One Season of Sunshine by Julia London Review and Guest Post!!!

I have the honor of having had the opportunity to read One Season of Sunshine and a guest post from Julia London, author of this book.

Description: From authors website

Adopted as an infant, Jane Aaron longs to know the identity of her birth mother and why she gave her up. Her only clue is the name of the small Texas town where she was born, so she's come to Cedar Springs for answers.

Handsome ad executive Asher Price lost his wife, the beautiful, mysterious Susanna, in a terrible car crash eighteen months ago. When he hires Jane as the nanny for his two children, sparks fly. Jane finds herself falling in love with both Asher and his children, but begins to suspect that Susanna was not the perfect mother and wife the family portrays her to have been.

As Jane gets closer and closer to finding out the truth about both her own and Susanna’s past, devastating secrets begin to emerge that may be more than anyone can bear. Will the truth bring Jane and Asher closer together or tear them apart forever?

My Thoughts:

I have to be honest and say that I had never read any of Julia London's books, so after reading about One Season of Sunshine, it sounded interesting so I agreed to read and review.

Jane comes from a loving family, parents and two brothers who love her very much. Her family owns a restaurant and everyone in the family works there, except for Jane. She is a teacher and working on her thesis. She has a boyfriend and he has asked her to marry him but Jane stalls him because she can't commit until she knows more about herself. Jane is adopted and wants to find her birth mother, so in order to do this, she moves to the town that she knows she was born in. Jane applies and is accepted for a position as a nanny with Asher Price , a rich widower with two children, Riley 11 and Levi 5. Ashers wife Susanna was killed in a terrible car crash and the children are having a hard time adapting to this. Riley is sulky and argumentative and Levi acts out in bad behavior. So Jane has a hard time trying to get close to the children. She does win Levi over as she helps him grow a garden but Riley is harder to reach. Susanna was a gifted artist and Riley has inherited her talent but refuses to do any painting. As Jane learns more about Susanna she begins to understand the difficulties that this family has overcoming the loss of their mother and wife. In the meantime Jane is continuing to do all she can to find her birth mother. So with the help of some women at the local hospital and newpaper, clues start to emerge. On the other side of this, her relationship with her boyfriend, Jonathan, becomes strained as Jane is still not ready for marriage. As time goes by Jane and Asher become more and more attracted to each other until it gets to the point that they both need to make a decision. The truth about Susanna soon comes out, that she bipolar and her behavior had been detrimental to her ability to be a good wife and mother. Asher is away from home often for his job and does not want to get involved with the nanny, but he has a hard time with this as he finds himself falling in love with Jane and he hopes the feeling is mutual.

This book was a fast and enjoyable read. I liked the characters and how they evolved over time and were able to start to have a life as a family that they all desperately need. I highly recommend this book and I will be reading more by this author.

About Julia London

Official Bio from website

Julia London is the New York Times and USA Today best selling author of more than a twenty romantic fiction novels. She is the author of the popular Desperate Debutante and Scandalous historical romance series, as well as several contemporary romances, including American Diva, the very popular tie-in novel to the daytime drama, Guiding Light: Jonathan’s Story, and the upcoming Summer of Two Wishes
Julia is the recipient of the RT Bookclub Award for Best Historical Romance and a four-time finalist for the prestigious RITA award for excellence in romantic fiction. She lives in Round Rock, Texas, with her husband.

Thanks to Julia London for guest blogging on my review blog!!!

Thanks so much for having me today and allowing me to share ONE SEASON OF SUNSHINE with your followers. This book is special to me, because sometimes, when you are writing a book, stuff happens, life tosses curve balls, and the next thing you know, you have churned out a book that sucks. In all seriousness, this started out as the book for me. When I finished it the first time, it was DOA, just words on a page.

Here’s what happened: I’d written about a quarter of the book when one of my sisters died every unexpectedly. A couple of weeks after we’d buried her, I did what all good writers do—I buried myself in my book. I turned off the fact that Karen was gone and turned on this imaginary world I had created. And then I handed it off to my new editor.
A few weeks later my new editor called to tell me—in a much nicer and encouraging way than I will say here—that the book sucked. My first thought was that the new editor didn’t like my writing. My second thought was, I can’t face that book again. I thought that was odd, because I have never had that feeling about a book before. I could work on any of the two dozen I have written as long as necessary and not get tired of it.
When my editor returned the manuscript to me with a very lengthy revision letter, enough time had passed since my sister’s death and since I had finished the book to have a little perspective, and I was absolutely appalled to discover that my editor was right. The characters were so flat and uninteresting they were like cardboard cut-outs. The plot sagged terribly. I could hardly make myself turn the pages, much less a reader. I realized, in horror, that all that time I thought I was working through my grief, I was really avoiding it. I hadn’t been in my head at all, and had numbly churned out the pages.
Fortunately, my new editor believed in me, and with her help, I completely rewrote the book. I am pleased to tell you that this is not the book that sucked. This version has some new characters, some depth in its plot, and most of all, emotion that was completely lacking in the old book. I know now that it was completely lacking because I had been completely drained of my emotions and had not dealt with my sister’s death properly.
I am very happy with this book now. I am very happy with my new editor, because I know she has my back. It’s special to me because it represents a lesson I learned: Sometimes, stuff happens, life intervenes, and the writer has to put down the pen and deal with life for awhile so that she can become a better writer.
I hope you will be happy with this book, too. I invite you to visit my website, http://www.julialondon.com to learn more about me and my books, for excerpts, giveaways, and to follow me on the social media sites.
Thanks so much for having me here today!