Jeanie Cesarini

Secrets, Volume 9.

*** "Wild for You" by Kathryn Anne Dubois.

College intern Georgie gets lost in the Congo and is rescued by a modern-day Tarzan (Mark) who's never seen a woman before. Despite that, he's a pro at foreplay. She helps him remember how to talk; he teaches her about sex.

It gets a little more far-fetched when they get "rescued," with a strange interlude with a native tribe, and then when Mark is reintroduced to civilization.

It's a cute story, but required too much suspension of show more disbelief for me.

***½ "Wanted" by Kimberly Dean.

Dani is wanted for stealing computer codes, and Reno is the FBI agent on her trail. Think The Fugitive. She's innocent, but is on the run until she can prove it. She and Reno have been emailing each other during their chase and have formed a connection.

It's a fun, exciting story, but again, there were some things I just couldn't buy. And the scene where Dani gives Reno a lap-dance when she's working as a stripper to get some quick cash and neither of them recognized the other just seemed gratuitous and hard to believe.

***½ "Secluded" by Lisa Marie Rice.

Quick giggle: this story starts with the sentence "I want your daughter." We just watched The Blues Brothers, and I flashed on the scene with John Belushi in the restaurant.

Nicholas is no longer a gangster, but he's got a very dangerous enemy, so he's come to terms with the fact that he can never have a long-term relationship because anyone he might be close to would become a target. So he has a series of short affairs.

Isabelle is different--Nicholas actually feels something for her. He tries to stay away, but when she's mugged, he rescues her, stays with her until she's healed, then takes her to his secluded hideout, fully expecting to give her up after 2 weeks.

It's a very sweet story, but I really questioned the premise. There didn't seem to be any danger when he was staying at her house, and then at the end, it made no sense that they'd have to go into hiding at that point.

**** "Flights of Fantasy" by Bonnie Hamre.

Journalist Chloe has been "invited" on a cruise on a yacht, the Fantasy. Her boss essentially told her to go or lose her job, but she has no idea why, as the yacht's mysterious owner "doesn't do interviews." The plot thickens when she discovers two ex-lovers on the cruise, with orders not to talk to her about why they're there.

I thoroughly enjoyed this story--figuring out what was going on, and just who was supposed to be the hero. I'm a big sucker for intrigue. And there was some pretty steamy sex.

But the hero was a pretty major stalker, which spoiled some of my enjoyment of the story. If he'd even talked to her before, I'd have been fine with it.
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Secrets, Volume 10.

** "Private Eyes" by Dominique Sinclair.

*blinks* Well. That surprised me. My least favorite story of all 8 in this omnibus, and most of the Amazon reviewers cited this as the best story. How very odd.

I guess the story itself is pretty entertaining--private eye Nikki specializes in catching cheating husbands, and between that and her mother's past, she has a low opinion of men and of relationships. But a mysterious man keeps running into her, and there is a pretty clever misunderstanding-type plot between them.

However. I absolutely could not get past the writing. I wanted to take the author's (or the editor's--I'm not picky) thesaurus away and bury it. Seriously purple prose, and some misused words that set my teeth on edge (the heroine thinking that "her body was scintillating after a night of vivid dreams"? I don't think so.)

**** "The Ruination of Lady Jane" by Bonnie Hamre.

This was a sexy Regency romance. Lady Jane's guardian has arranged a marriage for her with and old, thrice-widowed man, and she, quite sensibly, IMO, has run off. The guardian asks his younger brother Havyn, who remembers Jane as a teenager with spots (zits, for those of you unacquainted with Regency lingo), to go find her.

He does find her, and she's definitely improved with age. What's more, she begs him to "ruin" her so she won't have to marry the old man.

It's a nice story, particularly if you enjoy the Regency period--it's just a little predictable, also particularly if you enjoy the Regency period. The sex scenes were quite sensual, even though I found the Kama Sutra references to be a little self-conscious.

***** "Code Name: Kiss" by Jeanie Cesarini.

Wow. This novella pushed every one of my buttons: spies, and friends turning into lovers, plus a hefty emotional punch. It was well-written, and I was on pins and needles through the entire story.

And of course, the Amazon reviewers hated it. I'm seeing a trend.

Lily is a spy, and her mission is to infiltrate a terrorist camp as a sex slave, make contact with a double agent, and through him get close enough to the leader to plant a tracking device on his skin.

Seth is the agent in control of the mission, which he's leading via video feeds back at headquarters. Both Seth and Lily have a thing for each other, but due to their positions, neither has acted on it.

The story alternates chapters between Seth and Lily, keeping track of the mission time, which adds tension. Lily's chapters are in first person and are very deep POV, which is very affecting. Even though Seth's chapters are in third person, his emotional turmoil as he's forced to watch from a distance as the woman he's realized he's in love with has sex with another man is vividly clear.

"Code Name: Kiss" is emotionally wrenching, and better yet, the sex is an integral part of the story.

I was surprised to see in the "about the author" that Jeanie Cesarini = Jeanie London. I guess I'm going to take those recommendations for Jeanie London's books seriously now.

***½ "The Sacrifice" by Kathryn Anne Dubois.

Anastasia is about to become a nun, but she has definite ideas about those vows. She believes that for the vows to truly be meaningful, she has to know what she's giving up. For example, she was raised in a wealthy family, so taking a vow of poverty has meaning. However, she has no knowledge of carnal pleasures, so taking a vow of chastity is, to her mind, meaningless.

