Cinderella and the Sheikh

by Teresa Morgan

[EBookObsessed]

Sheikh Rasyn ibn Bakr ibn Rahman al Jabar is the next heir to the throne of Abbas. An honor he does not want. He believes his cousin will be a much better king so he devises a plan to find a foreign wife, a commoner, and a woman so wrong that he will be passed up as heir.

Libby Fey is a waitress in the Hotel Scheherazade an exclusive hotel which caters to rich foreign dignitaries. She has been warmed to avoid getting entangled with the VIPs. But no matter how hard she tries, the prince keeps pursuing her.

After a night of seduction and passion, the prince proposes, stating his undying love for her, and take her home to Abbas. But his plan backfires when Libby starts to win over the hearts of the people of Abbas.

There is no doubt that Rasyn is using Libby to achieve a goal. He makes it known to the reader from the beginning that Libby is the means to an end. He uses is natural gift of persuasion to convince her of his love for her, and how she needs to come with him to his home country and give him a chance to win her love. He is not a very likeable character, although he is charismatic and sexy, he is selfish and childish. I found that every time I started to like him a little, he reminded us that his intentions are self-centered and all for the end goal of getting him off the throne.

Although Libby is a much more likeable character and she wants to help people (like when she visits the orphanage). I don’t understand how she was convinced to go to Abbas since her constant mantra was that “she won’t let him into her heart” which I thought was code for “I’m falling hard,” but everyone keeps asking her, if he’s trying so hard to make her fall in love with him, why hasn’t she. Although she keeps jumping into bed with him, she doesn’t really let him into her heart. She spends all her time telling herself that they are incompatible and they will never be as happy as her parents so she doesn’t want to risk anything. Again, if she didn’t believe him, didn’t think they were compatible and wasn’t going to give it a try, why bother going with him.

You would also have to wonder why, after her initial blunder in royal society, when she doesn’t stick to her decision to go home, why she doesn’t then make more of an effort to learn the job of a princess, i.e. social customs of the area, etc. She allows herself to be talked into staying since her blunder was what Rasyn was trying to accomplish, but while she is there she doesn’t try to learn more about Rasyn or the life he is supposed to be offering her.

After Rasyn realizes he was falling for her along the way, even he comments that “she let everyone else into her heart, from the servants to his uncle, but never him.”

This was a quick read and the story held my interest, but there was no real draw between the characters since he was faking his affection and she wouldn’t risk her heart.

See my full review at http://ebookobsessed.com