Veena’s review of Defiant in the Desert by Sharon Kendrick
Contemporary Romance published by Harlequin Presents 01 Dec 13
This is really two books under one cover but both dealing with sexy sheikhs and fictional oil-rich Middle Eastern Kingdoms. These books are largely predictable, yet they’re a great short and quick escape from day-to-day reality.
In the first story, Defiant in the Desert, Sarah Williams leaves her desert home and life as a privileged princess to return to her mother’s home in England and lives as an ordinary young Englishwoman burying her head in the proverbial sand, leaving behind her upbringing as a princess in a middle Eastern kingdom.
One night her blissful idyll is interrupted by Suleiman, whom she idolized in her teen years. However, Suleiman doesn’t appear to harbor any soft feelings for her and has arrived as an emissary from her fiancé to escort her back home for her wedding.
As they travel to the desert and circumstances cause them to spend time together, can they find a way to forge a future that is different from the one planned for them?
The second story, The Sheikh’s Undoing, deals with a second son, a sheikh in his own right, of an oil-rich kingdom who prefers to forsake his desert kingdom and home for a life in the Western world. He’s a typical billionaire playboy with his wonderful looks and the women who constantly flock around him.
Isobel, his personal assistant, has always loved him from afar. She keeps his life operating smoothly at the expense of her own personal life. Suddenly the status quo changes when he’s injured in a car accident and needs her as more than an efficient PA. Away from his high-octane lifestyle, they are thrown together in very different circumstances, causing them to see and appreciate a different side of each other.
Can they change their dynamic to a romantic one? Will she be able to forge the bridge that reconnects him to his family and help him find peace and absolution? This story is very typical, predictable Harlequin Presents.
Grade: C
Summary:
Only Scandal Will Do
Sara Williams’s hand in marriage was bought to cover a debt. But she’s determined never to marry anyone!
Diplomat Suleiman Abd al-Aziz must deliver Sara to her desert destiny. But with Sara set on escaping her marriage by seducing him, his iron will is sorely tested!
Also includes: The Sheikh’s Undoing
Life in the fast lane!
Independent Prince Tariq Kadar al Hakam counts on no one. So when a car accident leaves this dynamic sheikh reliant on his sensible PA, Isobel Mulholland, he’s furious!
But with Isobel at his beck and call, could her enchanting touch, in fact, be Tariq’s undoing…?
Read an excerpt.
