The Sheikh's Virgin Bride

by Penny Jordan

An Entertainment Weekly Top 10 Romance AuthorShe'll have to marry him now!Petra is betrothed—to rich, eligible Sheikh Rashid. But she plans to ruin her reputation so Rashid won't want her. Blaize, a fellow guest at her hotel, agrees to be Petra's pretend lover—though soon he's taken her virginity!Then Petra makes a shocking discovery. Blaize is actually none other than the man she's supposed to be marrying—Sheikh Rashid!

Genres: Romance, Harlequin, Harlequin Presents, Contemporary Romance, Harlequin Romance, Fiction, Contemporary

192 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Penelope Jones Halsall
aka Caroline Courtney, Annie Groves, Lydia Hitchcock, Melinda Wright

Penelope "Penny" Jones was born on November 24, 1946 at about seven pounds in a nursing home in Preston, Lancashire, England. She was the first child of Anthony Winn Jones, an engineer, who died at 85, and his wife Margaret Louise Groves Jones. She has a brother, Anthony, and a sister, Prudence "Pru".

She had been a keen reader from the childhood - her mother used to leave her in the children's section of their local library whilst she changed her father's library books. She was a storyteller long before she began to write romantic fiction. At the age of eight, she was creating serialized bedtime stories, featuring make-believe adventures, for her younger sister Prue, who was always the heroine. At eleven, she fell in love with Mills & Boon, and with their heroes. In those days the books could only be obtained via private lending libraries, and she quickly became a devoted fan; she was thrilled to bits when the books went on full sale in shops and she could have them for keeps.

Penny left grammar school in Rochdale with O-Levels in English Language, English Literature and Geography. She first discovered Mills & Boon books, via a girl she worked with. She married Steve Halsall, an accountant and a "lovely man", who smoked and drank too heavily, and suffered oral cancer with bravery and dignity. Her husband bought her the small electric typewriter on which she typed her first novels, at a time when he could ill afford it. He died at the beginning of 21st century.

She earned a living as a writer since the 1970s when, as a shorthand typist, she entered a competition run by the Romantic Novelists' Association. Although she didn't win, Penny found an agent who was looking for a new Georgette Heyer. She published four regency novels as Caroline Courtney, before changing her nom de plume to Melinda Wright for three air-hostess romps and then she wrote two thrillers as Lydia Hitchcock. Soon after that, Mills and Boon accepted her first novel for them, Falcon's Prey as Penny Jordan. However, for her more historical romance novels, she adopted her mother's maiden-name to become Annie Groves. Almost 70 of her 167 Mills and Boon novels have been sold worldwide.

Penny Halsall lived in a neo-Georgian house in Nantwich, Cheshire, with her Alsatian Sheba and cat Posh. She worked from home, in her kitchen, surrounded by her pets, and welcomed interruptions from her friends and family.

Reviews

[Sandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sweet and innocent Petra (who's 23) propositions a sexy windsurfer/beach bum she sees at the luxurious hotel resort that she's staying at in Zuran. She wants him to pretend to pursue her and seduce her publicly. She is willing to give him (Blaize, who's 34) money to ensure that it looks like she lost her reputation, and she's prepared to pay him five thousand pounds. He asks for ten thousand and they "might" have a deal. Petra can't raise that kind of money so they go their separate ways. But, to Petra's surprise, Blaize comes back and agrees, but wants to know why she is doing this. Petra explains to him that she knows her grandfather is planning an arranged marriage for her to a man she's never met, Sheikh Rashid, and she isn't interested (because she resents her grandfather after he disowned her mother when her mother married her father and Petra wants to marry for love like her parents did). She thinks by making herself look "experienced" Sheikh Rashid will not want to marry her. But Petra is in for a big surprise when she eventually discovers who Blaize really is!

This was a romantic read with gondola rides, trips to the souq, and a passionate night in the desert, etc... I really liked Blaize, he was sexy and charming. Petra was feisty at times but also likable.

An enjoyable Penny Jordan sheikh romance that takes place in the lovely "Arabian nights" setting of Zuran.

[Sophia Triad · Rating 4 out of 5]

Petra is promised to Sheikh Rashid by her grandfather. Rashid is a man that she doesn’t know and she definitely does not want to marry. Since she is desperate to avoid this arranged marriage, she offers money to a devious employee at the hotel where she stays in order to pretend that he has corrupted her.
[By the way the description of the hotel in that make-believe country, remind me the Souk Madinat Jumeirah in Dubai and its attached hotel Jumeirah Al Qasr or Jumeirah Mina A’Salam. I wonder if this was an inspiration for the author…]

Little does Petra know that Blaize (her pretend boyfriend) is truly Sheikh Rashid who clearly enjoys himself and gets to know his future, clueless bride.

