LAVENDER BLUE

by Parris Afton Bonds ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 1983

Oh, to feel again! To have sensations wash over her once more like the Gulf at high tide, to be inundated with the breath of life!"" Such is the wish of beauteous Jeanette St. John from New England, who is determined to keep her Texas plantation going even though husband Armand has been killed in an early Civil War battle. But how, oh how, will Jeanette manage to get her cotton past the Union blockades? Her only hope: legendary blockade-runner Kitt, a masked French pirate who agrees to export Jeanette's cotton--and import arms for the Confederacy--but only if she'll ""spend a night in his bed for every delivery of arms his ship makes."" Sacre bleu! Soon, then, the blindfolded, appalled/titillated Jeanette is being treated to maskedman sex. . . including some oral delights. (""The Frenchman's kiss!"") She herself participates in the arms--arrivals--in male dress, with the code-name ""Lavender Blue."" But then Jeanette's father orders her home to Massachusetts: Texas has become unsafe for a woman alone. So she grabs herself a husband-of-convenience--in charming neighbor Cristobal Cavazos, an ""effete fop"" who agrees to a platonic marriage. Yet. . . a few kisses ensue, oddly familiar kisses. Could it be? Yes indeed. Jeanette eventually realizes that her fey hubby is one and the same with Kitt, that swashbuckler/ravisher who has been giving her periodic, masked love-lessons. And this puts the shrill Jeanette in a snit--so there'll be a series of crises (a miscarriage, marital rape, shipboard spats)--before Cristobal/Kitt rescues Jeanette from a Union noose for a happy ending. A little GWTW, a lot of Zorro, a tad of soft-core kinkiness: Lavender Blue, silly silly. . . .

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1983

ISBN: 0345465792

Page Count: -

Publisher: Ballantine

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1983

Categories: FICTION