Ellyn Bache, Raspberry Sherbet Kisses

Raspberry Sherbet Kisses

Ellyn Bache

Harlequin Next, Apr 2007, $5.50

ISBN: 0373881320

LilyRose Sheffield suffers from synesthesia as she has the uncanny ability to "see" sounds and "taste" shapes. Twelve years ago, her then-boyfriend called her a freak because of her senses behaving differently from the norm. Mortified, LillyRose has hidden her gift ever since, treating it as a curse as she hates the ridicule and scorn.

However, she explodes when a nasty customer cruelly mocks a young girl, who suffers from the same synesthesia condition. Angrily LilyRose hits a woman with a basket leading to her arrest. This one may have a happy ending when the raspberry-sherbet tasting lips she has waited for all her life comes to take her out of jail.

RASPBERRY SHERBET KISSES is an interesting, contemporary character study with a romantic subplot. The storyline focuses on LilyRose's efforts to mainstream so that she avoids mockery until the tasty kisses of the hunk rescues her from her own self imposed exile. Readers will appreciate this fine look at a woman whose biggest problem is accepting that it is okay to be different and those who mock her are ignorant fools unless you give them the power to limit you as LilyRose did as Kermit the Frog is right.

Harriet Klausner