Ice ice baby
“Dangerous Secrets” by Lisa Marie Rice
In case you’ve missed me saying this the past 500 times, La Lola is generally not a fan of the romantic suspense novel. I usually skim the pages that talk about how Über Villain is laughing maniacally with his usual band of merry sidekicks about how he’s going to dangle the hero over a pit full of ravenous sharks.
OK fine, I’ll pay attention if it’s a pit full of ravenous sharks because I love them, but any other nefarious plots of doing the hero in are met with a delicate snore from moi.
Where was I? Oh yeah, not a big fan of the romantic suspense. But I’ll make an exception for certain authors. There’s good old Shannon McKenna, and Lisa Marie Rice. Unlike Shannon McK, Lisa Marie Rice’s heroes are bit more mentally stable. Not that I don’t love the craziness of Team McCloud, but you kind of suspect that those lovable lookers with their possessive fanaticism over their lady loves, are a few matchsticks short of a full box.
Nick Ireland alias Nick Ames, is as possessive as they come over his heroine, Charity Prewitt. But he’s possessive without being psycho, and alpha without being a d*ck. He’s a high-level undercover agent (but of course) who is assigned to a top-secret mission to bring down Vassily Worontzoff, a Russian mob boss. I wonder if Lisa Marie Rice and Shannon McKenna discuss this over coffee, because a lot of their villains seem to be of the Eastern European/ Slavic variety. Vassily is living in a tiny little town because he’s obsessed with Charity, who is a dead-ringer for his dead lover. Nick, whose nickname is “Iceman,” is tasked with seducing Charity to see if she has any information about Vassily’s operations.
Charity is just a small-town librarian so when Nick poses as an out-of-town businessman with all his charm and sex appeal, she’s a goner. Can’t blame her really, because Nick is protective and sexy and funny and he can make a girl scream. And in a good way too!
Nick eventually finds that he can’t keep his emotional distance and objectiveness when he’s around Charity. He falls in love with her, but has to figure out how to tell her:
a) that she’s good friends with a homicidal maniac who also thinks that she’s the reincarnation of his dead girlfriend
b) that he lied about his identity, occupation and name
c) that she’s run out of milk (only kidding).
But you know, and I know, and Coco my French bulldog knows, that Charity is going to forgive Nick for his trespasses and lies. Because did I mention that he really knows how to make a girl scream? And when Charity gets pulled into the mission, Nick is furious at the danger that she’s going to be in.
And man, does he. You gotta hand it to Lisa Marie Rice. She knows how to write a scorching sex scene which doesn’t make you feel like you should plunge into a vat of Dettol after reading it. They’re erotic and intimate and make you want to stab yourself because your name is not Charity Prewitt, and you have not just been ordered by Nick Ireland to take off your pants and prop your feet up on the dashboard of the car for some cruising fun. Sorry, was that too much information?
I thought “Dangerous Secrets” was a great read. Did I skim the bits with the Eastern European villains? You betcha. But I treasured my moments with Nick Ireland, that hot hunk of spunk. He can come and melt my ice any time. And unlike “Dangerous Lover,” “Dangerous Secrets” actually had a proper epilogue this time! Yay! No more feeling like you had an ice-cream sundae without the cherry on top. So for a good book with even better sex and what I’m sure is a pretty decent suspense sub-plot had I read it, pick up “Dangerous Secrets.”
Sheridan Sakura Carlotta said,
August 3, 2008 @ 1:09 pm
You didn’t just say hunk of spunk. *makes face*
lauren said,
August 4, 2008 @ 11:40 am
What is a hunk of spunk?
lauren said,
August 4, 2008 @ 11:41 am
By the way, there was a part of me that wanted to be a librarian, but just didn’t feel like going back to school to get my masters, it seems though a good job to have if one is looking to get oneself an alpha male, notice how many romance heroine’s are librarians?
La Lola said,
August 4, 2008 @ 11:53 am
Sadly, who’d have thought that librarians would be the romance heroine occupation of choice? Maybe it’s a ploy by the author to get the librarians to stock her books. And I just read a book where the heroine’s a lion tamer for goodness sake! Talk about throwing me a curve ball!
lady_lady said,
August 15, 2008 @ 1:36 pm
I am a librarian, and I hold within my mind the answer to the question, “Do librarians have a good job in which the odds are higher for snagging an Alpha male?”
The answer:
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No.
Or perhaps my library is on the boundary line between several Alphas, and none dare to venture near it.
But I state this from personal experience.
La Lola said,
August 15, 2008 @ 2:48 pm
Hahahaha! Never fret lady_lady, you’re our kind of librarian.