Comment

Jul 22, 2012vloveg rated this title 3 out of 5 stars
Six years ago, Iris Carpenter met and fell in love with Asad Hanif, not knowing that he was a Bedouin sheikh. After a lifetime of being neglected by her parents, she thought she had found a man with whom she could build a family and a home. Asad had already made plans of his own to marry a princess from a neighboring country, so when things started feeling too cozy with Iris, he broke up with her abruptly and harshly. In all the time since Asad never forgot about Iris, especially when his chosen bride turned out to be selfish and deceitful. Now that he is a widower, Asad has found a way to bring Iris back into his life, and he doesn't plan to let her go. / I waffled back and forth over how well I liked these characters and the story as a whole. There are some neat details and charming side characters. There's plenty of drama to mine with Asad and Iris's respective background, and they do manage to talk through some of it, refreshingly enough. However, the ending just didn't work for me. The whole non-conflict over whether he's trying to influence her results came completely out of left field. Also, it doesn't seem to take much to convince Iris that Asad loves her. At least we have some internal monologue-ing from her earlier in the story where she seems to realize he loves her before he's willing to admit it.