Karin Tabke, Bonnie Edwards & Sunny The Hard Stuff

The Hard Stuff

Karin Tabke, Bonnie Edwards & Sunny

Kensington, Jan 2006, $12.95

ISBN: 0758214081

"Stakeout" by Karin Tabke. Police Detective Stevie Cavanaugh wets her pants salivating over the "Italian Stallion" that she watches as Mario "Rocky" Spoltori is hung. However, as she admires her target, Special Agent Jack "Thorn" Thornton arrives at the surveillance site provoking memories of the best night she ever had; fantasy could never match the hardness of reality, but he was married at the time. They still want one another but the divorced Thorn wonders whether Stevie will geld him or love him

"Bodywork" by Bonnie Edwards. Wealthy widow Lisa Delaney hires auto mechanic Tyce Branton as his touch is the best to fix her late husband's classic car collection for an auction. Neither has forgotten twelve years ago, but he does not trust her as she disdained her trailer park roots which included him and married a sexagenarian. Lisa vows she will not lose her heart this time to the womanizer who tossed her aside years ago. Of course he is the best with body parts so she might consider a frolic or two.

"Chinatown" by Sunny. Lily Huang obtains the phony Chinese passport and Singapore visa that enables her illegally to enter New York where the ruthless people-smuggling Red Lion gang strip her, find her tracking device, and realize she is an undercover cop. They lock her in the basement with undercover FBI Agent Wes Penzatti. As they share captivity and more, they must escape before the merciless gang leader Billy Kim kills them, but freedom means the end of their togetherness fantasy.

These three romantic novellas are well written stimulating tales. Though Bonnie Edwards' input does not seem to belong with the police procedural contributions, fans who like their literature torrid will enjoy this erotic anthology.

Harriet Klausner