It's been five years since Alexa set eyes on Giovanni de Verrazzano--five years since she walked out on their pretense of a marriage and took with her a precious secret. Since discovering that he is the son of a powerful desert ruler, Giovanni is determined that Alexa resume her role as his wife and accompany him to his desert kingdom. But how will this proud Italian, of Kharastani descent, react when he discovers he has a son?
This book, the first full-length cross-period comparison of medieval and modern literature, offers cutting edge research into the textual and cultural legacy of the Middle Ages: a significant and growing area of scholarship. At the juncture of literary, cultural and gender studies, and capitalizing on a renewed interest in popular western representations of the Islamic east, this book proffers innovative case studies on representations of cross-religious and cross-cultural romantic relationships in a selection of late medieval and twenty-first century Orientalist popular romances. Comparing the tropes, characterization and settings of these literary phenomena, and focusing on gender, religion, and ethnicity, the study exposes the historical roots of current romance representations of the east, advancing research in Orientalism, (neo)medievalism and medieval cultural studies. Fundamentally, Representing Difference invites a closer look at medieval and modern popular attitudes towards the east, as represented in romance, and the kinds of solutions proposed for its apparent problems.
A billionaire is reunited with his convenient wife and discovers a real passion for her in this international romance from a USA Today–bestselling author. Stavros Denakis is furious when Tessa Marlowe turns up without warning. Weary and cynical from his past experiences with women, Stavros suspects the wife he hardly knows is a gold digger—surely she’s here to claim her share of the Denakis millions. But Tessa is a temptation that he can’t resist . . . Bedded by her gorgeous Greek husband, Tessa realizes she has fallen in love with him, and longs for their marriage to become real. Only, Stavros, though he may be passionate in private, remains cold in public, and is determined they stay married in name only . . .
She'd meant to have a baby for her sister, but an IVF clinic mix-up means party planner Sheridan Sloane is now carrying the heir of Rashid al-Hassan, the desert king of Kyr!
His sinful desert seduction… Sheikh Ilyas al-Razim was born to be king. He won’t let anything stand in his way, especially not the waitress daring to think she can blackmail him! It’s his duty to protect his family’s honor—even if it means taking impossibly stunning Maggie Delaney as his hostage… Beneath the starlit skies of Zayrinia’s desert, defiant Maggie convinces Ilyas she is innocent of his accusations. No longer his prisoner, Maggie is free to return home…yet now she’s held captive by their smoldering raw desire! Dare she surrender to the pleasure this desert prince promises?
After her sister and mother died of brain cancer, Imogen noticed she was experiencing the same symptoms they did. So she prepares for her death and flies to Paris to spend her last days in luxury. There she attends a high-class party and meets a Frenchman named Thierry. The two hit it off and spend a passionate two weeks together. On her way home, though, Imogen learns she is pregnant. What a dreadful turn of events… She explains the situation to Thierry, but his reaction is beyond anything she expected!
Angele has longed for her betrothal to Crown Prince Zahir to be consummated within wedlock. She naively hoped her promised husband would wait for her, as she would him—but compromising paparazzi photos have dashed those youthful dreams…. She cannot become Zahir's wife out of duty and endure a loveless union; she must let him go free…but on one condition. Without taking Angele's hand in marriage, will the proud sheikh agree to give her the wedding night she has long dreamed of?
The forgotten story of Central Asia's enlightenment—its rise, fall, and enduring legacy In this sweeping and richly illustrated history, S. Frederick Starr tells the fascinating but largely unknown story of Central Asia's medieval enlightenment through the eventful lives and astonishing accomplishments of its greatest minds—remarkable figures who built a bridge to the modern world. Because nearly all of these figures wrote in Arabic, they were long assumed to have been Arabs. In fact, they were from Central Asia—drawn from the Persianate and Turkic peoples of a region that today extends from Kazakhstan southward through Afghanistan, and from the easternmost province of Iran through Xinjiang, China. Lost Enlightenment recounts how, between the years 800 and 1200, Central Asia led the world in trade and economic development, the size and sophistication of its cities, the refinement of its arts, and, above all, in the advancement of knowledge in many fields. Central Asians achieved signal breakthroughs in astronomy, mathematics, geology, medicine, chemistry, music, social science, philosophy, and theology, among other subjects. They gave algebra its name, calculated the earth's diameter with unprecedented precision, wrote the books that later defined European medicine, and penned some of the world's greatest poetry. One scholar, working in Afghanistan, even predicted the existence of North and South America—five centuries before Columbus. Rarely in history has a more impressive group of polymaths appeared at one place and time. No wonder that their writings influenced European culture from the time of St. Thomas Aquinas down to the scientific revolution, and had a similarly deep impact in India and much of Asia. Lost Enlightenment chronicles this forgotten age of achievement, seeks to explain its rise, and explores the competing theories about the cause of its eventual demise. Informed by the latest scholarship yet written in a lively and accessible style, this is a book that will surprise general readers and specialists alike.
