What do you think?
Rate this book
Royal and Ruthless #7
El príncipe heredero
El remedio era…el matrimonio
Hannah Latimer, frivola y muy hermosa, había dejado su vida sofisticada para trabajar en una ONG y demostrar que servia para algo. Sin embargo, cayó presa de un régimen autoritario e intolerante y su única forma de escapar fue el poderoso y arrogante principe Kamel.
Kamel, obligado a casarse con Hannah para evitar una guerra con el país vecino, tenia poca paciencia con esa princesa mimada, pero era su deber y no podía dejarlo a un lado. No había amor entre ellos, pero si tenia que haber un heredero…y habría pasión.
Hannah Latimer, frivola y muy hermosa, había dejado su vida sofisticada para trabajar en una ONG y demostrar que servia para algo. Sin embargo, cayó presa de un régimen autoritario e intolerante y su única forma de escapar fue el poderoso y arrogante principe Kamel.
Kamel, obligado a casarse con Hannah para evitar una guerra con el país vecino, tenia poca paciencia con esa princesa mimada, pero era su deber y no podía dejarlo a un lado. No había amor entre ellos, pero si tenia que haber un heredero…y habría pasión.
160 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2014
23 people are currently reading
118 people want to read
About the author
Kim Lawrence
813 books212 followersThough lacking much authentic Welsh blood, Kim Lawrence comes from English-Irish stock. She was born and brought up in North Wales. She returned there when she married, and her sons were both born on Anglesey, an island off the coast. Though not isolated, Anglesey is a little off the beaten track, but lively Dublin, which Kim loves, is only a short ferry ride away. Today they live on the farm her husband was brought up on. Welsh is the first language of many people in this area and Kim's husband and sons are all bilingual she is having a lot of fun, not to mention a few headaches, trying to learn the language! She is a keen gardener and cook and enjoys running often on the beach, as living on an island the sea is never very far away. She is usually accompanied by her Jack Russell, Sprout don't ask, it's long story!
With small children, the unsocial hours of nursing didn't look attractive so encouraged by a husband who thinks she can do anything she sets her mind to, Kim tried her hand at writing. Always a keen Mills & Boon reader, it seemed natural for her to write a romance novel. In 1995, she published her first novels and now she can't imagine doing anything else.
With small children, the unsocial hours of nursing didn't look attractive so encouraged by a husband who thinks she can do anything she sets her mind to, Kim tried her hand at writing. Always a keen Mills & Boon reader, it seemed natural for her to write a romance novel. In 1995, she published her first novels and now she can't imagine doing anything else.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
November 14, 2019
Forced to marry to save her life.
Hannah may be beautiful & rich but she hides a strong will & a desire to do good which leads her to her present situation. She is so terrified in her cell knowing that anything can happen to her, when low & behold a handsome man appears to rescue her....and he tells her basically nothing but trust me. Really????
Kamel may have not been born to be king but he has all the arrogance & bossiness of one. Not used to thinking of what others think or feel he is wading into new territory with Hannah. He starts to realize there is much more to this gorgeous woman than looks alone.
Will there be a chance for them?
Hannah may be beautiful & rich but she hides a strong will & a desire to do good which leads her to her present situation. She is so terrified in her cell knowing that anything can happen to her, when low & behold a handsome man appears to rescue her....and he tells her basically nothing but trust me. Really????
Kamel may have not been born to be king but he has all the arrogance & bossiness of one. Not used to thinking of what others think or feel he is wading into new territory with Hannah. He starts to realize there is much more to this gorgeous woman than looks alone.
Will there be a chance for them?
October 5, 2018
Hannah Latimer grew up a spoiled socialite, but is trying to make something better of her life. And this is how she gets caught by border patrol, entering a hostile country, carrying a box of vaccinations. Hannah ends up a prisoner of this country and held in a jail cell in a pretty harrowing experience. Luckily, her father has some clout and is able to pull in a favor. Long story short, prince Kamel of Surana agrees to marry Hannah, securing her release, since she's a diplomat's future wife. Hannah is less than thrilled to learn the price she's about to pay without having agreed to it, but she has to adjust pretty quickly. She finds her husband to be cold and autocratic and pretty much disdainful of her. But the more he gets to know her, the more he realizes that she's not spoiled or selfish - she's got grit and heart - and he may be handing over his heart before he knows it.
I'm not sure what book everyone else that reviewed was reading, but I was surprised to find so many tags for "non-virginal-heroine." I definitely got the impression that Hannah was a virgin, as evidenced by her frequent comments about being rejected for sex while engaged, Kamel's reflection about how surprised he is that the "cool, distant virgin had turned out to be a warm, giving woman," and the heroine's comment after having sex with her husband that, "While she hadn't known what she was missing, celibacy had been easy -- but now she did know." Maybe it was the lack of any bloody rending of maidenheads that's throwing people off. I didn't see any evidence that she wasn't a virgin. Anywhoooo, it doesn't really matter to me either way.
