Jenny Kissed Me!

Some folks are bothered that most love stories seem a bit contrived and have a suspension of belief. They normally label themselves as realists-"not into that fairy-tale stuff." But what better way to deal with the real world, 24/7, than to take a break, experience a lovelier world- one that transforms the mood and lifts the spirit, giving hope to something better. Although my story is fictional, the magical thing about it is that it could really happen. Jenny Kissed Me is a clean & wholesome novel for the truly romantic. When Jenny finds an old letter in a shoebox, her mind is flooded with memories of a long forgotten love. She and Jonathan had secretly loved one another in high school, but never shared those feelings except for that one time in the library their senior year. Jenny had impetuously kissed Jonathan on the cheek-a moment neither forgot. Four decades and five thousand miles away they meet as strangers in Italy where they are rewarded one of life's rarest gifts-the opportunity for a second chance. A classic story transcending time. The story of a powerful love that time could not alter-matters of the heart are not governed by time.

Thomas Allen currently lives on a working ranch in Central Texas. He earlier lived in Oklahoma and Arkansas. He spent 25 years as a popular Philosophy Professor at Central Texas College in Killeen, Texas and was known by his colleagues as a renaissance man because of his ability to enliven the conversation on an endless number of topics. Although Jenny Kissed Me! came about quite by accident, writing was not foreign to Allen who had earlier entertained the thought of a novel. Through the years, he had frequently been known to quote impromptu poems-anything from Ogden Nash to Shakespeare-depending on what triggered his brain. One day a casual comment from his wife prompted a reciting of the romantic poem ＂Jenny Kissed Me.＂ Her reaction gave him a story line and a reason to write about a forever kind of love, one like they had shared for 48 years. Twelve years later he took an early retirement, in part to write the novel. A motivating force was the desire to produce a classic love story that would appeal to true romantics. The novel’s early years, largely autobiographical, are set in the author’s home town of San Marcos, Texas in the late 1950s and early 1960s.