Dirtiest Secret

Kenner (Unwrap Me), who also writes mainstream romance as Julie Kenner, takes readers on an erotic thrill ride with this high-octane contemporary, the first in her new Stark International Novel (S.I.N.) trilogy, linked to her California-centered Stark novels. Teen adoptive siblings Jane Sykes Martin and Dallas Sykes don’t share a drop of blood, but legally, they are brother and sister—forcing them to ignore the simmering passion between them. After they are kidnapped and tortured (by villains whose identities have not yet been revealed to readers), they find mutual comfort in a budding sexual relationship that’s cut off when they are rescued. A decade later, Dallas is trying to assuage his pain by becoming a devil-may-care playboy billionaire, while Jane tries to process hers by reinventing herself as a writer. They both want to pretend their sexual encounters never happened, but they can’t stay away from each other. The story’s frequent transitions between Jane’s first-person narration and Dallas’s third-person sections can be jarring, but Kenner skillfully builds a top-notch thriller. The tale ends on a tantalizing and frustrating cliffhanger. Agent: Kevan Lyon, Marsal Lyon Literary. (Apr.)