So she sets out to change that by going to the castle of the notorious debaucher Count Maxwell. It's a bit of a goofy premise, but I do rather like her reasoning about the meaning of sacrifice.

The first half of the story is sensual and sexy, but then it turns into something else. I found myself irritated that the oddly principled, determined young woman of the first half of the story turned into such a coward in the second half. It ended well, but I didn't quite get over that. show less

Taming Kate by Jeanie Cesarini:
When Kathryn Roman inherits a legal brothel, she refuses to trade her high-powered career in Manhattan for a life in the wild, wild west. Little does this city girl know that the town of Love, Nevada wants her to be their new madam so they've charged Trey Holliday, one very dominant cowboy, with Taming Kate.

A so-so story. The whole cowboy/pretty lady thing got old pretty fast. I can't say I disliked it totally though, only that there was a bit too much romance show more for my liking.
Rating: 4 stars

Jared's Wolf by MaryJanice Davidson:
Jared Rocke will do anything to avenge his sister's death, even believe in werewolves. What he doesn't believe is that he's attracted to Moira Wolfbauer, the she-wolf sworn to protect her pack. In Jared's Wolf, two enemies must join forces to stop a killer while learning that love defies all boundaries—even those between species.

Much better than the first story, which to me read much more like a pure romance novel, a genre I don't particularly care for.

These are the first 2 Wyndham Werewolves stories written by MJD's. And I specifically put off reading Derik's Bane, Dead and Loving It, and even Undead and Unpopular until I read these two short stories, "Love's Prisoner" from Secrets 6, and this one from Secrets 8. I'm now more looking forward to reading Derik's Bane since I should feel like I'm coming back to familiar friends.
Rating: 8 stars

My Champion, My Love by Alice Gaines:
My Champion, My Love tells the tale of Celeste Broder, a woman committed for a sexy appetite that is tolerated in the men, but not the women of her time. She desperately needs a champion, and finds one in mayor Robert Albright. If she can convince him her freedom will mean a chance to indulge their appetites together.

Bah, this story was so boring I don't even know how or why I finished it! I guess I can only blame it on my OCD, my need to complete things I start, and particularly since I liked the stories in Secrets 6 so much better.

One of my main problems with this story is due to the fact that this story takes place back in 1888, when things were extremely uptight and Puritan sexually. And that alone is a huge pet peeve of mine! I hate the sexual repression we live with even today, and since the basis of this story was the fact that Celeste was put into an insane asylum because of her strong sexual nature and the books she read had me screaming with indignation on her behalf. And I guess because I don't really like romances just for the sake of romance, without any danger or other stuff in the story. And this story just did not have enough "other stuff" for me, and not nearly enough erotica. *sigh*
Rating: 3 stars

Kiss or Kill by Liz Maverick:
In this post apocalyptic world, Camille Kazinsky's military career rides on her ability to make a choice—whether the robo called Meat should live or die. Meat's future depends on proving he's human enough to live, man enough... Should Camille Kiss or Kill this man/machine that makes her feel like a woman?

I really liked this story a lot and was surprised to read that the short story appearing here in Secrets 8 was her first published work. I have a couple of her books from the Crimson City series, including the first one aptly named Crimson City, waiting on Mt. TBR so now I'm more looking forward to reading that.

Unlike the Cesarini and Gaines stories in this anthology, this was a lot more erotic and thus was more to my liking. And for the romance portion, I didn't have to deal with a swooning female and a bunch of "mushy gushy". LOL The sex scenes weren't really long, but were explicit enough to get me hot! ;-)
Rating: 7 stars

Overall, I'm rating this book a 6 when I average out the 4 individual ratings (which actually come to 5.5). The stories from Davidson and Maverick definitely made this anthology worth reading. The other two I wouldn't recommend for anyone who's not a die-hard romance fan. show less

I really enjoy these Secret books. They introduce to me to some new authors and keep my comfortable with my old standbys. This books contained these stories. An Act of Love by Jeanie Cesarini. I enjoyed this one which was about an old "retired" movie star coming together with a rising star and helping her overcome a horrid sexual past. It started out a bit weird but turned into a sexy, sensual story worth reading. The next story was Enslaved by Desiree Lindsay. It was a bit too historical show more for me with the flowery language and all but still worth a read. It's all about hidden desires and had a few too many ill-placed morals for me but the reasons do become clear later in the story. The Bodyguard by Betsy Morgan and Susan Paul which was about a female and male body guard and their starlet client who's "drug of choice was men". As she heated up her bedroom while they had to watch on cameras to make sure she was safe, they tried to avoid heating up each other. It had a good theme but went way too fast and was way too short. The ending was very abrupt and had me looking for the rest of the story. Emma Holly's The Love Slave was the star of the book for me. (of course!) It was about a princess and her three love slaves. It had her usual open-minded approach to sex, wit, charm and really left me with a good feeling. show less

While secrets Vol 3 was readable but forgettable, this was less readable and more in the wall banger category. World building was negligable, and the romances were neither hot or romantic, not much tension, not much of anything. I read this book last week and couldn't focus on a single tale, there isn't one stand out here to save the anthology. Even Emma Holly, normally so reliable, gave a not very interesting story of a Princess and 3 guards/lovers. Happy to go in the resale pile and won't show more even remember owning it unless I reference it here! show less