FIVE STAR FIRST EDITION ROMANCE NEWS

Just One Kiss by Donna M. Schaff
0-7862-3021-5, Historical Romance, $26.95, Hardcover, 385 est. pages
Publication Date: June, 2001

When Alex Benedict arrives in Boston to attend his sister's eighteenth birthday party and graduation from the Chatham Academy for Young Ladies, he hardly expects his life to be forever changed. Especially not by a repressed, unattractive, middle-aged widow who hates men.

Madame DuBois is angry. Leslie's brother has treated her condescendingly, looked upon her with pity, and ridiculed her. He thinks her a pitiable creature, but when she removes her makeup and the spectacles, a different face appears. This woman has a creamy complexion, auburn hair, sherry-colored eyes, and looks her real age of twenty-three.

She has been Madame DuBois for so long that she has forgotten who Rianne Forrester really is. She is a refugee from New Orleans who fled that city in fear of her life. For five years she has led a quiet, solitary life, keeping to herself. The disguise prevents anyone from seeing the real woman behind the façade and also got her employment as a French instructor at the academy. The only man who's broken through Rianne's rigid control is Alex Benedict.

When Alex becomes the indirect cause of Rianne's losing her teaching position, she's convinced and relieved that she will never have to see him again. Not so. Leslie and her aunt, Lorna Hall, are concerned about "Anne" and push Alex into searching for her. He finds her and brings her back to Lorna's home.

Lorna and Leslie concoct a plan to have Alex hire Anne as a companion for Leslie on a trip that has been planned to the former Benedict plantation in Georgia, then on to New Orleans. Since she has little money and no means of support, Rianne agrees and tells Leslie and her aunt a little of her past and that she can't return to New Orleans for fear of retribution.

Alex is intrigued when Rianne's true appearance is revealed. He changes tactics and begins to pursue her with the idea of making her his mistress. Rianne thinks Alex is aiming toward marriage. She is overjoyed . . . until Alex seduces her, and they both discover that she's really a virgin.

Just One Kiss is the story of a woman's journey to free herself of self-imposed constraints and a man who must overcome the heartache and guilt of his past. It's the story of a man and a woman who find each other, and in doing so, also find the courage to love again.