Sex, Lies & Secret Lives [Paperback]

Sex, Lies and Secret Lives by Thea Devine
Erotic Contemporary Romance- April 27th, 2010
4 Stars

Sex, Lies and Secret Lives is a contemporary erotic romance thriller that is unlike any that I have ever read before! I was surprised that the plot of the story was so well fabricated and different from most romances that involve twin sisters swapping places with one another. (The swapping roles twin thing has been done before, but never quite like this or as enjoyable!)

The story is about Justine Durant, a scientist who gets an emergency text message from her twin sister reaching out for help. She soon discovers that her sister is a contemporary courtesan for high flying business men. Unfortunately, Justine is trapped in her sister's apartment and gets mistaken for Jillian. This is when she begins role playing as Jillian and takes it upon herself to take on some of Jillian's clients. Justine is surprised when she starts enjoying the job herself and falling for one of her sister's clients. Luckily, it seems that Doug Rawls isn't as ruthless as he looks. When he is looking at Justine he realizes something is different but doesn't know for sure that she is pretending to be her sister Jillian. But he does sense that Justine is in danger. Will his influence be enough to save Jillian before it is too late? Will Justine and Rawl ever be able to trust one another after all the lies they have told undercover? Was the sex part of the undercover roles they were playing or was it something more?

I liked how exciting the ending of the book was. The suspense and intrigue kept me on edge. I especially enjoyed Doug Rawl's character. He made the story `worth it' to me because he was so mysterious. It wasn't until 200 pages into the story that I felt like I understood him, but I always felt that he was a good guy underneath the stern descriptions.

Thea Devine has written a very fast-paced, sexy contemporary that will be sure to thrill her fans and those who love a little 'spice' in their romance.

Reviewed by Sophia from the Bookaholics Romance Book Club

STORY BRIEF:
Jillian is a call girl to wealthy businessmen. She is on a trip with Ellicott, CEO of a company. Ellicott meets with Baynard, CEO of another company and they share her for sex. A few days later, Baynard dies in a car crash, and Ellicott's private plane crashes. Ellicott survives the crash, his pilot dies, but no one knows if Jillian survived. Just before the plane crash, Jillian sends a text message to Justine with their private SOS code. Justine is her identical twin sister. The code was leftover from their childhood - meaning help me. Justine thinks Jillian is a body parts model. Justine goes to Jillian's apartment and finds a letter that explains Jillian's true profession and client details. While at Jillian's apartment, Zach arrives and thinks Justine is Jillian. Zach is Jillian's pimp and gives Justine her next client appointments. Justine then pretends to be Jillian and has sex with Jillian's clients over the next several days. One of the clients is Doug. She and Doug have nonstop sex for two days. They are addicted to each other. Doug has some kind of connection to Baynard and wants to find Jillian.

REVIEWER'S OPINION:
Some readers will like this because it's full of sex. It's call girl sex with no emotion or relationships. Sex scenes include group sex and rear door activity. When Justine first meets Doug, he is cold, silent, and condescending. He grabs her arm and says you're coming with me. He takes her to his hotel room and begins having sex with her. There is no talking or relationship development - just both of them being addicted to each other. At the end of these two days, he throws money at her and leaves. Later he sees her, grabs her and again they have nonstop sex. She hates him, but the minute he touches her she melts. Whenever she tries to leave him or fight him, all he has to do is touch her, and she melts. If you don't mind this type of relationship and want to read lots of sex scenes you might like this. Personally, I wanted some decent story. There was no character development. It's mostly from Justine's perspective. I never got to see or hear anything from Doug's POV, so he was an unsatisfying mystery. The plot and events were dreamlike - wavering around the place - no logic. An example follows.

Justine is sleeping with Doug. She wakes up and realizes she might know where Jillian is. She tells herself she must get away from Doug's seductive magnetism, and after this night, if she left him, there was no going back. She must quell her urgency because he'd know something was up and that her promises had been steeped in lies, and that she'd always choose her twin over him. As she slips out of bed, Doug says "You know something, don't you." "I thought of something," she admitted. Then she is thinking there is no hiding anything from him. And she tells him her idea (what she had planned to keep secret).

What kind of writing is this? We go through all this pondering about how she must keep her secret and get away from Doug. And in the next minute he asks, and she tells him.

There were several occurrences like this. Here's another example, Justine wants to ask Doug something. He says "what do you want to know?" Then she says nothing and doesn't ask. I'm shaking my head. What?

Various events were not explained concerning Zach, Principessa, and Ellicott. I had problems with the logic of Jillian's actions, but I don't want to go into that so I won't give away any spoilers.

A bad guy did something, and he got what was coming to him in the end. But that part of the story was not explained. Was evidence given to the authorities? Did he return what he stole? Who planned the revenge, why, and how? It was an empty ending for the plot, but that brings me back to the purpose of the book: sex, not story.

Two minor problems. I cannot believe a corporate CEO would spend so much time with Justine and trying to solve a murder and the disappearance of her sister. Most CEOs would hire investigators to do that. They have too many corporate obligations and limited time. Second, the publisher's fault, the woman on the cover is blond. Justine and Jillian have long black hair.

DATA:
Story length: 291 pages. Swearing language: strong, including religious swear words. Sexual language: strong/erotic. Number of sex scenes: more than 30. Estimated number of sex scene pages: more than 48. Setting: current day mostly New York City, with some London, Paris, and Los Angeles. Copyright: 2010. Genre: erotic contemporary romance.

Identical twins Justine (good twin) and Jillian (bad twin) have a secret code (from their childhood) that the can use if one ever gets in trouble and needs help. Jillian finds herself in big trouble and activates the secret code. Justine drops everything and begins impersonating Jillian ( a paid escort - cough cough ) to try and find her. The storyline has some good plot ideas, twists and turns but it was just too unbelievable for me. Lots of detailed sex in this.

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