RESCUED BY THE SHEIKH by Barbara McMahon (HR# 4004)

I just finished this one last night. I don't have the issue with seeing foster kids so much, not being a social worker...but I definitely sigh when I encounter the neglected boarding school kid. I do like the way romance as a genre reveals hidden pain and hurts as both a stumbling block to love and how love heals those. I guess the question is how to do this from romance to romance and keep variety. Perhaps one way to shake things up is to take stock pain scenarios and make them a character strength and detail the pain moment more to make it concrete, precise and individual?

A couple of years ago, my mother-in-law died. My father-in-law fortunately is at a stage where mourning does not prevent him from making a new relationship. He has not forgotten his wife and still misses her. I would hope so after 50 years of marriage. With this hero it was only 3 years, a bit different but I think maybe that personal family experience came into play when reading the hero of this romance. However, I do understand what you mean and agree that not enough space was given to his feelings for Lisa. I wonder if the HRs can add 5 pages to the word count or how stricttly this line controls page count. I wonder if giving this author an additinal 5 pages to thread more of his growing feelings throughout the romance would have been allowed. It's nice to see an author be able to touch on that grief instead of poof, his
spouse is no longer in his heart or poof, she was a witch anyhow. Do you think maybe an increased page count would have maybe made a difference in the hero-heroine relationship?

I did wonder why his late wife was so present even in the 170s page range.

I very much like the way you described the photography and the harsh contrasts in this book. I went over and asked them in the forum about the page issue and hope to gain some insight there from authors.  The sudden change did not have time to devlop.  I would not want her to cut the pain of the hero's mourniing because then it wold be a poof thing too.  Maybe just more evolution somehow?

I agree and it did actually cross my mind when reading this book that it felt like a Presents without the sex or quite the abusive/arrogant extreme of those heroes.  Last year bloggers talked about Desires becoming too much lik,e Presents.  If there is some editorial decision to make HR like Presents, I have one thing to say --- NO, don't do it.  HR is a special line for all of us who like heroes who are not abusive and arrogant or even distant.  I loved whole lot about this read but the hero needed more development/evolution.

On the foster care front, there is an HR author who has done it a bit differently.  Marion Lennox has a foster care mother who is a wonderful mom and foster mother.  Yes, the kids have some hurts but she is their anchor, a real gift.  His Miracle Bride is sort of a fun play on The Sound of Music which is one of my all time favorite movies.  I just finished her March one, A Royal Marriage of Convenience, but I might not blog it until Sunday.  I am making abig push to catch up with my HR reads now in between review books so I don't feel so overwhelmed and behind so hopefully I wil lblog lots of Hrs at once.  Anyhow, the new one is a zany fairy tale. If you are in a kind of fairy tale frame of mind to let go for a roller coaster plot ride, it's great.  She convolutes and complicates the whole fairy tale thing and it's a fun, fun read with fun HEA complications.  Not as emotional as others but but just fun, lots of fun.  Parts of it would make a great animation film just because the plot is so zany. I can't decide if this one is up your alley or not.