Tangled Lies

How does she do it? How in the world does Anne Stuart have the talent to turn ANY man into a DESIRABLE man! I have been wanting to get my hand on this early work of Stuart's and was so happy when the "Famous First" line reprinted it. Although an early work of hers, the quality of her writing is there....I dare you to figure this story out before Stuart decide to just out right tell you! Caution!!!! There is a strong, what I like to call, "ICK" factor in this book. Rachel believes that the man known as Emmett is her brother. There is lots of sexual tension between them right from the beginning, and they even share a passionate kiss even though they are "siblings". This almost made me sick. I hate incest plot lines. It just is so evil and bad! Once all that is cleared up, the web that is explained is so surprising and destined, that by the end of the book, the whole 'incest" scene seems very far away and more palatable.

I loved this book. I've read quite a few Intrigues, and I don't say that every day. Here's the back cover of the book: She was all caught up in his tangled lies... The porcelain butterflies arrived like clockwork every year on her birthday. Rachel Chandler received gifts postmarked from exotic places all over the world from her brother Emmett, who had been living underground since his implication in a bombing in the later 1960's. After fifteen years, Rachel was about to see Emmett again. He had surfaced in Hawaii, and nothing could keep her from going to him. But when they did meet, Rachel knew something was terribly wrong. She hadn't expected to recognize Emmett right away... but she hadn't expected to be attracted to him either! Well, if you need more than that to get you to open the book... The story is set up very well, with excellent pacing, good characters, and good resolution. The romance part of the story is handled artfully, actually eliciting an emotional response on the part of the reader. Recommended reading.

Anne Stuart perversely loves to create a male who is far from a hero, and then provoke, tantalize and lure her readers into for falling him. She must set around and make lists of all the types of men in the world a woman would swear she would never fall for, then with a wry grin, she sets about to prove to us she can do just that very feat. She has given us a hitman, a thief, a court jester, a cult leader...well the list is endless. Just as I think she has hit the bottom of the list, I find yet another. This time she does her Stuart magic and casts the hero as the heroine's brother.When Rachel Chandler was 12-years-old, her brother Emmett was involved with a radical group of protesters. A bomb accidentally blew up killing several people, along with Emmett's girl friend. Emmett alone survived, just the quirk of fate that he had been out getting pizzas at the time. Emmett vanished, last seen in Hawaii, but for fifteen years no one had heard from him. No one except Rachel Chandler. Every year on her birthday she receives a package, post marked from various places around the world. So, when word comes from her uncle that Emmett is back in Hawaii at the family home, even her fear of flying will not stop her from being reunited with the brother she hadn't seen for fifteen years.Only Emmett is not quite how she remembers him. She feared Emmett might be given to gaining weight, but this man is hard, lean. He carries scars from varies fights, attesting to his being in foreign places where life is cheap. Emmett is not happy when Rachel shows up on his doorstep. Neither is her uncle. Rachel soon comes to fear Emmett is not Emmett and this impostor and her uncle are playing a charade in order to get at the vast fortune left in trust for the real Emmett.Is a steamy sexy, shadowy novel that Stuart does so well, showing whether in full novels or series romance, no one can touch the resident genius of dark romantic tales. Another Stuart keeper - but then aren't they all?