I didn't hate the heroine. I definitely remember thinking that she should have been more appreciative of being rescued, but I was able to remember that she'd been held hostage for 4 days, had no idea what her immediate future held now that she was out or whether she was even actually being rescued, who her rescuer was, where she was going and then simultaneously found out she was getting married. I'm thinking the author did a pretty poor job of making that whole clusterf**k of things seem as overwhelming as it probably should have been. I can imagine I would have been screaming for everything to stop and someone please just explain what the heck is going on...and maybe I could get some sleep, privacy and maybe a hug? But the hero was pretty jerktastic to her. He wasn't loathsome or anything, but I didn't like how he walked in so full of certainty that the victim of the kidnapping was completely at fault for everything. Nobody can make mistakes, so it's completely Hannah's fault that she gets taken prisoner and this justifies Kamel's dislike of her...though he didn't really need any justification. He just disliked her for no reason.
After they marry, this basically is a series of episodes in which Kamel learns that Hannah isn't the vapid, brainless social butterfly he'd always judged her to be. I did like that Hannah continually stood up for herself, although she allows lots of people to treat her like a doormat, mostly out of guilt. Hannah also seems to be the classic melty heroine who can't remember why she's angry the second the hero sends her a smoldering look. The point where they start to realize they're falling in love isn't really all that gripping, and I kept waiting for the hero to actually apologize for his rude ass behavior back when they got married, but as much as he thought about how wrong he was or how much he LIKED the heroine, he never really told her, which I felt was necessary. Then the story speeds on by towards its ending and never gets an epilogue. So not the greatest in the end. It was just okay.
I'm not sure what book everyone else that reviewed was reading, but I was surprised to find so many tags for "non-virginal-heroine." I definitely got the impression that Hannah was a virgin, as evidenced by her frequent comments about being rejected for sex while engaged, Kamel's reflection about how surprised he is that the "cool, distant virgin had turned out to be a warm, giving woman," and the heroine's comment after having sex with her husband that, "While she hadn't known what she was missing, celibacy had been easy -- but now she did know." Maybe it was the lack of any bloody rending of maidenheads that's throwing people off. I didn't see any evidence that she wasn't a virgin. Anywhoooo, it doesn't really matter to me either way.
I didn't hate the heroine. I definitely remember thinking that she should have been more appreciative of being rescued, but I was able to remember that she'd been held hostage for 4 days, had no idea what her immediate future held now that she was out or whether she was even actually being rescued, who her rescuer was, where she was going and then simultaneously found out she was getting married. I'm thinking the author did a pretty poor job of making that whole clusterf**k of things seem as overwhelming as it probably should have been. I can imagine I would have been screaming for everything to stop and someone please just explain what the heck is going on...and maybe I could get some sleep, privacy and maybe a hug? But the hero was pretty jerktastic to her. He wasn't loathsome or anything, but I didn't like how he walked in so full of certainty that the victim of the kidnapping was completely at fault for everything. Nobody can make mistakes, so it's completely Hannah's fault that she gets taken prisoner and this justifies Kamel's dislike of her...though he didn't really need any justification. He just disliked her for no reason.
After they marry, this basically is a series of episodes in which Kamel learns that Hannah isn't the vapid, brainless social butterfly he'd always judged her to be. I did like that Hannah continually stood up for herself, although she allows lots of people to treat her like a doormat, mostly out of guilt. Hannah also seems to be the classic melty heroine who can't remember why she's angry the second the hero sends her a smoldering look. The point where they start to realize they're falling in love isn't really all that gripping, and I kept waiting for the hero to actually apologize for his rude ass behavior back when they got married, but as much as he thought about how wrong he was or how much he LIKED the heroine, he never really told her, which I felt was necessary. Then the story speeds on by towards its ending and never gets an epilogue. So not the greatest in the end. It was just okay.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 12, 2015
Not a fan of non virginal, socialite heroines.
June 29, 2014
2.5 stars
Though the book started off good with the premise and set up of the couple meeting and beginning their marriage of convenience after that it just started to go downhill and never really quite recovered after that and it just didn't do it for me. It's a shame really because it was such a promising start and I thought I would really dig this and like it. But the second half kind of just petered out and never picked up steam.
I think my biggest problem with this book was the potential was there and could have created this great angst style love story, which I love reading about, and could have all this great tension that I enjoy watching play out between the players involved, but that potential was not fulfilled to the fullest in my opinion and it was almost wasted. The tension and conflict between Kamel and Hannah just kind felt superficial and easily brushed aside instead of being more of an emotional struggle and coming to terms with feelings for one another along the way. I want that drama and that angst and it just wasn't there for me, or I should say in the way that I like.
It was almost too easy for them to get together and also too quickly. The example I can provide here was how quickly Kamel changed his attitude towards Hannah so quickly. It was like one moment he despised her and utterly hated her and treated her accordingly then suddenly he was lusting after and wanted her in his bed and they did end up in bed shortly there after that, and it just felt so wrong. One (I know that feelings don't need to necessarily go together when people sleep together both in fiction and real life, but this is just my opinion of what I want in a romance) he hated her yet he still lusted after her and decided to go for it with her because he wanted her and she was handy, which kind of left a bad taste in my mouth. I would have preferred that he hated her and there was all this tension in their marriage and friction between the two for awhile then slowly over time he got to know her and realized how wrong he was about her then he would set out to seduce her or something before they slept together knowing now what the kind of person that she was. Now don't get me wrong all didn't have to be revealed to Kamel and there could have been things that Hannah kept from him and he doesn't learn all her secrets until the end, but I just wanted him to see her true character and see the error of his ways before they went to bed for the first time. That's just my personal taste. Plus the whole love-hate relationship I would like to have seen played out a bit more. That's what makes romance fun.
