Summary
Following her fiancé’s death, Lizzie Walker struggles to find purpose in her life in Rugby, TN, a utopian community in the Appalachian Mountains. Then William, a wealthy flatlander, arrives who mourns the loss of his sister. Teaching together in the community’s school sparks their relationship, which blossoms as they embrace Rugby’s classless society and equality for women. Because of an earlier dalliance, Lucas, a mountain man, harasses Lizzie, who dreads his references to their past, while William fears that exposing his dark secret will destroy Lizzie’s growing respect and love. After Lizzie shoots a stalker, she flees in terror, and William fumes that she does not trust him to protect her. Yet when he suddenly departs the settlement to untangle his secret, Lizzie questions his love. She devotes herself to teaching the mountain women lacemaking and cherishes their commitment to each other. a storm strikes, Lizzie and the women concoct a plan to save their families’ survival. Readers who love the novel, Christy, will revel in William’s transformation from privileged gentleman to a settler embracing a simple life with Lizzie. Ae Fond Kiss continues the story about Rugby, that began in On Viney’s Mountain, and the novel celebrates second chances and the importance of community.
Following her fiancé’s death, Lizzie Walker struggles to find purpose in her life in Rugby, TN, a utopian community in the Appalachian Mountains. Then William, a wealthy flatlander, arrives who mourns the loss of his sister. Teaching together in the community’s school sparks their relationship, which blossoms as they embrace Rugby’s classless society and equality for women. Because of an earlier dalliance, Lucas, a mountain man, harasses Lizzie, who dreads his references to their past, while William fears that exposing his dark secret will destroy Lizzie’s growing respect and love. After Lizzie shoots a stalker, she flees in terror, and William fumes that she does not trust him to protect her. Yet when he suddenly departs the settlement to untangle his secret, Lizzie questions his love. She devotes herself to teaching the mountain women lacemaking and cherishes their commitment to each other. a storm strikes, Lizzie and the women concoct a plan to save their families’ survival. Readers who love the novel, Christy, will revel in William’s transformation from privileged gentleman to a settler embracing a simple life with Lizzie. Ae Fond Kiss continues the story about Rugby, that began in On Viney’s Mountain, and the novel celebrates second chances and the importance of community.
Art Beat: The healing of community
I was interviewed for Art Beat on WMUK by Zinta Aistars on February 6, 2025. We discussed grief, community and my book, Ae Fond Kiss. Please find a link to a written summary and listen to the interview here.
Reviews
Midwest Book Reviews
Lizzie is mourning the loss of her fiancé at the same time as William arrives to the community mourning the loss of his sister. It feels inevitable that these two, united by loss and grief, will find solace and then attraction to one another.
But that’s not the entire story. What also blossoms in Tennessee is the political and social ideals of Rugby, the ugly underside of human nature when mountain man Lucas poses a threat to Lizzie, and the secret William harbors which could ultimately threaten their new connection.
Also supplementing these personal facets is the overall struggle for equality that community women face. It’s a looming disaster which taps them to step up and respond in unfamiliar, strong ways. The evolution of love and transformation that the main characters experience forces each to grow into their roles in the community as well as revised ideals of what a loving relationship really means.
Joan Donaldson excels in juxtaposing personalities, broader community interests, and descriptions which come steeped in an atmosphere of place and emotional revelation:
“I haven’t sung since George died.” Lizzie sat on the settee and lifted her knitting basket off an end table.
She doubted her voice could sing. No melodies or words bubbled up from inside her, as the ever-present pain had consumed each note and syllable. Lizzie stared at the forget-me-not flowers sprinkled across the gray calico dress. Some nights, she dreamed of rocking and singing to George’s baby, but the morning showed an empty pillow next to her head. Perhaps her voice would return to her if love renewed her heart. But love required time to flourish and to build new dreams.
She also presents a realistic, powerful conundrum as William’s choices lead Lizzy to question how she could love a man who makes horribly poor decisions about those he purports to love.
These elements, combined with the social and political revolution brewing in a utopian community which embraces all kinds of people, make for a fine saga of small-town America and women’s issues. This will prove a delightful lure for libraries seeking to expand their fictional holdings with thought-provoking works that blend romance with psychological growth and community evolution.
AE Fond Kiss: Love Blossoms in Tennessee is also highly recommended for book clubs and reading groups of all kinds, whether they are interested in romance stories, sagas of rural America, women’s issues, or psychological transitions.
Diane Donovan, senior editor for Midwest Book Reviews.
