Forbidden: The Billionaire's Virgin Princess

Royal Brides #7

by Lucy Monroe

Sebastian Hawk is a master in business and in the bedroom. There is no place for emotion in his world.

Lina is a headstrong and reckless princess in need of protection and Sebastian is called in to provide round-the-clock security. Her provocative innocence is too enticing, and Sebastian loses his legendary self—control and beds her…only to discover she's still a virgin….

Genres: Harlequin, Romance, Harlequin Presents, Contemporary, Royalty, Hqn, Harlequin Romance

First published September 7, 2007

About the author

I write spicy romance books that end in an HEA. Contemporary romance, historical romance, paranormal romance…I write it all. The two things my books all have in common is lots of emotion and spice. Last year, I fell in love with a new subgenre: mafia romance. Since I write what I love to read, I started a new standalone series, Syndicate Rules where you’ll meet over the top alpha heroes in the Italian and Greek mafias as well as the Irish mob. There are arranged marriages, forced marriages, enemies to lovers, stalkers, forced proximity and lots of mafia intrigue. Morally gray is my new favorite color.

Follow me on BookBub for alerts on my next release: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/lucy-...

I’ve been published a while and most of my 90+ books have hit the Nielson Bookscan bestseller list, a few ended up on the USA Today bestseller list and some even hit national bestseller lists in the UK and Australia. My books have been translated into numerous languages and are for sale in dozens of countries around the world. I’ve won awards and been published with most of the big houses in New York, but my greatest achievement is touching readers’ hearts. When I hear from a reader who got caught up in one of my books, I know I’m doing what I’m meant to do.

I love writing emotionally deep stories with snappy dialogue and solid plots. I’m more grateful than I’ll ever be able to express that so many readers have taken my stories into their hearts and put my books on their reread and keeper shelves.

Reviews

[Vintage · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lucy Monroe finally got around to writing Hawk’s romance. Too bad he’s as bad of a hero as he is an investigator. And he's not a billionaire either.

Hawk: the deficient detective, the pathetic PI, the incompetent investigator, the feckless flatfoot to tycoons and royalty in Lucy Monroe’s HPland has screwed up royally in more than one book. Initially, in this one, I just disliked him intensely, by the end I despised him.

The heroine wins the honors here and she deserves a much better, much worthier mate. She’s independent, she’s loving, and she’s smart, very smart.

Given away by her royal parents to a low-level third brother and his barren wife to raise in the States, the heroine has given up hope of receiving love from her bio parents despite the fact that they think she should be another willing pawn to marry off.

Hawk and the h meet when she is in college. He’s checking on her security detail which she outwits time and time again. So well in fact they don’t even know she’s done it. The H lies that he’s student and she falls for him. When he reveals all he disparages her for her lies. You know not admitting she’s a muckety-muck princess to him. She points out that she wants people to like her for herself rather than his lying to dupe her for her father, but he’s too enthralled with his own self as well as pointing all she owes the family that dumped her.

There is an eight year jump which is a little long for me.

He’s tracked her down again for her Sheik father, and once again pontificates what she owes the country and family she only sees once a year. Their choice. Die a thousand deaths, jackass. He was so repugnant to me I had to skim the love scenes where once again LM does her kinda creepy digit de-virginizing.

It’s not until she points out why she does not have to go back to the Sheikdom she became a US citizen and gave up her birth citizen unbeknownst to anyone…like I said he is a sucky investigator and the very nice Sheikh her parents want her to marry (he sounded better than the H) that he decides he loves her. What an alpha male! So once it’s safe it’s okay for a HEA. What happened to love conquers all? Being a white knight and fighting the odds for your love?



4 star heroine
1 star hero
3 stars

[StMargarets · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this because it contained elements I usually don't like:

1) body guard/NavySeal/man of mystery type hero - he's Hawk from previous LM stories - he runs his own detective/security agency and he's a millionaire

2) Story told in Flashback - the story opens with the heroine bungee jumping and then a flashback 8 years before when the desert princess heroine was 19 and the hero was assigned as her bodyguard. He didn't identify himself as her bodyguard, but they both fell in love anyway.

