cover image One More Kiss

One More Kiss

Samantha Chase. Sourcebooks Casablanca, $7.99 mass market (352p) ISBN 978-1-4926-1640-5

After bombing on Broadway, a rock star seeking redemption finds love in his hometown with his best friend’s kid sister in Chase’s (Love Walks In) first Band on the Run novel. The story’s dramatic potential rests on a passionate kiss between Matt Reed and Vivienne Forrester; two years later, he’s chalked it up to a boozy fantasy, but she recalls it with painful clarity. When Matt retreats to the North Carolina home of Aaron, Vivienne’s brother, just as she is moving onto the property’s guesthouse to live and work as a magazine’s assistant editor, Vivienne is hostile and Matt has no idea why. But her expression of her feelings is so muted that it’s surprising he noticed it at all, and when he remembers the kiss and the two begin to act upon their mutual attraction, what little drama exists in the narrative is left hinging on Matt’s internal conflict, which might have been interesting had it been more thoroughly explained earlier on. Agent: Mark Gottlieb, Trident Media Group. (Feb.)