Dirty Little Secrets [Paperback]

Julie Leto (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 31, 2005

USA Today bestselling author Julie Leto launches a caliente new series featuring a sexy, Latina bounty hunter with an appetite for danger and an insatiable thirst for the man she's hunting down: her ex.

When Marisela Morales sets out to stop her ex-boyfriend Francisco Vega from skipping out on bail, she has a secret agenda: revenge. She hasn't seen Frankie in ten years, and back then, he broke her heart, choosing his gang over his girl. So when she tracks him down in their old haunt, a hot dance club in Tampa, she sets about seducing him into her trap.

Frankie has a secret agenda, too, and Marisela soon faces a tough choice: continue drifting through her twentysomething life -- hitting the same town with the same girlfriends every weekend while struggling to find a job and pay the rent -- or dive headfirst into danger with her ex. Frankie operates in a treacherous underworld full of arms dealers, assassins, and sinister agendas -- a world overrun with people keeping dirty little secrets -- and only Marisela has the cojones to fight her way to the truth.

Sexy, sultry, and action-packed, Dirty Little Secrets is a thrilling adventure in manhunting of the most dangerous kind.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"One of the sexiest books I've ever read."

-- Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez, author of The Dirty Girls Social Club

"Fizzy as a flute of champagne."

-- Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez, author of The Dirty Girls Social Club

About the Author

With twenty novels under her belt, USA Today bestselling author Julie Leto has established a reputation for writing ultra-sexy, edgy stories. A Florida native, Julie lives in her hometown of Tampa with her husband, daughter, a very spoiled dachshund, and a large and beloved extended family. She's currently writing the next installment in her Marisela Morales series for Downtown Press, tentatively titled Dirty Little Lies. For more information about Julie's upcoming releases, visit her website at www.julieleto.com

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Pocket Books (May 31, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1416501622
• ISBN-13: 978-1416501626
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,783,636 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Over the course of her career, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Julie Leto has published over forty books--all of them sexy and all of them romances at heart. She shares a popular blog--www.plotmonkeys.com--with her best friends, Carly Phillips, Janelle Denison and Leslie Kelly and would love for you to follow her on Twitter, where she goes by @JulieLeto. She's a born and bred Floridian homeschooling mom with a love for her family, her friends, her dachshund, her lynx-point Siamese and super-sexy stories with a guaranteed happy ending.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Leto delivers FIRE!, May 24, 2005

By 

Deborah MacGillivray "Author," (US & UK) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dirty Little Secrets (Paperback)

Julie Leto has been one of the top writers to emerge from Harlequin's Blaze line.

She is a sassy, sexy author that loves people, loves her characters. She likes to dance on the razor thin edge of the envelope, is unflinching in her sexuality of those characters, so you could see Leto would soon want to spread her wings and walk on the wild side with a wee bit more 'elbow room'. She gets it with this Downtown Press title Dirty Little Secrets. On the ARC (Advanced Reading Copy) I received, it has a neat red and black Chit Lit style cover. I see they have updated it to give you a female James Bond feel. Whatever the cover, the package within is dynamite!

Leto is launching a new series, featuring a sexy, kick (...), Latina bounty hunter. She is not the stay at home Chiquita, but loves danger and chases it with a passion. She is also passionate about ex-boyfriend Francisco Vega. She hasn't seen her old love for ten years. A broken heart that never healed, sees her going after Frankie when he skips out on bail. Now, he's in the cross-hairs of her target for more reasons than one. She tracks him down to one of their old haunts, a Tampa dance club, and sets about to seduce the lad into her clutches.

Only, Frankie is on his own agenda. He's world is dangerous, deadly, as he moved through the underworld of arm dealers, killers and dirty dealings on the major level. Marisela is a complication he didn't need, only there is no shaking her. Not that he really wants to, mind you. So Marisela is pulled into Frankie's shady side of town, she has to prove there is more than one way to get her man.

This book sizzles with Leto's sharp writing. However, fans of Leto, understand this is not typical romance. This is adventure series where manhunting is literal!! The romance between Marisela and Frankie is typical Leto singe your fingers because the pages are too hot, but this is not category romance.

Kudos for gusty Leto for stepping up to the challenge and leaving the safe nest of Harlequin Blaze to deliver this outstanding novel!

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Non-stop action and attitude, May 22, 2005

By 

Diana (SILVER SPRING, Moldova, Republic of) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dirty Little Secrets (Paperback)

Marisela Morales is a Cuban-American bounty hunter with a checkered past. When she's hired to keep her old lover, ex-con Fransisco Vega, from skipping bail, Marisela decides its the perfect opportunity to kill two birds with one bullet: she'll make a little cash and deliver a bit of payback to Frankie for breaking her teenaged heart.

But Frankie has other plans. Now an undercover agent for a private investigation company, he's been sent to recruit Marisela for their latest assignment, one that will propel the tough-talking chica into a world of glamour, intrigue, and international terrorism.

The first book in Leto's exciting new adventure series features relentless pace, dazzling settings, breathtaking action sequences and her trademark sensuality. Her portrayal of Tampa's Cuban community is spot-on, and her descriptions of my home state left this Florida girl more than a little homesick. Frankie and Marisela burn up the pages, and Marisela's new boss Ian provides some heat of his own.

In Marisela, Leto has created a strong, passionate, no-nonsense heroine with a heart of gold. The author portrays her Latina heroine with authenticity and expertise. Despite Marisela's rough edges (and gang member past), she is sexy, smart, and extremely moral. Unlike many of the action heroines in books today, she never comes across as cartoonish or invincible, but as a real woman who just happens to be very good at her dangerous job. Marisela may be kickass, but if you cut her, she bleeds scarlet.

I highly rcommend this series to anyone looking for thrilling, sexy read. I can't wait to read Marisela's next adventure!

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars DEFINITE page turner!!!, June 28, 2005

By 

Jessica R. (Bronx, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dirty Little Secrets (Paperback)

This book is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!!! It was full of thrills, laughs, romance...all around great book. I couldn't put it down and finished it within a few days. The whole time reading I could picture the book playing out in my head - This would make an amazing movie/series. Thankfully this book is the 1st in a series so there will be more to come. Anyone thinking of buying this book - DO SO - you will not regret it. I can't wait for the 2nd book to come out.