Guilty Pleasures [Hardcover]

Donna Hill (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 17, 2006

Jake and Eva Kelly are masters at what they do. From the sex games they play with each other to the cons they pull on their unsuspecting marks, they are unstoppable. To the outside world, Jake and Eva are just another young buppie couple living their dream under the bright lights of New York City. Life is good, money is flowing, and living is large.  They couldn't ask for more---until Jake gets greedy. Only this time they pick the wrong mark. The tables have turned and their addiction to the game could cost them everything---even their lives.
Now Jake and Eva are forced to pull off the sting of their careers. With the help of Jake's brother Jinx and Eva's look-alike cousin Rita they board a cruise ship from Brazil to take down Xavier Suarez, one of the most notorious figures in the underworld. From the streets of New York City to the steamy tropics of Brazil, from the coast of Miami to the paradise of Hawaii, they hatch a plan with no room for errors. 
With the FBI hot on their trail and under the threat of Suarez's unspeakable wrath, every trick they've ever learned comes into play. But it is their own dark past that threatens their future, and the secret that Eva harbors that could ruin everything.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

With "fifty published titles to her credit," Hill checks in with a tepid offering of R-rated crime. Eva and Jake Kelly, an oversexed Manhattan couple who have glamorous day-jobs in the respective worlds of fashion and luxury car sales, moonlight as a high-rolling, con-artist power-couple. Together with Jake's brother Jinx, an expert hacker, and Eva's cousin Rita, a master forger, they embark on one last heist that'll net them enough to retire forever. The requisite crosses and double-crosses involve smuggled diamonds, the FBI and suave South American villains, and proceed at a pace about equal to the speed of the cruise ship on which they all end up. Hill (Getting Hers) injects some emotion into the characters's various inter-relations and motivations, but dialog is flat ("You have forced me to respect you, beautiful Rita," says slick thug Xavier Suarez as the two hold off from having sex), and various short sex scenes fail to gloss the lack of meaningful complication.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

"A page-turning tale of murder, intrigue, and revenge... with its zippy dialogue, ruthless yet vulnerable woman and quickly escalating plot, the romp offers satisfying fantasy." - Publishers Weekly praise for GETTING HERS."

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press; First Edition edition (October 17, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312354215
• ISBN-13: 978-0312354213
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,321,990 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

My official writing career began in 1987 when my first short story was published. My first novel, Rooms of the Heart was published in 1990. Since then there have been a slew of books and short stories that I've had published, from romance to women's fiction, chic-lit, erotica and mysteries. I enjoy them all. Three of my novels were adapted for television so that was exciting. I've had the honor of conceptualizing and editing several collections: After the Vows, Midnight Clear, Where There's a Will, Indecent Exposure, and The Hot Spot. I currently write full time and live in Brooklyn, NY with my family.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars When the Tables Turn, March 24, 2007

By 

Shaquitta Leday (Massachusetts) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Guilty Pleasures (Hardcover)

Guilty Pleasures by Donna Hill, introduces us to Jake and Eva Kelly. Jake works for a car dealership and Eva works for a fashion designer. However, secretly they run a con game that has been very successful.

After ten years of playing the game, Jake and Eva have never gotten caught. However, Eva is tired of the game and wants to get out. She is ready to settle down and have a nice `normal' life with Jake and have a child. Jake does not want out but because he loves Eva, decides that they will quit...after one more con.

Reluctantly Eva agrees and sets out to find the mark. Unfortunately for them she picked the wrong mark this time. Stan Ingram is married to Lenora, an FBI agent, who will not be blackmailed. What happens after all parties are exposed is a train wreck waiting to happen as Jake and Eva set out to pull off the biggest con of their lives.

I really enjoyed this book. It is definitely a page turner. I found it very suspenseful and I could not wait to know what happened next.

Reviewed by Shaquitta Leday
APOOO BookClub

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Her BEST book ever!, December 7, 2006

By 

Dimples "There she go reading those books aga... (Downsouth) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Guilty Pleasures (Hardcover)

I have been faithful fan of Donna Hill. Honestly, her others books have nothing on Guilty Pleasures! From page one you're hooked into the lives of Bonnie and Clyde. There was never a dull moment, and more often than once I found myself talking to the characters. This is one book where I was praying the bad guys got away! The only thing I have to say is I wish the book was longer! This book is a perfect and easy 10!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars (RAW Rating: 3.5) - A Wild & Sexy Ride, February 10, 2007

By 

The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers (RAWSISTAZ.com and BlackBookReviews.net) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Guilty Pleasures (Hardcover)

Super-sexy couple Jake and Eva Kelly are living life to the fullest. Upstanding and law-abiding by day in their jobs in the fashion and luxury car industry, by night is a whole different story. They are con artists and though they met on individual cons, they're now married and continue their cons as a couple. Eva, however, is tired of the game and wants to settle down for real and have a family. Jake convinces her to perform one last job, not knowing that the mark is actually the husband of an FBI agent. A pissed off one at that. She is clawing her way to the top, but has already decided that she's going to make it there, no matter what she has to do. She flips the script on Eva and Jake, and blackmails them into what will become their biggest heist ever; stealing from a South American druglord.

Eva and Jake call in the assistance of Jake's brother (a hacker) and Eva's cousin Rita (a forger/seamstress extraordinaire). With their individual and combined talents, they set a master plan which will either make them very very rich or very very dead.

GUILTY PLEASURES reminded me of several movies I've seen in past years, in the vein of Mission Impossible and Mr. and Mrs. Smith, complete with an on-the-edge-of-your-seat plot, sexy characters with believable flaws, and the thrill of the chase. While I enjoyed the read for the most part, too much was left hanging and I simply couldn't see how the main characters got to the end point. Their journey there, however, was exciting and thrilling, yet unbelievable in a few places. The characters, though not too high in the ethics department were fun and sexy, and the reader can't help but root for them. I also enjoyed the bonus of their background/past issues which threatened to not only destroy their relationships, but cost them their safety. I only wish that Hill had not left so many questions unanswered once again, as did her previous title Getting Hers, setting the reader up for a sequel.

Reviewed by Tee C. Royal
of The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers