Veena’s review of Forged in the Desert Heat by Maisey Yates
Contemporary Romance published by Harlequin Presents 01 Jan 14
I read Harlequin Presents as an escape where I don’t have to think and so long as they have the requisite formula and happy ending, I am conten. But this one is definitely better than the run of the mill and I quite enjoyed it.
Analise Christenson is an heiress, daughter of an oil tycoon and engaged to a desert sheikh when she finds herself stranded in the desert where she is kidnapped and sold. Fortunately for her, she ends up in the hands of Sheikh Zafar, who needs her to civilize him for his new role as the ruler of a small but strategic desert kingdom.
The chemistry between them, though forbidden, is red hot, but more than that they are able to pierce the facades they both hide behind to find the real people they really are and become true friends. Their time, however, is temporary since Ana is engaged to another sheikh with whom her oil tycoon father is negotiating a deal.
It’s refreshing that our hero isn’t a the same old billionaire playboy. I like how the author has blended in the discovery of oil and the untold world that is pulling people who have not changed since the biblical times too rapidly into the twenty-first century.
Grade: B
Summary:
The Gypsy Sheikh, betrayer, modern-day marauder—Zafar Nejem has been called many things. And now he is to be called Your Majesty. Returning to the throne of Al Sabah, his first act is to rescue American heiress Analise Christensen from her desert kidnappers.
Since Ana is engaged to the ruler of the neighboring kingdom, her discovery must be concealed until Zafar can explain her presence, or else he risks war. But as the sun rises over the sand dunes, so does the forbidden heat that burns between them, threatening everything….
Read an excerpt.