3) NA stories - a third of this story was set during the heroine's college days and the usual tensions are there, complete with jock-bully competing as an OM

4) Desert stories - heroine is a princess and under the strictures of a very conservative family.

So why did this work for me?

Heroine was clever enough to find a solution to her forced marriage She got US citizenship and renounced her desert kingdom citizenship so her father didn't have control over her.

There's a lot of Hawk's point of view and he was as tortured as she was. I liked that the solution was so simple - they would stop lying and guarding their hearts and pretending the King was some big stumbling block, and just get married. That the hero finally saw the simple solution and ran with it was a nice finish.

[Fanniny Moreno Zavaleta · Rating 4 out of 5]

**It's brief but contains spoilers**

There were some very interesting scenes. Like the opening one with the h jumping from a bridge or when they're about to make love but she changes her mind (thinking the H didn't really want her) and he goes crazy.

You get two badass females (the h and her ex-military friend), both H and h lying or at least omitting their true identities, dubious ethics and legalities, two princes that were only mentioned but
I want to get to know (the h's brother and "fiancé") and a battle of saying the contrary to what they feel between H and h.
Uh and I think Mr. Grey the H did have a fetish with the water... Not that it bothered me.

It had the ingredients for a 5 star read for me BUT the author ran out of pages and had to finish the story in 4 paragraphs (not actually true because I didn't really count them but you get the feels) and that left like 76574654576354987 loose ends. Oh and the short epilogue didn't solve anything.

Safety unclear. They were separated for 8 years, h obviously remained a virgin but nothing was said about the H during separation (I chose to think he was celibate, I know it was very improbable for the circumstances but still chose that option)

[Jenny · Rating 2 out of 5]

Heroine is a princess who is under supervision but who always manages to eludes her bodyguards. Her father assigns our hero to watch over her.Unknown to Lina, Sebastian is her new bodyguard. He guards Lina without revealing his true identity, to give her the illusion of freedom with a guarantee of safety. They fall in love but Lina is engaged and Sebastian can't betray his work ethics.

Good story but the final chapters left me cold. After all the build up, the ending of the story was an anticlimactic letdown.

[Lu Bielefeld · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 ⭐⭐⭐ - OK decent reads.
======================

Sebastian Hawk. The last person she expected to see at this moment in her life. The last man she expected, or wanted, to see ever again.

Soaring through the air like a bird diving for its prey, memories from eight years before flooded Lina’s mind in a reel-to-reel play of her time with Sebastian Hawk.

She did study, just not nearly as much as he believed. However, like her father and far too many other men from her country, her guard did not believe a woman could get the grades she did without putting a huge effort into the task.

Sure, at first, when she’d been sent away from all that she knew, she’d felt abandoned. But as she’d grown older, she’d realized her parents’ lack of interest in her daily life was to her benefit. They were very conservative and that attitude influenced their Americanized relatives they’d placed her with at the tender age of six.

The plan had been for him to confer with her bodyguard and then arrange to “bump into” the princess on her way out of the library later.

Did anyone in the princess’s life know who she really was and how she amused herself?

However, he would only take it so far. He didn’t do long-term and for so many reasons, Lina was not a candidate for a short-term affair.

His liaisons with women were just that. Commitment free, exchanges of pleasure without any false protestations of emotion. He didn’t even have female friends. He had no interest in getting serious with a woman. In any guise. Ever.

He wasn’t risking its reputation for a woman. No matter how enticing she was.

She did not remember her parents ever touching her with affection, and knew for a fact her father had never once given her any recognition as anything but his inferior female offspring.

Maybe he needed a vacation. One filled with discreet liaisons that would rid his mind of his…the princess’s image.

Hawk hadn’t had a virgin since high school. He had a strict policy of keeping his liaisons limited to experienced women who weren’t looking for a relationship much less a lifelong commitment.

He leaned down and took her bottom lip between his teeth. He sucked on it gently as she made a soft, surprised sound.

He gave into the silent plea in her gaze and kissed her, taking her mouth fully with lips, teeth and tongue. She whimpered, her body writhing in unconscious abandon against him.

“Ah, Lina. You are so responsive. I want to touch you all over.”