And relating on the above point, the love scenes even though they were meant to be hot and steamy, for me personally they weren't, and I think the big reason for that was that they gave into their attraction too soon. Or I should say that from the first half to the middle of the book their attraction to one another just suddenly showed up and suddenly they wanted to rip each others clothes off, and I didn't like that sudden shift. Like I said I would have preferred the more back and forth between them. And since they did give their attraction this way and so quickly I think it dampened my enjoyment of the love scenes or to see them has being steamy, passionate or hot like many Presents are known for. They were kind eh for me. I think too their first time together was a little uneventful especially for it being her first time and their first time together. There was nothing really special about it, and I didn't feel the emotional coming off the page during this scene, or the emotion that was there kind of felt fake. It was just physical, and in books like these I like to see at least some type of deep emotion or connection coming off of at least one of the characters to indicate this love making scene was in fact important and special and different from whatever they had experienced in the past. An experience that couldn't be topped or met by anyone else because this event in their lives was special and this was the moment that they were waiting for their whole lives indicating that they indeed belong together. So the love scenes were disappointing and at times very blah, which is sad to say of a love scene in a romance novel.
Another reason that I wasn't digging the book was that I really didn't like heroine, Hannah. She was just so immature and ready to pick a fight with Kamel. Okay, I liked she did have a backbone, but it was how she presented that backbone that made me not like her because like I said she came off as immature and a spoiled brat child almost and that wasn't not an attractive quality to me. She felt like a baby. And instead it coming off as this angst and tension filled romantic ride that makes any good love story, it just came off as babyish and didn't nail it at all. It felt like Kamel was dealing with a child and every time conflicts arose she had a big hissy fit and stamped her foot like a child not getting her way. Now did she have a right to be upset? Yes, she did. What she had been through had not been easy and I could understand her emotional state wasn't exactly healthy and couple that with her past experiences I can understand why she lashed out, but it was how she lashed out that missed the mark for me. Again it just came off as completely childish, and when another tantrum came it was like "Here we go again." I was sick of seeing it so I knew Kamel had to be sick of it as well and I couldn't blame him in the least. And after while too it felt a bit repetitive and I was ready to move on after awhile. Her I was really feeling even though I did feel bad for what she went through in her life.
That was another thing I took issue with which were the issues in the book. For one there were almost too many with things being thrown in there here and there and either they weren't deal with or they were pretty glossed over, making them inconsequential and I felt like they needed to be in there. Like I said the set up was great and enjoyed that part but then all these issues came to be and it just felt like a mess to deal with and check off like they had been handled. For example, Hannah was kept prisoner because she entered a country illegally and she could be punished or put death and she was in jail for about 2 days before Kamel recused her by telling the leaders to release Hannah because she was to marry him and she would be his princess so they released her then Hannah and Kamel got married. The part that I didn't think was necessary was
Another thing that was presented, but really didn't have a huge impact on the story was the fact that Hannah was dyslexic. Yeah, it was mentioned and Kamel stood up to her father when he made a little joke about it, which was another turn off for this book especially since her dad was supposedly suppose to love his daughter so much but he made jokes about her disability. Really? Isn't that a bit far fetched as well. Anyway, but other than those two facts, nothing really happened after that or discussed or shown of how hard she had to overcome her condition in order to live in the day to day world (though it was said she had worked an extra year on her degree because of her condition and told Kamel this, but it wasn't anything significant) or just shown something to show her struggles with dyslexia and having Kamel witness that and see for himself how hard she had to work in order to other things that people took for granted. But it was never shown and I would have liked to seen it and it would have reinforced the point. Also I think it would show why Kamel admired her and began to develop deeper feelings for her in the end because that was never really shown either. It was like one moment he was in lust with her then he loved her. Come on. So I disappointed with that too.
And thirdly which kind of goes with point number one was the fact that Hannah never dealt with her issues. From the issue of guilt that she felt she killed her mom by being born and taking her dad's love of his life away from him and at times he couldn't be around her and kind of abandon her then she put the blame on herself. And thought she shouldn't be around because she killed her mother. Which was another thing it was never mentioned why her mother was in coma or how she became brain dead, etc. I would've liked a bit more clarification there but instead it was she brain dead and Hannah was delivered and her mom died and that was it. Second her trauma from her experience was never handled like I said and kind of pushed to the background. It could have been a great bonding experience for her and Kamel which would have made them closer and seem realistic that they were in fact falling in love. Another issue was the trust issue after the two fiancés that she had had betrayed her and left her. The one ass being a cheater and the other not loving her in that way with both engagements being cut off and adding to her image of the ice queen. She never dealt with her humiliation and hurt really though she did take it out on Kamel a time or too because her trust of men was at the bottom of the barrel, but there could have been a bit more there and more bonding with Kamel, and also he could have reassured her and reassured her more especially after the experience she had. So just things like that, and I felt were presented but then quickly glossed over because there were so many issues to get through. So that was unsatisfactory to me, and made story weak. Just too many issues thrown in when there really didn't need to be.
