Customer Reviews

Dangerous Secrets (Avon Red)

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

"Dangerous Secrets," another great book by Rice, is a tight, erotic, and suspenseful romance with the usual strong, honorable, loner hero, coupled with a feminine woman in a dangerous world. Rice loves to use conventionally feminine careers for her heroines--librarians, decorators, etc.--who match the hero in honor and duty. Charity thinks Vassily is just her friend, the world-famous writer who had endured years in a Russian gulag, not the terrorist he is. She also doesn't know that her startling resemblance to his dead lover has made her the focus of his dangerous obsession. Rice is excellent in conveying villains' menace and evil without giving the gory details--an choice I appreciate. Nick, a Homeland Security agent passing as a retired stockbroker, plans to use Charity to plant bugs in the Russian's mansion. He does not plan, however, to fall in love and is both bewildered and dismayed as that happens. Like Rice's other heroes, Nick is hugely protective, tender, and sexy. If you love a romance novel for its hero, you will love this one! Rice captures the intense excitement of sex between two people in the beginning of their relationship in her explicit scenes between Nick and Charity. Charity is not a vapid heroine as she, also, falls in love, and when faced with the truth that a man she has admired and trusted is a deadly enemy to the US and to the world, she does not engage in typical heroine stubborn denials. Instead, she acts courageously, attempting to save her country and innocent lives. If you love intense, suspenseful, and erotic romances, you'll love this one!

Nick Ireland has spent the better part of his life being someone else. Known as the Iceman, he assumes new personas with each new undercover assignment. His assignment this time was to get close to Charity Prewitt. She has befriended Vassily Worontzoff a world renowned writer thinking he was a broken man after all he has suffered through in his life when in fact he is an ice cold clever terrorist. Vassily is also obsessed with Charity because she is a mirror image of his deceased love, Katya. Nick insinuates himself into her life through her work at the library when he goes there to perform some research on a new business venture. Having only seen her from a distance, he is blindsided at her beauty, and humbled at her charming innocence. Nick has had to have many sexual encounters in the line of duty, but none before have claimed his heart and soul like this woman has. From the moment they met, the chemistry between them was explosive surprising them both.

When Nick felt things start closing in, he knew something big was about to happen. He knew that he had to do anything to protect Charity. The only thing he could think of was to marry her. If they were married, and he was killed in this mission, his team would protect her with any and all resources at their disposal. He also called, and had his will changed naming her his only beneficiary. Nick knew it was wrong to marry her while undercover, but this one time he was following his heart.

I have been reading LMR's books for a long time enjoying them all. This one is no exception. Nick and Charity are well written multi-layered characters making a wonderful couple. Strong, silent, and completely alpha Nick is just what the doctor ordered. He encompasses the all American hero, and is very appealing. Charity is his perfect counterpart. She is a strong centered woman that puts her life on the line when the chips are down. This story has suspense and incredibly hot erotic scenes. The only thing I didn't like was the abrupt ending. We go on this long journey with Nick and Charity only to have it all wrapped up in a couple of pages.

Rushed home from work to rip open the Amazon package so I could curl up with Lisa Marie Rice's newest hero. I enjoyed this heroine more so than some of the previous ones - she wasn't clueless about how she ended up in her man's arms or bed. She read the signals, thought about them and decided she definitely wanted what he had to offer. In addition, in Ms. Rice's previous books, as much as I enjoyed the story, the HEA was always rushed for me: acknowledge love, get heroine out of danger, a one page or paragraph epilogue that might not even reference the hero and heroine. In this one, there is a 3 page epilogue with just the hero and heroine! Way more satisfying.

The only drawback to me, and I am actually still on the fence on whether this should be a nit or not, is that, again, the hero and heroine were both only children, orphaned at early ages, with not much to look forward to in the future, living fairly satisfactory lives - these characters (to me) were too interchangeable with those from "Dangerous Lover".

All in all, I spent an enjoyable evening immersing myself in this book - I definitely recommend this book!

There are a number of criticisms I could make about Lisa Marie Rice's latest offering if I really wanted to be picky. Here are a few things: the book is a little formulaic; the hero is not as strong as some of her previous action men; the secondary characters were largely undeveloped; the heroine is a little too naïve; the ending is a little rushed and therefore weak. However, none of this adds up to enough detraction in my reading pleasure of this book to give it less than 5 stars. As ever, the author creates a great story with well-orchestrated action and a coterie of contemporaneous villains and all in very polished prose (despite the usual masculine vernacular!!). And, compliments to the author for a really gut-wrenching depiction of grief beyond imagination.

At times Dangerous Secrets is more of a straight thriller than erotic romance and Nick wasn't quite as sexy for me as the three Midnight Men but, boy, oh boy, he'll do nicely, thank you very much! Lucky Charity! I do hope her next book isn't as long in coming. I waited for this with much anticipation and read it in one sitting. Now the wait begins....

