Falcon's Prey - Penny Jordan
Mills & Boon Romance
Originally published - Mills & Boon, 1981
Reissue - Harlequin UK, 2011
eISBN: 9781408952504
N.B This book has been reissued many times, the above eISBN relates to the most recent UK reissue in ebook form. The cover image is from the original release.
My rating
From the back cover:
"Englishwoman Felicia Gordon should be floating on air. After all, she's engaged to a man who is kind, charming, considerate...
But he doesn't inspire the least amount of passion in her blood. It isn't until Felicia flies to Kuwait to meet her fiance's family that she finds the electricity she's been missing - in her fiance's uncle, Sheikh Raschid al Hamid al Sabah! Raschid is hardly the "uncle" she imagined - tall, powerful, unnervingly masculine and shockingly arrogant. But beneath Raschid's contempt lies a passion that burns hotter than the desert sun, a fire Felicia never knew she craved...until now."
I decided to buy and read this book as a tribute to Penny Jordan.
The heroine Felicia has been seeing Faisal for a while and they both hope to marry, however Faisal comes from a traditional Arab family and fears that they will not approve. Felicia travels to Kuwait to meet Faisal's family and hopefully gain their approval for marriage, especially the approval from Faisal's uncle Raschid, the hero, whom is the head of the family. However when she meets Raschid it is clear that he has a very poor opinion of her. As time passes, Felicia struggles to deal with the almost constant scorn from Raschid, the restrictions on her actions as a woman in the East, as well as her worry that her relationship with Faisal isn't at all what it should be. But she falls in love with the country and it's beauty, and soon realises that beneath her hostility to the way Raschid treats her is a fierce desire for him. As her love grows Felicia knows that he will never love her back and that her time in the country that has touched her heart will soon be over.
This is an intense, almost suspenseful, book and one that is exactly what Penny Jordan does best. Considering this book was written in 1981, it is quite a forward book. It also deals with the differences between east and west cultures really well. Raschid is the perfect 'classic' Mills & Boon hero; he treads the line between cruel and kind, and is so very smouldering that he really makes the sexual tension in this book thick. The heroine did have a propensity for self-pity, but I found her quite endearing. Throughout the book, I really couldn't see how these two would ever find a way to be together, and that is what makes this a brilliant book, it keeps you guessing.
It is hard to believe that this was Penny Jordan's first book, it is so accomplished! She will be missed.
RIP Penny.
Xx
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