blazing levels. But when Shannon’s past comes back to haunt her, her fears may destroy the trust Cole has built between them—and tear them apart for good…

MY THOUGHTS
Echoes of Scotland Street is yet another sweet, sexy, and moving addition to the On Dublin Street series, finally allowing a young man who’s been prominent in the periphery of all the previous books his chance to really shine. The setup of the romance between Shannon and Cole is nothing if not familiar in terms of the baggage each brings into the relationship, but Ms. Young has the extraordinary ability to take what’s been done before and infuse it with the perfect amount of emotion and conflict. She knows exactly when we need the quiet moments to bring a smile to our faces, when we want to feel the heat flare between them, and when we wish for the conflict to find a satisfying resolution.

Shannon arrives at INKarnate’s doorstep with a heart sporting scars she wants to remain unseen, determined to break the cycle of abusive men in her life and start fresh on the straight and narrow. When we first learn of her trust issues–able to decipher from the hints she drops that she’s been cheated on and far worse–we can’t help but worry those issues are going to be what cause the crash and burn of her relationship with Cole, and that her tendency to make snap judgments is going to hurt him in ways we might not be able to forgive. That worry sits like lead in our guts as we watch them slowly make their way toward one another, loving the way they make the other feel while at the same time bracing for Shannon to make the Big Mistake that’s going to cause Cole to question the rightness of their relationship.

What’s so delightful about this story (other than the beauty of Cole and Shannon together) is how Shannon surprises us at every pivotal moment, proving that though her past relationships left invisible and permanent marks, they are no longer all she sees about herself. She allows Cole to oh-so carefully dismantle her defenses, and though he scares her in so many ways, she doesn’t let that fear blow up in either of their faces. When that inevitable relationship moment comes toward the end, Shannon impresses once again, immediately recognizing the effect her careless words have on Cole and seeking to make amends any way she can. She reaches out to Cole in a number of ways, but when she finds herself face to face with his rejection, instead of taking it to heart and throwing her defenses back up, she confronts that rejection head on, making sure she gets all the facts from the source instead of filtering what she sees and hears through the twisted prism of her past.

Overall, Echoes of Scotland Street delivers on every level, Shannon and Cole a steamy couple in the bedroom and a supportive one out of it, and my only wish for this series moving forward is that it never ends.

Rating: 4/5
 

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This book was sent to me by the publisher free of charge for the purpose of a review. 

I received no other compensation and the above is my honest opinion.