Welcome to another First Kiss Friday. Today’s guest is Dragonblade Publishing author Lisa Williams Kline who has an excerpt from her novel Between The Sky and The Sea. We hope you enjoy this first kiss scene. Happy reading, my lovelies!

Excerpt:

Long stretches of time drifted by. The sun rose higher in the sky and seemed determined to burn them to ash. The horizon was empty in all directions. Lavinia’s spirits plunged, and she concluded with unassailable certainty that they would indeed die out here. 

“Is there anything that you wish you’d done in your life that you haven’t, Mr. Ridge? Do you wish you had traveled more? See the Taj Mahal?” 

He lay still for a few seconds, his eyes closed. “I would have liked to have had a wife and children. What about you?” 

She regarded him. “I’ve come to the ripe age of twenty-two, without being kissed. I always wished for a love match but never found one. I wish just once that I might have been kissed.” 

Mr. Ridge opened his eyes and sat up. He looked into hers and reached up and gently pushed a strand of hair from her face. “I will kiss you, Miss Onslow. It would be my great honor and pleasure to do so.” He leaned toward her and very gently touched his dry, cracked lips to hers. She caught her breath. Despite the pain of their sore lips, a pleasant heady feeling swirled and she felt a faint shiver, a tingling lightness through her whole body. Then he held her close and they floated in a golden silence for a long time. Or perhaps it was only a few moments. Time seemed to have stopped.“So that’s how a kiss feels.”

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Between The Sky And The Sea
By Lisa Williams Kline

Lavinia Onslow, who delights in the freedom of managing her father’s millinery shop in the heart of Savannah, Georgia, has decided she may defy convention and not marry after all. Yet, in the summer of 1838, on board the elegant steamship Pulaski, bound from Savannah to Baltimore, she exchanges glances with an intriguing young man. What can ensue from a mere glance? Quite a lot, as legend has it. That very night, the boiler of the Pulaski explodes and the ship sinks, drowning most of its wealthy passengers. As Lavinia struggles in the water in her heavy dress, calling out for her father and thinking she will surely perish, someone dives in to rescue her, pulling her up next to him on a makeshift raft made of two deck settees. When she composes herself, she recognizes the intriguing man. There they float, alone but together, surrounded by ocean, thirty miles off the coast of North Carolina, desperate for a life-saving miracle.

Is the bond she feels for this stranger more than an instinct for survival?

Inspired by a legend –that may or not be true– and set in the rich historic milieus of Savannah, New Orleans, and the coast of North Carolina, Between the Sky and the Sea explores how Lavinia Onslow’s desire to live as an independent woman transforms after surviving the wreck of the Pulaski.

Buy link on Amazon is Between the Sky and the Sea – Kindle edition by Kline, Lisa. Literature & Fiction Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.

About the Author:

Lisa Williams Kline is the author of two novels for adults forthcoming in 2023, Between the Sky and the Sea, and Ladies’ Day, as well as an essay collection entitled The Ruby Mirror and a short story collection entitled Take Me. Her stories and essays have appeared in Literary Mama, Skirt, Sasee, Carolina Woman, moonShine review, The Press 53 Awards Anthology, Sand Hills Literary Magazine, and Idol Talk, among others. She is also the author of ten novels and a novella for young readers. She lives in Davidson with her veterinarian husband, a cat who can open doors, and a sweet chihuahua who has played Bruiser Woods in Legally Blonde: The Musical. She and her husband treasure frequent visits with their grown daughters and their husbands.

Find Lisa at these social media outlets:

Website: www.lisawilliamskline.com 
IG: @lisawilliamskline 
FB: lisa.kline.566