"Wow," I said through my tears at the end of the book. My father and my son looked at me strangely.

This book could have been so very, very hokey, and it was so very not. The key, I think, is the characters; Ms. Madeiros is particularly gifted with her people. They are well rounded, complex, and very believable.

For example, the "lustful sultan" in this book was an absolute sweetie who had to hide his need for spectacles and his appetite for fear he wouldn't seem menacing enough. Despite the fact that he was sort of the villain, I felt awful for him when things didn't go his way, and I cheered for his happy ending.

The hero and heroine are both adults who have made mistakes, and so their HEA is even more gratifying than if they were a charming prince and an innocent maiden, each uniformly good and true, besieged only by outside forces.

I enjoyed this book immensely, and I am eagerly looking forward to the sequel, The Temptation of Your Touch. ( )

De camino a su boda, Clarinda Cardew es secuestrada por corsarios en alta mar junto a Poppy, su mejor amiga. Ambas mujeres están seguras de que serán vendidas como esclavas. Pero el destino quiere que vayan a parar a manos de un sultán, quien, encantado con la belleza de Clarinda, decide llenarla de lujos y tratarla como a una reina, aunque en el fondo no es más que una prisionera en una jaula de cristal. Mientras tanto, su prometido le ha pedido a su hermano, el capitán Ashton Burke, que las rescate. Y si bien la idea de ser salvada por un legendario guerrero despierta las esperanzas de Poppy, Clarinda hace todo lo posible por desalentarla. Es que Clarinda y Ahston fueron, una vez, amantes, y ahora la bella Clarinda teme que un nuevo encuentro con aquel hombre, destinado a ser su cuñado, vuelva a encender la pasión de antaño y la lleve a un punto en que el secuestrado sea su propio corazón.

I love when Ms. Medeiros comes out with a new book. I am also happy to see a historical romance from her. She is wonderful and I can't wait to see if she makes this book a series. Anyway, I had a bit of trouble getting into the book but there are plenty of things I enjoyed once I did.

I love Clarinda, she is a fireball and I loved how she just kept going, like the energizer bunny. I also adore Poppy, even though this is Clarinda's story, Poppy is my favorite. I liked the time frame this book was set it, it felt like an epic adventure novel when I started to read it, usually our proper English Ms doesn't go very far in other historical romances. I like that she is all the way in the Middle East.

I loved the romance and how Ash and Clarinda kept just bantering back and forth without a thought, they kept me smiling and it made it even better when they finally FINALLY got together.

You won't be disappointed in this novel, definitely try it! ( )

This historical romance started out with a good plot as the story unfolded but then it started to get heavy with flashbacks and the action slowed down. I began to lose interest about halfway only reading a couple pages per chapter to get the gist. Aston's brother asks him to rescue Clarinda who is has been kidnapped into a harem. ( )

Medeiros is one of my favorite historical romance authors, but this book was not to the level of her other books, in my opinion. I liked the idea of the Moroccan setting and I thought she painted that picture well, but the characters seemed plastic and some of her word choices were eye-roll-inducing.

There was a nice twist at the very end that I enjoyed, but all in all, not a keeper. ( )