This book contains:
- Rape
- Slavery
- Physical and emotional assault
- Domestic and family violence
- Murder
- Gambling addiction.
Katherine Fairfax is our leading lady. Born and raised as the daughter of a Lord, she’s expected to make a good marriage and have children. Instead, her father educated her and nurtured her strong will and determination that she channels into avoiding marriage for now.
Sheik Mohammed is our leading man and rules his household well. While he’s a man of his country, religion and time; he’s forward thinking enough that he isn’t offensive to our modern Western expectations and sensibilities. While he comes across as too controlling and manipulative at times, those traits are balanced out by his love, care and devotion to his household.
Katherine finds herself on her way to Arabia where she’s sold to Sheik Mohammad after refusing multiple proposals from English Lords. While working in Mohammad’s harem, she finds herself inextricably drawn to him in ways she can’t explain. As Mohammad’s infatuation grows, we see our story play out across both Arabia and England.
I’ve read a few different books by Nicola, and I can honestly say that I can clearly see how her writing has developed over the years. The first book of hers I read came out around the same time as this but was more of a romance than an erotica so was fairly clean, and the style is more in line with her writing in her newest books.
However, in this book, I found it to be much cruder, the changes between points of views were more difficult to identify and process and the way it was put together was much more immature than her current writing.
That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy the book. I did!
I just found it jarring at times and a stark contrast to her current books. Which is bound to happen as writers produce more books. Their early books will almost always feel quite different to their newest books (especially when they’ve been writing for a decade or more!).
So while I enjoyed this book, if you prefer writing that’s not as harsh, this one probably isn’t for you. But some of her later books may be more your style.