But Lina wasn’t like his other women. Not only was she a virgin, but she was a client. She would think sex meant happily ever after, but he didn’t do permanent.

What he had just done with Lina was stupid from every side.

SHE tried to burrow back into his arms, but he shook his head, a look of disgust on his face as he pushed her away.

“So, the threat has been neutralized and my assignment here is done?”

“So, everything was a big deception. You weren’t my friend…my anything.” “The deception was necessary.” “No, it wasn’t.” Pain lanced through her, but she wasn’t going to let that comment slide. “You could have told me the truth.”

To deliver her to her family to marry the Playboy Prince. Okay, so he didn’t understand why King Fahd bin Latif had arranged Lina’s marriage to a sheikh who didn’t seem able to keep his scandals out of the newspaper, but it wasn’t Hawk’s job to judge the actions of his clients. He’d taken on an assignment and he would see it to completion.

She’d loved a lie anyway. It wasn’t as if anything about the man had been real eight years ago.

I learned all I needed to know about how much you respected my privacy and personal rights eight years ago. You showed me then that you would do or say anything to get the job done. I fully expect you to do the same this time around.”

She wanted love in her marriage, or she preferred to remain unattached. If she had children, she was determined to give them a different upbringing than she had had. No matter how much her aunt and uncle had loved her, Lina had never been able to completely dismiss her parents’ rejection.

“No, sweetheart. We can’t.” Then he said the one thing that for him was irrefutable. “You belong to another man.”

Lina’s gaze could have frozen lava as she put more distance between them. “Even if I had agreed to marry a man, I wouldn’t belong to him like a pet dog. We might conceivably belong to each other in an emotional sense, but my commitment would be just that. A commitment, not a contract of indenture. And in this case, I did not agree to marry anyone. I am not engaged and I have made no promises of fidelity. If I had, rest assured I would not be in this bathroom with you.”

But Sebastian’s betrayal had destroyed her ability to trust. Both her own judgment and in the honesty of men who expressed interest in her.

[Corandra]

La princesa y el guardaespaldas

[Alexis-Morgan Roark]

My problem with this book begins and ends with someone going eight years without making love while the guy she was apparently waiting for did not such thing. Oh, he loved her so much that it took him eight freaking years to come back to her and only beacause she ran away and he was hired to find her.

I cry, "Foul!"

[Raffaella · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hero is a bodyguard and heroine is a 19 year old princess he has to protect, he becomes her friend and almost seduces her, then leaves her when he ends his mission. Eight years later he’s back to take her again because she has to marry a man her father has decided, she doesn’t even know him. She decides to follow him but they have sex together and there he has his big revelation: he loves her and wants to marry her. Not much in this book, as the title says, the heroine remains a virgin for 8 years ( while he’s having fun sleeping around for sure) and this is not something I appreciate because women have sexual desire the same as men while those authors thinks that men are men and have to have random sex but women don’t. This spoiled the game for me, stop this double standard please. Anyway the man was ready to give her up again and again considering her only a task, I wasn’t able to feel any love from him.

[Leona · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am a huge Lucy Monroe fan, and I was dying for Hawk's story, but I just could not warm up to the story or the characters. It just seemed to be missing the LM sizzle.

[Jess · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a weird one for me because I was interested in the premise of a princess refusing an arranged marriage, but the end with them getting married in Vegas, it just felt like a cop out. Confront your father about his abandonment! That's what I had spent the entire book waiting for and it just didn't happen.

I also don't really believe that she could have become a US citizen without anyone in her country knowing about it, but okay. And it felt an awful lot like the college part was supposed to be set at UW-Madison without naming it, and if it was, there are a lot of key naming details wrong and it bugged me.

[Maura · Rating 2 out of 5]

Overall, this book had promise, right up until the last 80% when I started wondering how they were going to wrap it all up in such a short amount of pages. Well it was a disappointing end because of it. This book needed at least several more chapters to show how it ended and to wrap everything up rather than just telling about it in a few short paragraphs. For that reason, because I was denied a halfway decent ending, this book only got 2 stars.

