In the Hands of the Sheikh

by Clare Connelly

This is a previously published edition of ASIN B00S0JRFGK. There is an alternate cover edition for this ASIN here.

Phoebe Douglas-Cauve feels like she's won the lottery when her abusive stepfather dies of a sudden heart attack. Finally, she is free! Or so she thinks. Unfortunately, her future becomes irrevocably entwined with that of Sheikh Hakim of Mehran. A single look from the powerful ruler is enough to set her body on fire, but can she ever like a man who speaks so highly of her horrible stepfather? Will she be able to get him to understand the truth of her childhood?
The powerful Sheikh Hakim Al Meshuda is far from pleased to be thrust into the role of guardian. Particularly as his charge is spoiled, selfish and distractingly beautiful. He puts her out of his mind, as best as he is able. Until, at twenty one, she arrives in Mehran, a sophisticated, troublesome, sexy woman. Resisting her is no longer an option... He wants her. That much is obvious. But just how far is he prepared to go to get Phoebe into his life and keep her there?

Genres: Romance

167 pages, ebook

First published January 8, 2015

About the author

For all things Clare Connelly, please see www.clareconnelly.co.uk, the official home of Clare Connelly on the web.

Clare Connelly grew up in a small country town in Australia. Surrounded by rainforests, and rickety old timber houses, magic was thick in the air, and stories and storytelling were a huge part of her childhood.

From early on in life, Clare realised her favourite books were romance stories, and read voraciously. Anything from Jane Austen to Georgette Heyer, to Mills & Boon and (more recently) 50 Shades, Clare is a romance devotee. She first turned her hand to penning a novel at fifteen (if memory serves, it was something about a glamorous fashion model who fell foul of a high-end designer. Sparks flew, clothes flew faster, and love was born.)

Clare has a small family and a bungalow near the sea. When she isn't chasing after energetic little toddlers, or wiping fingerprints off furniture, she's writing, thinking about writing, or wishing she were writing.

Reviews

[Lien · Rating 1 out of 5]

1.5 Stars

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐅𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐦𝐚𝐝𝐞 𝐦𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐢𝐭:
‼️spoilers‼️
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«Heroines mother dies and her stepfather is abusive to her.
The stepfather tells lies to hero his (godson?bestfriend) about the heroine.
The stepfather dies and the heroine comes back to claim her money but the hero is in charge of the money and believes what was told to him about her and refuses to give it her and forces her to marry him.
She wants to open a centre for abused women, she gets into a accident and when she's in the hospital the doctors asks the hero about all the old broken bones and he realises what really was happening
Think he also has her followed to a women's shelter and is really confused about why she's there»

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I have never seen such a bad case of body betrayal syndrome before...

Exhibit A: she gets aroused after he didn't believe a word of what she said about his beloved Godfather and sends her to her room.

☞ I would have totally lost my shit if someone refuses to believe me and then the nerve to send me to my room because he doesn't want to talk about it anymore 🤬

Exhibit B: the H basically orders her to marry him (bc he's King of that place) and she's all like "It wouldn't work, we don't know each other, I could never marry someone like you" and makes a grand speech of not wanting to be told what to do anymore bc she has had it all her life, she unwittingly agrees after he says he can't have sex with her until after they are married.

☞ She later explains it as "needing an excuse for falling into step with his plans so easily" but come the fuck on, did she have to be so incredibly pathetic and agree right after he said no sex until their wedding night? Mind you, this whole scene happened in minutes. She didn't give her agreement the next day or even in the span of a few hours. 🙃

There are probably more examples but these were the most prominent ones I could remember.

I read this book because I wanted it to hurt, ya know? The way he refused to believe a word of what she said about the Godfather he loved and whorshipped, and had put on a pedestal? I wanted it that way and it was totally okay in the beginning. I loved it and was super giddy but over time, I found myself overly irritated bc he stubbornly held on to his belief that the Godfather was a good guy. If you take into account the way the H treated the h and how she reacted and behaved towards him - it was just too much.

This book might have worked if he had shown doubts here and there, but nope. Obstinate, right until the hospital scene 😪.

Giving 1.5 stars because I wanted to read it lol.

