THE SULTAN'S BOUGHT BRIDE

Author: Jane Porter ISBN: 0263837378 5/2004 CONTEMPORARY Publisher: MILLS AND BOON

Bought: one princess Princess Nicolette Ducasse refused to let her sister go through with an arranged to Sultan Malik Roman Nuri of Baraka. So she travelled to his faraway kingdom herself, to tell him in no uncertain terms that the deal was off! But Nicolette never expected to arrive and find the wedding date already set. Or that Malik would be one seriously sexy sultan! Keeping up the charade of being her sister began to get harder and harder... And, whatever his suspicions about his wife-to-be, Malik made it clear that if they shared a bed the wedding was non-negotiable. After all, he was a modern monarch in many ways -- except when it came to his bride!

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

Determined to save her older sister from another arranged marriage, Princess Nicolette Ducasse refuses to allow her widowed sister to go through the wedding to Sultan Malik Roman Nuri of Baraka. With a plan in mind, Nicolette travels to Baraka pretending to be her sister, with the idea that she'll go there, meet the King, and try to back out of the agreement, only to find that she only has two weeks to get ready for the wedding and the man she was supposed to marry was unlike any man she has ever met or been with. But things aren't as she expects.

Malik knows who Nic is when she walks off the ship, but it amuses him to let her play her game and see what she comes up with next. For each request she has, he has a counter request, with the end being the same -- she will marry him when the time comes and their marriage will be a real marriage -- not one just on paper. But will Nic go through with the marriage, and what happens when she finds out it was all a setup, that there never was a marriage agreement between her sister and Malik? Was that just a plan Malik devised to get her to come to him?

THE SULTAN'S BOUGHT BRIDE is a wickedly fun read! The chemistry between Nic and Malik is red-hot and scorching! Nic is an independent woman determined not to follow the rules of old, and Malik is determined to win her at all costs. I zipped through the book within two hours and can only hope that Ms. Porter won't keep her readers waiting long for the next book of this series. I enjoyed it immensely!

Fatin Soufan