[RomLibrary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sebastian Hawk is a master in business and in the bedroom. There is no place for emotion in his world. Lina is a headstrong and reckless princess in need of protection and Sebastian is called in to provide round-the-clock security. Her provocative innocence is too enticing, and Sebastian loses his legendary self--control and beds her...only to discover she's still a virgin.

[Michelle · Rating 1 out of 5]

“Lo único que había hecho, a su manera, era intentar salvarla.” Lina justificando que el wey le mintió y la abandonó por 8 AÑOS, nomas porque la vio bonito.

Normalmente disfruto muchísimo los protagonistas de Lucy, pero este no me gustó absolutamente nada, y creo que es porque en ningún momento sentí que realmente quisiera a la protagonista y viceversa.

Por otro lado, es raro que una mujer tan independiente y tan liberal decidiera quedarse virgen después de 8 AÑOS de abandono, y que seguía enamorada de alguien que literalmente le decía “perteneces a otro hombre” cuando va en contra de todo lo que ella cree.
Este cliché de te espere no sé cuántos años porque te amo, creo que debe ser fundamentado con una buena relación antes de separarse pero al menos desde fuera parecía que simplemente le daba sus migajas nomás para poder seguir cerca de ella y poder vigilarla por lo que en ningún momento siento que se vaya dando una relación “romántica”, literal nomás como dos días después de conocerlo Lina dice “creo que estoy enamorada” nemms ni lo conoces, y hasta cierto grado me dio un poco de lastima, porque creo que llevaba tanto tiempo siendo ignorada que con este que nomás llego a fingir que le ponía tres pesos de atención ella sentía que ya era el amor de su vida.

En fin, no me gustó nada la verdad, creo que por algo nunca lo había querido leer aunque me he releído un buen de veces la mayoría de libros de esta saga.

[Laini · Rating 1 out of 5]

Halfway through this and I've already found the thing I would never forgive this guy for. I know obviously the heroine will be uase that's what a romance novel is.

it's supposed to start getting good by halfway right? Because I literally put this book down just now and cried for like fifteen minute. I can't take anymore BS.

I prefer Lucy's affectionate heroes. Like the one in 'inherited bride' who was safe and called the heroine baby girl all the time.

This guy came to guard the princess, felt her virgin body up and then when he reveals who he really is to her he insults her as if she's the wrong party.

THEN he doesn't see her again for EIGHT YEARS.

This is too much like a real guy for me. I hate him already. And now we're meant to be convinced that he was just pining away for her.

I don't see how this book is going to redeem itself.

***
So I finished the book but he, in no way, redeemed himself.

There is no talk about him having remained chaste for those eight years but all of a sudden he walks back into her life and it's acceptable. Expected.

And this heroine.

Has she no self respect that she comes to the conclusion she should sleep with this man who used and abandoned her ieght years ago?

What is wrong with her brain?

I couldn't identify with her at all. I wish she hadn't married that heartless loser. A man could be as rich as can be but some things are just.... unacceptable.

[Robin :] · Rating 1 out of 5]

another utterly insane mills and boon special. firstly, maybe I have a skewed view of romance books because I deliberately read for masochistic reasons, but oh, good lord. I get it. This entire plot is based around how the princess feels (and is) possesivly snothered by every man in her life. She feels owned and controlled by them - BUT! Suddenly, it's sexy when the first man she's ever romantically spoken to does it, subterfuge cloak and dagger be dammed. This is a book for straight women, but the way men are described in this makes me wonder if the author likes men or just good colognes and monied muscles. seriously, for such a slim novel, the amount of Male Musk Mentions was thorough and impressive. he does do oral on her, though, which is why you know this is a fictional fantasy novel.

[Sara · Rating 2 out of 5]

As another reviewer said,this would have been better if there had been a showdown with the heroins father and if the ending didn't feel so abrupt.
I liked the h. She stood up for her self and wasn't a doormat.

[Vee · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars

a deceit. a rejection. and then 8 years later with the h still a virgin and H was... idk whether he was celibate or not but my bet was a no. expected more plot in here and the ending a bit lacklustre. at least they were married. no baby/ies in here even in the ending.

[Amanda · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pretty typical Harlequin. I found the hero to be pretty chauvinist. I liked the heroine. I wish some of the conflict had been drawn out more.

