Suddenly One Summer by Julie James
Releases: June 2, 2015
Contemporary Romance
Berkley

Reviewed by Mandi

It’s spring which means it’s time for a new Julie James book. She only puts out one book a year, but she make the waiting worth it. Ford and Victoria are a lovely romance couple. Ford is an investigative journalist with the Chicago Tribune. Victoria is a divorce lawyer who owns her own very successful firm. Her townhouse was recently broke into, and while she hid in the closet and ended up being safe, she soon realized her fear of living alone was too great. She sells her townhouse and rents a loft in an apartment building. Her new neighbor is Ford.

At first, Ford and Victoria get off on the wrong foot. A lot can be heard through the wall their respective lofts share – like Victoria’s hair dryer at 6am every morning. Or the fact that Ford seems to bring home a different girl every other night. “Seems” being the important words because he isn’t necessarily a man-whore and has different reasons for different women coming to his place. But all these things start to annoy the other and they have a cute annoyance-flirting habit start-up.

Ford’s sister had a baby fourteen months ago and she isn’t sure who the father is. A drunken one night stand, she knows his name but that’s it. Needing child support help, Victoria offers to try to track down the father. Ford, very protective of his sister and with his investigative journalist instincts, offers to help investigate each Petar Sutton, until the one Nicole recognizes can be found. Victoria and Ford work together, kind of like amateur sleuths to track down the correct Peter. It’s during this time that they really get to know one another and fall in love. But Victoria suffers from a broken childhood and panic attacks and her fear of committment is a big thing.

I’m sure I say this in every Julie James review I write, but she writes such smart and sexy characters that I just eat up. They are so mature – and not stuffy boring mature, but relatable-mature. Good-natured, funny, hard-working, sexy. Yes. All of this. While this may not have been the fastest-paced book of hers, Ford and Victoria’s personalities kept me engaged. Victoria is a no-nonsense lawyer who likes to think her life is totally in control. So when she starts having panic attacks, it really pisses her off. She doesn’t like to appear weak and the thought of having an attack in public terrifies her. She starts therapy to help cope and this eventually leads to hitting on her past and her committment issues. I think in the book she describes herself as having the condition that she is “always okay” – I find this very relatable. The fact that she feels as if she always has to be okay – and once she realizes the burden that has on her life, it’s life-changing.

Ford is an easy-going, protective older brother, sex on a stick hero. He has two friends that made me laugh more than once. He is very attracted to Vitoria and loves to banter back and forth with her.

The search for baby daddy takes up a lot of page time – so this is a little slower paced than other books. It might not have been my favorite story line but I loved Ford and Victoria together. They kept me engaged the entire time

Rating: B

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