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➤ In-depth summary

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5 years ago: Hakim Al Meshuda (28, H) can see that Phoebe Douglas-Cauve (16, h) is putting on an act on the day of her stepfather's funeral, h happy that her abusive stepfather is gone, H is h's legal guardian from now on who believes what her stepfather told him about her (that she's disobedient, disrespectful, and spoiled), sends h to a private school in Switzerland -- present: h (21) to spend three months in Mehran and convince H (33) that she's worthy of her inheritance - H got manipulated into thinking that h is promiscuous (stepdad told him he's afraid that h will end up like her mom bc she's too beautiful, mom doesn't know who h's dad is), h says she's a virgin, H doesn't believe her and sends her to her room, h seduces him, H takes her virginity forcefully, h admits she wanted revenge, H will marry h, says that her act of revenge proved to him that she's not worthy of her inheritance yet, also to honor stepdad bc H took her virginity - dinner, h wants H to stop mention stepdad in her company, H thinks h hates him bc he cheated on her mom - go on picnic, H can't sleep with her before wedding, h agrees to get married - h's bff flies over, h realizes she loves H while he only sees her as his duty - banquet, MC have sex - h races H on horse, H angry bc if she's pregnant she could've endangered it, h tells him that he sounds like stepdad, says he hit her but H doesn't believe her - have sex after wedding but relationship is stilted from then on - h falls from a horse one day, doctor informs H of old bone breaks and internal damages, H finally believes h about her stepdad - h is recuperating, H wants to send her away bc he thinks he's just like stepdad, they confess their feelings - h uses her inheritance to build a shelter for women with a background of domestic abuse

Characters
→ Phoebe Douglas-Cauve (16/21) — heroine
→ Hakim Al Meshuda (28/33) — Sheik (King) of Mehran — H's legal guardian
→ Lord Etienne Cauve — h's stepfather — H's Godfather — H's dad's bff and close advisor
→ Ramit — h's driver
→ Andrea Douglas-Cauve — h's mom — died when h was 9
→ Becca — h's bff

[Nikki ღ Navareus · Rating 2 out of 5]

I usually adore Clare Connelly stories, but this one completely missed the mark for me. The hero was a stubborn jackass who refused to believe anything the heroine said, and the heroine was argumentative to the point of irritation. The sex was kind of "meh" too. As a reader I felt zero chemistry between these two characters. I enjoyed the grovelling by the hero towards the ending, but I had such a hard time believing the "love" they both professed to each other. The cover of this story looks like present day, but the story had more of a historical feel to it.

[Aou · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve read this one last year. CC was expert on cruel heroes, feisty heroines and writing satisfying and long grovel scenes.

[Vashti · Rating 4 out of 5]

Side note..heroine a victim of physical abuse from her stepfather.
Liked this couple.

[Raffaella · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was angsty. Heroine had an abusive sadist as stepfather. When he died she found out that she had a shiekh as her tutor, a man who was a friend to this abusive madman. He believed all the lies the madman told about her, that she was a spoiled brat, a promiscuous slut, a girl with no moral. He sends her to a college in Switzerland and five years later he asks her to spend three months at his palace before giving her the money her sf left her. He falls in lust wih her and has sex with her, but finding out she's a virgin he forces her to marry him. He believes her sf was a good and trustworthy man, and doesn't want to hear what she tells him about him. Every time she tries to tell him of his abusive behaviour he's furious and won't listen. She's very unhappy because she feels she's not free and he doesn't want her for anything but the sex. Eventually she falls from a horse and when she's at the hospital and has some x-rays the doctors finds out she had several old bone fractures and internal damages. The doctor asks if she had a car accident and she admits she was beaten by her stepfather. The hero is ashamed of himself and apologizes. She wanted her sf money to help the victims of abusive men. The matter of the abuse is very serious, the hero's behaviour is awful, if a woman says she's been abused and a man doesn't believe her, even after seeing for himself she was often scared and afraid of him, he is also abusive and she is also his victim. He didn't apologized enough, he wasn't ashamed of himself enough. I hated this hero. The heroine suffered for several years the abusive behaviour of this madman, and so her mother.

[Harshitha]

Men are brainless.

[BAG of Books · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is just a weird enemies to lovers plot full of hate sex and control tactics. It's really not my cup of tea but maybe someone else might enjoy it.

