Customer Reviews

Secret Agenda (Arabesque)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Rochelle Alers returns with her thirteenth Hideaway book bringing us a glimpse into the lives of the children of the men & women we fell in love with a decade or more ago.

Diego Cole-Thomas is his grand papa's twin when it comes to running a business not only is he intimidating to many but he's a private man who goes after what he wants and doesn't stop till he gets it. Diego has been on the search for an assistant who can balance his life and business life but with a few stipulations so when he meets Vivienne Kay Neal he is at awe with the woman presented to him because he realizes she does not fear him, which only makes him respect her more.

Vivienne had been at odds with herself when her husband had been killed but she also knew that her marriage had been over way before it could really start. Playing the grieving widow had driven her nuts leaving her to find exile away from it all. However when she finds herself going toe to toe with Diego she refuses to become an arm ornament and she pushes his buttons to get responses to see what worked and what got what.

Diego & Vivienne cross the line of employee and employer taking an office relationship to a completely new level. Rochelle does an excellent job of allowing Diego & Vivienne playing alpha characters without taking away from the book.

I cannot wait for book number fourteen. Who will it be?

The Hideaway series continues with another outstanding story this time involving Diego-Cole Thomas the new CEO of ColeDiz International Ltd. We leaned a little about Diego in the book 'Stanger In My Arms' which was Alexandra Cole and Merrick Grayslakes' story. This series gets better and better with each book written by Rochelle in this series. I loved this book and can hardly wait to see who Rochelle will write about next. I hope that it will be Jason and Anna, David Coles twins and the babies of the family. Kudos' to Rochelle for another great story in this series.

This was not my favorite read by Rochelle Alers. Vivenne Neal and Diego Cole enter into a business relationship where he is her boss and she has to live with him in order to do her job. The story had a nice set up but I didn't like Vivenne's defiant andd bossy nature. Diego was at times somewhat of a pushover and it just didn't go with his personality. I'm a sucker for old fashion romance where the Hero takes charge and the woman is loving and less unruly. Ms. Alers get back to the classic style of writing that I have fallen in love with.

What can i say, yes i'm a fan of many authors and series, I waited so o long for this book, too come out and it didn't move me like the others, something was lacking for me. Come on be honest, compared to the other books in the series, did you really find this one that HOT, not.

Having gone through two personal assistants, Diego Cole Thomas, the new CEO of ColeDiz International Inc. needs help getting his life and business in order. In steps Vivienne Neal, newly widowed and Diego's match. Diego hires Vivienne for 6 months but finds he has met the one person that is not intimidated by him and neither are willing to admit their feelings have gone to far for employer/employee relations.

Vivienne has no idea that she is also being sought out for information her ex-husband may have known about other politicians he served with which caused his death in a hit and run accident.

Rochelle has brought in other Cole family members and provided us with a somewhat suspenseful, but HOT story.

I love the Hideaway series and have read every book in the series. I eagerly awaited this book and ended up very disappointed. Secret Agenda just plain missed the mark. I liked the idea of introducing a new branch of the Cole Family tree, but I also like seeing some of the old family members from the previous generations. Revisiting some of the former characters adds a cohesive touch to each of the books and makes me, the reader feel connected to this illustrious and fascinating family. There was just a cursory mention of many of these beloved characters and I felt lost trying to relate to Diego and his friends. Diego's relationship with his family was not only disturbing, it was downright dysfunctional.

Ms Alers' attempt to introduce new characters fell flat as they were wholly one dimensional and bland. Way too much time is spent boring us with the details of Vivienne's unhappy marriage, so much so that the heroine comes off as neither endearing nor sympathetic. And will someone please explain that inane dialogue that went on about Vivienne's hairstyle at the party she attended with Diego! By the time any real action started, the story was more than three-quarters complete; the action was glossed over and put away in a few neat sentences and I had long decided I didn't like this book very much. I just didn't fall in love with these characters like I have with all the other Cole men and women throughout this series.

I just know there are more great stories to be told in the Hideaway Series. Secret Agenda just wasn't one of them.

I am a long-time Rocehlle Alers's fan. I enjoyed this Hideaway Series addition so much that I did not want it to end. I look forward to other books from Mrs. Alers, so that I can be transported from reality (for a short time anyway) to other places.

