"Three action-packed novellas"

Dirty Secrets by Karen Rose. A letter that is mislaid brings former high school friends Christopher and Emma back together in an effort to recover it. However, neither expected the danger from losing the letter as secrets are revealed that some would say should have remained hidden.

Necessary Betrayals by Annie Solomon. Because she feels it is important to be legit following the imprisonment of her father five years ago, Francesca ended her ties with her dad's mob friends even before he died. However, following a mob murder, her sister Gina apparently observed it and then vanished afterward. Fearing the worst, Francesca turns back to those she avoided including the mob and the police detective Quinn whose efforts sent her dad to prison.

Endless Night by Carla Cassidy. Amanda cannot believe how her blind date could turn so dangerous, but like a B movie it does. She finds herself on the run with a former cop Clay whose identity has been revealed to a hit-man hired to kill the ex law enforcement official.

These three action-packed novellas start at hyperspeed only to accelerate even faster until the final climax. Each tale contains strong women in the Perils of Pauline like trouble working to survive alongside a male who risks their lives to keep these courageous females they are falling in love with alive.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted November 29, 2005

Summary

Dirty Secrets by Karen Rose
Psychologist Emma Townsend is at a crossroads in her life. The author of a nationally bestselling book called "Bite-Sized," Emma has built her career teaching people to manage their grief in bite-sized steps, one day at a time. But her own life was turned upside down a year before when her husband was killed and now she knows first-hand what her clients go through. Afraid to face her own grief, she throws herself into her work, avoiding the home she'd shared with her husband—until her best friend forces her to deal with her own grief.

Going through her husband's things, Emma finds her own high school yearbook. A letter falls out, a letter she's never read before. It's from her best "guy-friend" from high school, Christopher Walker. It was a love letter—her first. She'd never seen it and is now devastated that for all these years her friend thinks she ignored him. She can't bring her husband back, but she can make things right with Christopher and sets out to do so with grim determination.

Little does she know how right they will become, or what she'll have to endure to get there!

Christopher Walker is a chemistry professor in a Florida college. He's never forgotten Emma, but has gone on with his life. The bright spot in his life is his daughter Megan, the only good thing to come of his failed marriage. But Christopher's got big problems right now. He's just discovered the body of his lead graduate student in their lab, the victim of an apparent accidental poisoning. As the truth comes out—it's not an accident, it's murder—Christopher receives a message from a private detective hired by the girl who broke his heart in high school. He reaches back in time to his old friend—and unknowingly pulls her into the danger that swirls around him in the present.

Read an excerpt from Dirty Secrets

Necessary Betrayals by Annie Solomon
When Francesca Bern's baby sister disappears, the only clue leads her back to the nightmare of her dead father's mob connections. There she also finds her ex-lover, the undercover cop who insinuated himself into her heart while gathering evidence that put her father in prison. He's her best hope to find her sister, but can she ever trust him again?

When Francesca shows up at the scene of a mob murder looking for her sister, Quinn Lewis realizes that the killer and the kidnapper could be connected. But can his battered soul go another round with Francesca? And more important, can he keep them both alive long enough to find out?

Read an excerpt from Necessary Betrayals

Also includes the novella, Endless Night by Carla Cassidy.