The book opens with 16 year old Phoebe Douglas at her step-father Etienne's funeral. It's obvious to Etienne's friend, Hakim, that she's not actually upset. Hakim is not surprised. Etienne has told Hakim many bad things about Phoebe, like she's a wild child.

Since Phoebe's mother is already dead, Etienne made Hakim Phoebe's legal guardian and the trustee of her trust fund. He sends her to a boarding school in Switzerland and never sees her again.

When she's 21 and able to claim her trust fund, Hakim (now 33) requires her to visit him in his country, where he is the king. He puts her in the bedroom of the king's concubine so that everyone thinks she's their as a prostitute, basically. Then he tells her she has to spend this vacation in his country convincing him to give her the trust fund. (He doesn't have the right to keep it from her, but he has the power to do so, I guess, since he is a king.) This is just mean for the sake of being mean. There's no reason for him to do this. So it's hard to redeem him.

She comes up with a revenge plan to seducing Hakim. Once he has sex with Etienne's virgin daughter, he will be racked with guilt and never be able to forgive himself. He's easily seduced because he already thinks she's a slut. After they have sex, he decides they must marry, for many different stupid reasons.

He still thinks she's a spoiled brat. He says she's been "worshipped' her whole life. Which didn't make sense to me because he knew Etienne was strict with her and didn't worship her, then she's been in a foreign boarding school for the last 5 years, so who's been worshipping her??

Anyway, she seems surprisingly ok with being used for sex by a man who hates her. It was weird.

They have an argument and she accuses him of being controlling like Etienne. While they're arguing, she reveals Etienne used to hit her. Hakim doesn't believe it and accuses her of slandering his friend Etienne.

But somehow he ends up telling her he wants to marry her and wants her to chose to marry him. And even though he is going to force her, he doesn't want her to do it because she's forced. It was a weird thing to say. She says she'll marry him because they had committed to marry and today is already their wedding day, so she will go through with the commitment unless he releases her. Of course he won't release her.

So they go through with the marriage, but afterwards their relationship is just sex, not a relationship.

Until she falls off her horse and breaks her arm. The doctor tells Hakim that Phoebe has previous injuries. Now he believes Etienne was abusive, and he feels guilty for being an instrument of Etienne's abuse.

He wants to divorce her, since he knows he only married her to punish her. Inexplicably, she doesn't want a divorce.

[Kyle Hakim · Rating 2 out of 5]

Phoebe was 16 when her abusive step father died. He left her inheritance to a guardian, Sheikh Hakim. Hakim heard from Etienne that Phoebe was a spoiled child. He sent her to boarding school and 6 years later she came to his palace to finalize the remaining months before she received her inheritance. Hakim still thought the worse in her because she loathed her dead step father. She thought by giving her virginity to him will be the perfect revenge for both of the men. Hakim insisted they get married afraid she was carrying their child. 3 months after marriage, she was thrown from her horse which came across a snake. Hakim was so scared of her being and found out from the doctor that her body has suffered traumatic injury and might hinder her from getting pregnant. He finally believed her words that Etienne was a bastard. He told her that he will let her go but she was willing to stay with him. They loved each other. With her inheritance, she opened a Domestic violence charity centre.

[Birdie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this one was a little bit different from the other books I've read by this author. In this one Hakim doesn't want to be saddled with Phoebe and he knows he didn't like her (typical for the author) but instead of punishing her for being attracted to her, he married her and was actually honest with himself about the feelings he was developing for his wife (this is where the story deviates). He was having a difficult time reconciling the Phoebe he was coming to know with the version that her stepfather had described to him, but being Sheik, he's arrogant and assumed he's always correct. And really-- of course he trusted a lifelong family friend over a teenager he was just meeting. I think he was wrong to ignore all the clear signs that Phoebe was exhibiting of being a victim of domestic violence. For that he was cruel and careless, but I did believe his grovel and his remorse over how he treated her in the beginning, and what she had to endure.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Phoebe and Hakin

This was a really good read that touched on the issue of domestic violence witch keep me glued to the very end.
Phoebe has been a victim of domestic violence at the hands of her stepfather so when he dies of a heart attack she finally can taste freedom. However is not to be. As to her stepfather's will specifications she is send to a boarding school by her guardian, sheikh Hakim. He doesn't think much of her, and despite Phoebe's efforts to convince him otherwise, he refuses to believe that his friend could have behaved so poorly. It took almost loosing her in a accident to came face to face with the evidence of his friends violence against his daughter. Very emotional. Highly recommended

[Carmelita Clardy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good book

This is a story about a h that survives child abuse from her stepfather. The h is a very beautiful, sweet and kind person who had suffered at the hands of her stepfather. He died suddenly leaving her to be cared for by the H. The H thought the stepfather was a very good friend and mentor, he didn’t know about the abuse. The H disliked the h because of her hatred towards her stepfather. A horse accident revealed the truth and they were able to find their way back to each other. An epilogue would have been nice.

