"Stories that will remain with you long after you have read them."

DANGEROUS LOVERS: ROSES AND THORNS is an anthology of eight different stories.

In our first story, TEN, we go Amazonia. A planet filled with women, where men are all slaves. The men have to sign contracts before they are imported to the planet. They come to the importer's pens and are evaluated and sold to the various Femmes. Our heroine is an importer. She is a rather large woman who wanted to work in evaluation. Due to her size, she settled for becoming an importer instead. She has just received a new shipment of stock. One of the men has captured her attention. He is big enough to make her feel small and petite. When he fails all his evaluations, our intrepid importer must take matters into her own hands.

The next story, LADY OF THE NIGHT, deals with a young woman. She is a vampire and has become a prostitute, not only to support herself but also to feed. She has killed countless men, just sucked them dry. She always gives the men their pleasure before she feeds. What happens when she meets the brother of one of her victims?

Then we come to MOON MADNESS. We have a young woman with three older sisters. All her sisters have mates. They are all living in a cavern. Our heroine has noticed a hermit living in a clearing close by. Even though the man wants nothing to do woman, our heroine has decided she won't take no for an answer.

In NO MORE LIES, Sidhe's mother told her, over and over again, we will only stay married for seven years. That is the typical length of a marriage between women of her blood and human men. Eventually, Sidhe meets a man and gets married. Will they stay together longer than seven years? Will he ever discover what she is?

LADY VALENTINE is a pretty dark story. We start a Valentine's Day party at an old house. Our heroine didn't realize her boyfriend was going to set her up to turn tricks for him. He sneaks out of bed, supposedly to go to the bathroom, and a man starts pawing at her. She gets away and finds solitude in an attic room. A man joins her. He's a vampire and the two of them make love. Will our heroine see her vampire lover again?

PROCURATOR ROYAL was a story where our hero gets exactly what he deserves. Our luckless hero is in danger of losing his fingers due to his debt. He tricks a young man out of token to appear before the PROCURATOR ROYAL. Our hero knows he will be able to live a life of luxury if he is chosen to become the Princess' lover. But things are not always as they appear, as he soon finds out.

In THE SEVENTH CHANCE, we deal with a young woman desperate for a job. When she sees an ad in the paper, she answers it. The office is at the very top of a tall building. Amaranth lost her job over a year ago when her boss' wife committed suicide. She was engaged in an affair with him when it happened and she hasn't been able to find a job since. Her new boss, Ramon, is a very good looking man. He makes some very strange demands on her. She begins to wonder about him. Will she take the chance to leave?

Then we come to our last story in this anthology, A NEW BROOM. This story is the lightest of all. We have a woman who married to leave home. Her husband cheats on her all the time. She doesn't have a job, so she won't leave him. A salesman comes to the door. He wants to sell her a vacuum cleaner. She's up front with him and tells him she doesn't have much money. When she sees the wonderful job the cleaner does, she signs the contract. She has no idea what the payments are. They are due every week. Exactly who is this salesman and what does he want from her?

All of these stories have one thing in common, they all encompass Valentine's Day. Lark Westerly has done a wonderful job of writing eight very different stories with one underlying theme, things are not always as they seem. Do all the stories have a happy ending? No, but they will all make you think and will linger with you, long after you have read them. I highly recommend DANGEROUS LOVERS: ROSES AND THORNS to all lovers of erotica.

Reviewed by Chere Gruver
Courtesy Sensual Romance Reviews
Posted June 4, 2004

Summary

A lady of the night is wooed by a vampire hunter. A stud male falls in love with his importer. A werebitch stalks the hermit of her desires. A fairy indulges her taste for mortal men. A faceless vampire offers perilous comfort. An immortal businessman hires a PA. A princess uses devious means to procure a lover, and a handsome witch sells cleaners, door-to-door. What do all these characters have in common? They all make dangerous lovers on Valentine's Day.