Title: One Season of Sunshine
Author: Julia London
Publisher: Pocket
Publication Date: June 29, 2010
Paperback: 416 pages
ISBN: 978-1416547099
Genre: Fiction
Should some questions be left unanswered?
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 Review:
Belonging and identity are central themes in Julia London’s novel One Season of Sunshine. Jane Aaron was raised in a warm and loving home and now as an adult she yearns to find answers to who her birth mother was and why she chose to give her up for adoption. Jane’s quest brings her to Cedar Springs, Texas and into the lives of widower Asher Price and his two children Levi and Riley. While One Season of Sunshine is a fairly predictable novel, it is a rather enjoyable one with well-developed characters with a bit of romance mixed with mystery in which Jane must sort out. I am not adopted and I could not understand the extreme lengths Jane went through and what she put her family through in her quest to find the birth mother who chose to give her up for adoption when she was a baby. I did feel for the Price family and for Susanna, whose death the reader learns about in the beginning of the book, quite possibly because I understand what it is like to be close to someone with bi-polar disorder and how dreadful it can be for all involved. All in all, London writes an intriguing novel, raising many questions that would make for excellent discussions in a book discussion group. I would recommend One Season of Sunshine to anyone looking for a good book to read over the summer or as a choice for a book discussion group.
Julia London is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of numerous historical romance and women’s fiction novels. She is a four-time finalist for the prestigious Romance Writers of America’s RITA Award for excellence in romantic fiction. A native Texan, Julia lives in Austin.
I received a complimentary copy of One Season of Sunshine by Julia London from Simon & Schuster to review. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of aforementioned novel.
I didn’t even realise that Julia London wrote contempory novels. This sounds like an interesting one. Although I was adopted by my father and maybe because it was my father not my mother but I never had any desire whatsoever to find my biological father. Ultimately he found me but my loyalty will always be to my Dad, even though he’s now passed away. I guess I always had a strong sense of belonging. Maybe it would have been different if it was my mother. Great review and one I’m going to go add to my list.