Publication Date: November 3, 2026
Fed up and burnt-out, a woman leaves the city to take on the challenge of owning a sunflower farm but finds that her biggest trial is facing her first love in this charming second-chance romance by USA Today bestselling author Danica Nava.
Drained by her high-pressure tech job, June Walker finds an escape in homesteading videos and the fantasy of a quieter life. When she finally hits her breaking point, she does the only reasonable thing: She quits her job and buys a crumbling sunflower farm in rural Oklahoma, where she grew up.
June thought her biggest challenge in restoring Sunshine Farm would be the rotting fences but soon comes to the crushing realization that “positive vibes” are not a business plan. Nothing, however, tests her resolve quite like running into her first love, the boy she left behind after her world imploded when she was seventeen. She’s back for a fresh start, not to unpack old heartbreaks.
Noah Abbott never left Love County. Between his family, his job with the local fire brigade, and a town that knows him inside and out, he has everything he needs-except answers. So when June Walker returns as the new owner of Sunshine Farm, Noah is determined to find out why the girl who once meant everything to him vanished without a word.
As old wounds crack open and attraction flares back to life, June and Noah are forced to reckon with their past and decide whether first love is a memory best left buried or the one thing worth replanting.
Sunflower Season by Danica Nava embraces the four seasons as the story unfolds from June and Noah’s points of view. We start in the spring, where June controls the narrative.
The prologue takes us to when they were seven in Oklahoma at the Sunshine Farm. The story continues years later, when they are twenty-eight and June lives in San Francisco in a job that’s no longer fulfilling. When she unexpectedly quits, she decides to return home to her roots and buy Sunshine Farm at a land auction. When her past meets her present, will it be everything she wants and needs? What about when her and Noah’s paths cross?
The story moves slowly, but June is a force to be reckoned with, especially since she is so focused on getting Sunshine Farm up and running. Life in a small town is nothing like her life in California, but she can breathe again. There are a lot of memories and reminiscing along with people she grew up with and around. June and Noah keep butting heads as they have argument after argument with no end in sight due to her stubbornness. There are unresolved issues from when she left for college in California after the loss of her grandmother. Both feel like they were abandoned.
The story sometimes goes back in time, which was confusing. June’s emotions are all over the place, and her panic attacks are definitely debilitating. Noah tries to be there for her throughout. Their romance blooms as they get a second chance to fulfill their dreams. The epilogue ties up loose ends and gives us the happily ever after every contemporary romance needs.
Sunflower Season is a second-chance romance with hopes, dreams, uncertainty, and angst vying for attention.
Danica Nava is an enrolled citizen of the Chickasaw Nation and works as an Executive Assistant in the tech industry. She has her MBA from USC Marshall School of Business. She currently lives in Southern California with her husband and daughter. The Truth According to Ember is her debut novel.