Thanks Lisa. Once again this author has created a great story that focuses on all that is important in erotic romance, love, sex, and great writing. I will admit that the story is very similar to her previouse novel, but who cares! If writing about secret CIA agents who show up in a bookstore owners life and rocks her world for all of seven days before the bad guys come after them both, is what works for this spicy romance author, then I say stick with what you know and keep heating up my pages!

THE PLOT: Nick Ireland is undercover in a small town to bring down the head of an organized Russian crime syndicate. Charity Pruitt is the local librarian and best friends with the Russian criminal.

PROS: The best part of the book is near the end when Charity finds out that Nick has been lying to her. It's like she finally wakes up and becomes a real person. The conclusion wraps up nicely. I always appreciate an epilogue.

CONS: Where to begin? Charity and Nick go on their first date (which occurs the day they meet) and barely talk to each other, but she almost immediately knows she will sleep with him that night. Why? Mostly the reason seems to be that it's a small town and he's the best offer to stroll through. The main fault of this book is that it is overwhelmingly BORING. It's as though someone went through and edited out all the interesting parts. Their first time sleeping together ends rather abruptly. The next day it's mentioned that they made love all night long. Charity, when we eventually get to know what she thinks again, believes that he's a good lover. Not from what I read. The love scenes are boring also. They read like an instruction manual. The most interesting love scene in the entire novel is when Charity is recalling some of the lovemaking Nick and she shared to which we were not privy. Guess it was too interesting and hit the cutting room floor. Just like the rest of their first night together. You know what wasn't cut? Endlessly tedious and repetitious propaganda about how Nick is such a cool cucumber, about his previous assignments, about how he's never behaved this way. Why? Because the Iceman has fallen in love in one day with a woman who's about as interesting as cardboard. That's right. Charity is boring, too. The most interesting thing about her is how she lost her parents and had to learn to walk again. That's mentioned briefly about twice. Charity doesn't feel fully fleshed out. Most of the novel is told from Nick's point of view. And Nick, though dedicated to his country, just isn't that likable. Or special. He spends most of his time behaving like an overemotional ninny. So not cool. There's also WAY too much information about Vassily, the Russian criminal. We have more a background and development on him than we do on Charity. There's also too much detail given to his terrorist plot. These details feel especially wasted considering how swiftly the ending deals with this.

2 STARS: I struggled to finish this one and actually completed FOUR e-books while still reading this. I recommend borrowing this from the library or reading any of the books in this author's Midnight Series instead. They're all better in every sense.

STORY BRIEF:
Vassily is a famous Russian novelist who spent years in a Soviet prison camp. He is now wealthy and recently moved to a small town in Vermont. Vassily becomes good friends with Charity the local librarian. She moved to this town to care for her elderly aunt and uncle. Nick is an undercover agent for Homeland Security. He suspects Vassily is involved in terrorist activities. Nick befriends Charity to learn more about Vassily. He and Charity immediately fall in love/lust with each other. Charity doesn't know Nick is undercover and thinks he is a businessman looking for investment opportunities.

REVIEWER'S OPINION:
The characters and plot were so similar to Midnight Man that I could almost just copy that review for this one. If you enjoyed Midnight Man you should enjoy this. It's more of the same, but there are some differences. I liked them both. The alpha hero cherishes and worships his lovely and delicate lady Charity. Whenever he's around her he is so turned on he needs to be hosed down. Don't expect a lot of new and different ideas. This is a good formula for the author, and it works for me. It's fun to read - an enjoyable escape. I especially enjoyed the back story about Nick and his relationship with his friend Jacob. I talk more about the author's writing style in my review of Midnight Man.

DATA:
Story length: 344 pages. Swearing language: strong. Sexual language: strong/erotic. Number of sex scenes: 12. Total number of sex scene pages: 43. Setting: primarily Parker's Ridge, Vermont with some activities in Russia, ocean travel and Canada. Copyright: 2008. Genre: erotic romantic suspense.

OTHER BOOKS:
For a list of my reviews of other Lisa Marie Rice books, see my 4.5 star review of "Midnight Man" posted 3/17/09.

Sexy, sweet and seductive are the perfect words to explain Dangerous Secrets and author Lisa Marie Rice who writes some of the best alpha male heroes in romance.

Nicholas Ames is a rich stockbroker who starts to woo the local town librarian. Actually, Nick is a former Delta operator on an undercover mission. He is really Nick Ireland a.k.a. the Iceman who must befriend and even seduce Charity because she is best friends with Vassily Worontzoff, a Russian immigrant who has acclaim as a world renowned writer. He also happens to be head of a world wide crime syndicate that aids terrorists. If Nick can get close to Charity, he will be able to get to Worontzoff and stop him from ruining more innocent lives.

