This is my 1500th review here on Goodreads! I'm happy it's for a book that I enjoyed. Typically, I am not much of a fan of sheikh romances but if you read HPs you'll probably read a few. This one was probably one of the best, if not the best, of this subgenre that I've read.

It had an interesting premise of a woman arrested for drug smuggling and who had spent over a month in a brutal middle eastern prison. She is rescued by a prince/sheikh of a neighboring country. The hero/sheikh, Khalid, was one of my favorite HP heroes ever. His actions seemed plausible and consistent. His sisters had been killed while on holiday ten years earlier. In their memory, he tried, when he was able, to help other women who got into trouble overseas away from home. Things got complicated on this rescue and he needed to claim that the heroine, Olivia, was his fiancé in order to keep her from returning to jail.

Khalid was calm and courteous and kind throughout the book. It was sort of old style in that you didn't get a lot from his POV about how he was falling in love. You did get a few hints from his POV but most of it was inferred from his actions.

I liked Olivia also. She wasn't just a cipher in the story. She was bewildered, a little frightened and out of her element but she was sweet and intelligent.

Unlike some of the most recently published HPs I've read, this one had some wonderful description of the places they visited. It was lovely to read about the exotic places they visited in Egypt. It seems that lately HPs seem to just say "it was a desert country" and leave it at that. Here again, unlike recent HPs, there was a clear sense of time and thank goodness the author clearly stated things like, 'later that night' or' by eleven the next morning' so that the book didn't seem to jump jerkily around.

There was a bit at the end that seemed a bit out of left field. But when I think about what happened he sent her home to America after saying that they would stay married etc. I could see sort of where it came from.

The words that he speaks to her in the final scenes where they finally get together are wonderfully sweet and romantic.

Sorry this is showing up your feeds again. I did some edits for clarity. ( )