I wasn't crazy about Kamel either, and thought he was way too hard on Hannah and was pretty much a jerk for the majority of the book until his libido kicked in then everything changed because he was letting that rule him. Now usually I like my heroes alpha and jerks and what makes love stories interest and more intense and just fun to witness and go along with the ride with them, but I think Kamel was too much of a jerk for my liking and was way too hard on Hannah. Now granted he had misinformation of Hannah that he got from the tabloids that she was this ice queen spoiled daddies girl heiress that liked to party and use men and not have a responsible days work in her life. Yada. Yada. So he wasn't happy when he was forced to marry her to save and out of duty because his uncle asked him to do this so he could save her. So I get he wasn't thrilled with her, but his treatment was just way too harsh in my view especially with her being in this prison scared out of her mind and reliving the trauma over and over again and Kamel didn't help. He was just way too gruff with her and very mean. He could showed a little kindness or tried to be and not let his judgments cloud how he treated her and remember what she had been through. He did come to the realization later on, but I still think he was way too harsh for my liking. Too over the top for my liking. Plus like I said he did a totally one eighty in such a short period of time so I didn't really like that either would have preferred if he got to know her better before giving into his attraction for her. He wasn't the greatest hero.
Oh another thing I just thought of off the top of my head, speaking of issues was the issue that Kamel who loved Amira, but she was in love with his cousin and she married him even though Kamel made it plain that he loved her and wanted to marry her himself but he let her go when he realized that was what Amira wanted and couldn't be selfish about it even though it killed him to do so. Anyway, he stated he would never get over her or love again (like many heroes do in Presents and I get and I usually understand and enjoy that conflict in the story, but not in this one) and Hannah knew all this and was measuring herself up to Amira and how she would never be good enough or win the love of Kamel because he had this great love in Amira. And though he did say he loved Amira, but he loved Hannah and would be lost without her. Again it was just too easily dealt with and of no consequence really and glossed over like it was no big deal. I thought this would be more of a struggle between them and it really wasn't.
And just for the general point, I didn't really enjoy their love story that much because it just didn't feel like one. They just kept hoping into bed time and time again without any really emotions passing between them until the end. It didn't feel real. It didn't feel emotional. It didn't spark anything within me. It just left me feeling wanting for something more. I want more emotions, more tension, and just more of the roller coaster ride to take with the couple, which I didn't get here. In fact their journey was kind of stale from the mid point on, and again it didn't not feel like they were really falling in love and they were really just in lust with one another. So the love story was a thumbs down in my view, which is the reason I read Presents is for the love stories and when that doesn't work then the book doesn't work for me and this just didn't work even though the beginning and set up was unique and very intriguing but after that it just failed.
I don't what it is but I have been more critical of Presents books lately, and I just know what I want and what I want to feel when reading them and when I don't get that then I tend to more critical. I want that feeling in the pit my stomach. I want my heart to race along with heroine. I want cry. I want feel for the characters. I want my heart ripped out of my chest before it goes where it belongs and when I don't any of these feelings then my enjoyment fades and I am left dissatisfied and wanting more. I think the biggest reason for my critical eye now is because new author are coming into the fray in this series and are really hitting it out of the park with these stories that drag me through the mud and tear and soul and just make me feel so much and feel so much for the characters and just creating these great characters that I can't help but root for. What they write grabs at my heart and soul yet they make passionate and fun and full of love that I come expect that from every single Presents I read. I've become spoiled with the new writers, I can admit to that, and that just know how to evoke deep emotions within myself as well within their characters and that's what I want to see from both new Presents authors and old ones as well, and some old ones do succeed as well so I am not just enjoying the new ones but the oldes as well, so my filter from when I first began reading Presents to now has definitely changed, and possibly could be to getting older as well, and my enjoyment of them and just I see Presents in a different way then I used to hence my more critical reviews as of late. Not that I want Presents to change, no I still want them to stay the same just have more tension, angst and romance in it. I want the same old themes but with the deeper/soul wrenching emotions behind it where I believe and feel it in my soul right along with them.
