SHEIKH SURRENDER

Jacqueline Diamond

Harlequin Intrigue #749

ISBN 0-373-22749-3

January 2004

Category Romance

Someone is out to get Jenny Sanger. Could it be her ex-husband, who seeks custody of their daughter? Could it be a friend, neighbor or co-worker or someone else entirely? For weeks, Jenny has been the victim of an Internet stalker who is posing as Jenny to lure would-be lovers to her secluded mountain home. Now a man with international political ties has been killed on her doorstep. Was the trap meant to assassinate the Sheikh or kill Jenny? Her local police department seems too overworked to devote the proper attention to the crimes.

The new Sheikh and brother of the dead man, Zahad, has arrived to claim the body for return to Alqedar. While waiting for the release from the coroner, Zahad intends to conduct his own investigation into his brother's murder. First on his list is Jenny Sanger, though the more clues he gathers and the more he learns of Jenny herself, the less inclined is he to believe that she had anything to do with the killing and may in fact be the intended target. Zahad vows to protect Jenny and bring the killer to justice. However, he cannot forget his responsibilities in his own country, where his stepmother and others in the government seek to implicate Zahad in the murder, and have the sheikhdom passed to another relative.

With time running out can Jenny and Zahad work together to solve the crime before the killer strikes again?

SHEIKH SURRENDER is my first experience with Sheikh romances and as long as Ms. Diamond is the author, it won't be my last! Zahad is a mesmerizing hero: noble, logical, courageous and passionate. Jenny is totally believable as a divorced, single mom and career woman. Together, Jenny and Zahad are quite fun though the circumstances which brought them together are anything but funny. As a reader, I was able to totally lose myself in the action and found that SHEIKH SURRENDER could be enjoyed in one sitting. With respect to the crime, Ms. Diamond showed great attention to detail with the set-up and the ending, and killer's identity came as a bit of a surprise (which is always nice I think).

SHEIKH SURRENDER is the perfect book to warm up to on these cold winter nights! I look forward to reading more of Ms. Diamond's backlist (which includes over 60 titles) as well as her upcoming books.