Charity has no clue who the real Nick is and her courts her very smoothly. Things happen very quickly between these two and Charity is so enthralled by Nick, that she takes him into her bed and gives him her heart. Even though Nick's nickname is the Iceman, he is not cold at all. He is sick over the way he has to lie to Charity. He hates the fact that the woman he is falling for is being placed in danger because of him. Charity is such a sweet and kind woman and her love wraps Nick in a wonderful bubble of promises and hope for a future. But he knows that all will end because he has to betray Charity in the worst way.

Ah yes, that nasty word- betrayal. Nick does something that tears Charity apart and probably will make most readers growl because Charity feels so deeply for Nick and her heart is ripped in half to the point she is ready to die. As she goes through these emotions, I felt so deeply for her. And when Charity finally confronts Nick, he has no words to explain how sorry he is over her grief. Even if he groveled on his hands and knees (and we all know we love when a hero gets down and begs for forgiveness) it won't be enough. The only promise Nick can give Charity is the fact that she will no longer be alone and he will make it his life's purpose to bring her joy, happiness and all the hot loving she can handle..

Dangerous Secrets is very much an erotic thriller because of the plot about terrorists. Worontzoff is borderline cartoonish in his villainy, but Lisa gives the reader enough background on this man that you actually do feel sorry for him. For he is a man that has loved and lost; much like Nick. The difference is that Nick does not descend into madness like Worontzoff.

Charity is sweet yet not so innocent where she will annoy most. If I were in her shoes, I would have fallen for a man like Nick and never question his motives. There is a point where she does something some would place under the TSTL (to stupid to live) category but her actions pulled everything together in the end.

Dangerous Secrets is a nice read for the summer season, even though it takes place in the cold winter of Vermont. But Nick and Charity steam up the sheets just fine with some nice missionary sex I have come to enjoy in a Rice novel.

Katiebabs

Small-town librarian Charity Prewitt is very surprised when wealthy businessman Nicholas Ames shows a decided interest in her. What she doesn't know is that he is actually an undercover agent who is after one of Charity's friends, Russian immigrant Vassily Worontzoff. Worontzoff used to be a great author until he was put in a Russian labour camp where his girlfriend Katya died a brutal death. Afterwards he became the head of a brutal criminal organisation under the camouflage of the great author / victim of the Sovjet Regime. He is after Charity since she looks a lot like his dead love. Nicholas' plan seems to work out fine until he not only falls in love with Charity but also realizes that she is at great risk since Vassily starts losing his grip on reality and thinks she really is Katya. Now he is confronted with a life-altering choice: He can go on as planned and risk Charity's life and their love, or he can tell her the truth - and risk his job as well as the mission...
The plot and the characters are actually great and I think this could have become a really good erotic suspense novel. There are two reasons why I personally find it disappointing - although this may not get on other reader's nerves as much: One point comes toward the end of the novel when the undercover agents decide that Charity will have to meet Vassily despite a great risk to her life since they couldn't get any listening devices into his house. Then the agents suddenly make it to the house, drill a hole in the wall while the criminals are in that room and put a microphone and camera in. Despite that, Charity is still sent there wired, which promptly leads to a dangerous showdown. It's clear the author wanted that showdown, but this simply doesn't fit to the characters or it isn't remotely convincing or realistic. The other reason lies in the erotic elements of the book. This is supposed to be an erotic romance and it has a lot of sex scenes - almost each ends in a less than satisfying way (pardon the pun) since the two are either interrupted or he is so intensely in lust that he simply can't last. That may be realistic, but it's not particularly erotic for my taste. So despite a great basis for the novel, it fails for me both on the erotic and the suspense level. I could imagine that some readers may also not be too happy with the romantic elements, since our hero keeps lying to his lover and even lets her mourn him for several painful days after his seeming death - which he himself arranged. He has good reasons, but it's still unpleasant. I have read several other books by this author and would definitely recommend those over this novel. It's disappointing how this story and the characters were wasted.
Dangerous Lover (Avon Red) Deadly Shadows

This was the weakest book in the "Dangerous" series. There was a lot of sex, but it wasn't as erotic as it could/should have been for an erotic romance. The intrusion of obsessive sexual thoughts during some moments in the book when a serious health issue was involved (the search for the aunt in the snowstorm, Charity going into shock, etc) was just too insensitive and inappropriate. (Note to author: Trust your readers to go without for two seconds while a potentially serious scene plays out.) The author also tended to interrupt action scenes with internal sex dialogue/thoughts by the characters, disrupting the flow and momentum of the story. Another problem was the plot was too unrealistic - they were allowed only *one* listening device at a house where a potential terrorist situation was brewing? That was just one example. We can suspend disbelief occasionally, but make it somewhat believable, and don't ask us to do it too often in the same book. And finally, the author is making her books too similar - with phrases, sentences, characters, and scenarios identical (or almost) to those in other books. Overall, it was a 2.5 read, rounded up to a 3.