Review: Suddenly One Summer, by Julie James

julie james, suddenly one summer, book review

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Genre: contemporary romance

Publishing date: June 2015

Synopsis: Victoria Slade is an independent woman with a traumatic past, but she built her own law firm from scratch and has become one of the most successful family lawyers in Chicago. However, both her childhood issues and the fact that she deals everyday with marriages gone wrong have convinced her that happily-ever-after does not exist. Still, she seems to be in total control of her life. Until the night when, during a break-in in her townhouse, she's forced to hide in her closet to call 911 and is suddenly hit by a panic attack. Her panic disorder escalates to the point where she can no longer sleep in her house or find herself in confined spaces. So she puts her townhouse on the market and temporarily moves into an apartment.
Ford Dixon has just lost his father, a man from which he has both the best and the worst childhood memories. After the funeral he promises his mother he will look after his sister Nicole, which includes helping
Nicole to find out who is the father of her four months old baby, the unexpected result of a one night stand. Since Ford is an investigative journalist, he decides to use all resources available to find the elusive man, armed only with a name and a general physical description. If that means teaming up with his new neighbor Victoria Slade, the divorce lawyer, he's sure he can he can handle it, even though Ford and Victoria started up on the wrong foot and went downhill from there...

Offensive content: some hot sex scenes, all towards the end of the book.


This book is the perfect summer read, a romance with a happy ending but with a well structured story and interesting characters with real-life problems to which we all can relate, one way or another. 

You'll be laughing in the beginning (Ford and Victoria's first meeting face to face is downright hilarious), wanting to whack both main characters in the back of their heads somewhere along the way (how can they not see they are perfect for each other?) and almost crying in the end, rooting for both of them. I was up reading it one night until almost 2 am because I knew I could not go to sleep without knowing how the story would end.

Ford and Victoria do realize they love each other, but things don't fall into place easily and it takes a lot of effort from both of them to overcome their own emotional issues. They are still working on them in the epilogue, but now they are working together, which made the happy ending more realistic for me than a marriage would have been. 

Several other couples (Ford's friends) are mentioned in the story, which led me to guess this book is part of a series, but I can guarantee it can be read as a stand alone book. I haven't read any of the other stories, but I confess I'm curious now, so I'll be sure to check them out in the near future. 

Anyway, I loved this book and I honestly recommend it to anyone who reads contemporary romance! 

Enjoy your reading!






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