Suddenly One Summer (FBI/US Attorney, #6)

by Julie James

[Rowena]

This book is loosely related to the FBI/US Attorney series by Julie James since it features Brooke Parker’s (heroine from book 4) best friend Ford Dixon but neither the hero nor the heroine worked for the FBI or the US Attorney’s office so it can actually stand on its own as well.

So this book follows Victoria Slade, a divorce lawyer who doesn’t believe in marriage and hasn’t been in a relationship in a long time and Ford Dixon, a journalist who is always the rebound guy. The hot rebound guy, but still. They’re both not looking for a relationship and when Victoria moves in next door to Ford, things get interesting.

Ford can’t believe that the girl he was eyeing at the bar is his new next door neighbor. When he first finds out, he’s excited until she opens her mouth and basically hands his ass to him because she’s not a fan of the revolving door that is his apartment. She assumes the worst in Ford and Ford is immediately not a fan of Victoria’s right back.

The back and forth with these two was too funny. I loved seeing them give each other a hard time, at the same time that they were battling their attraction to one another and when Victoria lends a helping hand to Ford’s sister, watching these two melt for each other was entertaining.

Julie James is well known for writing strong heroines who mean business and know what they’re about but it was good to see that while Victoria was large and in charge at work, she was kind of a mess personally and seeing her work through her issues throughout the book was interesting. Her background kind of made my heart hurt and I was a little bummed that we didn’t get too much interaction with her mother. I loved seeing her fall in love with Ford though. I loved that she wasn’t expecting or even wanted the feelings that cropped up where Ford was concerned but once she realized what they were, she didn’t waste a lot of page time trying to make things right.

Ford was everything that I expected him to be. I loved getting to know more about him, seeing the Ford that Brooke knew and loved. I loved his family and was really glad to see that got to see him wrap up his story, the way that I was hoping it would wrap up.

The entire book was just flat out good. I loved seeing the recurring characters come through, I enjoyed Ford’s family and Victoria’s best friends, oh and Ford’s friends too. This book was filled with a great cast of characters that were just a lot of fun and I definitely recommend this book to fans of the FBI/US Attorney’s series. It’s a treat!