Julia Trevelyan wakes in a travelling encampment in the Sahara Desert, to find that her Arab guides have stolen everything but the tent in which she sleeps, and fled. She's at an oasis, luckily, but has no transport, and all her precious sketches and samples of plants are missing. Disaster. As she's still adapting, a travelling merchant called Azhar arrives at the oasis on his camel, trailing mules. Azhar speaks English and he assures Julia - who is somewhat wary - that no countryman of his would offend the rules of hospitality in this way. The thieves must be foreign. But he can only escort Julia if she comes on his route, not hers.

I really enjoy Julia's determination to be called Cornish rather than English, and I have to admire her decision to dispense with a corset in the blistering heat and grit. As a woman of science Julia makes a splendid and unusual character. Botany has drawn her to many exotic locations but since the death of her husband from tropical fever, she has had to travel alone. She's able to discuss the region's political affairs with the trader, when many women of her day were brought up to hold no opinions nor express any. The handsome Sheik Azhar is widely travelled with his silks and spices, and has not been home for ten years. He omits to mention that he doesn't intend to stay. We are about to learn the reason.

The descriptions of the desert and town are breathtaking and realistic, full of energy and colour. We can taste the lemon sherbet and bitter dark coffee. Plants are considered quite appropriate for women to study, as herbalists are needed in this open country where resources are scarce. Another resource we learn about is a diamond mine, worked by skilled labour, the centre of wealth. Author Marguerite Kaye has as usual thoroughly researched in order to bring this world to life, from the palace garden needed to grow rose petals to the rule of Napoleon in Egypt. I don't know if she included the Kama Sutra in her reference works, for this Arabian Nights fantasy, but THE WIDOW AND THE SHEIKH is a breathtaking, sexy adult romance.

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