Midwest Book Reviews
Lizzie is mourning the loss of her fiancé at the same time as William arrives to the community mourning the loss of his sister. It feels inevitable that these two, united by loss and grief, will find solace and then attraction to one another.
But that’s not the entire story. What also blossoms in Tennessee is the political and social ideals of Rugby, the ugly underside of human nature when mountain man Lucas poses a threat to Lizzie, and the secret William harbors which could ultimately threaten their new connection.
Also supplementing these personal facets is the overall struggle for equality that community women face. It’s a looming disaster which taps them to step up and respond in unfamiliar, strong ways. The evolution of love and transformation that the main characters experience forces each to grow into their roles in the community as well as revised ideals of what a loving relationship really means.
Joan Donaldson excels in juxtaposing personalities, broader community interests, and descriptions which come steeped in an atmosphere of place and emotional revelation:
“I haven’t sung since George died.” Lizzie sat on the settee and lifted her knitting basket off an end table.
She doubted her voice could sing. No melodies or words bubbled up from inside her, as the ever-present pain had consumed each note and syllable. Lizzie stared at the forget-me-not flowers sprinkled across the gray calico dress. Some nights, she dreamed of rocking and singing to George’s baby, but the morning showed an empty pillow next to her head. Perhaps her voice would return to her if love renewed her heart. But love required time to flourish and to build new dreams.
She also presents a realistic, powerful conundrum as William’s choices lead Lizzy to question how she could love a man who makes horribly poor decisions about those he purports to love.
These elements, combined with the social and political revolution brewing in a utopian community which embraces all kinds of people, make for a fine saga of small-town America and women’s issues. This will prove a delightful lure for libraries seeking to expand their fictional holdings with thought-provoking works that blend romance with psychological growth and community evolution.
AE Fond Kiss: Love Blossoms in Tennessee is also highly recommended for book clubs and reading groups of all kinds, whether they are interested in romance stories, sagas of rural America, women’s issues, or psychological transitions.
Diane Donovan, senior editor for Midwest Book Reviews.
Readers’ Favorite
Joan Donaldson crafts Lizzie and William’s love story beautifully in Ae Fond Kiss: Love Blossoms in Tennessee, a remarkable, hope-filled romance novel set in a close-knit community in the Appalachian Mountains. Following the death of her fiancé, Lizzie Walker wrestles with despair that almost overwhelms her. Lizzie meets William, an affluent gentleman from Cincinnati who is battling with his own grief over his sister’s death. When William takes up the role of schoolmaster in a local school with Lizzie’s help, they fall in love. Their growing relationship is, however, threatened by their past errors. As their relationship develops, they draw strength from each other in their grief, face their past mistakes, and find hope in their blossoming love. They also grow in their appreciation of their community.
Joan Donaldson is gifted at creating characters with emotional depth who struggle with relatable challenges and introducing fresh twists to familiar themes. I loved seeing both main characters transform and develop as their relationship grew stronger. The bond within the community and the friendships Lizzie developed with the mountain women were heart-warming. With extraordinary skill and brilliant storytelling, Donaldson reminded me of the value of community and the beauty of simplicity. There were several suspenseful scenes in the story which I found captivating and many joyous scenes that I loved. Set in a beautiful location and a lovely community, Ae Fond Kiss: Love Blossoms in Tennessee by Joan Donaldson will resonate with readers looking for an enthralling love story about finding hope and love after loss.
Reviewed by Edith Wairimu
Readers’ Favorite
Joan Donaldson crafts Lizzie and William’s love story beautifully in Ae Fond Kiss: Love Blossoms in Tennessee, a remarkable, hope-filled romance novel set in a close-knit community in the Appalachian Mountains. Following the death of her fiancé, Lizzie Walker wrestles with despair that almost overwhelms her. Lizzie meets William, an affluent gentleman from Cincinnati who is battling with his own grief over his sister’s death. When William takes up the role of schoolmaster in a local school with Lizzie’s help, they fall in love. Their growing relationship is, however, threatened by their past errors. As their relationship develops, they draw strength from each other in their grief, face their past mistakes, and find hope in their blossoming love. They also grow in their appreciation of their community.
