Things We Never Said by Samantha Young-Review Tour

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date May 7, 2019.
Local metalsmith and gift shop owner, Dahlia McGuire, likes her quiet life in Hartwell, Delaware. It’s the perfect place to hide from her family and the tragic events that led to their estrangement. However, when her father, the person she loves most in the world, needs her Dahlia has no choice but to return to Boston to face her ghosts. One of those happens to be her ex-boyfriend’s best friend, Michael Sullivan. The man she was never supposed to fall in love with.

Michael Sullivan has never forgotten Dahlia McGuire. Some might say he’s never gotten over her. For years he lived with the anger of her desertion, and now, newly-divorced, he’s finally ready to move on. That proves impossible when Dahlia returns to Boston and reawakens their explosive connection. Despite everything, Michael wants her back, but Dahlia can’t seem to let go of the tangled emotions of the past. When she flees home to Hartwell, Michael follows, determined to do everything in his power to convince her they belong together.

However, when the unthinkable hits the quiet seaside town, Michael finds himself trying to unravel more than the mystery of Dahlia’s broken heart. It’s time for truths left unsaid to finally be spoken or Michael and Dahlia might find themselves torn apart forever

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REVIEW: THINGS WE NEVER SAID is the third full-length instalment in Samantha Young’s contemporary, adult HART’S BOARDWALK romance series focusing on the men and women of Hartwell, Delaware- a spin off from the author’s ON DUBLIN STREET SERIES. This is Boston detective Michael Sullivan, and metalsmith / jewellery designer Dahlia McGuire’s story line. THINGS WE NEVER SAID can be read as a stand alone without any difficulty. Any important information from the previous story lines is revealed where necessary.

Told from first person point of view (Dahlia) and third person perspective (Michael) THINGS WE NEVER SAID follows twelve years in the life of Boston detective Michael Sullivan, and metalsmith / jewellery designer Dahlia McGuire. Ten year earlier Dahlia McGuire fell in love with Michael Sullivan but at the time Dahlia was dating Michael’s best friend Gary. In the ensuing months, Dahlia would discover that Gary was cheating, but Michael had moved on to someone else. Life spiralled out of control for everyone involved, and Dahlia found herself on the outside looking in when the time came to move on and move out. Fast forward to present day wherein Dahlia has settled in Hartwell, Delaware, a quiet town where her past is forgotten until the call to come back home, where not everyone welcomed her with open arms. On the receiving end of more vitriol than she could have ever imagined, vitriol from so many directions, it was like reliving the past, all over again. Words said in anger; the harsh truth revealed, Dahlia heads back to Hartwell where her life is about to implode with the arrival of the man that she loves. What ensues is the rebuilding romance and relationship between Dahlia and Michael, and the potential fall-out as the small town of Hartwell, Delaware discovers their own fair share of skeletons and more.

Michael Sullivan has never stopped loving Dahlia McGuire but a love laced with hate is hard to endure. Blaming Dahlia for everything that went wrong in his life, Michael struggles to accept what happened, and blames Dahlia for the down turn in everyone’s life. Dahlia McGuire has struggled to accept what happened and why, a struggle that is reinforced by the hatred spewed by those she once loved. Making a new start and a new life in Hartwell, Delaware would hopefully ease the self-hatred and blame she placed on herself.

The relationship between Michael and Dahlia is one of immediate attraction but at each connection throughout their lives someone or something else had come into play. Dahlia’s love for Michael never waivered until the day his hatred and cruelty towards Dahlia became more than she could bear. When the truth is finally revealed, Michael is determined to claim Dahlia as his own, a claiming that will face many hurdles including the wall around our heroine’s heart. The $ex scenes are passionate and intimate without the use of over the top, sexually graphic language and text.

There is a large ensemble cast of colorful secondary and supporting characters divided between Boston and Hartwell, Delaware. We are introduced to Dahlia’s large Irish family in Boston including her siblings Davina, Darragh, Dermot and Dillon, as well as their parents Sorcha and Cian McGuire; and the Hartwell gang including Cooper Lawson and Jessica Huntington (The One Real Thing #1), Bailey and Vaughn (Every Little Thing #2) , Iris and Ira and their daughter Ivy, who own the local Italian eatery; Emery Saunders book store owner, Cooper’s ex-wife Dana Kellerman, Sheriff Jeff King and the embattled Devlin family.

THINGS WE NEVER SAID is a heart breaking story of guilt and grief; secrets and lies; family, friendship, forgiveness and love. Dahlia’s disappearance years before allowed for the lies to fester and grow, for the blame to be directed at our story line heroine; for family and friends to think the worst of Dahlia McGuire The complex premise is emotional and engaging; the romance is spirited and lively ; the characters are broken, flawed, tragic and impassioned.

Reading Order and Previous Reviews

The One Real Thing
Every Little Thing
On Hart’s Boardwalk
Things We Never Said

Copy supplied for review

Reviewed by Sandy

Samantha Young is the New York Times,  USA Today  and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of adult contemporary romances, including the On Dublin Street series and Hero, as well as the New Adult duology Into the Deep and Out of the Shallows.  Every Little Thing, the second book in her new Hart’s Boardwalk series, will be published by Berkley in March 2017. Before turning to contemporary fiction, she wrote several young adult paranormal and fantasy series, including the amazon bestselling Tale of Lunarmorte trilogy. Samantha’s debut YA contemporary novel The Impossible Vastness of Us was published by Harlequin TEEN in ebook & hardback June 2017. Play On is an adult contemporary romance and the first in a brand new series set in Scotland. Villain is a companion novella to the New York Times bestselling romance HERO.

Samantha has been nominated for the Goodreads Choice Award 2012 for Best Author and Best Romance for On Dublin Street, Best Romance 2014 for Before Jamaica Lane, and Best Romance 2015 for Hero. On Dublin Street, a #1 bestseller in Germany, was the Bronze Award Winner in the LeserPreis German Readers Choice Awards for Best Romance 2013, Before Jamaica Lane the Gold Medal Winner for the LeserPreis German Readers Choice Awards for Best Romance 2014 and Echoes of Scotland Street the Bronze Medal Winner for the LeserPreis German Readers Choice Awards for Best Romance 2015.

Samantha is currently published in 30 countries and is a #1 international bestselling author.

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