Anyway,(referring to above paragraph)lately Kim Lawrence, an author that I have enjoyed in the past, has just not being doing it for me lately. I don't what it is exactly that I am just digging anymore, but just something is missing for me even thought she has promising starts. I think maybe things are too rushed like it was in this one or the attraction doesn't quite feel so genuine or real or there's a too sudden of turn where one minute they hate each other's gut then suddenly they are in love. That just doesn't work for unless the deep emotions are there without that support that fact otherwise it just makes no sense whatsoever. I want to see that journey from stranger to lovers to soul mates without and jumps, skips or hopes along way. I want see it from page one to the last one. I want feel it, see it, taste it, and just believe it otherwise the story become unsatisfactory and not a great love story. Sorry to say this was one of them. I wish did like it more, but I just didn't, which is a shame like I said because the premise was so promising and could have gone in a lot of different directions and it just didn't go that way. At least for me. The potential was there, but execution was not. Will I give up on Kim Lawrence books? No. Am I in hurry to pick up another one that is currently sitting on my shelf? No, I have other books that require my attention, and I will get to the next Kim Lawrence book when I get to it and it probably won't be anytime soon. But I won't give up. Hopefully I will find one of hers to enjoy like some of the ones that I have enjoyed of hers in the past. But until then this was just not a winner for me.
Though the book started off good with the premise and set up of the couple meeting and beginning their marriage of convenience after that it just started to go downhill and never really quite recovered after that and it just didn't do it for me. It's a shame really because it was such a promising start and I thought I would really dig this and like it. But the second half kind of just petered out and never picked up steam.
I think my biggest problem with this book was the potential was there and could have created this great angst style love story, which I love reading about, and could have all this great tension that I enjoy watching play out between the players involved, but that potential was not fulfilled to the fullest in my opinion and it was almost wasted. The tension and conflict between Kamel and Hannah just kind felt superficial and easily brushed aside instead of being more of an emotional struggle and coming to terms with feelings for one another along the way. I want that drama and that angst and it just wasn't there for me, or I should say in the way that I like.
It was almost too easy for them to get together and also too quickly. The example I can provide here was how quickly Kamel changed his attitude towards Hannah so quickly. It was like one moment he despised her and utterly hated her and treated her accordingly then suddenly he was lusting after and wanted her in his bed and they did end up in bed shortly there after that, and it just felt so wrong. One (I know that feelings don't need to necessarily go together when people sleep together both in fiction and real life, but this is just my opinion of what I want in a romance) he hated her yet he still lusted after her and decided to go for it with her because he wanted her and she was handy, which kind of left a bad taste in my mouth. I would have preferred that he hated her and there was all this tension in their marriage and friction between the two for awhile then slowly over time he got to know her and realized how wrong he was about her then he would set out to seduce her or something before they slept together knowing now what the kind of person that she was. Now don't get me wrong all didn't have to be revealed to Kamel and there could have been things that Hannah kept from him and he doesn't learn all her secrets until the end, but I just wanted him to see her true character and see the error of his ways before they went to bed for the first time. That's just my personal taste. Plus the whole love-hate relationship I would like to have seen played out a bit more. That's what makes romance fun.
And relating on the above point, the love scenes even though they were meant to be hot and steamy, for me personally they weren't, and I think the big reason for that was that they gave into their attraction too soon. Or I should say that from the first half to the middle of the book their attraction to one another just suddenly showed up and suddenly they wanted to rip each others clothes off, and I didn't like that sudden shift. Like I said I would have preferred the more back and forth between them. And since they did give their attraction this way and so quickly I think it dampened my enjoyment of the love scenes or to see them has being steamy, passionate or hot like many Presents are known for. They were kind eh for me. I think too their first time together was a little uneventful especially for it being her first time and their first time together. There was nothing really special about it, and I didn't feel the emotional coming off the page during this scene, or the emotion that was there kind of felt fake. It was just physical, and in books like these I like to see at least some type of deep emotion or connection coming off of at least one of the characters to indicate this love making scene was in fact important and special and different from whatever they had experienced in the past. An experience that couldn't be topped or met by anyone else because this event in their lives was special and this was the moment that they were waiting for their whole lives indicating that they indeed belong together. So the love scenes were disappointing and at times very blah, which is sad to say of a love scene in a romance novel.
Another reason that I wasn't digging the book was that I really didn't like heroine, Hannah. She was just so immature and ready to pick a fight with Kamel. Okay, I liked she did have a backbone, but it was how she presented that backbone that made me not like her because like I said she came off as immature and a spoiled brat child almost and that wasn't not an attractive quality to me. She felt like a baby. And instead it coming off as this angst and tension filled romantic ride that makes any good love story, it just came off as babyish and didn't nail it at all. It felt like Kamel was dealing with a child and every time conflicts arose she had a big hissy fit and stamped her foot like a child not getting her way. Now did she have a right to be upset? Yes, she did. What she had been through had not been easy and I could understand her emotional state wasn't exactly healthy and couple that with her past experiences I can understand why she lashed out, but it was how she lashed out that missed the mark for me. Again it just came off as completely childish, and when another tantrum came it was like "Here we go again." I was sick of seeing it so I knew Kamel had to be sick of it as well and I couldn't blame him in the least. And after while too it felt a bit repetitive and I was ready to move on after awhile. Her I was really feeling even though I did feel bad for what she went through in her life.
