Just Kiss Me – Hearts of Marshall’s Bayou Book 1

Alberta is in love with a man that she can never have…

Across the table is the most devastatingly handsome man that Alberta has ever seen. Her brother Will, Antoine Broussard and Antoine’s cousin, Isaac, had arrived as the family sat down to eat and were invited to share the meal. The Broussards are helping Will with the cattle. Water is very scarce in Marshall’s Bayou, the sweltering days baking the earth a little more each day, so Will must move the beasts closer to the swamp. Isaac cannot help but stare at Will’s pretty sister; each time he tries to sweet-talk her, she makes up excuses and leaves. Alberta has heard that Isaac is a ladies’ man, and she says that she is too busy helping her mother out by caring for her siblings and keeping up with the farm chores to waste her time with him. Yet her thoughts keep on returning to the man, and she knows that she would miss it if he paid her no more attention. He is just much too forward and she is shocked when he teases her, asking for a kiss. Much to her dismay, deep down Alberta! is really wondering what his kisses would be like.

Isaac lies awake at night, plagued by thoughts of a woman who doesn’t even like him. Even her brother laughs when Isaac admits to wishing to court his straight-laced sister. Fortunately, he catches her off-guard by asking her to go fishing with him. Fishing is a pastime that she has had little time for lately, and when he assures Alberta that her younger siblings can come as well, she agrees. That evening she is full of nerves, not sure if it is because she is hiding the planned expedition from her father or worrying about how Isaac sees her…

Love catches Alberta unaware. She returns home filled to the brim with new-found happiness, and is shattered when her very dour father takes her aside, telling Alberta that she is forbidden ever to see the Frenchman again. As a strict Protestant, he looks down on Isaac because he a Catholic and therefore a sinner. Isaac knows that he has found the woman that he will marry, but her father says that he will shoot him if Isaac sees Alberta again.

Sarah Storme’s romance takes place in and around a bayou, set at the beginning of the century. The descriptions of heat, swamps and the beach permeate the story, making the reader feel all of the humidity alongside the characters. The romantic tale took this reader back to a time when strict morals and religious prejudices were the basis of society, and only true love could see past these boundaries. When Isaac arrives in Marshall’s Bayou it is like a breath of fresh air for Alberta. She pretends not to look for him, but is giddy whenever he appears, in a way that most readers would remember from their own adolescence. Her feelings of desire conflict with her very strict religious upbringing. She must choose between her love for this man and her love of her family, never knowing when her father will discover them. Isaac is determined to do the right thing, foolishly ignoring Alberta’s pleas not to speak with her father. The eroticism is realistic and tender, and defin! itely an eye-opener for a girl who is unaware of the facts of life. Alberta’s large family serves to highlight many aspects of her character and Mae, her flirty, easy-going sister, provides a contrast to Alberta’s stoically dutiful behavior. I look forward to returning to the Bayou again, in a planned future book of Mae’s story.

Reviewed by: Naomi