BOOK REVIEW:
The Sheikh's Guarded Heart
So this is
my first “Sheikh” romance in a while. I make it a point to avoid these type of
books with this brand of Middle Eastern hero, just ‘cause there’s a trope that
often depicts them as being super Alpha, barbaric even!
I don’t have
any deserve to waste my time on romance heroes I’m going to hate. But I went in
reading this with a grain of salt. I told myself I’d DNF this if it got to be unbearable,
but thankfully it didn’t.
Our hero is Sheikh
Hanif al-Khatib and he ends up saving the heroine, Lucy Forrester in the
beginning. Saves her and then invites her to recuperate at his oasis garden
palace while her lost documents for her return to the home in the UK are put
together for her by her embassy.
Of course
close quarters begins to breed even more attraction and Lucy and Hanif (or Han,
as she called him) learn about the hardships of the each other’s lives: Lucy
was an abandoned child and she was raised by her austere, difficult grandmother
who pushed religion on her. Hanif lost his wife and he isn’t about to win Father
of the Year for raising his toddler daughter.
I liked
Hanif because he wasn’t bat shit crazy. Usually these alpha Sheikh heroes are
all in the Western heroines face, trying to control her and crap, and there’s
cultural difference that don’t make the story deep but only aggravate an
already cliché plot.
Hanif was
all right. Yeah there are moments where he shows “wisdom” about something or
another, but Lucy gets her say – and she gets it a lot. Lucy was okay as far as
heroines go. She’s bland in personality even if Hanif bolsters her poor
self-confidence in her image by repeatedly telling her she’s beautiful whenever
his breath is taken away or something. I did feel bad for Lucy. She had a
pretty hard life growing up and it’s aggravated by a recently bad stunt that leads
her through the desert of Hanif’s country and literally into his arms.
It wasn’t
bad. I actually enjoyed it more when Ameerah, Hanif’s little daughter came to
the garden palace. She brightened things up a bit and it felt like the story
was moving forward.
Hanif wasn’t
a passionate guy even if he seemed pretty intent on getting with Lucy. I should
warn that this book is a sweet romance. So no sex. Not even closed doors. They
wait until marriage, presumably, and that doesn’t take place on paper.
Still as far
as Sheikh romances go, I’d say this one is safe if you’re a reader like me that
can’t tolerate that image of the barbaric Arab hero who beats his chest when
the predominantly white, Western heroine doesn’t listen to his Eastern
philosophies…blahblahbleck!
My verdict:
✮✮✮.5
✮✮✮.5
(3.5 stars)
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