That was another thing I took issue with which were the issues in the book. For one there were almost too many with things being thrown in there here and there and either they weren't deal with or they were pretty glossed over, making them inconsequential and I felt like they needed to be in there. Like I said the set up was great and enjoyed that part but then all these issues came to be and it just felt like a mess to deal with and check off like they had been handled. For example, Hannah was kept prisoner because she entered a country illegally and she could be punished or put death and she was in jail for about 2 days before Kamel recused her by telling the leaders to release Hannah because she was to marry him and she would be his princess so they released her then Hannah and Kamel got married. The part that I didn't think was necessary was
Another thing that was presented, but really didn't have a huge impact on the story was the fact that Hannah was dyslexic. Yeah, it was mentioned and Kamel stood up to her father when he made a little joke about it, which was another turn off for this book especially since her dad was supposedly suppose to love his daughter so much but he made jokes about her disability. Really? Isn't that a bit far fetched as well. Anyway, but other than those two facts, nothing really happened after that or discussed or shown of how hard she had to overcome her condition in order to live in the day to day world (though it was said she had worked an extra year on her degree because of her condition and told Kamel this, but it wasn't anything significant) or just shown something to show her struggles with dyslexia and having Kamel witness that and see for himself how hard she had to work in order to other things that people took for granted. But it was never shown and I would have liked to seen it and it would have reinforced the point. Also I think it would show why Kamel admired her and began to develop deeper feelings for her in the end because that was never really shown either. It was like one moment he was in lust with her then he loved her. Come on. So I disappointed with that too.
And thirdly which kind of goes with point number one was the fact that Hannah never dealt with her issues. From the issue of guilt that she felt she killed her mom by being born and taking her dad's love of his life away from him and at times he couldn't be around her and kind of abandon her then she put the blame on herself. And thought she shouldn't be around because she killed her mother. Which was another thing it was never mentioned why her mother was in coma or how she became brain dead, etc. I would've liked a bit more clarification there but instead it was she brain dead and Hannah was delivered and her mom died and that was it. Second her trauma from her experience was never handled like I said and kind of pushed to the background. It could have been a great bonding experience for her and Kamel which would have made them closer and seem realistic that they were in fact falling in love. Another issue was the trust issue after the two fiancés that she had had betrayed her and left her. The one ass being a cheater and the other not loving her in that way with both engagements being cut off and adding to her image of the ice queen. She never dealt with her humiliation and hurt really though she did take it out on Kamel a time or too because her trust of men was at the bottom of the barrel, but there could have been a bit more there and more bonding with Kamel, and also he could have reassured her and reassured her more especially after the experience she had. So just things like that, and I felt were presented but then quickly glossed over because there were so many issues to get through. So that was unsatisfactory to me, and made story weak. Just too many issues thrown in when there really didn't need to be.
I wasn't crazy about Kamel either, and thought he was way too hard on Hannah and was pretty much a jerk for the majority of the book until his libido kicked in then everything changed because he was letting that rule him. Now usually I like my heroes alpha and jerks and what makes love stories interest and more intense and just fun to witness and go along with the ride with them, but I think Kamel was too much of a jerk for my liking and was way too hard on Hannah. Now granted he had misinformation of Hannah that he got from the tabloids that she was this ice queen spoiled daddies girl heiress that liked to party and use men and not have a responsible days work in her life. Yada. Yada. So he wasn't happy when he was forced to marry her to save and out of duty because his uncle asked him to do this so he could save her. So I get he wasn't thrilled with her, but his treatment was just way too harsh in my view especially with her being in this prison scared out of her mind and reliving the trauma over and over again and Kamel didn't help. He was just way too gruff with her and very mean. He could showed a little kindness or tried to be and not let his judgments cloud how he treated her and remember what she had been through. He did come to the realization later on, but I still think he was way too harsh for my liking. Too over the top for my liking. Plus like I said he did a totally one eighty in such a short period of time so I didn't really like that either would have preferred if he got to know her better before giving into his attraction for her. He wasn't the greatest hero.
Oh another thing I just thought of off the top of my head, speaking of issues was the issue that Kamel who loved Amira, but she was in love with his cousin and she married him even though Kamel made it plain that he loved her and wanted to marry her himself but he let her go when he realized that was what Amira wanted and couldn't be selfish about it even though it killed him to do so. Anyway, he stated he would never get over her or love again (like many heroes do in Presents and I get and I usually understand and enjoy that conflict in the story, but not in this one) and Hannah knew all this and was measuring herself up to Amira and how she would never be good enough or win the love of Kamel because he had this great love in Amira. And though he did say he loved Amira, but he loved Hannah and would be lost without her. Again it was just too easily dealt with and of no consequence really and glossed over like it was no big deal. I thought this would be more of a struggle between them and it really wasn't.
And just for the general point, I didn't really enjoy their love story that much because it just didn't feel like one. They just kept hoping into bed time and time again without any really emotions passing between them until the end. It didn't feel real. It didn't feel emotional. It didn't spark anything within me. It just left me feeling wanting for something more. I want more emotions, more tension, and just more of the roller coaster ride to take with the couple, which I didn't get here. In fact their journey was kind of stale from the mid point on, and again it didn't not feel like they were really falling in love and they were really just in lust with one another. So the love story was a thumbs down in my view, which is the reason I read Presents is for the love stories and when that doesn't work then the book doesn't work for me and this just didn't work even though the beginning and set up was unique and very intriguing but after that it just failed.