[Andrea Berner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Original and riveting

Such a different storyline that has the ability to draw a reader in.
Unique and original settings with believable characters. It touches the subject of abuse and domestic violence against females in a truly sensitive manner with a bit of romance as well as steamy moments that blend into the story but dont dominate every page.
I absolutely loved every line on every page. One of my top reads.

[BJ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Old fashioned Arab sheik love story. He believes the h is promiscuous and a liar. He though he doesn't like her he still falls in love. She acts like a moody teenager as she falls in lust with him. She does make attempts to convince him that she isn't what he was told, but like a teenage she huffs her way into silence. The H is not a romantic hero at all, he's a bully.

[SuzyHD · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fabulous Story

A complicated tale of a young sixteen year old girl finally feeling excited that abusive stepfather was dead. In the Hands of the Sheikh, her life was still being controlled. A delicious storyline with mystery plus a little intrigue. Loved it and highly recommend.

[Diedre · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was okay. The premise was good and the friction that developed over her step father. There just wasn't much to contend with. Also, the heroine didn't have enough personality to really latch onto. So all in all, just ho hum.

[Periwinklepsyche · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lovely read.

[Jamoz23 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Typical silhouette romance.
Blurb explains what happens.
Passed some time and read through Kindle Unlimited so technically a free read.

[Rogina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mmc is a dick

[Chalice · Rating 4 out of 5]

The couple: Hakim and Phoebe

Romance genre: desert romance; ward
Length: 167 pages

Plot: Phoebe is attending the funeral for her stepfather, and is not one bit sad about it. She can't show that yet, though; his best friend is there, and Sheikh Hakim reminds her an awful lot of her stepfather: arrogant, demanding, maybe even aggressive. She's tired of being used and abused, though, and the fact that her stepfather left Hakim as her guardian until she comes into her majority. He can't stand a brat, and he believes that's what she is, so he orders her to go back to his country with him. When things get out of hand, he realizes he will need to marry her. She is absolutely sure she doesn't want to, especially considering that she can't even blink wrong about her stepfather without Hakim losing his mind, and she will never say a good word about the man who made her life miserable. What will happen when he realizes that he is wrong about everything he believes?

Commentary: I don't generally like desert romances (a pretty name for the traditional "kidnapped by the exotic sheik" trope). However, I enjoyed this one, solely because of Phoebe. She suffered so much, and in silence, until she simply couldn't anymore, and then like many victims, nobody believed her. The person who was supposed to take care of her, Hakim, didn't believe her. What else can she do? But she persevered, not for anyone else, but for herself and other victims. So young, and she was already strong and sure of herself, despite everything. In fact, I think I want to read this one again!

[Debra · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a story I kept reading until I finished in one sitting. Phoebe that all her troubles were over when her abusive step-father died. She was 16 when it happens. But he left someone to take care of her. He had told lies about her so that the guardian thought she was a spoiled willful girl. Now she is in Mehran to get her inheritance from Sheikh Hakim of Mehran. But he has other plans for her. This is a love story that was different than others I have read recently. I will be getting more by Clare Connelly to read.

[Margie Moran · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the Hands of the Sheikh: by Claire Connelly

A very good Sheikh story love them she can really write them she a goo Sheikh author her stepfather abused her he was a monster her guardian didn't believe her he sent her away until she was twenty one then he fell for her he was a Sheikh lots of ups and down but finally works out read the book and enjoy it I did it's great there is so much to the story enjoy margie

[Elaine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable tale ...

[Rose Helg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok book

This book was ok. I think it could have been better. It c would of have more of a better ending.with a Baby

[L H · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5

[Jeannette · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book

As always this author writes a good story. I liked the characters and their story line. I only wish it really.