Perfect Secrets [Mass Market Paperback]

Brenda Joyce (Author), Kathleen Kane (Author), Judith O'Brien (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1999

Everyone has one. Everyone loves to hear one. Secrets can last for years, or can be exposed in one shocking moment. And sometimes, secrets can be the perfect thing to bring even the most unlikely lovers together...

From the scorching plains of Texas to the moss-draped riverbanks of Savannah; from a small town in Upstate New York to the sun-baked terrain of the Old West, illusions will be shattered, lives will be changed--and nothing will ever be the same once they're revealed...

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press (August 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312970293
• ISBN-13: 978-0312970291
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 1.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,526,018 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Brenda Joyce is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of fourty-nine novels and five novellas. There are over fourteen million copies of her novels in print and she is published in over a dozen foreign countries. A native New Yorker, she now lives in southern Arizona with her son, dogs and numerous Arabian and Half-Arabian reining horses. Brenda divides her time between her twin passions' writing powerful love stories and her quest to become a nationally ranked Top Ten equestrian. For more information about Brenda and her upcoming novels, please visit her websites: www.brendajoyce.com, www.francescacahillseries.com www.thedewarennedynasty.com and www.mastersoftimebooks.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Perfect Secrets Not a Perfect book!, February 12, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Perfect Secrets (Mass Market Paperback)

I agree with the other reviewer, it did not keep my interest either and was hard to follow and was just pretty darn boring and not a perfect romance book companion, I have read much better short story romance companions that really kept my interest!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing, September 9, 2009

By 

Gemma "bookworm" (Alberta, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Perfect Secrets (Mass Market Paperback)

From the back cover:

Everyone has one. Everyone loves to hear one. Secrets can last for years, or can be exposed in one shocking moment. And sometimes, secrets can be the perfect thing to bring even the most unlikely lovers together...

From the foothills of east Texas to the moss-draped riverbands of Savannah, from a small town in upstate New York to the sun-baked terrain of the Old West, four spectacular authors deliver romantic and unforgettable tales of scandals, deception and perfect secrets. Illusions will be shattered, lives will be changed--and nothing will ever be the same once they're revealed...

And my review:

I figured that an anthology featuring so many good authors would have to be a hit. Boy, was I wrong! For one thing, each story ranges from 60 to just over 100 pages, so they are much too short for decent character development or plot twists.(Warning, some spoilers)

The first story is Brenda Joyce's WHEN DREAMS WON'T DIE, a contemporary romance. The heroine, who was the love child of a married man and his mistress, comes back when her father dies, and falls in love. My problem with this story was the heroine. She was horrible! She slept with her half-sister's fiance just days before their wedding, got pregnant by him, never told the guy, and then ran off. To sleep with someone that you know is engaged to someone else is bad enough, but to do that to your own sister is unforgiveable! I didn't want the heroine to get a happy ending. I wanted her to get her just desserts.

The second story is ACROSS A CROWDED ROOM by Judith O'Brien, another contemporary romance. First off, it's written in the first person, which happens to be a pet peeve of mine. (Unfair, I know, but true.) Also, the heroine rambled inwardly far too much. There wasn't enough action and dialogue. Instead, the story was more like one big internal monologue by the heroine.

The third story is THE RETURN OF TRAVIS DEAN by Kathleen Kane, a historical western. This was the story I really expected to like, as the other two books I've read by this author (Catch a Fallen Angel and Dreamweaver) were both keepers. But this story was so irritating! The hero had disappeared four years ago, and suddenly returns without a word to discover that the woman he left behind claimed they were secretly married, bore his son, then claimed he died and had a funeral for him. What drove me nuts was that the heroine wouldn't let the hero explain where he'd been, even though he tried repeatedly. How realistic is that? If my man went missing for four years without even bothering to send a letter, and then suddenly dropped back into my life, the first words out of my mouth would be, "Where the *%$! have you been?!", not, "I don't want to hear your explanations." This story also had a paranormal aspect to it that I felt didn't really add much to the story.

The fourth story REDEMPTION by Delia Parr is another historical novel. The heroine has lost her reputation (even though she did nothing wrong), and so no one in town wants anything to do with her. On a stormy night, the hero takes shelter in her cabin, and they fall in love. This story was just okay. I never really felt a spark between the characters, nor could see why they should fall in love.

Sadly, not one of the stories in this collection was worth the purchase price for this novel.

10 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars disappointed, August 23, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Perfect Secrets (Mass Market Paperback)

I had a hard time with this book. It did not keep my interest at all and was hard to follow in places.