This is a classic book by Penny Jordan, which I obviously enjoyed a lot.
If only Petra had run away when she learned that Blaize is Rashid and Rashid run after her, I would have given 5 stars to the book. Unfortunately Rashid does not grovel enough and Petra does not run away at all. Which is boring. Because I love a good chase.

[KC · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars

Set in the fictional country of Zuran The Sheik's Virgin Bride is my favorite sheikh romance by Penny Jordan.

It's an amusing story where a deceiver is deceived herself (heroine by hero). Of course, Petra didn't think it was so funny when she discovered the tables had been turned on her. I liked Petra, but she disappointed me with her self-serving reaction to discovering Blaize's true identity. He'd stung her pride and she couldn't trust him after that. How ironic since it was Petra who'd set out to deceive Rashid by presenting a false image of herself, yet was pissed with him because he hadn't revealed his true identity? It's certainly a case of the pot calling the kettle black.

One may wonder why Rashid accepted her scheme. Well, he had his reasons.

He'd fallen for Petra and secretly planned to woo her while masquerading as Blaize! During their brief, impromptu beach interview where Petra tried to determine if Blaize was the right man for her plan, he discovered she's HIS kind of woman: they both share similar views on love and marriage, and have mixed heritages of Zuran and English.

So I enjoyed this love story aside from Petra's hypocritical reaction. It featured loads of passion, sizzling sexual tension and hot love scenes. Rashid/Blaize was hot, like blazing hot. (Sorry, I love my puns.) And that scene in her hotel bedroom? Where no sex occurs. Talk about sexy. Did I mention the man was hot?

I liked Rashid for more than his sex appeal though:

+He didn't hold a grudge against Petra for her deceit when he had cause to.

+He rescued her on one occasion from a potentially scary situation.

+And he possessed a sense of humor. I liked how he kept teasing Petra about her virginal state as if she was an oddity, which I guess she would be to a man of his experience.

As far as reading experiences go, I had a fun time. A great start to the series!

[Jasbell76 · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wanted to slap heroine's face for her childish actions and thoughts U.U
Hero was good, I liked him. He wasn't a total jerk and had a good sense of humor. Heroine said "I love you" first, but I liked that because she was the stubborn here xD

[Fanniny Moreno Zavaleta · Rating 5 out of 5]

FIRST RE-READ

I was stuck with a read so I thought I could distract myself with another sheik story... I couldn't find a but or anything I didn't love... so full 5 stars!


FIRST READ

I was debating on whether give it 4 or 4.5.

Special thanks to KC for recommending 😊

I didn't like the h's name but I've read way worse so I let it be. And as there are a couple of great reviews from my friends I won't even try to write one.

So read KC's review (though I didn't mind the h's hypocrite reactions to H's deception because as Jenny said, the h was a bit crazy but I just went with the flow):
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

And Jenny's review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Petra is betrothed to Sheikh Rashid a man she has never met and does not want to meet. So she plans to ruin her reputation so Rashid won't want her. Enter Blaize, a beach bum heroine meets at her hotel. She is attracted to him and she also thinks he is a gigolo, an escort. So she decides to pay him to be her pretend lover. Then Petra discovers that Blaize is actually the man she wants to defy and escape from, Sheikh Rashid! They do get married but Petra is miserable until she realizes she is in love with Rashid and that he has loved her since forever.

Hilarious story! I liked the heroine. She was a little crazy and she had her share of insecurities and there were times I wanted to slap her but she was vivacious possessive and very passionate. Hero was kind and honorable, extremely nice for a PJ book! Funny and romantic read!

[*CJ* · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really really enjoyed this book!
It's been a while since I've been actively on the HQN wagon, and this book reminded me why I got on it in the first place yearsss ago!
Book starts with Petra coming to know she's being forced into marriage, and her way to escape from this is to proposition HOT surfer man Blaize. They have smokin chemistry (of harlequin standards) and later she comes to know Blaize is none other than her to be husband Rashid.
I loved Blaize. Such a sexy intense character- though his POV was never written and we never know his thoughts except the lines in the end. The book was a five star until Petra got insecure and a little annoying in the last 1/4th of the book. I also wanted an epilogue. Loved the possessiveness in both the leads.
Safe read
4/5

[Brenda · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good fun romantic read, exactly what I was looking for after having read a dark, intense, disturbing book.

I loved Rashid/Blaize. Petra was nice too although she behaved like a petulant child for a while after she discovers that Blaize is really Rashid . Liked all the other characters in the book and absolutely loved the end scene where they reenact their first meeting.

Would recommend it to anyone looking for a light romantic read.

