Romance Book Review: Secrets (27)

Author: Leigh Court, Hannah Murray, Nicole North, Liane Gentry Skye
Anthology: The Bet, The Boy Next Door, Devil in a Kilt, Heart's Storm
ISBN: 9781603100076
Genre: Contemporary/Fantasy/ Historical/Mystery/ Paranormal/Erotic

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Four novellas from different romance genres complete this anthology from Red Sage Publishing. These stories are fun quick reads offering readers a chance to get a little of everything.

In the first story, Liane Gentry Skye tells the story of a mermaid who is the last in her family to be able to produce children. Sirenia sister was tricked by a miserable excuse for a merman who is hoping to do the same to Sirenia. If he can get her to produce his children he will be the new heir to the throne. Sirenia believes he isn't the rightful heir and goes off to prove it, but gets side tracked into helping a human, Byron, before he drowns. It just might be that Byron is exactly what Sirenia needs especially since trouble has followed her.

In The Boy Next Door, Hannah Murray tells the story of a woman who just can't seem to find the right man to make her sexual fantasies come to life. Six months ago Isa turned down her new neighbor Jacob when he asked her for a date. He was just too nice and would probably run away screaming if he heard what she wanted from a date. As it turns out Jacob may just turn out to be the perfect date after all.

In Devil In a Kilt, Nicole North (this week's featured author at www.romancebookscene.com) tells the story of a normally dedicated professor, Shauna, who can't stop daydreaming about a perfect Scottish warrior that she saw on the cover of a romance book. But is he a figment of her active imagination or is he from another time just waiting for her to help break a curse?

And in the last story, The Bet, Leigh Court tells the story of two friends, a bet and a younger sister. The time is 1800s London where all good girls don't have a clue of what sex is all about until they are married. Claire is a good girl. Her brother think she's too much of a prude so when his best friend bets him that he can make a woman have an orgasm just with words alone, he wagers that he can't and uses his sister as the mark. What neither of the men count on, though, is that Claire just might be eager to learn all she can.

All four stories are well written and give a good taste of each genre. I liked the Devil in the Kilt and Heart's Storm the best. They were well written and had great erotic love scenes, which was the common factor in all four novella's. I liked the villain in Heart's Storm. He added some of the best scenes to the story.

I'm not all that into to tie-me-up stories so I didn't really get all that into The Boy Next Door story as much. Although I will say the author is well versed. The same can be said for the last story, The Bet. I just can't get into historicals where the women really are treated poorly. Although the hero in story was remorseful about the bet from the beginning. What was up with the brother? Betting on his own sister and he was just down right mean to her throughout the story.

Description:
THE BET - LEIGH COURT
I can make a woman come using just my words…
That outrageous claim by a very drunk Damian Hunt, Viscount Atherton, somehow escalates into a high stakes wager between two best friends: Damian bets his prized racehorse that he can do it… George Beringer gambles his London townhouse that Damian can’t.
And the surprising woman George chooses for the bet is not only a virgin, she’s also George’s very respectable sister, Claire -- and to complicate matters even more, once Damian lays eyes on her, the stakes escalate in the most unpredictable way…

THE BOY NEXT DOOR - HANNAH MURRAY
Isabella Carelli isn’t just looking for Mr. Right, she’s looking for Mr. Tie Me Up And Do Me Right. In all the wrong places. Fortunately, the right place is right next door. And the boy next door is just about ready to make his move...

DEVIL IN A KILT - NICOLE NORTH
A trip to the Highland Games turns into a trip to the past when modern day Shauna MacRae touches Gavin MacTavish’s four-hundred-year-old claymore. What she finds is a Devil In a Kilt she’s had erotic fantasies about for months. Can Shauna break the curse imprisoning this shape shifting laird and his clan before an evil witch sends Shauna back to her time and takes Gavin as her sex slave?

HEART'S STORM - LIANE GENTRY SKYE
Sirenia's final breeding moon is upon her. She is the last fertile mermaid of her brood. Racing against a hurricane, she must search out and mate with the only merman who can save her kind--the prophesied Lost Son of Triton. When Sirenia rescues injured Navy SEAL, Byron Burke from drowning, she seals herself into his life debt. When the time comes to ask Byron for her freedom, her heart threatens to stand in the way of the last, best hope for her kind.