Joan Donaldson is gifted at creating characters with emotional depth who struggle with relatable challenges and introducing fresh twists to familiar themes. I loved seeing both main characters transform and develop as their relationship grew stronger. The bond within the community and the friendships Lizzie developed with the mountain women were heart-warming. With extraordinary skill and brilliant storytelling, Donaldson reminded me of the value of community and the beauty of simplicity. There were several suspenseful scenes in the story which I found captivating and many joyous scenes that I loved. Set in a beautiful location and a lovely community, Ae Fond Kiss: Love Blossoms in Tennessee by Joan Donaldson will resonate with readers looking for an enthralling love story about finding hope and love after loss.
Reviewed by Edith Wairimu
IndieReader Four Stars
Ae Fond Kiss and I were the author of the day at Indie Reader. Read the interview here!
Joan Donaldson’s AE FOND KISS puts two more-or-less out-of-place people into an insular rural background, both of them grieving lost loved ones (William’s sister Rose and Lizzie’s fiancé George). This leaves them to instinctively and inevitably take refuge in each other. But, before they do, each of them has to overcome the griefs, mistakes, and secrets of their past. What’s more, they also have to find a genuine place within their community, overcoming both their own prejudices and those of the locals to make real connections with people.
While Lizzie grew up here, her education, manners, and wealth inherited from her late fiancé set her apart from the bawdy, husband-hunting girl she was—leaving her isolated and alone. William, meanwhile, must both break free from the ties of his mother’s social expectations and win over the poor, rural students who see him as a posh, privileged elite. He also has to mend at least some of the damage done by his biggest youthful mistake. These conflicts add color, shape, and texture to their growing romance, keeping it from being too straightforward and simple to be interesting. A couple of the local male characters come across as caricatures—violent, simple-minded, and abusive to the women in their lives—but there is at least one moment that offers some sort of explanation and understanding as to how they ended up that way. Meanwhile, the connections that Lizzie builds with the local women reveal the depth, strength, and dignity behind their apparent downtrodden status. They also restore her solid rooting in the community from which she had been estranged.
William, too, overcomes his alienation by forming connections to the students he teaches and encouraging them to think more broadly about their futures. He also does this by atoning for his own past mistake in a fashion more socially acceptable to the local community than to his wealthy social circle. The social experiment that was the Rugby Colony is rather vaguely treated in the book, with a few casual references to founder Thomas Hughes’s belief in equality of the sexes. There’s a lot more interesting history there, which goes almost untouched in the more personal and intimate romance. All in all, though, this is a tender and warmhearted novel.
Joan Donaldson’s AE FOND KISS is a sweet and wholesome romance immersed in a well-developed historical context.
~Catherine Langrehr for IndieReader
IndieReader Four Stars
Ae Fond Kiss and I were the author of the day at Indie Reader. Read the interview here!
Joan Donaldson’s AE FOND KISS puts two more-or-less out-of-place people into an insular rural background, both of them grieving lost loved ones (William’s sister Rose and Lizzie’s fiancé George). This leaves them to instinctively and inevitably take refuge in each other. But, before they do, each of them has to overcome the griefs, mistakes, and secrets of their past. What’s more, they also have to find a genuine place within their community, overcoming both their own prejudices and those of the locals to make real connections with people.
While Lizzie grew up here, her education, manners, and wealth inherited from her late fiancé set her apart from the bawdy, husband-hunting girl she was—leaving her isolated and alone. William, meanwhile, must both break free from the ties of his mother’s social expectations and win over the poor, rural students who see him as a posh, privileged elite. He also has to mend at least some of the damage done by his biggest youthful mistake. These conflicts add color, shape, and texture to their growing romance, keeping it from being too straightforward and simple to be interesting. A couple of the local male characters come across as caricatures—violent, simple-minded, and abusive to the women in their lives—but there is at least one moment that offers some sort of explanation and understanding as to how they ended up that way. Meanwhile, the connections that Lizzie builds with the local women reveal the depth, strength, and dignity behind their apparent downtrodden status. They also restore her solid rooting in the community from which she had been estranged.
William, too, overcomes his alienation by forming connections to the students he teaches and encouraging them to think more broadly about their futures. He also does this by atoning for his own past mistake in a fashion more socially acceptable to the local community than to his wealthy social circle. The social experiment that was the Rugby Colony is rather vaguely treated in the book, with a few casual references to founder Thomas Hughes’s belief in equality of the sexes. There’s a lot more interesting history there, which goes almost untouched in the more personal and intimate romance. All in all, though, this is a tender and warmhearted novel.
Joan Donaldson’s AE FOND KISS is a sweet and wholesome romance immersed in a well-developed historical context.
~Catherine Langrehr for IndieReader