[Lauren · Rating 2 out of 5]

This might be the most ridiculous books I have ever read ever 😐

[Chi · Rating 3 out of 5]

... So, it seems like I've read this before. And I remembered not being impressed with the hidden identity trope used in the book. And nor was I terribly impressed with how the h was being manipulated into a marriage by both her father and her grandfather. *roll eyes*

[Susan in Perthshire · Rating 1 out of 5]

Seriously - when was this written? Petra is the most ridiculous heroine I have ever encountered in Mills and Boon. She is such a prig and I disliked her intensely. She was like a heroine from the 1950s and treated ‘Blaize’ abysmally. When she thought he was a simple surfboard guy,, she was an arrogant snob.

Such a smug, pretentious, unlikeable heroine!! She was prepared to lie to get out of the arranged marriage yet took umbrage when Blaize turned the tables on her. What a total hypocrite.

Sorry this was so dated and awful. I am wondering if I read the same book as the folk who have given it 5 star reviews. I found nothing likeable about Petra whereas Blaine/Raschid was delicious.

[Booked · Rating 5 out of 5]

Petra is betrothed -- to rich, eligible Sheikh Rashid. But she plans to ruin her reputation so Rashid won't want her. Blaize, a fellow guest at her hotel, agrees to be Petra's pretend lover -- though soon he's taken her virginity!

Then Petra makes a shocking discovery. Blaize is actually none other than the man she's supposed to be marrying -- Sheikh Rashid!

[Raine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm a sucker for Harlequin Presents stories and this one was pretty good!

[Tapasya · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very cute love story. At times I found the Hero kind of moody and confusing. And the heroine a little dumb. But overall it was nice.

[Shivani Singh · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of her really good ones. The story flags a bit once they sleep together. Before that it’s good.

The grandfather.. uncle .. aunt .. bit seems far fetched to someone who grew up in the eastern culture. Why would they keep her in a hotel if they want to reconcile with her? And her Godfather goes away taking her passport!! How mad is that??

The hero is to die for gorgeous.

All round .. good time pass.

I recommend 👍🏽

[Grace Harwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

Once again, it's back to the desert for more steamy romance from Penny Jordan. This time the story is set up as follows: Petra, a girl of half-English, half-Arabian descent is being set up for an arranged marriage with Sheikh Rashid by her Grandfather. Now, she hasn't ever met said Grandfather before being as he disowned her mother when she married her English father. Understandably, there are some tensions underlying the relationship and Petra is not all that happy about being set up for marriage with a stranger in this way. So she comes up with a cunning plan to get out of it - make out that she's having an affair with sexy beach bum Blaize, lose her reputation, thus rendering her unmarriageable in the Sheikh's eyes. Brilliant! Until she falls for Blaize for real and cue, lots of soul-searching, angst, etc as well as some very romantic seduction scenes from "Blaize". There's also a few very well-written sections where Jordan seemingly pokes fun at the confines of the genre she is working within. Why, for instance, would the hero choose to name himself "Blaize"? (it turns out this isn't his real name). It's such a M&B name, I nearly laughed out loud when I read it. And why should he choose to travel everywhere by Gondola? Romantic, yes, but surely it's quicker to go by car?

Okay, it's a Mills and Boon, and you don't have to have studied the genre extensively to work out that there's going to be a happy ending involving bagging a wealthy husband, an extensive portfolio of property, a whole new wardrobe and, bizarrely on this occasion, a racehorse. But, predictability of conclusion aside, this is a little bit different and has a bit more substance to it than your average M&B. Blaize is a very sexy hero who is almost human in that he isn't completely austere and unapproachable like Jordan's normal male leads tend to be. He's quite generous and forgiving really, all things considered. I enjoyed reading the first half of the book very, very much indeed. However, things went a bit downhill when Petra, true to M&B heroine form, when she has bagged her hero, starts acting like an idiot and nearly throws her newfound happiness away. Aside from the fact that you end up wanting to shake her though, this is a good story, with plenty of tension and plenty of twists and turns to the tale.

Criticisms: The last section of the book is definitely not as polished as the first half. There are way too many exclamation marks - you just don't need them in a steamy romance - subtlety is the order of the day. Plus, the narrative begins to skip about a bit towards the end as Jordan obviously attempts to hurry the story along and larger and larger time periods begin to get chunked out. There's a rather unfortunate section where the hero and heroine consumate their love for each other and then with no warning/break section, the very next thing somebody says is "Yuck, Camel's milk". It gave me a bit of a shock, I can tell you. I thought we'd gone into innuendo territory, which is most un-mills and boon like, until I worked it out. Towards the end, whole months are being written off with no explanation and one can only presume that Jordan was being pressured to complete this for a deadline.

Still, on the whole, this is a very enjoyable tale, with just a little bit more about it than your usual Mills and Boon.

