Summary
Excerpt
Review
Devil in a Kilt: A trip to the Highland Games turns into a trip to the past when modern day psychology professor 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?
Also in this anthology:
The Bet
by 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 with his best friend George Beringer. Damian bets his prized racehorse that he can do it. George gambles his London townhouse that Damian can't. And the surprising woman George chooses for the bet is not only a virgin, she's his very respectable sister, Claire!
Heart's Storm
By Liane Gentry Skye
The last fertile mermaid of her brood, Sirenia's final breeding moon is upon her. Racing against a hurricane, she must search out and mate with the only merman who can save their 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.
The Boy Next Door
by 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...
Gavin glanced out the window at the Highlands and the first faint trace of dawn peeking over the eastern mountains.
It won’t be long.
A yell echoed from down the corridor, the ravings of a madman. His father. One day that would be Gavin, talking to ghosts and shadows. But likely when he sank to that level, he would have no roof over his head. Or else his sparse clan would lock him in the dungeon to die alone. Since he had no heir, his greedy, grasping cousin would become laird. His clan would rejoice when their devil laird was dead.
"Damnation! Alpin willna unseat me. The craven whoreson." Draping his plaid around his waist and holding it in place, Gavin strode from the bedchamber and down the corridor toward his father’s room.
"There ye are, lad," Crocker said, his sparse gray hair sticking out in all directions. "Thanks be to God. He’s a right lunatic this morn. Asking for ye, he is."
"What the devil is wrong with him?" Gavin stepped inside the chamber.
"I dinna ken."
"Gavin! Gavin!" his father screeched from the four-poster bed as his body writhed, his long gray hair tangled. "The lass. Ye must look for the lass. Ye must marry. For the sake of the clan. For the sake of yer very soul."
"What lass?" No lass for miles around would so much as glance in his direction. He used to have to drag them from his bed and send them on their way. Now, he couldn’t pay one to give him an hour’s pleasure.
He would like as not turn them to stone, or they would end up possessed by the devil, as he was thought to be.
Gavin waited for his father to tell him which lass he referred to, but the older man now lay still with his eyes closed, apparently asleep. Mayhap he’d meant the lass from Gavin’s arousing dreams. But she wasn’t real, and he’d never seen her face.
Fingers of dawn light gleamed over the mountains and Gavin’s animal nature surged forth, beyond his control.
"Damnation! When will it end?"
He moved toward the open window, helpless to resist the call. Just as he reached it, a moment of pain sliced through him. His body transformed, and great glossy-black wings appeared where once he had arms, and talons on his feet. Taking flight from the window, he became one with the wind, the Highlands and the bright colors of dawn.
Nicole North, Devil in a Kilt, Red Sage Secrets Volume 27 Untamed Pleasures July '09
In Heartstorm, Sirenia, a dominant mermaid is the only hope to keep her people from becoming extinct. She swerves from that path when she saves a human she finds in the mangroves. What will happen to merkind now that she is in his life-debt?
In The Boy Next Door, Isabella is in her tub moaning about not being able to find “the man” for her. Jacob, her neighbor, thinking she’s out of town and someone has broken in happens on Isabella grousing in the tub. Turns out The Boy Next Door might be what she’s been looking for all along and Jacob sets out to prove it to her.
Who can resist a hottie Highlander? Not Professor Shauna McRae. After having explicit dreams for months about a Highland Devil In A Kilt, Shauna is tricked into holding an extremely large two-handed Highland sword at the Highland Games. Once she does she’s transported back 400 years to the cursed warrior Gavin MacTavish. Will she be able to help break the curse and save Gavin and his Clan?
The Bet is made on a cold winter’s night at the Atherton country estate. Damian, Viscount Atherton and his friend George have been drinking and talking. The only subject of interest left is sex. Damian claims he can bring a woman to completion with only his words. George is extremely skeptical and bets his town house in London that Damian will fail. To make it even more interesting George chooses his chaste younger sister Claire as the “woman.” Anything else would be too easy for such an accomplished rake. Wouldn’t it?
Secrets Volume 27 Untamed Pleasure is an excellent anthology. All the stories were highly readable. There’s such a range that there should be something here for everyone. I enjoyed each and every one of them.
I’ve read numerous mermaid stories and never really cared for them. Heartstorm has proven to be the exception. Sirenia finds Byron on the ocean floor after his surfing accident in Skelton’s Graveyard. Treacherous on a good day due to the submerged mangroves it was insane to consider with a hurricane coming in. Sirenia is about to enter her passion swell and this was so not in her plans. She now belongs to Byron because she saved him and is in his life-debt. He and only he can free her to save her people. Heartstorm has it all, passion, love, intrigue and a really twisted villain. As Byron and Sirenia fight their growing love, for noble reasons on both sides, their lives are increasingly endangered. The past is coming for Byron and the clash between it and the present could ensure he and Sirenia have no future. Will they survive the danger lurking in the hurricane? Read Heartstorm to find out exactly what happens to Byron, Sirenia and the fate of the merpeople.
The Boy Next Door starts out hilarious and quickly moves to hot. The humor is always lurking beneath the surface of the passion, making it even better. Isabella declined when Jacob asked her out after she moved in next door. She thought, while sexy and handsome, he was too laid back and vanilla for her tastes. She was looking for someone with a bit more edge. When Joe breaks up with her, scared of her predilection, the fun starts. Even if Isabella’s “thing” isn’t yours it’s fun to read about. I like that the humor is always an underlying component. Not to mention things between her and Jacob are about as steamy as you can get. Except for one little booboo about pulling on his hair (he’s bald), it was a fun interesting read.
I love sexy Highlanders, time travel, curses, action, love and humor. Devil In A Kilt has it all, including killer love scenes. The story drew me in from the get-go. From dreams to reality, Shauna is thrown for quite a loop when she’s dumped unceremoniously on the stone bedroom floor of Gavin MacTavish. Impossibly, there’s something familiar about him. There’s absolutely no way he could be her “dream lover,” or could he? What’s a girl to do but find out? By the way, what’s this business about a curse? How can she break the curse and save Gavin and his clan? Will she ever get to return to the future? I thoroughly enjoyed reading about Shauna’s adventure in the past. I’ve never read Nicole North before but will definitely look for her in the future.
The Bet is a historical of the first water. Damian’s memory doesn’t serve him well at all as far as Claire is concerned. A bit taken aback he has to rethink his tactics. How to seduce this intelligent yet innocent woman with only words? I absolutely adored Claire, Damian too for that matter. Claire prefers to expand her mind and horizons beyond perfecting her embroidery. She has a rapier wit and is nothing if not honest. Will Damian win the bet with Claire’s brother George? Will bluestocking Claire turn the tables on Damian, one of London’s most notorious rakes? You’ll have to read The Bet to find out.
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