Dangerous Secrets, by Lisa Marie Rice

TITLE: Dangerous Secrets
AUTHOR: Lisa Marie Rice

COPYRIGHT: 2008
PAGES: 352
PUBLISHER: Avon Red

SETTING: Contemporary US
TYPE: Romantic Suspense
SERIES: Not really

REASON FOR READING: Autobuy author

Small-town librarian Charity Prewitt never dreamed she'd meet and fall in love with a man like Nicholas Ames. The handsome, rich, charming, sexy-as-hell millionaire blew into tiny Parker's Ridge, Vermont, and immediately rocked her world. Powerful, sensual, the perfect man, Nick knows all the right words—and all the right spots to touch, sending her soaring to dizzying new heights of ecstatic abandon. Never before has prim and proper Charity leapt into bed with a perfect stranger—and now that she's there with him, nothing is going to drag her away!

But Nick Ames is not who he claims to be. In truth, he is Nicholas Ireland—the one they call "Iceman." A former Delta Force operator, now a high-level undercover agent, he will do whatever his government asks of him—lie, seduce, betray . . . even kill, if necessary—for the sake of the mission. And this time his mission is Charity Prewitt.

Suddenly one woman has broken down his chilly restraint and ignited his passions completely. And before the erotic dream turns into a nightmare, will Charity be able to melt the Iceman's cold, cold heart?

Librarian Charity Prewitt lives a quiet life in her Vermont small town. The dating scene isn't great there, but it seems to take a positive turn when retired stockbroker Nick Ames moves into town and asks her out. Nick is everything Charity could want: cultured, smooth and as well-mannered as he is attractive.

Too bad only the last one is true. Nick's real name is Nick Ireland, and he's undercover on a mission to get the town's best known resident, Vassily Worontzof. Vassily is a celebrated writer, a survivor of the Russian Gulags, but he's also a boss of the Russian mafia, involved in some pretty unsavoury and dangerous business. He lives amid high-security, though, so Nick needs a way to get to him. That way is Charity, Vassily's only weakness. To her, he's a good friend and a sweet grandfather figure, but in reality, he's obsessed with Charity, as she reminds him of his tragically murdered wife.

If you've read Lisa Marie Rice before, you know what to expect: an raw, raunchy and yet romantic, very intense relationship between hero and heroine, played out before a fresh and well-plotted suspense subplot.

We certainly got most of that. The suspense subplot is good, as always, quite outside the norm of what you usually read in romance. And the chemistry between Charity and Nick is certainly scorching. The only thing I missed is the way LMR's heroes usually fall utterly and completely head over heels for the heroine, recognising immediately that this is the woman they want to spend the rest of their life with, and beware anyone or anything that gets in their extremely alpha way!

Nick does get there, but it takes a while. He's know as the Iceman in his job, for his ability to remain detached from anything and do what he needs to do, whatever the consequences for other people, and that's not an idle nickname. I got the uncomfortable feeling in the first bits of his interactions with Charity that while he was very attracted to her, he didn't really feel all that much for her, and that he would have been able to leave her if necessary. He soon enough gets to the point where he loves her so much that this wouldn't be possible, but I guess I've been spoiled by LMR (or else I've turned into one of those horrible readers who demand their favourite authors deliver the exact same thing over and over again).

MY GRADE: A B.