"excellent collection"

"The Subject" by Amber Green. Game designer Tyler was on the verge of making millions, but instead she is on the run with someone wanting her dead. The mysterious shapeshifting Esau seems to show up every time she needs him, but can she trust him with her heart and her life?

"A Woman's Pleasure," by Charlotte Featherstone. Victorian Lady Isabelle has always done what society expects of someone of her station. Now that she given birth to the heir and the spare, she wants freedom. When she meets half-breed outcast Julian, Isabelle thinks he is too young for her and perhaps too exotic with his Turkish heritage, but on the other hand perhaps a taste of him would do no harm.

"Surrender" by Dominique Sinclair. Department of International Crime undercover Agent Madeline investigates Sebastian and the other Maioccos family members. However, she finds a need to go under the cover with Sebastian who makes her forget her mission with his kisses.

"Stasis" by Leigh Wyndfield. Morgan finds her commanding officer Osborn under the influence of the drug stasis that turns people into living statues for about ten days. Morgan plans to take care of her C.O. especially keeping him clean.

Usually this reviewer dislikes mixing of genres, but Secrets seems to do this successfully as evident by the range from paranormal shape shifting to sci fi to Victorian historical to suspense. All have in common strong protagonists and delightful story lines that are fun, exciting, and hot as the tradition of excellence continues with the twentieth edition.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted July 24, 2007

Summary

The Subject by Amber Green
One week Tyler is the hottest game designer in North America, in sight of her first million and ready to sign the deal of her life. The next week, she's on the run for her life. Who can she trust? Certainly not sexy, mysterious Esau, who keeps showing up right after the hoo-hah hits the fan!

A Woman's Pleasure by Charlotte Featherstone
In Victorian England, a woman's lot in life is to marry well, to tend to her husband's hearth and to bear his heirs. But what happens after one has done that? What happens when a woman begins to question her lot in life?

That woman is Isabella, Lady Langdon, and when she realizes she is suffocating beneath the strictures of the Victorian ideal of womanhood, she escapes into private fantasies about a most unsuitable man-a man who is a social outcast in England for his mixed English and Turkish blood. Julian Gresham is a man who is exotic and mysterious, whose body speaks of illicit pleasures, and whose eyes convey a deep yearning that Isabella is only too willing to give in to after the death of her husband. Julian is also a man who can show her the sexual pleasures that have always been denied her. This man is everything she has ever desired, and his skillful hands awaken her like no other. She craves his touch and the nights of sexual exploration, despite the fact that he is much younger than her.

Statis by Leigh Wyndfield
Morgann Right has a problem. Her Commanding Officer—cool, calm, always in control Osborn Welty—has been drugged with Stasis, turning him into a living, breathing statue she's forced to take care of for ten long days. As her hands smooth down soft skin over rock hard muscles, she suddenly sees her CO in a totally different light. She wants him and, while she can tell he wants her, touching him intimately just might come back to haunt them both when the Stasis drug wears off.

The Surrender by Dominique Sinclair
Undercover Agent Madeline Carter is in too deep.

She's slipped into Sebastian Maiocco's life for the Department of International Crime to investigate his family, a known Sicilian mafia clan making moves into New York. Dark and dangerous, Sebastian unearths licentious desires Madeline is unable to deny, conflicting the duty that honors her. Madeline must surrender to Sebastian or risk being exposed, leaving her target for a ruthless clan.

Only, if she surrenders, Madeline's heart will be in immanent danger.