NUMBER: 91TITLE: The Sheik's Secret Bride
AUTHOR: Susan Mallery
STARTED: November 29, 2006
FINISHED: November 30, 2006
PAGES: 251
GENRE: Romance
FIRST SENTENCE: "Oh, Mommy, look!"
SUMMARY: [From the back of the book] Single mom Liana Archer had read her share of romance novels featuring dashing, passionate sheiks. Still, she was astonished when sinfully handsome Malik Khan, Crown Prince of exotic El Bahar, hijacked her and her little girl off an airliner and into his lavish palace. Why would the sexy desert prince want a passable pretty school teacher from San Bernadino?
Dazed, breathless and mesmerized with desire, LIana quickly became Malik's royal bride. But dare she entrust her daughter - or her heart- to a man who would give them anything byt his love? Or might a caring American mother and child finally move this proud, imperious monarch and make his kingdom complete?
REASON FOR READING: Another short one on my way to 100. I am so cheating. But it's my list, so I make the rules. Muhahahaha.
THOUGHTS: I honestly could not enjoy this book because I kept on thinking of the political ramifications of everything that was going on.
1. Malik, the sheik, (god I love rhymes) steals Liana off of a plane. She's an American in a Middle Eastern country. While this book was written before Sept. 2001, I still say that would not have gone over well in the press. Even when Liana contacts the embassy later about her surprise marriage they tell her "Meh, nothing we can do sista." Somehow, I don't think that would happen.
2. Malik's people don't care that he married an American? If he's so beloved by his country, and loves his people so much, why would he up an marry a Westerner?
3. Clearly, marrying someone randomly in a desert nomadic ceremony, without their knowledge or consent is legal. Let's see that one hold up in a court of law.
4. A school teacher clearly makes the best royal ambassador for a country she's never been too.
5. And, even more clearly, the neighboring Arabic countries will readily take to a Western being a royal.
6. Malik, the sheik, wanders around with no royal bodyguards whatsoever. Clearly El Bahar is the safest country in the world and no one would want to assassinate an unguarded royal.
7. Malik, the sheik, is also a Western man in hiding. There was nothing remotely Middle Eastern about him. He's even portrayed as a cross between George Clooney and Cary Grant on the cover of the book.
I know romance novels ask the reader to suspend reality a little bit, but this was just too much.
MISCELLANEOUS: I want to go to Bahrain
KEEP/SHARE/CRINGE(?): Cringe
RATING: 3/10 [Poor, Lost Interest]
CR: Just for Christmas by Stella Bagwell
RN: Little Girl Found by Jo Leigh
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