ARC Review: Christmas Bride For The Sheikh by Carol Marinelli (Ruthless Royal Sheikhs)

Title: Christmas Bride For The Shiekh

          (Ruthless Royal Sheikhs)

Author: Carol Marinelli

Release Date: December 1, 2017 (ARC)

Publisher: Harlequin ~ Medical Romances

Category: Contemporary Romance

Type: Digital/Paperback/Hardcover

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Carol Marinelli Website

Blurb:

His midwife under the mistletoe

This Christmas, midwife Flo is determined to avoid all mistletoe! Though she’s a secret 

romantic, she’s fed up with only kissing frogs. Until she meets notorious sheikh prince Hazin al-Razim and is enticed into the most sizzling night of her life…

Hazin hides a wealth of pain behind his playboy facade, and beautiful Flo is the first person to warm his frozen heart. So, when she’s hired to deliver his brother’s Christmas Eve baby, it’s Hazin’s chance to claim his own Christmas miracle—Flo as his bride!

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Favorite Line(s):

‘The carpenter’s door is broken,’ he concluded, and when she gaped at his odd choice of words Hazin better explained. ‘It is an Arabic saying. It means that you rush around taking care of others while neglecting your own needs.’  ~  Hazin

Excerpt:

I promise I’ll be good.

Florence Andrews lay on her side beneath the sheets, with a heavy male arm pinning her, and promised that if the powers that be could possibly reverse the mistakes made last night then she would be good for the rest of her life.

‘Morning,’ he said sleepily, and she felt the morning swell of him on the back of her thigh. It was so insistent he might just as well have been prodding her to get up.

She said nothing, deciding it was far safer to feign sleep. Flo was all too used to getting it wrong with men.

Petite, with blonde hair and china-blue eyes, Flo had found that she attracted a rather specific type of male—ones whose names began with a B and ended with a D.

Bad.

Bastard.

Either would fool her.

The last man she had dated had practically had to come with written references before she’d even agreed to go out with him, yet he had turned out to be just like the rest.

A louse.

In fact, even thinking of him had Flo screwing her eyes more tightly closed in shame.

She’d sworn off men, so it had been an awfully long time since she’d gone out with anyone.

Not that she and Hazin had ever been out. It hadn’t even been a date.

She opened her eyes and the view of a cold, grey London in autumn was as stunning as it had been last night. Big Ben let her know it was just after eight and from the dizzy height of the presidential suite it looked like a black and white photo, except for the rain hitting the vast windows.

Flo knew she had outdone herself in the rake stakes this time.

Sheikh Prince Hazin al-Razim of Zayrinia came with warnings attached rather than references. She knew his title, not because he had told her but because of her friend.

Well, she had actually known of him before Maggie had got mixed up with his brother. Scandalous photos of Hazin were plastered over the Internet. His handsome face and naked body—with a generous black rectangle covering the necessary—appeared from time to time in the trashy magazines that the mothers read on the maternity ward where she was a midwife.

They would sometimes even giggle with Flo about him. His reputation was appalling. Hazin was completely irredeemable; in fact, he was bad to the bone. Yet he was adored by all.

And last night he had been, without a shadow of doubt, the best lover of her life.

Hazin had either fainted from a lack of blood to the head or he was asleep again, because the arm that had been pulling her back was loose now on her stomach and his breathing was even.

It gave her a pause.

How long the peace would last, she could not be sure.

Did she tell him she knew who he was and explain how their seemingly chance meeting had come about?

Would there even be conversation, given all they had between them was sex?

How the hell had she got into this mess? Flo wondered as she lay there. She was supposed to have been helping out her friend!

Dialogue Highlight:

‘What’s this?’ he asked, and picked up the ladybird.

Flo battled with disappointment for she had been certain a kiss was just a breath away, but she tried to keep it from her voice as she answered his question. ‘A rattle.’

He gave it a little shake. ‘Won’t he be too young to be into music?’

‘It’s not a maraca.’ Flo laughed but then it faded. She couldn’t really believe that he didn’t know what toys were for. ‘Well, I guess it could be for music, but really it’s just a plaything.’ He was looking past her shoulder and Flo turned and followed his gaze to the vase she had decorated. ‘It’s tinsel.’

‘That I had worked out.’

‘I’m having Christmas withdrawal. I miss all the build-up…’Flo admitted. ‘I’ll ring my family on the day and we’re going to have another Christmas when I get back home, but it’s not the same. Mind you, last year was awful,’ Flo said. ‘I couldn’t stand to admit to my family that I’d found out he was married. I was ashamed enough without all of them knowing.’

‘So you pretended you were fine.’

Flo nodded. ‘I didn’t do a very good job of it, though. I forgot to put my stocking out…’

‘Stocking?’

‘You know!’ Flo couldn’t believe he hadn’t heard of it. ‘You practically grew up in England.’

‘Ah, but I came back here on the Christmas breaks.’

‘Well, on Christmas Eve you hang up a stocking at the end of the bed, and then when you wake up it’s filled with presents and nuts and fruit.’

