Guilty Little Secrets [Mass Market Paperback]

Connie Lane (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2003

She’s a federal agent with a knack for disguise.He’s a man with a dangerous secret who’s about to blow her cover.

Seduction has no limits when two people with secrets come together in a hot little town called Vegas.

The last place Special Agent Rosie Malone expected to find herself was in a clown suit in a back alley in Vegas. It was part of an undercover sting...until a guy named Mack started muscling in on her territory. The sexy male stripper may be making them swoon every night at the Silver Swan Casino, but Rosie’s no pushover. Except there’s something about the guy...something that goes beyond just another gorgeous bod. And Rosie needs some answers. Such as what Mack’s really after–and who in the world he is.

It’s bad enough having to resurrect his old strip routine to infiltrate a master criminal ring. Now Mack’s got a beautiful clown in his sights who’s making him hotter than a desert summer. She’s also the target of some nasty thugs, and Mack knows he has to move fast–even if it means revealing his true identity. But it’s going to take some pretty inventive thinking to convince Rosie she’s safe with him. Not easy when he and Rosie are being pursued across state lines, posing as newlyweds and trying to pretend they’re anywhere but in the deepest danger–and doing anything but falling in love.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The pigheaded protagonists in Lane's latest romance (after Romancing Riley) behave like hormonally driven teenagers as they bumble their way toward a happy but highly improbable conclusion. Posing as a showgirl at Las Vegas's Silver Swan casino, ATF agent Rosie Malone is on a mission to find and arrest an illegal arms trafficker. Her primary suspect is a secretive stripper named Mack. Unbeknownst to Rosie, Mack is really an FBI agent, and he's after the same criminal she is. He, however, suspects her. Despite their suspicions, the foolhardy feds date and have hasty sex in a public area. Afterward, they become so wrapped up in sorting out their emotions that they miss obvious clues. Lane goes out of her way to convince readers of Rosie's competence ("Rosie went through the kind of careful analysis that had always impressed her superiors." "Rosie wasn't one for missing the point"), but Rosie's actions belie these statements. Indeed, she becomes even more mulish after Mack's identity comes to light. Mack is marginally more appealing, but he and Rosie spend too many pages fighting and working at cross purposes to render their 11th-hour declaration of love believable. A ludicrous conclusion and a saccharine epilogue are the icing on this half-baked offering.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

She is a dancing clown and he is a stripper--nothing out of the ordinary for a couple of people living in Las Vegas. But "Rosie" and "Mack" are both working undercover, each of them for a different agency, and neither knows the other's true identity. Their missions are identical, and neither one of them will stop at anything to find out who killed Gus Friel and who's supplying illegal Russian assault weapons to criminals in Nevada. A strong, stubborn man and a strong, stubborn woman with a weakness for each other battle crime in this fast-paced, humorous tale about the underside of the country's glitziest city. A nifty subplot deals with Rosie's straight-laced, buttoned-up, hippie-activist family; her tricky relationship with them; and her effort to figure out how in the world they could possibly be related to each other. Shelley Mosley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Dell (April 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0440237467
• ISBN-13: 978-0440237464
• Product Dimensions: 4.2 x 1 x 6.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,706,724 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars fun undercover police procedural romance, April 12, 2003

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Guilty Little Secrets (Mass Market Paperback)

ATF Agent Rosie Malone enthusiastically works undercover as a showgirl at Las Vegas' Silver Swan in a quest to find information on the sale of stolen 9A-91 Russian Assault Rifles. Recently killed Gus Friel worked at the Silver Swan when he engineered the illegal arms sale.

FBI Agent Mack MacDougal also goes undercover at the Silver Swan, but much more reluctantly than Rosie because he is working as a stripper, a job he held in college. He seeks a drug ring allegedly operating out of the Silver Swan.

Sparks fly when Rosie meets Mack when he tries to rescue her in a back alley. However, each wonders about the other's suspicious behavior to the point that they conclude the other is the miscreant they seek or an undercover FED. Besides that they both agree that they are falling in love although they fear what they will learn about the other person.

Fans of undercover police procedural romances will relish this delightful tale that pokes fun at the "cooperative" nature between government agencies. The story line is fun more for romance readers since the romantic story line serves as the prime theme with the charming lead couple falling in love while doubting the identity of their beloved. Readers will not feel guilty for fully appreciating Connie Lane's enjoyable tale.

Harriet Klausner

3.0 out of 5 stars Fun read, June 12, 2003

By 

Jenn "jenncw" (SoCal) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Guilty Little Secrets (Mass Market Paperback)

GUILTY LITTLE SECRETS: Connie Lane's latest offering is better than her first book, but not nearly as good as ROMANCING RILEY. ATF agent meets stripper in the shady wings of a Las Vegas night club stage. He's undercover taking off his costume, and she's putting one on, as a clown(?). Sparks fly, especially during the many, many practices for his act. Yum. No romance novel skimping with this stripper act. He takes it all off, down to the teeny, tiny g-string. I liked that Lane didn't have her hero behave all prissy about it. I mean, if you are going undercover as a stripper, go as a stripper, not a pole dancer with excess modesty issues. Everything else about this book was same-ol', same-ol', but Lane usually makes one element of her books brilliant and different, but sticks to cookie-cutter for everything else.