2007-11-26 Warm Holiday Read!

Susan Mallery has again charmed her readers with her latest edition to her Desert Rogue series. The heroine Kayleen will warm the reader's heart with her gentleness, sincerity, innocence and fierce heart.

Mallery has the ability to immediately draw the reader into the story with her first chapters when we're introduced to this lovely teacher in a orphanage who is like a lioness protecting three recently orphaned girls and goes after the leader of a tribe who has come to take the girls back to their camp.

In most of the Desert Rogue series the rulers are trying to marry off their sons and obtain heirs and in The Sheikh and the Christmas Bride, the same applies. King Makhtar has six sons and wants them married and settled. His sons have been raised without the benefit of a mother and their Aunt Lina for the most part has been the "mother figure" in their lives. She is aware that in a neighbouring Kingdom, King Hassan has been very successful in marrying off his sons and daughters. She calls upon her friendship and attraction to King Hassen to develop a plan for her nephew Prince As'ad. When there is trouble at the orphanage she calls upon As'ad to help defuse the situation. She talks him into taking the three girls himself into his protection and suggests he adopts them. Along with bringing the girls to the palace, Lina suggests he brings Kayleen as well as their nanny.

As this story develops, one is immediately drawn to the attraction both As'ad and Kayleen feel for each other. As'ad vows never to love a woman, as it would make him weak. However, he cannot fight his attraction for this lovely redhead and moves in, takes her virginity and then all hell breaks loose.

Kayleen knows what it's like to be orphaned, rejected both by her mother and grandmother, she's grown up in a convent and longs to belong, have a family and be loved. When As'ad proposes they marry because of their one night and attraction for each other plus giving the girls stability, Kayleen dares to believe she can have it all. Because of her inner strength, and her love for As'ad she is fierce to prove they can have it all and she is going to show him and claim this prince as her own.

Their journey and discovery is one you won't want to miss. It's the perfect holiday read, a wonderful love story and the continuation of the incredible Desert Rogue series. I personally can't wait for the next book!