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Guilty Secrets
Cynical reporter Joe Reilly didn't believe in angels–human or the other kind. But when he was assigned to write an article on nurse Nell Dolan, the "Angel of Ark Street," he decided to get up close and personal.
Trouble was, Nell's soft heart was hidden behind steel armor that kept him away. Suddenly his investigative instincts sprang to life. Who was Nell? And what was she hiding?
Nell tried to convince the sexy in-your-face reporter that the clinic needed publicity and she didn't. But the more time she spent with Joe, the more attracted she grew. Dare she risk him uncovering the secrets of her past for a night under the covers with Joe?
256 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2004
1 person is currently reading
53 people want to read
About the author
Virginia Kantra
48 books1,016 followersNew York Times bestselling author
Virginia Kantra
is the author of thirty books of women's fiction, contemporary romance, paranormal romance, and romantic suspense.
Kindred spirits and Anne of Green Gables fans, look for Anne of a Different Island , coming January 20, 2026.
Her latest release, The Fairytale Life of Dorothy Gale , a contemporary reimagining inspired by Dorothy's adventures in Oz, follows Kansas graduate student Dee Gale as she flees personal heartbreak and public humiliation to enroll in the writing program at Trinity College Dublin (the Emerald Isle!).
Meg and Jo , a contemporary novel inspired by the classic story Little Women, received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and Booklist and was a People Magazine pick.
Beth and Amy (May 25, 2021) "continues her delightful 21st-century retelling of Little Women...Kantra’s compulsively readable update will attract a whole new group of readers, as well as satisfy Alcott devotees."—Publishers Weekly
Her stories have earned numerous awards including two Romance Writers of America's RITA (R) Awards, ten RITA nominations, and two National Readers' Choice Awards.
Carolina Dreaming, the fifth book in her Dare Island series , won the 2017 RITA (R) Award for Best Contemporary Romance - Midlength and was named one of BookPage's Top Ten Romance Novels of 2016. Her work includes the popular Children of the Sea series and, in e-book format, The MacNeills stories.
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Kindred spirits and Anne of Green Gables fans, look for Anne of a Different Island , coming January 20, 2026.
Her latest release, The Fairytale Life of Dorothy Gale , a contemporary reimagining inspired by Dorothy's adventures in Oz, follows Kansas graduate student Dee Gale as she flees personal heartbreak and public humiliation to enroll in the writing program at Trinity College Dublin (the Emerald Isle!).
Meg and Jo , a contemporary novel inspired by the classic story Little Women, received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and Booklist and was a People Magazine pick.
Beth and Amy (May 25, 2021) "continues her delightful 21st-century retelling of Little Women...Kantra’s compulsively readable update will attract a whole new group of readers, as well as satisfy Alcott devotees."—Publishers Weekly
Her stories have earned numerous awards including two Romance Writers of America's RITA (R) Awards, ten RITA nominations, and two National Readers' Choice Awards.
Carolina Dreaming, the fifth book in her Dare Island series , won the 2017 RITA (R) Award for Best Contemporary Romance - Midlength and was named one of BookPage's Top Ten Romance Novels of 2016. Her work includes the popular Children of the Sea series and, in e-book format, The MacNeills stories.
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I love to connect with readers! Find me on Facebook and Instagram.
And for exclusive content and news of my latest releases,
join my mailing list.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
June 24, 2011
Guilty Secrets had a heroine who suffered from a martyr complex seriously. There were times I wanted to bash her and ask if she was one of those Hindi tele-drama actress.
Nell Dolan is a nurse who runs a clinic which helps people with insurance problems. She's a do-gooder and hires people no-one will, recovering addicts etc .Despite being burned by her mother, who she helped take care of, she married a doctor, a man whose education she paid for, then hid his drug habit and then foolishly took the fall for him, when he was caught putting her career in jeopardy, but does she hate him and do something about it, no!She blames herself for not helping him, what a stupid chick. She needs a psychiatrist. Then in comes Joe Reilly, a reporter sent to cover her clinic.
Joe is very rude, he is upfront about the fact that he wants her in bed, he was a foreign correspondent who got injured. He is not very interested in the story.
He constantly at first doubts her thinking that she is a drug addict or that she is involved in the clinic's problems of missing drugs and prescription fraud despite her reporting it to the police. Once he believes her he tries to help her but she is foolish again, how can she doubt her people even if she goes to jail.
What she needed was someone to sit her down and tell her that this obsession she had with taking care of people had to stop. Once she learns about Joe's addiction she is totally fine with it. Then, of course later she nurses him. I didn't believe in this HEA, Joe says he will go back in the field, and dear Nell will sit home and wait for him. I didn't enjoy this book.
Nell Dolan is a nurse who runs a clinic which helps people with insurance problems. She's a do-gooder and hires people no-one will, recovering addicts etc .Despite being burned by her mother, who she helped take care of, she married a doctor, a man whose education she paid for, then hid his drug habit and then foolishly took the fall for him, when he was caught putting her career in jeopardy, but does she hate him and do something about it, no!She blames herself for not helping him, what a stupid chick. She needs a psychiatrist. Then in comes Joe Reilly, a reporter sent to cover her clinic.
Joe is very rude, he is upfront about the fact that he wants her in bed, he was a foreign correspondent who got injured. He is not very interested in the story.
He constantly at first doubts her thinking that she is a drug addict or that she is involved in the clinic's problems of missing drugs and prescription fraud despite her reporting it to the police. Once he believes her he tries to help her but she is foolish again, how can she doubt her people even if she goes to jail.
What she needed was someone to sit her down and tell her that this obsession she had with taking care of people had to stop. Once she learns about Joe's addiction she is totally fine with it. Then, of course later she nurses him. I didn't believe in this HEA, Joe says he will go back in the field, and dear Nell will sit home and wait for him. I didn't enjoy this book.
June 20, 2015
Love these older SIM looks.. this could have used another chapter at the end and could have been a deeper read if it had been a bigger novel. Great read for what it is.
March 25, 2013
I have been on a Virginia Kantra glom; her books remind me very much of Nora Roberts's books, especially in the family dynamics. Guilty Secrets is a series romance but within the constraints of the short text develops an interesting dynamic between its hero-in-recovery and its too-good-to-be-true traumatized trauma nurse. Add in a cast of his family and her coworkers, and there is much going on in the story. Guilty Secrets bites off more than it can chew, but I enjoyed the complexity and busy lives of its protagonists. Unfortunately Kantra bungles the ending- I cannot imagine Joe staying on the wagon and remaining faithful to Nell while once again bumping around combat zones- but I'm more than happy to rewrite the ending in my end and keep it moving forward.
Nell wins with her poignant line in the last chapter (if I'm not caring for you, what role do I have in your life?). It's such flashes of decent angst that keep me with Kantra despite the sometimes uneven quality of her backlist.
(Let me just flag this- you don't just pick up enough Dari or Farsi on a few weeks' assignment to Afghanistan to verbally guide a woman through labor. Really, now.)
Nell wins with her poignant line in the last chapter (if I'm not caring for you, what role do I have in your life?). It's such flashes of decent angst that keep me with Kantra despite the sometimes uneven quality of her backlist.
(Let me just flag this- you don't just pick up enough Dari or Farsi on a few weeks' assignment to Afghanistan to verbally guide a woman through labor. Really, now.)
April 22, 2015
For some reason, I thought this was set during the first Gulf War for most of the book. It's not. And I liked the idea of it a little more than I liked the book itself. It's very profession detailed and city set, both of which appeal to me a lot, but the book never fully elevated past its pot for me.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews