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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Terrific historical read, March 4, 2007
This review is from: The Sword & the Sheath (Mass Market Paperback)
I started this book the moment I got it and couldn't put it down. This is the fifth book in Vanak's Egyptian series, set in Victorian and now Edwardian-era Egypt. Fatima has just returned to Egypt from England where she lived during World War I and is not happy that her family wants her to resume the traditional role she'd play in her tribe--waiting on men and doing the laundry.
Fatima was educated in an English college and would have seen the woman's suffrage movement in England full throttle, not to mention women becoming ambulence drivers and the like during the war. She knows she's a better warrior than her twin, Asad, who is the Guardian of Tarik, the sheik's son, and proves it. She has the Sight as well, visions that trouble her and yet save Tarik's life more than once.
Fatima and Tarik have great chemistry--the woman who wants to be a warrior, and the man who wants to protect her. Tarik is gorgeous and sexy and Fatima gives back as good as she gets. The h/h grew up together, and their growing awareness of love and physical attraction for one another is delightful.
This book can stand on its own, but it's a treat to see the characters from the previous books, like revisiting old friends. All the characters are twined together in a deeply satisfying, well-written book that's a keeper for me.
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Hot and Sensual Egyptian Historical 4-1/2*, March 1, 2007
This review is from: The Sword & the Sheath (Mass Market Paperback)
Author Vanak continues her very thrilling and sensual Egyptian Khamsin warrior series featuring the off-spring of heroes and heroines from her previous novels, (see THE FALCON & THE DOVE and THE TIGER & THE TOMB) with the heir to the sheik Tarik and Fatima the twin daughter of Ramses the current sheik's Guardian. Fatima is a most unusual female not only being gifted with a psychic talent of predicting the future but also with a burning desire to become the first female Guardian Khamsin warrior as a bodyguard to her childhood friend Tarik. Not only was this a total break with tradition in a culture where women were meant to be married, produce children and care for the well being of their husbands but Tarik was aghast that Fatima wanted to be his bodyguard, when all he could think of where he wanted to find her body. That being - beneath him - in his bed - as his lover.
In this fifth novel set in Egypt Vanak once again gifts the readers with a lush, sensual tale that burns as hot as the Middle Eastern locale she sets her story in. Fatima is characterized as a very sensual exotic hot house flower - a rose with thorns who has the ability, and the burning desire to dream of being more than just wife and mother. With her psychic abilities she has saved Tarik's life several times already and loving him as she has since childhood, knows that she is the only one who can save him from the assassins who want him dead. Tarik is of course, larger than life, fashioned beautifully as handsome, sensual, and using humorous innuendoes parried back and forth with Fatima that make their dialogs a titillating exercise in foreplay. Vanak is a master storyteller who has created a stirring and extremely lush and adventuresome series that is original, hotter than sin and highly entertaining. For a taste of something different in your historical reading this is a series that shouldn't be missed and an author who knows how to deliver an exciting sensual adventure story!
Marilyn Rondeau
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
great Sahara Desert historical romantic thriller, March 3, 2007
This review is from: The Sword & the Sheath (Mass Market Paperback)
Ramses bin Asad Sharif's daughter Fatima dreams of becoming a Khamsin warrior though she knows females are banned from becoming warriors let alone carrying weapons. She has a deep need to prove to doubters that she can perform the duty and an even deeper obsession to keep her people safe. She feels strongly that as a Khamsin warrior she can do so especially if she also uses her gift to foresee events that have always made her unwelcome in most circles.
When Fatima saves Tarik's life due to her sight skill, he gives her a chance to become a warrior. Tarik has been friends with Fatima for years, but wants much more from her. He has waited a long time for his Tima and feels soon he will tell her how he feels about her which goes way beyond friendship. However, when his Tima comes home to keep him safe from an assassin, she catches him making love to another woman. He knows how much harder it will be to persuade his warrior woman she is the one for him when she insists she just wants to protect him from those who want him dead.
The latest Sahara Desert historical romance is a great thriller, perhaps the best in the series, due to Fatima, a unique heroine with an obsession to protect her people which means entering an exclusive male only guard. The story line is fast-paced and filled with action adventure while allowing for strong characterization and a deep sense of time and place. Readers will taste the sands as Bonnie Vanak provides an energetic, vivid yet entertaining tale.
Harriet Klausner
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