Layla has been cursed with terrible luck ever since she decided to fly to the desert nation of Al Ankhara in search of the father she never knew. After their reunion, her father tricks her, locks her up in his estate and gives her away, as if she’s an object, to be married to an unknown enemy! But it’s not like Layla to give up easily. She manages to escape her guard and make a run for it, until she’s spotted by none other than the handsome and haughty Sheikh Halil.
The Sheikh's wife is back...in his bed! Sheikh Kahlil al-Assad hasn't forgiven Bryn for abandoning her wedding vows. Then he discovers that he's also missed out on the first years of his son's life. Kahlil decides to take revenge. Bryn didn't realize—they are still husband and wife! She knows she can't deny Ben the daddy he's been asking for. So she agrees to return to Kahlil's desert kingdom. There she finds herself consigned to the harem quarters, where she must prepare for being taken back...into the Sheikh's bed!
She can save her marriage--by getting pregnant! A year has passed since Leona left her husband, Sheikh Hassan ben Khalifa Al-Qadim. She misses him very much, but what was the point of staying when she'd failed to deliver the one thing Hassan needed--a child and heir? When Hassan tricks her into returning to him, Leona is furious and puzzled. Why does he want her by his side again and back in his bed?
Can love triumph when it's held hostage by culture clash? Meet three irresistible desert princes who have it all--looks, charm, wealth and sexiness to spare. When three captivating, desirable Western beauties enter their lives--spirited, independent, defiant women so utterly unlike those from their homeland--how can they fail to fall for them, and fall hard? But a sheikh is accustomed to getting everything he wants on his own terms. And love can't be won that way--it must be earned, not commanded. Prepare to be swept away by the blazing heat and breathtaking passion of desert romance at its finest in three riveting stories by top selling Harlequin Presents author Sandra Marton. Bundle includes: The Sheikh's Defiant Bride, The Sheikh's Wayward Wife and The Sheikh's Rebellious Mistress.
A royal sheikh is out for revenge against the woman who stole his heart—and his fortune—in the USA Today–bestselling author’s sexy international romance. Sheikh Salim al Taj, crown prince of Senahdar, never mixes business and pleasure—until a night of unbridled passion with employee Grace Hunter makes him rethink all the rules he lives by. Afraid that his desire for her could compromise his judgment, he conjures every ounce of self-control to keep her at arm’s length. But when Grace suddenly disappears—along with ten million dollars of Salim’s money—the sheikh’s desire turns to a lust for revenge. He resolves to bring his runaway rebellious mistress to heel—slowly, pleasurably and mercilessly. . . .
A Middle Eastern prince is out to tame an outspoken woman who has it all—including his child—in this international romance. Tariq, Crown Prince of Dubaac, is desperately in need of an heir. Though duty demands he choose a wife who will obey him day and night, he cannot deny his yearning for tech executive Madison Whitney. The self-assured beauty couldn ́t be less appropriate for the role of Tariq’s bride. But while she has no intention of marrying, an extraordinary twist of fate leaves her pregnant with Tariq’s child! Now Tariq must claim his defiant bride—and their baby—by seduction if not abduction. . . .
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.
The Sheik—E. M. Hull’s best-selling novel that became a wildly popular film starring Rudolph Valentino—kindled “sheik fever” across the Western world in the 1920s. A craze for all things romantically “Oriental” swept through fashion, film, and literature, spawning imitations and parodies without number. While that fervor has largely subsided, tales of passion between Western women and Arab men continue to enthrall readers of today’s mass-market romance novels. In this groundbreaking cultural history, Hsu-Ming Teo traces the literary lineage of these desert romances and historical bodice rippers from the twelfth to the twenty-first century and explores the gendered cultural and political purposes that they have served at various historical moments. Drawing on “high” literature, erotica, and popular romance fiction and films, Teo examines the changing meanings of Orientalist tropes such as crusades and conversion, abduction by Barbary pirates, sexual slavery, the fear of renegades, the Oriental despot and his harem, the figure of the powerful Western concubine, and fantasies of escape from the harem. She analyzes the impact of imperialism, decolonization, sexual liberation, feminism, and American involvement in the Middle East on women’s Orientalist fiction. Teo suggests that the rise of female-authored romance novels dramatically transformed the nature of Orientalism because it feminized the discourse; made white women central as producers, consumers, and imagined actors; and revised, reversed, or collapsed the binaries inherent in traditional analyses of Orientalism.
Since the 1970s, romance novels have surpassed all other genres in terms of popularity in the United States, accounting for half of all mass market paperbacks sold and driving the digital publishing revolution. Romance Fiction and American Culture brings together scholars from the humanities, social sciences, and publishing to explore American romance fiction from the late eighteenth to the early twenty-first century. Essays on interracial, inspirational, and LGBTQ romance attend to the diversity of the genre, while new areas of inquiry are suggested in contextual and interdisciplinary examinations of romance authorship, readership, and publishing history, of pleasure and respectability in African American romance fiction, and of the dynamic tension between the genre and second wave feminism. As it situates romance fiction among other instances of American love culture, from Civil War diaries to Bob Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks, Romance Fiction and American Culture confirms the complexity and enduring importance of this most contested of genres.
Once Ava Halliburton shared a tender night of passion with Caleb Gilchrist. The next day, she left—not to return for ten years…. But now she's home for a wedding. And Caleb's the best man: richer and sexier than ever, with a playboy reputation. Caleb still wants her. But Ava walked out on him, and he's no gentleman. One night, and then he'll be the one to walk away….
