Starcrossed,

Bette is a twenty-one-year-old college senior on a student-teaching assignment when she meets Richard in the teachers' lounge. He is seventeen and still in high school. Seven weeks later they are engaged.

She is Catholic and he is Jewish, and neither set of parents is pleased. The couple keep the romance quiet with secret post office boxes, dates in out-of-the-way places, and a roommate who has promised to say nothing. School administrators who could expel them are one more reason to stay hidden.

The secret collapses when the engagement announcement runs in the local paper a week early. Richard has not yet told his parents. From there the pair are chased by furious families, scornful siblings, snickering friends, legal obstacles and clergy who will not cooperate.

The scenes range from an evening at New York City's Playboy Club, with underage Richard in tow, to Bette's dealings with a two-timing psychologist. A housemother who looks the other way is on their side. Richard drives a Jaguar XKE.

This is a memoir with a comic tone, written by Bette about her own young love. It moves fast, plays the family clashes for laughs, and also makes room for the hurt along the way.