Review of The Sheik's Secret by Judith McWilliams

A Google search of Judith McWilliams yielded the information that she had published seven novels under Silhouette Romance and ten more with Harlequin Temptation. She also writes under the name Charlotte Hines (from RomanceWiki).

Whenever I review books here, I make it a point to see if the writer has any more books and if she's focused on a specific genre or two. The Sheik's Secret is the only Judith McWilliams book I'm aware of and I still have to check out if, under the name of Charlotte Hines, she had also published more boosk of the sheik/desert genre. This blog, after all, focuses only on these books and nothing more (I'm not a big fan of fantasy or the paranormal, sorry). 

This now out there, I'd like to add that more than enough has been said about the incomprehensibility of the popularity of the sheik/desert genre in light of 9/11 and the continuing terrorist attacks. I've also been asked by fellow romance lovers why I couldn't be normal and be head over heels on Regency romances, for example, or vampires (I've never thought of vampires as sexy--guys on liquid diets or diets of any kind have never been a turn-on and I think a guy with twenty extra pounds on him who still gorges on Big Mac is way, way hot). I like to read romance to escape for a good hour or two, nothing more. I certainly do not fantasize about some hot Arab sweeping me off my feet into his desert kasbah because they don't exactly live in such places these days and can you just imagine how much sunblock I'll be needing living out there in the friggin' desert? I'll need a truckload of Coppertone! That and it is never, never going to happen. But reading a Harlequin or a Mills and Boon sheikh romance allows me the opportunity to witness a fantasy. 

And when we talk about fantasy, truths and the news and geopolitics do not come into play. When you fantasize about eating nothing but chocolate chip ice cream, calories certainly won't be a part of it, and so is splitting your pants open when you sit down. So I think it is really quite ridiculous that sheikh romances continue to be branded with the bull's eye tattoo that have yet to see the end of another scholar aiming to blow its head off. Fantasy, people! Fantasy! 

But I do get it, you know. I get the shock of a career woman suddenly giving it all up to live the rest of her life veiled and subjugated. I get the outrage and the disbelief. I also get the what-the-fuck matter of religion basically leaped over and forgotten! But I will say it again--FANTASY! FANTASY!

Judith McWilliams, taking the genre where it usually never turns, gives our heroine (Kali) an idea of what it would be like to live in the Middle East. She's not given dreamy silks or jewelry, not right away. It's her fiance Karim who's actually the twin brother Hassan (oh pfft, I didn't give anything away, the novel begins by stating the Hassan's got a twin that Kali is engaged to) who gives her an overview of life with him: separate meals, abayas that are potential death traps, and basically being ignored most of the time. Most of the women depicted in sheik romances willingly put on the veil and think it's sensual and feminine. Kali trips. By this alone, Judth McWilliams not only aimed to answer the oft-unheeded bemoaning of literary critics but also ended up pleasing her reader by giving, what is in my opinion, a damn good ending for a plot that's more threadbare than a well-worn t-shirt.

CHARACTERS
Hassan Rashid masquerading as Karim, the fiance
Kali Whitman

PLOT

Hassan sees Kali to tell her that his brother no longer wishes to marry her. Kali has no idea about Karim having a twin. Hassan is knocked off his feet upon seeing Kali the first time. The novel is your typical guilty twin plot who's not only racked by guilt too long but doesn't hesitate to get his hands on boobs and booty.

BEST LINE (and I mean this ironically)
"Thanks, Karim. Umm...Hassan. Why do you want to be called Hassan all of a sudden?" she asked.
"It's my nickname in the family," he lied. "And I much prefer it to Karim."

I don't know which to deck on the head first. Kali for being dumb or Hassan for thinking she is that dumb. 

GOES INTO THE KASBAH OR CAST OUT
For Judith McWilliams attempting to give critics what they've long wanted to see..fine.The novel isn't as bad as I'm making it out to be, so this has a sure space in my shelf. That and this appears to be the only sheikh romance by the author.

Hajar's Hidden Legacy by Maisey Yates

This is my first of Maisey Yates sheikh romances (the other being The Inherited Bride, which I haven't read yet) and I gotta say that I look forward to reading more from her. I usually don't like princess characters but Katharine comes off as having a lot (and I mean a lot) more strength than a glass slipper and a silver spoon combined. She's assertive and self-sacrificing and Yates writes her in such a way that this reader didn't feel about never going to be able as selfless as she. I wouldn't want Katharine for a best friend, but if she'd step out of the pages, I would definitely admire her. Zahir  isn't your usual alpha desert hero too. He's wounded, literally and figuratively and while his seemingly endless suffering could be quite maddening, you do cheer the guy on. Both of them, actually (Notice how I seem to despise Alpha males? They do not exist outside beyond the pages of a book and romance is already glutted with the sort. Give me wounded, bleeding men with their hearts throbbing on their sleeves, please!).

Characters

Zahir, Beast of Hajar and Katharine, Princess of Austrich

Plot

To secure the crown for her younger brother and to prevent a possible civil war by a cousin who would be grabbing the crown as soon as it's confirmed that there's no male heir of legal age in Katharine's immediate family to reign, Katharine insists that Zahir marry her, in accordance to a marriage contract agreed between her and his dead brother Malik. Zahir sends her away, clearly having no interest in marrying her. An assassination attempt that wiped out his entire family left Zahir with wounds that had drove him into acquiring near-hermit status, and the nickname The Beast of Hajar. 

Hajar's Hidden Legacy is Beauty and the Beast retold, still with fairy tale elements but with characters that are wonderfully real. Each is determined to put the other first, but when the call of the heart drowns out the wail of duty, readers get an ending that's not just rooted in earth but destined by the stars.

Best Lines

"I told you to get out."

"Of your office."

"Of the country. And you knew what I meant."

We rarely get smart-ass heroines! Owned, Katharine! 

Goes Into the Kasbah or Cast Out
I'm keeping this one!