99 problems, and a book ain't one

    Anyone that has read any of my previous reviews on this series knows, I love the On Dublin Street series. I have continuously been blown away by Samantha Young. I had some really high hopes for this book. Unfortunately, I was mostly left feeling, just

   I absolutely adored seeing the time jump in this book. A few years has passed by and there is a ton of new developments and additions with all the old beloved characters we've read before. But considering that this was Hannah's book, and quite honestly, hers was the least interesting story going on here. I just couldn't connect with her like I did in the previous books. The lack of connection to the main characters ultimately made me kind of disinterested in hearing their story, which made the book seem like it dragged on for a while and I was just dragging my heels through the mud to get to the end.

    The back and forth drama between her and Marco was just too much for me. I missed the surprisingly fearless Hannah. The shy bookworm who came out of her shell for the boy she liked. She just wasn't here anymore. Instead we got this scared girl, who hurt people, people that she cared about immensely. I know things happened along the way to make her into what she was, but I still couldn't help being disappointed by it. Regardless of her inner reasoning, she did and said things that hurt people, and had little or no qualms about doing so. It was hard to begrudge Marco too much once you learned his reasons, well for most of the things anyways. It was hard to see Hannah being the one to shame him and continuously make him feel just as his abusers had in the past. 

   I did appreciate the little plot twist, with the secret that Hannah was holding on to. That at least put things a little more in perspective for me, just not as much as I had hoped. I also liked seeing the relationship between Hannah and Cole. I love how close they have become over the years, and it just amped me up for Cole's book! I can't wait to get my hands on that one. I did enjoy seeing Hannah in a more adult setting. The Hannah at her job helped you see the more sympathetic side of her that I sorely missed from the past books. I couldn't help but like her interactions with her students, especially the high school kids.  I was a big Jarrod fan! I definitely teared up at one of the ending scenes with him.

   This certainly wasn't my favorite book in this series, but there have been so many other AMAZING ones, that I will most certainly be continuing on with the following book. Not a bad book by any means, but just not on the same level as the previous books, for me. I have a good feeling about Cole's book though, I highly doubt that one will disappoint.