One Perfect Rose

Book excerpt: Few romance novels have touched readers as deeply or as lastingly as this classic by New York Times bestselling author Mary Jo Putney. Poignant, passionate, and tender, One Perfect Rose is the story of two mismatched lovers drawn into a fragile, unforgettable union... One Perfect Rose Stephen Kenyon, the new Duke of Ashburton, has always known exactly what society expected of him. But a doctor's grim diagnosis leaves him longing to experience life as never before. Traveling incognito, he becomes entangled with a wandering theater family and their spirited adopted daughter, Rosalind Jordan. With no time to waste in courtship, Stephen convinces Rosalind to marry him--an arrangement that has advantages for both. The warm companionship and profound passion they share is more than Stephen expected, and far more than his family and his own guarded nature ever allowed. But each passing, perfect day together is a bittersweet reminder that love is the one thing he is not at liberty to offer, and the one thing she can never admit... "In her superb, inimitable style, Putney takes a pair of magnetic, beautifully matched protagonists, places them in a dark, impossible situation, and makes it work." --Library Journal "One Perfect Rose is Mary Jo Putney in top form." --Romantic Times