LynneC’s review of Sheikh With Benefits by Teresa Morgan
Contemporary Romance published by Amazon Digital Services 8 Jan 12
I have a guilty fondness for sheikh books. After 9/11 I thought the genre would die, but here it is, still going strong, thank goodness. This one is a Cinderella story, following the old fairy tale very precisely, with balls and everything. But the prince doesn’t stop at the glass slipper.
This is a novella that starts when the hero, a second son, sees the woman he used to be good friends with at a party. Arya has grown up in Canada, as her father was the ambassador there, and she has two beautiful sisters who are nasty to her.
This book is completely devoid of surprises, and once you realise the Cinderella link, even more so. She meets him at a party, he thinks she’s boring and beige, then he sees her in a sexy dress and pow! he’s smitten, they have sex, she reconciles with her sister, presumably to provide sequel bait, then they ride off into the sunset.
I’m still not sure why she suddenly decides to wear an outfit “a whore would wear” (his description, not mine, and not very flattering. I really started to dislike his judgmental ass at this point). Oh yes, and “She wouldn’t be modeling for Victoria’s Secret anytime soon, or even competing with her own sisters, but still, she did have greater curves than he’d imagined.” Jerk. He’s attracted to her after she notices he has a headache and gives him aspirin, when nobody else has spotted his problem. Doesn’t work for me. She’s a nurturer, and, of course, being Cinders, a doormat.
While I’ll often happily read a book with this plot, this one is flat for me. There is nothing that really impedes the hero and heroine getting together, so they do. The father is a caricature of a Bad Man, the sisters don’t appear in the story until the scene later on.
The book is too short to get inside the head of either character in any depth. So both come across as flat and unnuanced. Consequently, the book suffers from that. We’re told the things we need to know, but that isn’t reflected in the inner life of the characters. Their thoughts are mainly concerned with lust and longing. At the end, when he tells her he loves her, I don’t believe it and wonder why. She has nothing to make her stand out, at least on the page. She is utterly Miss Average, while he is Totally Gorgeous Sheikh Hero. No reason for him to look at her twice, I suppose. She isn’t very bright, isn’t very beautiful, isn’t anything much except a Mary Sue.
When I discovered she’s a virgin at 29, I nearly gave up there and then, but it’s a short book, so I persisted. Since she isn’t particularly traditional and had made out with a guy in college but not gone All The Way, there doesn’t seem to be a real reason she hadn’t popped her cherry before now. Probably because it means Javad could engage in some chest-beating, Tarzan style.
The background is very thin, with no real feel for the east, either in reality or the exotic alternative. Arya and Javad are completely westernised, so no Bedouin tents or national costume for them, although at one point Arya fantasises about Javad in flowing robes. A shame that isn’t carried through, as it makes the speculation somewhat pointless. It would have been fun if he’d turned up at the third party in his eastern duds, swept her onto his white horse and carried her off into the desert for some fun and games, Sheikh style.
To go with her fantasies, he has a mild shoe fetish. Very mild, so he looks at them and imagines women wearing high heels, digging them into his back while he fucks them. Later, she does, so at least this one is followed through.
There is a totally unnecessary bit of play about her asking him to pimp for his brother. Since the reader knows that’s never going to happen, because duh, Javad is the hero, and this isn’t a ménage, it seems somewhat pointless. Why would she suddenly decide that she wants to hump his brother, and why would his brother even think about it?
There is some clumsiness in the style.
“A masculine thrill lit him up as he felt her shiver under his touch.” Well yes, he’s male so any thrills he might have are masculine. He thinks about her “bosom” – what man does that? Tits, breasts, yes, but bosom?
“You have an obligation, at least that’s what her father would tell her.” How many tenses do you need in one sentence?
Repetition, non sequitors, and the plodding inevitability of the story make this a disappointing read.
Grade: D
Summary:
What’s a little seduction between friends?
Arya Mokri, the ultimate wallflower, has to stop dreaming of His Royal Highness, Sheikh Javad Shirin, or she’s going to lose her mind. She’s been crushing on him for months and it’s time to move on. If he won’t have her, she’ll find someone who will…
A consummate diplomat, Sheikh Javad would never dream of sleeping with the woman whose friendship he values so much. But when she arrives at an event in a dress showing too much skin and even more poor judgment, he finds himself wondering what it would look like on his bedroom floor. Worse, his suddenly sexy friend plans an affair with his own brother.
Tonight, he vows, her plans will change. Whether she wants them to or not.
Read an excerpt.
