French Kiss
Susan Johnson
Berkley, Jun 2006, $15.00
ISBN: 0425209857

In Southern California successful wealthy record producer Johnny Patrick would do anything for his beloved nine years old daughter Jordi. Thus he hires architect Nicole Lesdaux to design a tree house for his adored child. Nicole finds herself attracted to her client and his preconscious offspring.

However, when Johnny's former wife drug addict Lisa on a whim takes their daughter to Paris, he panics as he knows her friends at best are not good for his little darling and she is unstable. He enlists his sexy architect who speaks a few more words of French to accompany him across the Atlantic to retrieve Jordi. Shocking herself by breaking the golden rule of never mixing business with pleasure, Nicole agrees to go to France with Johnny. In Europe the architect and the music mogul begin to fall in love, but first must rescue a preadolescent child whose mother has placed her in danger from her so-called predatory friends.

Though some will wonder why Nicole as he could have easily hired an interpreter who spoke fluent French, this is a fine heated erotic romantic suspense with the emphasis on the erotica. Profanity is overused and feels more like shock therapy. However, the lead couple is a solid pair and Jordi is a precocious youngster in trouble because of her mother's terrible judgment especially in her choice of friends. Susan Johnson keeps the heat beyond boiling as Johnny and Nicole share much more than just a FRENCH KISS.

Harriet Klausner