Silver Angel by Johanna Lindsey

English miss Chantelle Burke is trying to escape her horrible guardian when she stumbles on the wrong people and is kidnapped and taken to the middle east, where she is sold into slavery and put in a posh harem owned by Jamil, the Dey of Barikah. What she doesn't know is that the man posing as Jamil is really an Englishman named Derek, there to help his twin (the real master) find out who is trying to kill him. Chantelle's silver haired, slim beauty isn't appreciated by Jamil, but Derek is instantly attracted to her English-like beauty and decides to make her his own.

I can't say I loved this story. There are many romantic places and settings in the world, but I don't find a middle-eastern harem to be one of them. Granted, Derek never slept with any of the other women in the harem, but Chantelle didn't know that, and so I found it hard to believe she could possibly fall in love with someone she believed to own nearly fifty women for his exclusive pleasure, 3 of them wives for heavens sake. In fact when she realized she loved him she pretty much demanded that he never sleep with any of the other women, which I found laughable given the circumstances. I didn't like Derek at all. He wasn't exactly emphatic about taking her back to England with him when his help was no longer needed. And he planned to make her his mistress when he got back since he was already engaged. It was only after his finance begged off that he essentially said, 'hey, now I can marry that other chick!' ok, maybe not in so many words, but it had that feel. *giggle* I normally really enjoy Johanna Lindsey's books, but this was a miss for me. I'll be nice and give it a 3.