Dirtiest Secret by J. Kenner Find the Author: Website, Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads
Published by Bantam on April 19th 2016
Genres: BDSM, Erotica, Romance
Purchase links: Amazon
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Source: InkSlinger PR, NetGalley
It was wrong for us to be together, but it was even harder to be apart.
The memory of Dallas Sykes burns inside of me.
Everyone knows him as a notorious playboy, a man for whom women and money are no object. But to me, he’s still the one man I desperately crave—yet the one I can never have.
Dallas knows me better than anyone else. We bear the same scars, the same darkness in our past. I thought I could move on by staying away, but now that we’re drawn together once more, I can’t fight the force of our attraction or the temptation to make him mine.
We’ve tried to maintain control, not letting ourselves give in to desire. And for so long we’ve told ourselves no—but now it’s finally time to say yes.
Dirtiest Secret is intended for mature audiences.
We received this book/audiobook for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect our opinion of the book or the content of our review.
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3,5 stars
“Dirtiest Secret” is the story of Dallas and Jane. They have a dark past, one that included abduction and abuse. They also share the same parents, even if only by law, not by blood. That didn’t prevent them from falling in love with each other and seeking comfort within each other in their darkest hours. Will they at least get justice for what has been done to them as teenagers, if they are not able to have a relationship after all?
This was my first J. Kenner book. I’ve heard about the Stark trilogy but haven’t read it. I loved the writing style and the forbidden-ish vibe to it that made for an angsty explosion of emotions. But that’s about all I liked. The characters were very difficult for me to connect to somehow. At least to the adult versions of them, the teenagers were really adorable and I loved their chemistry. My biggest issue was with the whole suspense surrounding the abduction, or furthermore the organization Dallas has brought to life, originally to find their captors and get justice for their torture, now morphed to a big system to rescue other victims of abduction. It really smothered the romance and from approximately 20% to 80%, there were too many names thrown into the mix, too much was happening. Add to that the forbidden aspect of their relationship with each other, which would per se have been enough of an issue to fill a whole book – what with all the flashbacks to their time in captivity – and it was just too much. I hate it, when there is the potential to make a standalone novel, but the author prolongs it for the hell of it, only so we have to wait for the sequel. “Dirtiest Secret” ends with a HFN ending, with which I was very content with. I probably will not continue this series, because in my opinion, everything that can now happen in the sequel will only cause unnecessary drama and that would completely ruin this book for me.
A short warning, this book features possible triggers for readers. There is the issue of captivity and the mention (not descriptive) of sexual abuse. Also, the two MC’s are siblings, if only by adoption. The sex-scenes between them are explicit.
All in all, I rate “Dirtiest Secret” with 3,5 stars. I can’t, however, recommend it, because I don’t know how the sequel will play out and the recommendation of a book with a mild cliffhanger just doesn’t sit right with me.
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