Secrets

Luxuria Trilogy #2

by Galia Ryan

Stephanie is a wild child, abandoned by her mother, spoiled by her father. Nothing is off-limits—even her father’s business partner—and bargaining her virginity for a summer on the Côte d’Azur is only the beginning. Through her lover Charles she meets Olivia, who ushers her into another world. One of wealth, opportunity, and sex. Lots of sex. Gaining entrance to society via the beds of the elite, Stephanie is on the brink of having it all. Then everything changes.

Genres: Erotica, New Adult

208 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 7, 2013

About the author

Convent educated from the age of four, Galia Ryan was brought up not to question. Perhaps because of this, she has always been fascinated by all things esoteric and ‘outside the square.’ Originally from Sussex, England and now living in New Zealand with her soul-mate husband and grown-up family, Galia tries to find time between her passions for writing and reading for her other love—travel. There is always a growing list of must-see places.

From the author's website.

Reviews

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is Stephanie's story. From Choices we know that she is the owner of Elite Escort Agency and is responsible for introducing Anna into the world of escorts. Secrets is about Stephanie's journey from losing her virginity to her father's best friend and becoming his mistress to how she ends up at Elite.
Stephanie's life is built on secrets as she begins her sexual journey with Charles and becomes his mistress. If the truth were to come out it would destroy both families. Even though Stephanie is mature for her age, she still has a lot to learn in terms of sexual development and meeting one of Charles' other mistresses is a real eye opener for her. It expands her sexual experience and helps her to understand her place in the world as a mistress.

Stephanie is an intellectual woman who has worked her socks off to become a lawyer but when tragedy strikes her family, she is forced to reconsider her options. When she meets a sexy American who uses her body for himself and for his business associate, she starts to see her place in the world in using her body to gain a secure financial footing.

Along the way she finds a man who she believes that she can truly settle down with and be happy. Can it work with the secrets that she carries?

Stephanie's confidence in herself enables her to go for what she wants and get it. She has confidence in her body and is not ashamed of using it. She is a woman that is confident and comfortable with her sexual nature, which means that she feels free to experiment and try new sexual experiences.

The men that she meets along the way are successful, strong, confident and have dominant tendencies, pushing Stephanie to the edge. With strong characters and lots of spice and naughtiness, this is a book with lots of thrills. You with either love or hate Stephanie and I love her for her confidence and sheer determinedness in going for what she wants.
Whilst I expected this to be a direct continuation from Choices, it did not disappoint. With raw emotions, lots of confidence, oodles of hot men and a strong, independent woman, you can’t go wrong with this read.

[Beth Orsborn · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 fangs
This book was gifted to me by Paranormal Romance and Authors that rock and Galia Ryan.
In book 2 the trilogy continues with Stephanie, only she is the escort moving up the ranks through her mentor Olivia. Stephanie’s story starts out with her being abandoned by her mother and spoiled by her father. Her father didn’t give her boundaries and nothing was off limits even her father’s business partner. Stephanie knew how to get what she wanted so she bargained with her father’s business partner, her virginity for a summer on the Côte d’Azur. This was only the beginning of her bargaining. She meets Charles who became her lover, and he introduced her to Olivia. Olivia likes what she sees and knows Stephanie is easy prey because she oozes with the need for wealth, opportunity and of course the need for sex, lots of sex. By sleeping her way through the elites Stephanie sees her chance at having everything and reaches. But everything changes. What will happen to Stephanie? Read it!
This book explained so much from the first book. I really didn’t understand Stephanie and really didn’t know anything about her except that she was a label whore who got what she wanted and didn’t care who she hurt or what lie she had to tell to get it. Olivia is defiantly a mentor but it explains where Stephanie learned some of her tricks. Charles seems like the kind of guy to run from, but Stephanie wanted sex and wealth and she got it.
This book is erotica and can be read separate but I recommend you read them in order to understand. 18+

[Aria Masterson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a great follow up book to Secrets. When you meet Stephanie in Secrets all you see is this Dominant woman who seems to know exactly what to say and do to get Anna to do exactly what she wants. This books picks up Stephanie when she is just a teenager. Although it seems that even from this young age she was already used to manipulating people into getting exactly what she wants. It was no shock to me that the book starts with Stephanie basically selling her virginity for a summer in Côte d’Azur to an older man that is friends/business partners with her father. But it is this background information that really helps me understand more about how Stephanie became the woman I saw in the first book. Her story is equally as fascinating as Anna's (and has some really great, hot, sex scenes as well!) and I enjoyed finding out more about her. I can't wait to see how both women end up in the last book, Desires.

[Jesper · Rating 2 out of 5]

Boring.

I really wanted more of Anna's story. Why a book about Stephanie? I don't get it.
The book isn't super exciting either. The stuff that happens is rather mundane, all things taken into account. The author doesn't really go very much in-depth on the character's feelings and thoughts either, so the book feels more like a telling of events rather than a personal life story.

[Beckey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Full review is being held for a blog tour but this should of been book one in my honest opinion. Review can be seen on my blog in the next week or so