Saturday, June 28, 2014

Forged in the Desert Heat by Maisey Yates

Forged in the Desert Heat
Maisey Yates
Forged in the Desert Heat is a powerfully written story about Ana and her rescuer; powerfully dark, delightfully strong, incredibly
beautiful Sheikh Zafar.

Making his way back to his palace of birth after the death of his evil uncle, ready to take the throne of his kingdom Sheikh Zafar purchases Ana off bandits and takes her with him back to the palace, realising that as the betrothed to the Sheikh of his neighbouring kingdom, he needs to keep her secret or war will break out.

Brave Ana is curious as to who this dark specimen of a man is but feels safe in his care.  She goes with him and agrees to keep quiet as to her whereabouts until he's announced to his people.  During the time together Ana teaches Zafar how to be come civilized.  It's been 15 years since he's been in noble company.  An attraction ensues and they do their best to fight it. Ana is engaged to Sheikh Tariq and the last thing Zafar wants is war.

Forged in the Desert Heat is an exciting love story between two people who are the complete opposite in nature and breed and yet they share similar parallels between their stories of their life.  If you're a Sheikh fan Zafar is sigh-worthy.  He is tall, dark and handsome, he is strong and he is protective.  He's still haunted by his past and Ana is the one who can fix this for him.

Ana is the light to Zafar's dark.  She's so pale Zafar thinks she'll almost combust in the desert but her will and her determination makes up more than enough strength to parallel Zafar's strength.  She takes on her duties of civilizing Zafar with good humor and seriousness while fighting her attraction.  She knows as time goes on she's only doing what she's doing to keep her father happy and the more time she has to think the more she realises this is the wrong thing to do.

As she throws caution to the wind and as Zafar caves there's a small moment in time where everything freezes and for the first time in many many years everything feels right but Zafar, being the loyal person he is demands she returns home and he takes her back out into the desert. The journey back to Sheikh Tariq's lands is an incredible journey for both.

Maisey Yates is one of my top 5 fave authors so I may be biased but I have to say, as a fan of Sheikh stories this one is right up there.  I love Maisey's ability to write such amazing dialogues between her two parties. I loved the descriptions of the lands and Zafar's world.  I love the flow, the excitement of Zafar purchasing Ana, hoping it went smoothly, I loved that Zafar was so honest when he asks Ana to tell him "he can do it"... I just loved being swept away to worlds unknown.  The morning I read this this was exactly what I needed, to forget real life and be immersed in Ana and Zafars.

Check out another review here: http://rbh-contemporary.blogspot.co.nz/2013/11/forged-in-desert-heat-by-maisey-yates.html

Mills and Boon
Originally published December 2013
My Kindle edition: January 2014
Purchase here at Amazon

Reviewed by TashNz