Her Ardent Sheikh

The Oil Prince "As long as you are with me, no harm will come to you." So Sheikh Ben Rassad promised to beauty in jeopardy Jamie Morris, who aroused his need to protect. Though he reminded himself she was as innocent as he was jaded, their passion soon ignited. When he discovered she carried his kingdom's heir, Ben wished to make her his bride. Did he dare hope to convince Jamie she was the one woman who could understand the man beneath the prince?

I was on the fence between 4 and 3 and a half as I liked this book OK, but I've certainly read better, and I've certainly read better Arab/American love stories too. It was the first book I read of the Cattleman series, although I plan on reading shortly Matt and Helena's story, which intrigues me greatly. There's much tweaking in this book from the other romances, although they have already happened, so it does pique your interest, which I'm sure is the whole point. This book was strange in that I actually liked the man much better than the woman. I thought Jamie was rather egotistical in many ways, and entirely too head-strong for her own good. I've noticed that some authors in their quest to make their woman very strong and with a backbone, they tend to overreach it and make them so head-strong, they are plain stupid. That's Jamie to a tee. She's so full of what SHE wants, she doesn't care what the consequences are. For anything she wants. She makes foolish mistakes even if she knows her life is in danger, but hey, she wants to have a horse-back ride. She wants Sheikh Ben, so she's going to seduce him whether he likes it or not. He did, of course, like it, but he was also trying to be honorable, and I thought she was pretty careless about that. Ben had a tendency to come off as unemotional throughout the book, but I tend to think it was the fault of the author to rush the book forward, so didn't go into depth in some places she could have. I think Ben was the most more mature individual of the two where Jamie acted quite frequently like an adolescent. All in all, it was a nice romance, and they made a good couple, both head-strong and independent. Should make for an interesting marriage, and I hope mention is made of them to see how they are in future books. I recommend it.

Jamie and Sheikh Ben Rassad have some cultural differences to overcome but are deeply attracted to each other from the start. The challenges he has protecting her are made more difficult when she decides to be difficult. Both are strong characters who must learn to adjust to each other as they fall in love. He is the one who realizes he is falling in love with her first while she thinks it's more physical. It's a good story filled with intrigue and passion. I haven't read the other books in this series yet so these characters were all new to me. This was also my first book from Silhouette's 'Desire' line which is more sexually descriptive than I've ever read in a romance novel before. The sex wasn't overdone but it may make you blush depending on the type of books you're used to reading. Enjoy! :)

If you have been reading the Texas Cattleman's Club-Lone Star Jewels series than you know that Sheikh Ben Rassad promised to protect Jamie Morris. Jamie is in danger from the man that stole the jewels belonging to the town of Royal. This person will do anything, even kill to get the jewels back, and for some reason he is under the assumption that Jamie has the jewels. Ben is trying to be the honorable man that he is and protect Jamie while he keeps his feelings for her to himself. This, however, proves to be most difficult since Jamie sets out to seduce Ben. The problem comes when after Jamie gets her way and Ben realizes he took her innocence that he proposes marriage. Ben and Jamie are from different cultures and Ben feels that marriage is the honorable thing to do, plus she may be carrying his heir. Jamie, of course, wants him to love her and not see her as an obligation. So, after getting Ben into bed like she wanted she high tails it out of there and refuses to give Ben a chance. She insists in her head that Ben must tell her that he loves her before she will marry him (yet she never told him that she loved him). This was a good story even if I did not care much for Jamie. Of course, I do not think that I would have cared for this book as much if I had not already read the other books in the series.