I don't what it is but I have been more critical of Presents books lately, and I just know what I want and what I want to feel when reading them and when I don't get that then I tend to more critical. I want that feeling in the pit my stomach. I want my heart to race along with heroine. I want cry. I want feel for the characters. I want my heart ripped out of my chest before it goes where it belongs and when I don't any of these feelings then my enjoyment fades and I am left dissatisfied and wanting more. I think the biggest reason for my critical eye now is because new author are coming into the fray in this series and are really hitting it out of the park with these stories that drag me through the mud and tear and soul and just make me feel so much and feel so much for the characters and just creating these great characters that I can't help but root for. What they write grabs at my heart and soul yet they make passionate and fun and full of love that I come expect that from every single Presents I read. I've become spoiled with the new writers, I can admit to that, and that just know how to evoke deep emotions within myself as well within their characters and that's what I want to see from both new Presents authors and old ones as well, and some old ones do succeed as well so I am not just enjoying the new ones but the oldes as well, so my filter from when I first began reading Presents to now has definitely changed, and possibly could be to getting older as well, and my enjoyment of them and just I see Presents in a different way then I used to hence my more critical reviews as of late. Not that I want Presents to change, no I still want them to stay the same just have more tension, angst and romance in it. I want the same old themes but with the deeper/soul wrenching emotions behind it where I believe and feel it in my soul right along with them.
Anyway,(referring to above paragraph)lately Kim Lawrence, an author that I have enjoyed in the past, has just not being doing it for me lately. I don't what it is exactly that I am just digging anymore, but just something is missing for me even thought she has promising starts. I think maybe things are too rushed like it was in this one or the attraction doesn't quite feel so genuine or real or there's a too sudden of turn where one minute they hate each other's gut then suddenly they are in love. That just doesn't work for unless the deep emotions are there without that support that fact otherwise it just makes no sense whatsoever. I want to see that journey from stranger to lovers to soul mates without and jumps, skips or hopes along way. I want see it from page one to the last one. I want feel it, see it, taste it, and just believe it otherwise the story become unsatisfactory and not a great love story. Sorry to say this was one of them. I wish did like it more, but I just didn't, which is a shame like I said because the premise was so promising and could have gone in a lot of different directions and it just didn't go that way. At least for me. The potential was there, but execution was not. Will I give up on Kim Lawrence books? No. Am I in hurry to pick up another one that is currently sitting on my shelf? No, I have other books that require my attention, and I will get to the next Kim Lawrence book when I get to it and it probably won't be anytime soon. But I won't give up. Hopefully I will find one of hers to enjoy like some of the ones that I have enjoyed of hers in the past. But until then this was just not a winner for me.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 24, 2017
Average read.
Man thinks woman is crappy in some way and expects woman to prove she isn't...
Man thinks woman is crappy in some way and expects woman to prove she isn't...
June 3, 2021
Out of the frying pan, and into…
Hannah Latimer, beautifully enigmatic socialite, has left her glamorous lifestyle behind to prove her worth by becoming an aid worker. But when she's captured by an oppressive regime, her only means of escape is powerful and arrogant Prince Kamel of Surana. And the price?
Marriage!
Forced to take Hannah as a bride to avoid war with a neighboring kingdom, Kamel has little patience with the pampered princess he's bound to, but it's his duty, and that's something he can't ignore! There's no love between them, but there must be heirs. And there will be passion
Hannah Latimer, beautifully enigmatic socialite, has left her glamorous lifestyle behind to prove her worth by becoming an aid worker. But when she's captured by an oppressive regime, her only means of escape is powerful and arrogant Prince Kamel of Surana. And the price?
Marriage!
Forced to take Hannah as a bride to avoid war with a neighboring kingdom, Kamel has little patience with the pampered princess he's bound to, but it's his duty, and that's something he can't ignore! There's no love between them, but there must be heirs. And there will be passion
September 20, 2014
I really liked this one!
March 11, 2024
I’ve finally decided this particular writer doesn’t do it for me. She writes well, but her stories are utterly unromantic and the heroine is always behaves like a bad tempered, rude, aggressive adolescent. I don’t find that either interesting or romantic.
They all appear to use the enemy to lover trope but quite frankly there is never any reason that I could see why they fall in love. Lust is certainly present even though the heroine tries to deny it. I
From their first meeting, when he arrives to rescue her from prison or even death, she treats him like something on her shoe. Seriously? Her manners are so appalling, her way of speaking to him so demeaning and derogatory - I just couldn’t believe in her at all. I guess we are supposed to believe that the dialogue is witty, clever and shows us the heroine’s strength? In fact it simply annoyed me. Her dyslexia was mentioned but played no real part in the plot, as did the mother’s brain death and subsequent life support switch off on the birth of the heroine. There was no real explanation as to why she felt guilty since her father had always loved her and spoiled her rotten.
Excuses for her behaviour seems non-existent.
I think if the hostility had been dialled back, this book would have worked so much better. As it was, the idea they could have such amazing sex whilst actually loathing each other struck me as bizarre and unbelievable.