After hearing nothing more than vague names when it came to the descendants of the female branches of the Cole clan, I was incredibly excited to learn that the next Hideaway novel would feature the grandson of one of the original Cole daughters. I was quite intrigued by the brief interaction we got with Diego Cole-Thomas in his cousin Alex's story, STRANGER IN MY ARMS, and couldn't wait to open up his book and learn about the man who is practically a doppleganger of the Cole patriarch.

However, when I finally did get my hands on SECRET AGENDA...I was quite disappointed.

It wasn't that we got more of Vivienne than we did of Diego - I was used to that after Michael and Jolene's story, NO COMPROMISE, where I felt that Jolene had more pagetime than Michael. Nor did it bother me that the title seemed to be an echo of Eve and Matt's story, HIDDEN AGENDA.

What bothered me was that the lack of plot and the scarcity of what drew me to this series in the first place - the Cole family.

The plot and climax of the entire novel was shoved into the last thirty or so pages of the book, as though Ms. Alers had just remembered what she had promised us on the back cover. I know that the romance is supposed to first and foremost, because it is a romance novel before anything else. But, she did a fine enough job in the other novels of building up the tension and suspense, to where the climax is a true relief and you feel as though the plot has been resolved. Ms. Alers has proved that she is more than adept at balancing romance and plot equally enough to make a well-rounded novel - so, why in the world did she miss the mark so dramatically with SECRET AGENDA? When I read the back cover, I was expecting plenty of tension and suspense alongside a burning, passionate romance, and it was not delivered, at all.

As well, what I expected when I read that this was about Diego Cole-Thomas, the grandson of Nancy Cole-Thomas, was that we would get to see and learn about that branch of the family, as well as a little bit about Josephine's branch of the family. We saw Nancy, yes - but, for only a page or two, maybe less. That is not at all enough for me, considering that we get overwhelming amounts of the other Coles, even when it isn't their story.

We have no more idea about Nancy, her husband, her children, or her grandchildren than we did in the previous twelve novels. I was seriously counting on and looking forward to that, and didn't get it at all. Still, after thirteen novels, Nancy and Josephine and their progeny are nothing more than names on the family tree we are given in the beginning of the book.

Not to mention, we don't get much of a glimpse of the Coles, Kirklands, and Delgados that we all know and love. To me, that is the best part of a Hideaway novel - getting to see how the Coles, Kirklands, and Delgados have grown and changed since their stories or the last time we've seen them. It's what I look forward to at some point in a Hideaway novel and I felt robbed that we didn't get more of an interaction with them.

If you were to add these two things in - a stronger, more attentive plot and more appearances from the Cole-Kirkland-Delgado clan - then I'm certain SECRET AGENDA would have been far better than it actually was.

Diego and Vivienne's story fell short of the mark, largely, and was not at all what I have come to expect from a Hideaway novel.

Hopefully, Ms. Alers will rectify this in novel fourteen, which is promises is forthcoming. (And, whose leading lady or men has yet to be revealed, but which I highly suspect will be about Joseph Cole-Wilson, Josephine's grandson, if I'm remembering correctly.)

Vivienne Neal has been widowed, moved to Florida, and is now working for the Cole Diaz firm. After her husband's untimely death, Vivienne decides she needs a change. She goes to work for Diego Cole-Thomas, CEO of ColeDiaz, not because she needs the money but because she wants a challenge. And what bigger challenge is there than working for Diego? He has already gone through two personal assistants. He is a very shrewd business man and he expects his employees to fall in line. Vivienne has been the trophy wife of a politician and she is not about to allow another man to walk over her. Diego quickly learns that Vivienne is different from any other woman he has ever meet. She is beautiful, intelligent, and feisty. Diego finds himself falling fast and hard. Vivienne is also falling for Diego but she is not ready to give her heart to another man, no matter how sexy, intelligent, and attentive he may be. When they finally get past their apprehensions, someone wants Vivienne dead because it has now been discovered that her husband's accidental death was not an accident after all. Diego is willing to do whatever to keep his woman safe.

Secret Agenda is another wonderful story that gives a glimpse into the infamous Cole Diaz family. Alers always does a wonderful job with her story lines. Her writing style flows and makes for easy reads. She also does a wonderful job developing her plots and characters. Secret Agenda is a great addition to the series.

Reviewed by Tenecia
for Urban Reviews

What can you say about another addition to the "Hideaway Series"?? Rochelle continues to keep up interested in a storyline befitting African American royalty. I tend to not judge a book based upon another, but gives its own judgement, and I think that this book is leading us into the next generation with a little bit more edge.