THE PLAYBOY SHEIKH’S VIRGIN STABLE-GIRL - Sharon Kendrick

Author: Sharon Kendrick

Line: Mills and Boon/Harlequin Presents

Release month UK: June 2009/North America: August 2009 (The Royal House of Karedes)

The S-Factor: Sensual

Back-Blurb:

Polo-playing sheikh Prince Kaliq Al'Farisi loves his women as much as his horses. They're wild, willing, and he's their master!

Stable girl Eleni is a local Calistan. Raised by her brutal father on the horse-racing circuit, she feels unlovable. When her precious horses are given to Sheikh Kaliq, she refuses to be parted from them.

The playboy sheikh is determined to bed Eleni—and when Kaliq realizes she's a virgin, the challenge only becomes more interesting….

Review: ♥♥♥♥♥

If you want an intense and a dominating sheikh who demands, commands and expects respect and obedience then The Playboy Sheikh’s Virgin Stable-Girls is for you. In all of my years of reading the sheikh genre, never have I read such a book with a sheikh as bold as Kaliq.

One learns that Kaliq and Eleni met when he arrived at her father’s to play cards. Eleni’s father has her posing as his servant girl and looses his prize race horse to the sheikh which actually is Eleni’s horse whom she adores. When he looks into her beautiful green eyes and sees that she has a special way of dealing with horses, he takes her from her childhood home and brings her back to his palace as his stable girl. She fascinates him, especially her eyes and her innocence and he nicknames her “lizard”.

Sheik Kaliq is a very proud man and one who has a secret which torments him. His sweet stable girl for some reason brings out feelings in him and one day she notices his physical scars and questions how they came to be. Kaliq reveals that he and his brother years ago were held captive while watching their brother and he was swept out to sea and never found again, a secret he had never told to another woman. He then realizes he’s attracted to her and starts the seduction.

For Eleni, her life since her mother died has been a dismal one, waiting on her father and taking care of her horse have been her life. Now she’s living in the palace, working with horses, has a new wardrobe and a sheikh who tells her it’s her duty to be available for her sheikh. Starting with a slow seduction, she’s afraid yet intrigued. When he tells her he’s taking her to England, she’s overwhelmed. However, being the master seducer that he is, he tutors Eleni in the art of love. He also makes it very clear that he doesn’t “do permanent” and she’s determined to please him so much that should he leave her he’ll be hurt remembering their time together.

At times this was hard for me to read as I felt she was being taken advantage of yet sometimes her character surprised me with her strength and insight into her lover. In the end after this demanding sheikh realizes he’s blocked out emotion and he understands why. Somewhere along the way Eleni forced him to confront his deepest fears and when he realized that, the reader will forget how demanding and at times how cruel his remarks were to Eleni. All in all, I enjoyed The Playboy Sheikh’s Virgin Stable-Girl especially when I read about him coming to terms with his past and what Eleni had brought to their relationship.

Hero Hotness Factor♥♥♥♥
Heroine Lovability Factor♥♥♥♥♥
Awww Factor♥♥♥♥♥
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Humour Factor♥
Weepy Factor♥

Reviewed by: Marilyn