REVIEW: Moonlight on Nightingale Way (On Dublin Street #6)

Moonlight on Nightingale Way (On Dublin Street #6), by Samantha Young
Publish Date: June 2, 2015
Publisher: Berkley Romance/NAL
Format: paperback, provided by the publisher
Genre: adult contemporary romance
To Buy: Amazon * Barnes & Noble
 
Rating: 4 STARS

(From Goodreads) Logan spent two years paying for the mistakes he made. Now, he’s ready to start over. He has a great apartment, a good job, and plenty of women to distract him from his past. And one woman who is driving him to distraction…

Grace escaped her manipulative family by moving to a new city. Her new life, made to suit her own needs, is almost perfect. All she needs to do is find her Mr. Right—or at least figure out a way to ignore her irresistible yet annoying womanizer of a neighbor.

Grace is determined to have nothing to do with Logan until a life-changing surprise slowly begins turning the wild heartbreaker into exactly the kind of strong, stable man she’s been searching for. Only just when she begins to give into his charms, her own messy past threatens to derail everything they’ve worked to build…

I can't believe this series has some to a close. No more Braden. Or Cam. Or Nate, Marco, Cole or Adam. It's a sad, sad day. But, first, one last story from the gang and one hell of an epilogue. 

Logan has just gotten out of prison and is living it up. His neighbor, Grace, who works from home, isn't too thrilled with his methods though. Women and parties in his apartment keep her up when she needs to be sleeping or working. But, when Logan needs someone to help him through something really tough, Grace is there. And, as she helps him, she starts to see all the wonderful things about him that she missed the first few times they met. Except, both their lives are not so simple, and it makes having a relationship seemingly impossible. They may have to keep each other in the friend zone, but do they really want to? 

Logan and Grace's story is a melding together of two of my favorite tropes - enemies to lovers and friends to lovers. This is the enemies to friends to lovers story, and it was perfect for them. Man, they really did not get along at all in the beginning. They antagonize each other to extremes. Logan sees Grace as uptight and high strung. Grace sees Logan as a womanizing, inconsiderate ass. And they can't seem to find a middle ground, until the middle ground smacks them in the face. 

I won't go into all the details because... HUGE spoilers. But, suffice to say that Logan's life changes on a dime, and he is ill equipped to handle it. Initially, Grace gets dragged into the situation simply because she was physically there at the right time. But, helping Logan seems to become her purpose after that, and she embraces it wholeheartedly. Grace and Logan become very good friends as she lends him her ear during this difficult time in his life. It's clear that Grace has a huge heart, and she opens it willingly to Logan when she sees the kind of man he really it. 

And... that sort of blows up in her face. Grace falls for Logan pretty quickly, and when they finally have that moment where everything comes together for them, it's kind of perfect. Until it's over. And Logan opens his mouth. And ruins it, like men do sometimes. It shakes Grace's self-confidence to the core, and it's not an easy thing for Logan to get around. Particularly since they had grown to become very good friends. And, we all know what happens when friends sleep together. Nothing good. Well, at least, at first. 

To his credit, Logan really is going through a lot. He just got out of prison for nearly killing a man - a man who raped and attacked his sister. So, he hasn't yet adjusted to life again, when another bomb is dropped on him. He's not exactly of the clearest head at the moment. And it takes him awhile before all the pieces fit together, and he realizes there is a huge hole where Grace belongs. That moment of clarity is always my favorite part in books, and it definitely was great here too. 

But, favorite part? No - my favorite part was the epilogue. We've watched all the characters in this series meet, fall in love, break up, get back together again, get married and have babies. The epilogue chooses one moment in time and we visit each couple wherever they are to see what they are doing. We obviously start with Joss and Braden, since it all began with them, and we end with Grace and Logan. It was poignant and perfect. I am so glad I read this series. I'm even more glad that I own them all, because I can go back and experience them all again whenever I want.