Hart Street Lane by Samantha Young is live!
A beautiful story of unrequited love with a friends-to-lovers, fake engagement romance that stole my heart.
Amazon
Blurb
A steamy fake engagement from New York Times Bestselling Author Samantha Young.
Faking it has never been so hard…
Breaking up with my fiancé wasn’t on my agenda this summer, neither was hiding the truth from everyone, including my colleagues at Pennington’s department store. But that tiny evasion gets me into trouble when I’m forced to play bride-to-be for our new marketing campaign. If my boss finds out I’ve lied to her, it won’t just be my reputation on the line; it’ll be my job.
Enter my new bestie, Baird McMillan. Professional goalkeeper, professional heartbreaker, and now my professional fake fiancé. Baird’s public escapades have gotten him on the wrong side of his football club’s new owner, and he needs to prove he’s settling down. A fake engagement is a win-win for us both.
There’s just one problem. It turns out there’s nothing fake about the explosive connection Baird and I share.
I may not have been looking for love, but every moment with Baird tempts me to reach for it. Yet just as I start to believe a future together could be a real possibility, our pasts come surging back with a vengeance. And with it, those who will do anything to destroy our chance at forever…
Review
5 stars
A beautiful story of unrequited love with a friends-to-lovers, fake engagement romance that stole my heart.
This is the third book in the Return to Dublin Street series, an On Dublin Street second-gen series, and this is the story of Maia, daughter of Logan from Moonlight on Nightingale Way. There is some character crossover from both this series and On Dublin Street but you can absolutely read this one as a standalone.
Football (soccer) star, Baird has been a huge scene stealer in previous books of this series, and he absolutely shines as the hero of his own story. He’s wildly in love with his good friend, Maia, but she’s engaged to another man so he’s kept his feelings to himself. But then Mais is suddenly single and reluctantly committed to a marketing campaign at work where her wedding planning and ceremony will be shared on social media. Being the helpful guy that he is, and also recognising it as an opportunity to help settle his wild partyboy reputation, Baird offers to step in to help with ” the most amazing plan a man in unrequited love had ever dreamed up”.
Maia smacked her hands down on my shoulders to shake me. “Baird, we would be getting married. Not just engaged. Like, married. In front of the entire country. I might add. Globally, if this goes viral.”
Nevers fluttered in my stomach. The good kind. “Aye. I know. We’ll just get divorced after a year or so.” Or not. By then, I hoped I’d convinced Maia I was the one. That was the third part of this exceptional plan, but I wouldn’t share that with her.
I was a mess of emotions for this woman.
Maia had a devastating childhood but her life turned around when she found her dad when she was 15 years old. She’s now surrounded with love and a huge extended family, but the wounds from her past still have a strong hold on her and she has heartbreaking feelings of inadequacy and difficulty trusting others. She does trust Baird though, and with little other choice she agrees to his plan, putting their fake engagement on show for the whole world, complete with all of the dates, touching and eye-opening kisses that I love about a pretend romance.
Our eyes locked, and I trembled against the need to kiss her, soothe her, make her realize I would hand her the world
The connection between these two is so gorgeous. They have a deep friendship, and watching them navigate their new dynamic is so awesome! Baird hasn’t been in a relationship before and has a lot to learn when it comes to having a woman in his life, but Maia guides him through it, and he’s determined to be the best man he can be for her. Watching him figure it all out while doing his best to win Maia’s heart is so, so gorgeous.
“It feels nice to not play games with you. For you to just…for you to really want me in your life and not be afraid to say it.”
Baird pressed his chest to my back, his lips lingering at my ear. “The only way I’ll ever not be in your life is if you ask me to go. And even then…I’ll fight for you.”
Between Baird’s learning curve and Maia’s emotional scars, these two have some challenges to overcome, but the shift from friendship to more is so natural and so beautiful, and it doesn’t take Maia long to fall completely under his spell.
“Bear…if you tell me you’re serious about me and that you will never intentionally hurt me, then…I promise to believe you.”
His eyes flared and he took a step toward me, his voice gravelly with emotion. “Maia, I’m serious about you and I will never intentionally hurt you.”
The blood wooshed in my ears and my pulse raced frantically. My lips trembled around my next words. “Then I’m already yours.”
The love story is fun, sweet, sexy and swoony. They are honest and functional and so madly in love, and I loved seeing these two together.
“You are my everything. You are the safest place I’ve ever known.”
The rest of the extended Dublin Street crew make an appearance, and I loved seeing all of them again! A massive bonus was the scene with Braden imparting his relationship wisdom. God, I love that man!
This is such a gorgeous read. I got completely swept up in Baird and Maia’s story, and I loved this book.
5 stars.
An Advanced Reader Copy was generously provided by the author for an honest review.
Return to Dublin Street
A second-generation spin-off series from On Dublin Street (one of our faves!)
On Loverose Lane (#1) (Callan & Beth)
Review
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Meet Samantha
Samantha Young is a New York Times, USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling author. She’s been nominated for several Goodreads Choice Awards. Samantha writes adult contemporary and paranormal romance, YA urban fantasy and YA contemporary fiction and is currently published in 31 countries.
She resides in Scotland.
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