They all appear to use the enemy to lover trope but quite frankly there is never any reason that I could see why they fall in love. Lust is certainly present even though the heroine tries to deny it. I
From their first meeting, when he arrives to rescue her from prison or even death, she treats him like something on her shoe. Seriously? Her manners are so appalling, her way of speaking to him so demeaning and derogatory - I just couldn’t believe in her at all. I guess we are supposed to believe that the dialogue is witty, clever and shows us the heroine’s strength? In fact it simply annoyed me. Her dyslexia was mentioned but played no real part in the plot, as did the mother’s brain death and subsequent life support switch off on the birth of the heroine. There was no real explanation as to why she felt guilty since her father had always loved her and spoiled her rotten.
Excuses for her behaviour seems non-existent.
I think if the hostility had been dialled back, this book would have worked so much better. As it was, the idea they could have such amazing sex whilst actually loathing each other struck me as bizarre and unbelievable.
January 13, 2022
I know I've read better by Lawrence, I know that, but this wasn't one of them. I get that the author was maybe choosing to highlight a learning disability to cover all the heroine's issues, but it didn't make the character less annoying. The fact is, Hannah came across as a split personality -- "ice princess" one moment, and an emotional wreck the next. She even had a moment of self-realization to that effect, which I felt might have been the author's way of saying, "Yeah, I get it -- sorry, this is how I wrote her!". So, so irritating; other than her looks and the occasional bouts of normal human feeling, I had a really hard time feeling any real connection between her and the hero. Yet another betraying revelation of the author was when she acknowledges this through Kamel himself. He doesn't even understand his attraction to her!
Am I trying to make this read a little too meta? This one just didn't do it for me. Add to that, the and it was bit too contrived for any real chemistry or empathy from me.
Kind of a dud.
Am I trying to make this read a little too meta? This one just didn't do it for me. Add to that, the and it was bit too contrived for any real chemistry or empathy from me.
Kind of a dud.
August 16, 2018
This was just plain boring
October 9, 2018
Loved how fiery Hannah's character was. Its had to find characters I'm cheesy mills & boon books. A breath of fresh air I would say.
July 3, 2014
Hannah Latimer, spoiled daughter of a wealthy father, decided to become an aid worker and ended up in jail in a desert kingdom. Rescued by Prince Kamel of Surana of the neighboring kingdom who agreed to marry her as a favor to his uncle, Hannah is less than pleased at this arrangement. To Prince Kamel, Hannah is nothing more than a spoiled socialite who thinks only of herself but he's needs heirs and heirs Kamel will have. Now if he could only get Hannah to cooperate...
Both the H and he left me cold. True, Hannah isn't what she shows to the outside world but she's unbending. Kamel is arrogant and doesn't look beyond the surface but he is also carrying scars from his past. That this story had an HEA took some work.
Both the H and he left me cold. True, Hannah isn't what she shows to the outside world but she's unbending. Kamel is arrogant and doesn't look beyond the surface but he is also carrying scars from his past. That this story had an HEA took some work.
May 3, 2014
While the prose was engaging the shrewish heroine was not. She was cold and unlikeable. I understand she had a tragic history but it did not make this heroine likeable. I could not finish as a result of the heroine who was so ungrateful she did not even thank the hero for rescuing her.
On a positive note, I liked the hero. He was wealthy and powerful but on the downside he had to marry cause his daddy told him too...that's part is a negative.
I've finished better HPs with this formula but the heroines weren't cold shrews.
On a positive note, I liked the hero. He was wealthy and powerful but on the downside he had to marry cause his daddy told him too...that's part is a negative.
I've finished better HPs with this formula but the heroines weren't cold shrews.
Read
January 12, 2016"Lawrence’s romance is an intoxicating, exotic page-turner. Her narrative brings her alluring sandscapes and enigmatic characters to life. It’s a pleasure watching her spunky heroine and stubborn hero taking baby steps from loathing to love, and their love scenes are transcendent (RT Book Reviews)". 4 1/2 stars
Miniseries: Royal & Ruthless
Miniseries: Royal & Ruthless
March 8, 2015
I did not see any evidence of chemistry... explosive or other wise... only contempt and pity which the hero tries to hide ... by the time I read quarter of the book I had a massive head ache coz there is no softening of characters towards each other and they are in bed by then.
Read
January 12, 2016received 4 1/2 stars @ RT Book Reviews
Miniseries: Royal & Ruthless
Miniseries: Royal & Ruthless
June 13, 2014
I enjoyed this book and will be looking for more of this authors books to read.
November 20, 2014
Kamel♥
January 11, 2015
Bueno, como no enamorarme de ellos son tan grrr
November 15, 2015
muito fraquinho, com uma ação rapida demais para ser credivel. as cenas de diálogo são muito elementares com pouca manifestação emocional.
Want to read
January 7, 2023Hanna Latimar might seenmto ve a spoiled brat and all but underneath there is a woman who can and will make life better for herself and others
November 2, 2017
one of most interesting romance novel I've so far i loved it and didn't want it to end Kim Lawrence you're very good!!!!!!!!!
Read
December 6, 2017El Príncipe Heredero (Spanish Version)
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews