When Hannah Nichols last saw Marco D’Alessandro, five long years ago, he broke her heart. The bad boy with a hidden sweet side was the only guy Hannah ever loved—and the only man she’s ever been with. After one intense night of giving into temptation, Marco took off, leaving Scotland and Hannah behind. Shattered by the consequences of their night together, Hannah has never truly moved on.

Leaving Hannah was the biggest mistake of Marco’s life, something he has deeply regretted for years. So when fate reunites them, he refuses to let her go without a fight. Determined to make her his, Marco pursues Hannah, reminding her of all the reasons they’re meant to be together.…

But just when Marco thinks they’re committed to a future together, Hannah makes a discovery that unearths the secret pain she’s been hiding from him, a secret that could tear them apart before they have a real chance to start over again…

This is book 4 in the On Dublin Street series. I've read all the previous books but one, Down London Road and they have been hit or miss for me. I loved On Dublin Street (Braden and Joss) and Before Jamaica Lane (Nate and Olivia) and Until Fountain Bridge (the short novella on Ellie and Adam) but Castle Hill (the follow-up novella on Joss and Braden) didn't work for me at all. This one falls in the middle. I liked some of it, some of it annoyed me but overall an OK read.

The story of Hannah and Marco started in Before Jamaica Lane when they were still teenagers and now it continues 6 years later after Marco left Hannah absolutely shattered.

In the beginning we are introduced to Hannah's personal and professional life, she is doing a teaching internship and also leading a volunteer literacy course for adults. I liked all the details we got about her life. I also very much enjoyed her interactions with all the rest of her family.All this served to build her character at present and despite her seemingly happy life we got a sense that there were some secrets in her past she kept buried deeply.

When Marco re-enters her life, Hannah is completely thrown off her feet. He goes after her relentlessly trying to make up for all the pain he had caused her. This is where things started to lose some of their initial appeal for me.

Marco and Hannah started a passionate affair but they kept too many secrets that were bound to come to light and cause them some real problems. I found their relationship full of drama. Marco kept springing surprises on her and she kept overreacting, then it was her turn to make life-shattering revelations about her past and for him to back off totally confused. Hannah was really stuck in the past and couldn't move past the pain she suffered and the fears that it may happen again. Marco's decision to keep one particular secret from her was not very smart and it naturally led to a lot of confusion, pain and some more drama.

I enjoyed seeing more of the couples from the previous books, but at some point the multitude of characters - family children, friends, colleagues, students - it all became too much and I had trouble keeping tabs on who is who. I definitely feel some characters didn't add much to the story and could have been left out of it.

It was not a easy romance between Hannah and Marco, their past constantly catching up with them, they had to fight hard to be together. I felt he was more determined to make things work between them, while . Hannah gave up too easily. I liked Marco quite a bit, felt connected to him and sympathized with his struggles to rectify his mistakes and to win Hannah's love again. She, on the other hand, annoyed me most of the time, often came off as immature and self-centered, and generally prevented me from enjoying this story as much as I expected to. 

There is a plot twist (development) towards the end that was a total surprise for me and not a nice one. It involves one of Hannah's students and I think it was too much, there was no need to go to such extremes to make Hannah change her mind. It left me sad and disappointed. 

Overall I liked the this story but there far too many little things that bothered me and prevented me from giving it more than 3 stars. Ms Young has announced that there will  be another book in this series, coming in 2015 and it will be about Cole, Jo's younger brother and Hannah's best friend (we do see a lot f him in this book and I can honestly say I'm intrigued about his story).