Wendy the Super Librarian‘s review of How To Seduce A Sheikh by Marguerite Kaye
Historical romance short story ebook published by Harlequin Historical Undone 01 May 13
I like reading short stories for a variety of reasons, and when they come together well, they can be tasty reads encapsulated in a small package. While I generally enjoy Marguerite Kaye’s historicals and have enjoyed her shorts in the past, this is an instance where I think the plot and characters bite off more than can be chewed in 60-some pages.
A general’s daughter, and now a widow, Colette Beaumarchais found herself in Egypt thanks to Napoleon. Now, soundly defeated, before she can leave the country to return to France, she finds herself kidnapped and paraded before a slave auction. Colette is no fool and knows this predicament she finds herself in will not end well. What she isn’t prepared for? Is Prince Zafar al-Zuhr wandering into the auction and purchasing her after handing over an unholy sum of money.
Zafar has reasons for despising the slave trade and vows to protect Colette and return her to France. Now all he has to do is convince her that he doesn’t plan to rape and/or beat her senseless. The girl seems to have some trust issues. Gee, I wonder why?
Given that Colette is recently widowed (OK, so it wasn’t a love match – but still, her husband did just die!), was kidnapped, was pretty close to being sold into slavery, and presumably very close to an unpleasant future of bondage, repression and repeated rape, a short story just isn’t enough of a word count to convince me of the happy ending. The author does set this story during a, roughly, one-month period – but as the reader, we aren’t around for all four of those weeks. So in 60 pages the reader has to accept that Colette would experience all that stuff and then set the land speed record for wanting to have sex with Zafar, having sex with him, and then falling in love with him.
However, if you can roll with the setup of the story and time table, this is pleasant read. Colette and Zafar are interesting people, are well suited for each other, and the love scenes are suitably seductive. The sense of place is also well drawn – the heat, the rhythm, the exotic feel of an Egyptian desert kingdom come through loud and clear.
It just is too much for me to roll with in a short story. As a full-length novel, giving the author plenty of time to explore the various emotional baggage, traumatic pasts, and political upheaval that Napoleon tended to rile up? There’s certainly more than enough potential here.
Grade: C+
Summary:
Arabia, 1801
Widow Colette Beaumarchais has been captured by a Bedouin tribe in the aftermath of the French retreat from Egypt. She is being sold as a sale in an auction when Prince Zafar al-Zuhr, who has very personal reasons for loathing the slave trade, enters the bidding. Colette believes Zafar has bought her for his harem. Insulted, Zafar decides not to disillusion her to teach her a lesson…
And so begins a sexy, colourful romp in which both Colette and Zafar discover that first impressions can be very, very misleading.
