Customer Reviews

The Sheik's Secret Bride (Desert Rogues, No. 3)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I really liked this book! Liana is a simple American teacher who has drawn the attention of Crown Prince Malik Khan. Naturally, this is unnerving for her. She understandably finds Prince Malik compelling, but she can't see why he would be interested in her at all. It is very realistic that she continues to have these doubts for quite a while in the story. An average american woman is going to question why she's with a future King, and is not going to just accept it within 2-3 pages. Malik is quite interesting himself. He has been trained since he was 4yrs old to be king. He feels the resposibility and honor of his people very deeply. However, he will not allow softer personal emotions to touch him, especially after the disaster of his first marriage. In fact, until he meets Liana he is willing to accept an arranged marriage. BUT, he does meet Liana and what follows is a touching and extremely romantic story.

I liked this book. It was a decent end to the Sheik's series. I thought the heroine was fleshed out fairly well, not just the caricature the other reviewer felt she was. Yes, there were euphenisms for various body parts during the love scenes. This is fairly standard for romance novels, and the heroine was definitely not a coy miss. It's funny how two people can read the same book and each feel very differently about it. (I agree that Mahil was presented differently in the first two books of the series. Ms. Mallery clearly didn't have her books fully planned out.) Mahil was a most giving lover and husband.

I adore sheik books and this is one of the best of the best. I can't believe how wonderful it was and I simply *adored* both Malik and Liana. He was soulful and brooding and incredibly sexy. She was charming and someone I would want as my best friend. I can't helping wishing El Bahar was real and that stories would go on forever.

I especially enjoyed Malik's need to be loved while fearing giving up his heart. I thought there was a lot of insight into the heart of a man destined to rule his people. This book was fun, hot, a fast read and female fantasy at its best.

Back Cover description: LIANA AND THE KING. 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 passably pretty schoolteacher 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 but his love? Or might a caring American mother and child finally move this proud, imperious monarch and make his kingdom complete?

This was an OK ending to the Desert Rogues brothers series. It just wasn't a great story. This teacher is going to be in this country for two years and it feels like she doesn't have a clue about the country. Also, I agree with some of the other reviewers about how different Malik is in this book than in the other two books. And, what's with these perfect children these heroines always have? If this kid was any better behaved, she'd be a saint.

Lianna Archer and her daughter landed in El Bahar looking forward to their new life and home. Lianna's looking forward to her new job as teacher at one of the schools, getting away from bad memories and saving some money for the future. However, just as they're ready to disembark, a band of men board, among them Crown Prince Malik Khan. This handsome prince spies Lianna and decides he wants this pretty teacher and daughter to stay with him at the Royal palace. He will not take "no" for an answer and whisks them away. The sexual attraction between them was so strong it was frightening. It's a constant battle between them for her to stay in the palace. However, Lianna demands to move to her own quarters the school provided for them.

Days later, the Prince arrives to extend an invitation that Lianna join him in the desert to attend a dinner with a nomad tribe. She is requested to dress appropriately so as not to offend the tribesmen. Little does she know that a marriage ceremony between them has been planned, he requests she stay overnight in the desert and she agrees. The next morning when she finds out they are married, she goes ballistic.

So many questions, she's attracted, can she trust her heart, and can she trust her daughter and her heart to this Crown Prince? What so moved me was Malik's story, his childhood, his first marriage, his inability to trust and feel and when he finally realizes what's it's all about, well it's tender, sweet and a great love story with a Cinderella ending.

i really like this author she has a way with words that will always want you to read more i have all her books read them more then once and that is the thing you want

Susan Mallery did it again. I loved this book and contrary to earlier reviews, I thought the sex scences were hot!

the book was just an increadible piece of writing.the story is sort of "anna and the king" but the author did a great job explainig the feelings and emotions the main characters were going through. Liana, an divorced-single mother american school teacher moves to another country wtih her daughter bethany because of a job offer. at their arrival their plane is sort of sabotaged and there she meets the crown prince,Jamal, for the first time and the two share a strong mutual sexual attraction. Jamal tricks Liana in a cab that takes her to the palace instad of the american school and than later on in the book he tricks her into marriage. She refuses to be with him after that even though she is falling in love with him but she wants him to fall in love with her too and Jamal openly refuses to, because of a previous marriage gone bad. the book is very sensual and very interesting if you like dessert romance and charming princes.

In The Sheik's Secret Bride Liana Archer is a single mother of a nine year old who is off to the fictional country of El Bahar to teach at the America School. As soon as her plane lands it is hijacked by desert rogues. Of course she is concerned, but then the Crown Prince of El Bahar, Malik Khan, immediately assures everyone that the boarding of the plane was only a fantasy being played out for a newly engaged couple. Then Malik and Liana's eyes meet and they are immediately attracted to each other. He pretends indifference at first but then does everything in his power to keep this single mother with him while she resists out of pride and fear.

This is the third book in a series called Desert Rogues and the third that I have read and it is just not good. It's like the author got bored with the story line before she finished her contract. Malik showed up in the other two books and is acting completely out of character. Susan Mallery's sex scenes are so contrived and overblown that I could not stand to read them. for example he "searches for the center of her being" and a "Light dusting of hair bisected his flat belly, drawing her gaze to his impressive throbbing need." The author can not even come close to making these two peoples genitals sound real but later has both of them perform oral sex on the other.

It is like the author found a cardboard copy of what she thought was the average romance reader and put her in as the main character. She made the woman blond, a single mother, 20 pounds overweight and an avid romance reader and she repeats these statistics over and over. Now, I know as a reader of romance novels that occasionally I am going to get a little schmaltz, I like a little schmaltz sometimes. What I don't like is being talked down to and that is what I felt was happening wile I read this book.

The only reason I finished it was because I had read the other two in the series. That is the only reason to buy this book as well.

LIANA AND THE KING.

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 passably pretty schoolteacher 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 but his love? Or might a caring American mother and child finally move this proud, imperious monarch and make his kingdom complete?

Third in the Desert Rogues series