French Kiss by Dee Dawning

An admissions department snafu at Manhattan’s prestigious Julliard School for the Arts, pairs a lovely African American girl in the same dorm room with a blond blue eyed Frenchman. Maybe it’s karma, but sparks of frustration turn into the heat of attraction and within the week the pair becomes a couple. But cruel fate steps in at Christmas vacation, when, after a second snafu, the lovebirds are separated the by an ocean of despair—the Atlantic Ocean.

I have a confession…I am Dee Dawning’s number one fan. Why, you ask? It’s because Dee writes the trash…er, stories that, if I wrote, would float out of my overactive, inappropriate and naughty imagination. French Kiss is one such story, after reading it I had to go take a  peek under my bed to make sure Dee wasn’t under there recording my dreams.

I think every little girl, at some point, dreams of being a ballerina. My plan was to dance the role of Clara in the Nutcracker, so that  I could save the Nutcracker Prince from the evil Mouse King.  Unfortunately, I discovered books around the same time I discovered the Nutcracker and it quickly became evident that I would rather be reading instead of practicing a demi plié. In a recent e-mail to Dee (yes, I did just name drop, when you’re a #1 fan you can do that too--don’t hate!) I stated, that if men like Rene really existed in ballet I curse the day I put away my toe shoes! Okay, okay enough about me...
 

LaCherna ‘Cher’ Smith, a budding ballet student at Julliard, has just found out that her roommate Rene is not a woman, but a man! And, oh what a man! Rene Rejane, the tres chaud ballet dancer from Tours, France is used to being mistaken for a woman because of his “dual gendered” name. So it came as no surprise that he would be paired with a female roommate. When Rene set eyes on Cher he is instantly smitten and knows that he must remain her roommate. Cher on the other hand is not sure if she should be sharing a room with a strange French man, albeit a hot one, but decides to give him a chance; on a trial basis and only after they dance together.

The bond between Rene and Cher quickly builds, as do their feelings and it isn’t long before they go from being roommates to being more. In my humble opinion, Cher held out WAY longer than I would have. Being the naughty girl I used to be (pre-marriage), Rene’s virtue would have been in jeopardy the first time I heard that French accent and had a glimpse of that body.

“Rene returned. His hair, now darkened and damp, hung uncombed, but that wasn’t what caught my attention. The only thing that kept him from standing naked before me was a white towel wrapped around and tucked in at his waist. He smiled. ‘Turn your head, ma chere, while I put on my pajamas bottoms on.’ …my mouth watered as he turned his backside to me and dropped the towel. His broad shoulders and muscular chest vee’d into a narrow waist and ultra-sexy taunt buns and that wasn’t all. One at a time, he lifted a led into each pajama leg, his shoulder muscles rippling…”

No, red-blooded woman could read that and NOT start speaking French! Son obtention chaud ici! Whew! There was another scene where Rene shaved Cher, then spent some time admiring his handiwork…um, yeah I thought my Kindle was going to melt...my panties certainly did. It was just that hot! The story spans the first half of the school year for Rene and Cher, until during Christmas break when; due to a case of mistaken identity  Rene is deported and the couple is separated with no idea how to salvage their whirlwind romance. But, there is something to be said about being nice to strangers.

During a sight-seeing trip, the couple befriends a Japanese man whose daughter was also a student a Julliard. That kindly Japanese fellow, happened to be none other than the Japanese Ambassador to the U.S. and has a direct line to the Secretary of State “Heidi Klinton” (snicker, snicker, wink, wink) who immediately  reunited the couple, threw them a lavish fairytale wedding, sent them on a romantic Parisian honeymoon, and gave them jobs, as an apology!  French Kiss is my idea of a grown-up fairy tale, the love scenes were fumage `a chaud--smoking hot, but the romance and happily ever after was sappy and corny sweet.

Dee Dawning is the king of scorching love scenes and moments that make you go ‘ah’. His books run the spectrum of raunchy smut…er, erotica to sweet romances to political satire, I’m still on the fence on which ones I like the best, but if you’re looking for a little bit of all three and get the HEA then French Kiss is for you. It’s my favorite, for now...tous saluent le roi!