Dangerous Secrets

Small-town librarian Charity Prewitt is very surprised when wealthy businessman Nicholas Ames shows a decided interest in her. What she doesn't know is that he is actually an undercover agent who is after one of Charity's friends, Russian immigrant Vassily Worontzoff. Worontzoff used to be a great author until he was put in a Russian labour camp where his girlfriend Katya died a brutal death. Afterwards he became the head of a brutal criminal organisation under the camouflage of the great author / victim of the Sovjet Regime. He is after Charity since she looks a lot like his dead love. Nicholas' plan seems to work out fine until he not only falls in love with Charity but also realizes that she is at great risk since Vassily starts losing his grip on reality and thinks she really is Katya. Now he is confronted with a life-altering choice: He can go on as planned and risk Charity's life and their love, or he can tell her the truth - and risk his job as well as the mission... The plot and the characters are actually great and I think this could have become a really good erotic suspense novel. There are two reasons why I personally find it disappointing - although this may not get on other reader's nerves as much: One point comes toward the end of the novel when the undercover agents decide that Charity will have to meet Vassily despite a great risk to her life since they couldn't get any listening devices into his house. Then the agents suddenly make it to the house, drill a hole in the wall while the criminals are in that room and put a microcphone and camera in. Despite that, Charity is still sent there wired, which promptly leads to a dangerous showdown. It's clear the author wanted that showdown, but this simply doesn't fit to the characters or it isn't remotely convincing or realistic. The other reason lies in the erotic elements of the book. This is supposed to be an erotic romance and it has a lot of sex scenes - almost each ends in a less than satisfying way (pardon the pun) since the two are either interrupted or he is so intensely in lust that he simply can't last. That may be realistic, but it's not particularly erotic for my taste. So despite a great basis for the novel, it fails for me both on the erotic and the suspense level. I could imagine that some readers may also not be too happy with the romantic elements, since our hero keeps lying to his lover and even lets her mourn him for several painful days after his seeming death - which he himself arranged. He has good reasons, but it's still unpleasant. I have read several other books by this author and would definitely recommend those over this novel. It's disappointing how this story and the characters were wasted.

Small-town librarian Charity Prewitt is very surprised when wealthy businessman Nicholas Ames shows a decided interest in her. What she doesn't know is that he is actually an undercover agent who is after one of Charity's friends, Russian immigrant Vassily Worontzoff. Worontzoff used to be a great author until he was put in a Russian labour camp where his girlfriend Katya died a brutal death. Afterwards he became the head of a brutal criminal organisation under the camouflage of the great author / victim of the Sovjet Regime. He is after Charity since she looks a lot like his dead love. Nicholas' plan seems to work out fine until he not only falls in love with Charity but also realizes that she is at great risk since Vassily starts losing his grip on reality and thinks she really is Katya. Now he is confronted with a life-altering choice: He can go on as planned and risk Charity's life and their love, or he can tell her the truth - and risk his job as well as the mission... The plot and the characters are actually great and I think this could have become a really good erotic suspense novel. There are two reasons why I personally find it disappointing - although this may not get on other reader's nerves as much: One point comes toward the end of the novel when the undercover agents decide that Charity will have to meet Vassily despite a great risk to her life since they couldn't get any listening devices into his house. Then the agents suddenly make it to the house, drill a hole in the wall while the criminals are in that room and put a microcphone and camera in. Despite that, Charity is still sent there wired, which promptly leads to a dangerous showdown. It's clear the author wanted that showdown, but this simply doesn't fit to the characters or it isn't remotely convincing or realistic. The other reason lies in the erotic elements of the book. This is supposed to be an erotic romance and it has a lot of sex scenes - almost each ends in a less than satisfying way (pardon the pun) since the two are either interrupted or he is so intensely in lust that he simply can't last. That may be realistic, but it's not particularly erotic for my taste. So despite a great basis for the novel, it fails for me both on the erotic and the suspense level. I could imagine that some readers may also not be too happy with the romantic elements, since our hero keeps lying to his lover and even lets her mourn him for several painful days after his seeming death - which he himself arranged. He has good reasons, but it's still unpleasant. I have read several other books by this author and would definitely recommend those over this novel. It's disappointing how this story and the characters were wasted.