BEFORE JAMAICA LANE - Samantha Young
Down London Road , Book 3
NAL
ISBN-13: 978-0-451-46668-6
January 2014
Contemporary Romance

Edinburgh, Scotland - Present Day

Since moving to Scotland, quiet librarian Olivia Holloway is comfortable with the people she looks upon as her new-found family.  Olivia spent most of her young life in the United States taking care of her sick mother, which left her no time for dating.  Her new friends, Jocelyn, Johanna, Cameron, Braden, Ellie and Adam, and Nate are now her family.

Nathaniel Sawyer is a player, but he's Cam's best friend and Olivia trusts him.  When a sexy young man at the library catches her eye, Liv asks Nate to teach her how to catch the guy's attention.  And then, one night after drinking too much, Liv reveals to Nate that she hasn't had sex in over seven years, and she needs his help!  Nate decides to take her into his hands (literally!) and help her acquire the knowledge for everything she needs to know about catching the man of her dreams.

What follows is the story of two best friends falling in love while pretending that they care for someone else.  Both Nate and Olivia have been hurt by things out of their control.  Nate lost the love of his life to cancer, and Liv lost her mother to the same disease.  That common bond gives them an understanding while they work their way through Liv's lessons in love.

The third novel in what is being called the Down London Road series, BEFORE JAMAICA LANE is a book best read in series sequence, following the previous two books.  (I have not read the first in the series and I am still a little lost.)  The books appear in this order:  ON DUBLIN STREET (December 2012) and DOWN LONDON ROAD (May 2013).  That said, BEFORE JAMAICA LANE tells a tender love story of two people who are falling in love without knowing it or planning it.  There is a plethora of characters (the list keeps growing with each book), and the pages turn quickly.  BEFORE JAMAICA LANE is a good read.  An added bonus, my copy included a novella, UNTIL FOUNTAIN BRIDGE, which is Ellie and Adam's story...

Diana Risso