[Crystal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Speaking of keeping something big a secret and that is what happens in this book.

Petra doesn't want to marry Sheikh Rashid. She has never meet him but she knows that she won't go through with it.She has a plan to ruin herself so there will be no marriage.

Blaze was at the party and she decides to ask him to be her pretend lover. Only thing is the more time they spend together the more it isn't pretend but really happening.

Petra also finds out that Blaze was keeping a big secret the whole time. His name is really Sheikh Rashid and she didn't change his mind about marrying her, he plans on still going through with his plans.

[Nadia · Rating 4 out of 5]

La trama è una di quelle più facilmente rintracciabili nel mondo Harmony, ma la differenza, come dice una mia amica, la fa la "penna". E Penny Jordan è una maestra del genere romance e una delle mie autrici preferite.
La storia è semplice e ben costruita, forse avrei tirato un po' più per le lunghe la prima parte, ma va bene così. La caratterizzazione dei personaggi non è approfondita, però sono tutti al loro posto a compiere il proprio dovere.
Nell'insieme è stata una piacevolissima lettura.

[Melis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Çok hoşuma gitti okurken yaww. Ayrıca kitabı okurken bir şey farkettim bizim türk yazarlardan biri bu kitabın konusundan esinlenmiş resmen. Yani o kitabın başlangıcı bu kitabın konusu direk. Neyse kitaba dönersek ben çok beğendim ve çok güldüm Petra'nın hallerine. Ve ve yarı ingiliz olan Blaize Rashid'e bayıldım :)) Ben isteyebilirim aynısından :))

[RomLibrary · Rating 3 out of 5]

Petra is betrothed--to rich, eligible Sheikh Rashid. But she plans to ruin her reputation so Rashid won't want her. Blaize, a fellow guest at her hotel, agrees to be Petra's pretend lover--though soon he's taken her virginity!

Then Petra makes a shocking discovery. Blaize is actually none other than the man she's supposed to be marrying--Sheikh Rashid!

[Irene · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoy simple romance where at the end of the day everything ends well.

It's a great way of spending your time relaxing while reading something that is easy and doesn't trouble you.

[Classy Lady · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best novels it made me cry in the end

[Anna Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

What an enjoyable read!

[Bella Foxygobble · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rated 3-stars for its shear entertainment value and how it holds up in comparison to other category romance books. Its been a long while since I read a Harlequin Presents novel and they provided just the escape I needed - completely un-relateable characters in exotic locales I'll likely never visit. What's not to love?

Petra is betrothed--to rich, eligible Sheikh Rashid. But she plans to ruin her reputation so Rashid won't want her. Blaize, a fellow guest at her hotel, agrees to be Petra's pretend lover--though soon he's taken her virginity!

Then Petra makes a shocking discovery. Blaize is actually none other than the man she's supposed to be marrying--Sheikh Rashid!

The genius of Penny Jordan books is that I believe she knew exactly the types of stories she was writing. She didn't take her readers as idiots and was pretty straightforward with her not-so-subtle hints about the colossal miscommunication that inevitable is about to or has already happened. Good times.

My Ratings:

5*****I loved this book, consider it an all time favorite
4**** Thoroughly enjoyed the book and will recommend it
3*** I liked it well enough,
2** Brain Candy - It was okay. Writing mediocre, will
keep/re-read if part of a series
1* didn't like/possibly not finished.

[Pauline Destinugrainy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Tidak begitu suka dengan heroine-nya, Petra. Penuh prasangka, suka mengambil keputusan berdasarkan dugaannya. Yah.. ga salah sih, hanya saja dia tidak mau menyelidiki fakta²nya lebih jauh dulu. Udah gitu dia duluan menggoda dan mendekati Blaize a.k.a Rashid. Tapi tetap saja yang disalahkan Rashid.
Perkenalan sampai terbongkarnya siapa Blaize terlalu panjang dan lambat, sehingga begitu mendekati akhir alurnya seperti harus cepat² diselesaikan.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Better than the blackmailed but I still have my dislike towards the hero who acted like a jerk at the beginning! But at least, he's sweet in the end. Ugh, i wish i read this from the hero's PoV. Btw, the heroine fell in love so fast that I didn't know my head was spinning lol

[Lorna Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful love story

I enjoyed reading about Rashid and Petra journey into a beautiful relationship. I loved all their ups and down to finally reaching and understanding their love for each other. I would definitely recommend this book to friends and family.

[Erica Ross · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good.

[Edeliz Bering · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars. I really enjoy reading the comedy love story of Petra and Blaize/Rashid story. It was OTT Fun, sweet with a little bit of angst.

[Alexia Diacono · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow!