Suddenly One Summer
4 Stars

In the aftermath of a home invasion, divorce attorney Victoria Slade moves into a new place only to discover an unwanted attraction to her gorgeous yet annoying neighbor, Ford Dixon. Despite getting off on the wrong foot, Victoria agrees to help Dixon's younger sister locate the man who left her alone and pregnant. While working together, Victoria and Ford realize that they have more in common than meets the eye, but is it enough for a lasting relationship?

Books containing more than one plot thread are often problematic as the various storylines fail to form a cohesive whole. Thankfully, this is not the case here as the three threads (Victoria and Ford's romance, Victoria's PTSD and Ford's sister) are each well-developed and seamlessly interwoven.

Victoria and Ford are an engaging couple with wonderfully witty banter and excellent chemistry. Victoria's panic disorder and therapy sessions are portrayed realistically and add important nuance to her character and understanding her issues with commitment.

Ford is a charming rogue with issues of his own, but his love and affection for his sister and niece as well as is determination to win Victoria more than compensate for any of his shortcomings.

All in all, a lovely read for a rainy day. ( )

Comment: This is one of those romance novels that you breathe in in one long breath - done! Super easy, quite fun, escapist unreality. Am I being too flippant?! I thought the author worked too hard to try to create reader empathy for Victoria. And the character of Ford was underdeveloped. The subplots were not so interesting. But still, I can't complain because I zoomed through it and enjoyed it. ( )

I liked this book. I think there were a couple of things that could have been improved upon (like Ford not being a jerk because a woman doesn't want to go out with him) but overall liked this a lot. Hot and steamy romance scenes, with two very compelling leads. We had some interesting secondary characters, and a very nice ending showing our couple going forward.

Our heroine in "Suddenly One Summer" is Victoria Slade. Victoria is a high profile divorce attorney (the US Attorney for this story) and has a successful practice. Coming home late one night, she is awoken by the sound of someone(s) breaking into her home. The whole incident brings back bad memories for Victoria and causes her to move out of her home and to temporarily rent a condo until her new condo is available for her to move into. Catching eyes with apparently a man that would would have Superman envying his jaw (that whole line made me laugh and think of a friend) Victoria is intrigued, but has a policy of not dating and has no intention of getting married.

Ford Dixon is an investigative journalist. Due to some recent events in his personal life, things feel a bit upside down. After going to a bar and laying eyes on a hot brunette with legs to die for, Ford wonders if she would be available to soothe some of his hurts.

Of course readers realize that Ford and Victoria have both noticed each other (I wonder if this would count as insta-lust?) but things don't work out with them, but they quickly do meet again after both realize that Victoria is Ford's new neighbor.

I had to laugh at Victoria and Ford's bickering. If anything, I thought Victoria was 100 percent in the right, and Ford kind of sucked a bit here and there. Victoria through no fault of her own, thinks her neighbor is a philandering POS. However, when Ford corrects her, he makes it deeply personal (or at least he did in my eyes). And then gets outraged that she doesn't want to go out with him. Honestly, this type of stuff is what made me stop reading "It Happened One Wedding." Nothing sets me off more than a man asking a woman out or hitting on her and then proceeding to act like an ass when she lets you know she's not interested.

Due to what I consider a little bit of a reach for plot, Victoria and Ford are thrown together. I just hand-waved it away though and just enjoyed it. Of course sparks fly, and both start to open up to each other.

There are some references to characters in other books in Julie James series. I only know that though, because I browsed her books and recalled the first names of some of the characters in her other works. I do want to credit her though for making all of the secondary characters work in this book. Though Ford's male friends were too dude bro for me at times and kind of annoying.

There is no life or death element to this story. I am not complaining. Sometimes you want to read a romance novel period. The flow was pretty good too.

The setting of Chicago I thought worked well. I am going to say that Victoria talking about her new condo in The Trump Tower just made my lips curl in disgust every time it was brought up in the book. Sorry, due to current events I don't even want to sit around thinking about trumpets. Back to the book, Chicago comes alive in this book. It's pretty obvious the author knows about the city and the neighborhoods. I was curious about why certain things were named what they were like Wicker Park and the Gold Coast, but you can't get everything.

The ending I thought was sweet. We don't have a typical we are going to run off and get married ending (thank goodness) but instead you see Victoria and Ford moving forward with healing due to both of them having a lot of things to still process and forgive themselves and others for due to their respective childhoods. ( )

I enjoyed the book a lot, it's so well written it seems effortless (and I'm sure wasn't). Likable characters, believable situations, sweet romance. [a: Julie James|1647762|Julie James|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1427735994p2/1647762.jpg] is an artist. I may forgive her -eventually- for that forage of the heroine into stupid territory at some point, just for the sake of creating some drama.

All's well that ends well, I guess.

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I really enjoyed Suddenly One Summer by Julie James. This is the 5th book in the series and each one has exceeded my expectations. I wasn't sure if i was going to like it as much as the others when I saw that this one was going to be Ford's story, but I ended up loving it so much. I actually think this one might be my favorite of the whole series.
Fans of Julie James will surely love this addition to the series.
Happy Reading...enjoy!
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