‘Who fills it?’

‘Father Christmas.’

Hazin frowned and she guessed that if he hadn’t heard of Christmas stockings and thought a baby’s rattle was a musical instrument then some further explaining might be required.

‘Some people call him Santa.’

But she had misread his confusion for it was entirely aimed at her.

‘Flo, I have heard of Santa. Please tell me you don’t believe in him.’

‘Of course not,’ Flo said, ‘but there is a certain magic to Christmas.’

‘So who fills it up?’ he persisted.

‘Stop it,’ she said.

‘Oh, so it’s a magical stocking that you put at the end of your bed?’ he teased.

‘Of course not. It’s my mum who fills it.’

He blinked.

‘While I’m sleeping, though I don’t tell her that I know it’s her…’

‘You live with your parents?’

‘No, but I go home for Christmas.’

‘And you’re telling me that at the age of…’ He waited and she reluctantly gave her age.

‘Twenty-nine.’

‘At the age of twenty-nine your mother creeps into your bedroom and pretends to be Santa while you pretend that you don’t know it’s her…’

‘Pretty much.’ Flo nodded.

‘How bizarre.’

‘It’s actually very lovely,’ Flo said, and then she sighed. ‘I was so excited to come here, and I still am, but I really am missing Christmas.’

‘It hasn’t happened yet.’ Hazin pointed out.

‘And it won’t—Maggie’s never really been into it. I think because it stirs up memories of her mum. I just love it, though.’

She told him about the other traditions her family kept up, which right now she missed, like presents under the tree and the decorations. ‘On Christmas Eve Mum lights these redcurrant candles and she makes this gorgeous mulled wine with a little sachet of spices. It’s my favourite scent in the whole world,’ Flo said, but then she flicked her eyes away at the sound of her own lie, for she had a new favourite scent.

Hazin.

Review:

Florence Andrews has gotten herself in a pickle as a favor to her best friend – her best fried who is pregnant with a Sheikh’s baby. Flo’s mission is to find his brother, Hazin, and help break the news so that Ilyas can know he is going to be a father. Except Ilyas and Maggie don’t show and instead Flo and Hazin are thrown together. Their attraction leads to a one-night stand neither had planned, but when Hazin find out that Flo knew who he was all along, he assumes she is after him for his title and wealth like everyone else. Flo wants him, but not for any of the usual reasons. Convincing him will take an act of God because running in to him isn’t something that easily happens when you live worlds away. Wrinkling their possible relationship further, is Hazin’s lonely upbringing, which causes him to struggle to realize that anyone could really love him. He’s always been the spare and nothing more.

Sheikh Prince Hazin al-Razim is completely confused by Flo. She isn’t like any woman he has ever been with and discovering her underhanded tactics are more than he cares to deal with, so he walks away. By the time he realizes the truth, it all seems too late. He didn’t think that her being best friends with his sister-in-law would mean she’d be around on several unexpected occasions. So when Flo agrees to be present to deliver his nephew, he knows he only has one chance to make things right between them, as long as he doesn’t push her away first. And while he doesn’t entirely understand the traditions of Christmas that Flo is reminiscing about, he knows a way to help lessen her melancholy – and hopefully prove his feelings once and for all.

I found this story to be a very fast read, sweet, and entertaining. I didn’t connect with Flo quite as well as I did with Hazin, but I believe that is due to the fact that we get quite a bit more backstory to Hazin. He’s been through a crazy amount of heart-breaking situations since he was a child and the reader ends up feeling so bad for him – if anyone deserves happiness, he does. But his guilt regarding the circumstances with his first wife nearly costs him a future with his one true love. While Flo is a likeable character, I just felt like she was slightly lacking – almost as if there was more to her story that we didn’t get. Ultimately I enjoyed getting to know them both and watch them struggle with how to make that HEA come about. 

I am extremely curious about this book though because it is the second in the series with Ilyas and Maggie being the first story. Quite a lot of their story was told in this book, so I wonder just how far their story went in the first book and if any of the content in book two is repeat, or supplementary detail. This book still reads well as a standalone, but given the huge part that Maggie and Ilyas play within the pages, I would venture a guess that reading pleasure would be heightened quite significantly if read in order. Additionally, having a connection to Ilyas and Maggie from the first book and going into the second book would have likely strengthened the bond I was missing with Flo. Having not read book one, I would classify this book more as a continuation of the first couple – but their story didn’t have as much to tell, so it was built around and with Flo and Hazin in mind. If that even makes sense. 

That all notated, the book was still enjoyable and kept me engaged. There were a couple of areas that were a bit slow, but then it picked back up again and got moving. I think the potions in which Flo and Hazin were apart tended to move a bit slower than when they were together and interacting. Those who enjoy HEA, or Harlequin books, or books with Sheikh’s contained in the plot will surely be pleased with this story. You can easily make an afternoon of this book since it is not all that long. However, I would recommend reading in order for an enhanced reading experience. With a Christmas-theme interwoven in the plot, this is the perfect time of year to give it a read. 

Kindle version provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.