Romance

I have roughly two hundred dead tree books "left" on my TBR pile and it's one of my goals in 2013 to severely reduce that pile.

Julia London has been one of my auto-read authors for a long time now, and as with all writers some books are fabulous while others encourage yawning and skipping pages. One Season of Sunshine, however, was a fabulous read and contained everything I love and adore in a character driven contemporary.

It's been a long time since I have read such a well-developed book that practically solely relies on the strength of its characters. Of course there is a good plot, but this book is a real winner because of its hero and heroine who make one fabulous couple.

Nowadays, I tend to read more erotic romances which OSOS definitely is not. But, oh my, when they finally come together, the PG-13 love scene is full of eroticism and the slow build up until they dare to own up to their mutual desire is very very sexy.

This is a slow paced, small-town romance, with no big booms and crashes and uber alphas, and is recommendable to everyone who is in the mood for a comfort read. A-
( )

One Season of Sunshine by Julia London
Jane wants to find out who her mother really is, the one who gave
her up for adoption. She heads to Cedar Springs where the hospital is located
where she was born. She wants to finish writing her thesis this summer
and also finds a job as a nanny as there's nothing else there for work.
She finds she really can't get through to the dad at his office so she
must handle everything that comes up during the summer.
He started getting closer to her and she wondered what life would be like
to be the mom with the kids. She heads back to her hometown to hook up
with her boyfriend. Things don't go quite right and she's back in Cedar springs
to finish finding out the truth of her birth.
Love reference to the cluster of stars above. ( )

I want to give it an extra 1/2 star for being a good fit to my mood.Is the book really a romance if the romantic storyline is secondary? It's a strong part of the book, but it isn't the primary focus.As is true of most good romance novels, chick lit, contemporary women's fiction, and probably some other umbrellas that I don't quite understand the boundaries of, the book is very character centered. Jane Aaron has a very good life, but she's realized she can't move on until she gets some closure with the mother who gave her up for adoption. Her boyfriend has asked her to marry him, but she wasn't able to deliver her planned "yes"; work on her Master's thesis has stalled, and she's run out of leads on her birth parents.Only one one option remains-- move to the town where she was born, and see what she can discover there.She takes a temporary job as a nanny to make ends meet. I like that she and Asher Price joke about the cliche of the nanny and the boss having an affair, because it really is a fairly stereotypical plotline.It was written well enough that the strength of the characters, of Jane, of Asher, and of his daughter Riley were enough to get past this. (5 year old Levi was a little two dimensional, but cute enough to make up for it). One Season of Sunshine is the story of Jane's journey, which was a highly enjoyable one to follow along on. She's trying to find answers to the questions about her past, but she's also trying to figure out why it matters, and where she wants to go.I don't know if it was a particularly realistic portrayal of the dynamics of adoption and the adult search for birth parents. The logical side of me thinks that the eventual resolution might not go as smoothly for her as she seems to think at the end. Really, it doesn't matter. That doesn't detract from this highly enjoyable read. ( )

Jane Aaron moves to Cedar Springs, Texas in search of her birth mother. Taking a leave of absence from her job as a school teacher, Jane needs to find a job to help make ends meet. After a quick, and impersonal interview she is hired as a nanny by a very wealthy widow. Jane and her new boss, Asher, clash from day one. Lucky for Jane he finds her outspokenness attractive, and doesn’t fire her. As the relationship between Asher and Jane begins to evolve into an intense attraction, they find several obstacles standing in their way.

This was a good story, but the characters left much to be desired. Jane came off as whiny and selfish the majority of the time. With her character’s age, and the amount of education she had I found her too immature to really fit the part. Asher was a bit better, but he still ranked low on my interesting scale. With that said, the plot and pace of the story was good. I also really loved what the resolution entailed, and never saw it coming.

I don’t usually comment on the covers of the books I review, but I felt the need to with this one. I found the cover of this one very misleading. I know the cover isn’t always a perfect representation of the characters, but this one makes me think this story is about a young girl and her grandmother. Not a 20 something searching for the woman who gave her up for adoption.

While overall I did enjoy this one, I never felt any connection to the characters or sympathy when it came to their troubles. A nice solid story, but the lack of realistic characters caused this one to be flawed in my opinion. Still a solid 3 stars considering the pace was enough to keep me reading. I’m usually a character driven reader, and find it difficult to finish books with characters I don’t enjoy. That was not the case with this one as the plot was enough to hold my interest. ( )