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eBook Category: Erotica/Erotic Romance/Romance
eBook Description: One day to indulge your most decadent fantasies ... Once a year, Arcadia Island hosts the Masquerade Ball. A few select are invited by the Gods to fulfill their wildest dreams! In Unmasked, by Kate Sterling, she spins the tale of Morgan, who ran away from the man she loved--the only man to expose her deepest desires--because she was afraid of her feelings. Now, she stands before Aphrodite wishing in her heart to be with Derek again, but has learned he is with someone new, someone who might have wishes of her own. Morgan must choose between living with her pain, or causing pain to another. She appeals to the goddess for help, and soon learns the meaning of the phrase, "Be careful what you wish for." In Yolanda Sfetsos' "Underworld Connection," Adora Marks gets an invitation to a Masquerade Ball, she reluctantly attends. However, when she crosses paths with a mysterious man that calls himself Hades and literally sweeps her off her feet, Adora's forced to face the demons haunting her life? and the fascination with death that ignites most of her art. Next, in Top This, Desiree Lee's scintillating debut, Trina and her best friend Lucy have a running contest each year to come up with the best one-over on each other. This year, Trina's coup is pulling off an invitation to the Arcadia Island Masquerade Ball. The ball, however, isn't exactly how Trina had pictured it in her mind. Over the course of the night, she learns something about sportsmanship, love and a new angle on friendship from the most unlikely of sources. Nikki Watson's "Awakening On Arcadian Shores Between Full, Orange Moon and Shore-Side Foam," called "Awakening" for short, as a sequel to her Masquerade 2 debut last year, entitled "Pomegranate." After seeing his best friend, Patrick, in the underworld with Persephone and Hades in Masquerade 2, Aaron comes back to his empty home despondent and alone. This is where Aphrodite, the goddess of love, takes an interest in him and brings him back to Arcadian Island, after he "wishes" for it, of course. While there, he meets up with Artemis, the goddess of the hunt, and realizes that to find happiness, he himself must take a chance. Finally, in Katrina Strauss' Windswept, when shy mortal Tempest Rayne meets Aeolus, the lonely Keeper of the Winds, two forces of nature collide, making for a stormy encounter, leaving them both ... Windswept.

eBook Publisher: Aphrodite's Apples Press, Published: 2007, 2007
Fictionwise Release Date: April 2007

This eBook is part of the following series:

• Various Authors' Masquerade Series

2 Reader Ratings:

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Available eBook Formats [MultiFormat - What's this?]: eReader (PDB) [196 KB] , ePub (EPUB) [193 KB] , Rocket/REB1100 (RB) [164 KB] , Portable Document Format (PDF) [633 KB] , Palm Doc (PDB) [184 KB] , Microsoft Reader (LIT) [207 KB] , Franklin eBookMan (FUB) [220 KB] , hiebook (KML) [445 KB] , Sony Reader (LRF) [259 KB] , iSilo (PDB) [152 KB] , Mobipocket (PRC) [191 KB] , Kindle Compatible (MOBI) [66 KB] , OEBFF Format (IMP) [252 KB]
Words: 55270
Reading time: 157-221 min.
Microsoft Reader (LIT) Format: Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud ENABLED
Portable Document Format (PDF) Format:  Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud DISABLED
All Other formats: Printing DISABLED, Read-aloud DISABLED

"Masquerade [Volume 3] is yet another splendid addition to this impressive series. One would expect that a series based on a yearly party by the Gods and Goddesses in which mortals experience their wildest fantasies would get old. However, the sheer talent and ingenuity provided by each one of these exceptional authors continues to produce anthologies of great variety. Once again, the unique twists will leave the reader anxiously hoping that this collection will continue!"--Anne, ck2skwipsandkritiques.com

"WOO-HOO!" Trina bellowed as she quickly pulled away from the curb. Her expression of pleasure was somewhat wasted, as she was the only one in the car. She loved making clean getaways from her capers, and this one had been slicker than most. Trina was masterful at pulling off pranks and practical jokes. This one went far beyond that. Neatly tucked away in the manila folder on the seat next to her was a perfect copy of an invitation to the Arcadia Island Masquerade Ball. Success!

Normally, Trina wouldn't give two shakes about a masquerade ball. She didn't dance and she sure as hell wasn't a socialite. She COULD clean up well, and could put on the air, if needed. She knew it WOULD be needed for this event.

What Trina DID care about was winning this year's "Top This Competition". Trina and her best friend Lucy had a running bet each year. Some years back they'd named it the "Top This Competition," but even before they dubbed it with a moniker, they were still holding the contest. It had started out in grade school when Lucy, being the mouthy sort that she I was, bragged that she was going to bring the BEST show-and-tell thing EVER. Trina was never one to back down from a challenge, so she made it her personal goal to out-do whatever it was that Lucy had intended on bringing. Each week, it escalated more and more. When show-and-tell day came around, Trina and Lucy would both go to extravagant ends to bring the best item.

If you didn't know them so well, you'd think that they were bitter rivals. The truth I was that they were closer than sisters in most ways, except for their "Top This Competition". It was now a once-a-year event that each of them considered more important than birthdays and all holidays combined. It was the one day of the year when each woman put her full gusto in to claiming the honor of being Top for the year. Top what? Well, they never really gave the honor a name. It was just an understood distinction between the two friends. The idea was to come up with the most outlandish, outrageous item or scheme that the other one would never have thought of, and get away with it. Cheating was allowed. Bending a few laws here and there was not unheard of, but if you got caught doing something you weren't supposed to and got in trouble, you had to forfeit.

Trina had paid handsomely to borrow one of the real invitations. The invite holder was not about to give it up completely, but would let Trina look at it. She spent hours at the computer perfecting the scan so that it looked authentic. She went through many samples of paper before finding one that had the look and feel of the handcrafted original. The ink was odd too. It took a lot of trial and error to get the color just right. Trina didn't care what amount of preparation went in to this, though. She knew that Lucy wouldn't think of attempting to pull off something like this, and that would undoubtedly give her the prize for this year.

Trina had lost last year and the year before. She thought that the third time would be a charm. This year she'd prevail. Then again, the only reason she lost last year was because she happened to get caught. If she'd made it away scot-free, she would have won. She returned the original invitation and tucked her authentic-looking copy away in a safe place until the day of the ball.

The day of the masquerade fell before the "Top This Competition," but Trina wasn't worried. She felt that she still had it in the bag, even though she'd be unveiling her caper early. She knew that Lucy would still have time to try to top it, but for the life of her, Trina couldn't think of anything that Lucy could do that would be more of a coup. Everyone knew that this annual event was so elite that even most A-List celebrities could not even get in.