The theme: Contemporary.
Why this one: It was available in ebook, of course! I’m too precious to read print books!
CW: Politics, racism, Islamaphobia
It’s to be expected that an old Harlequin Presents would be pretty iffy, especially an old Harlequin Presents (or, for that matter, a recent one) with an Arab hero. But there’s iffy and then there’s… this. I’m think this might be the one book Cheeto Mussolini ever read, because it’s practically a Birther playbook. Twice, heroine Abby insists that her estranged husband is a Muslim, specifically to demonstrate he’s beyond the pale.
“Don’t you know?” she taunted bitterly. “Muslims don’t have to do anything so boringly official. All Rachid has to do is say the words of repudiation and he’s a free man.”
“Abby!” Liz came towards her, putting a sympathetic hand on her shoulder. “Rachid’s a Christian. You told me so yourself–”
“Is he?”
Later she has the same conversation, only worse, with her father.
“I did love him, you’re right. I–I loved him very much. And I thought he loved me. But the Muslim way of loving is obviously different.”
“Abby, Rachid’s a Christian, you know that.”
Notably, neither objects to her characterizations of Muslims.
Throughout the book, Abby panics whenever she sees Rachid refuse alcohol:
“How about you, Rachid? Will you taste the vine?”
Rachid shook his head, and Abby subsided on to the low couch her father used when he wanted to relax. Has he been absorbed into the dictates of his father’s religion at last? she wondered, feeling a slight chill of apprehension along her spine. It was all very well telling Liz that Rachid was a Muslim, when she really believed he was not, and quite another to turn up against the implacable force of will that abhorred the use of alcohol and upheld the rights of man.
Whaaa? I guess she’s talking about sexism in that last line, because Abby does have some genuine complaints about her husband’s controlling nature. Though oddly enough those drift away as soon as she realizes Rachid wasn’t unfaithful to her after all, and she becomes completely fulfilled by motherhood. Rachid’s fake Arab kingdom is a dream of luxury and everything is perfect in the garden. Except for that one pesky little foreign thing…
They had called the baby Khalid Robert, in deference to both his father and hers, but the English name was much easier to use.
‘Nuff said.
A huge big NO!!! I am not fond of sheikh books–the way that fantasy is usually depicted is so off-putting. I have yet to read a great and appropriate sheikh book.
What ugly Islamophobia! We think the rise of this hatred is new, but this book shows that it has always been there–just for a while it was acknowledged that voicing in public is a no-no, now it is once again out in the open.
Rachid (should be Rashid) is head of an Arab kingdom as a Christian? Um, NO!
Does she make any effort to learn Arabic and fit in with the women of his family? Or does she exist in a bubble of “Christianity”?
She is only seen interacting with her maid and her husband’s half-English grandmother. Everyone else is *gasp* nasty to her!
Willa–you sure know how to pick ’em! I read a boatload of Anne Mather books back in the day–I’m sure glad I missed this.
How many times did the book hit the wall during your read?
More times even than the Anne Mather with the paternity issue, set after the time of paternity tests….