[More Books Than Time · Rating 2 out of 5]

This has several things I don’t like but author writes so well it was readable. Didn't much like the basic plot though.

Things I dislike:
Intense focus on sex
Royalty
Guys who don’t even consider love is real
Mideastern backgrounds

[Marilyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve read every book in Lucy Monroe’s Royal Bride series and they only get better and better and more interesting. In Forbidden: The Billionaire’s Virgin Princess Sebastian Hawk and Lina Marwan are equally matched in sensuality, spirit and in their attraction for each other. In each chapter I couldn’t wait to see if Lina was going to out-smart Hawk as he was hired to be her bodyguard to watch over her and to also watch over her security team her family had hired.

As a small child, Lina was sent away from her home to live in the US with her aunt and uncle. She’s never felt a part of her family; she’s felt neglected, unwanted with the exception of the care her US relatives have given her and from time to time, her brother who infrequently. She’s been sheltered, watched over like a hawk and now she wants to spread her wings. However, the only way she can do that is to outsmart her security team and her new bodyguard Hawk has figured her out!
Hawk is one hot man! He’s exceptional at his job, owns his own security company, is well respected in the industry and wants no part of a relationship. He’s learned from the women in his life not to trust and to keep his relationships short and sweet. Now he’s been hired by the Sheik to watch over his daughter who’s attending college so he makes sure he literally bumps into her, sparks fly between them…..it’s immediate attraction for both of them, Lina so innocent and Hawk so “experienced” and it’s a battle of wills, lust and a love story you’re not going to want to miss!

Throughout the entire book I was rooting for them and you will as well because their attraction is so immediate and powerful. Hawk is torn every step of the way; he fights his attraction for Lina and in the end it’s an emotional breakup and farewell. What was incredible to read was Lina’s journey in self discovery, how she grew emotionally and outsmarted them all! This author has a gift for drawing her readers into the story and this book is no exception. In the end, let’s just say, their reunion years later is emotional and tender as only Lucy Monroe can portray and this book is a love story at it’s best! Cheers to Lucy and her Royal Brides!

Book Description:

Sebastian Hawk is a master in business and in the bedroom. There is no place for emotion in his world.
Lina is a headstrong and reckless princess in need of protection and Sebastian is called in to provide round-the-clock security. Her provocative innocence is too enticing, and Sebastian loses his legendary self—control and beds her…only to discover she's still a virgin….
Royal Brides - An innocent princess — claimed by a hot-blooded billionaire!

[Julie (jjmachshev) · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Forbidden: The Billionaire's Virgin Princess" by Lucy Monroe was good, but not as good as the rest of her books. Normally, I feel the relationship between the hero and heroine more deeply than I did in this book. Don't get me wrong, it's still a great book...just not up to her normally stellar work.

Lina is a princess from an Arab country. She was sent to the US as a child of six to be raised by her motherless aunt and uncle. Since then, she has struggled for her freedom and to become the mistress of her own fate. She meets Hawk when he is secretly assigned as additional security for her, but he doesn't tell her. Instead he uses her attraction for him, and his growing attraction for her, as his cover. It backfires splendidly and they part for 8 years. When they meet again the attraction is still there, and just as strong as ever. He's supposed to track her down and return her to her father the king for an arranged marriage. She's not willing. Will he be able to resist her again? Will he be able to let her go?

As I said, I didn't feel as deeply for the lead characters like I normally do in a Lucy Monroe book. Maybe it's because of the short time the leads actually spend together. In any event, I still enjoyed the read and will buy the next release in this series "Hired: The Sheik's Secretary Mistress" which should be out in August 2008.

[Ruth]

For overall romantic and erotic payoff, I'd give this book 0 stars. Even for romances done in this style, the sex really disappointing. But for sheer fun to read, on Twitter, with a few dozen people commenting on my comments and discussing en masse, I'd give it 4. So I'm averaging it at 2.

[Mare · Rating 3 out of 5]

The beginning had the best attenion getter i must say. I didn't want to put the book down till I knew HOW the characters got to such a point... jumping off a bridge to escape?!
The storyline was good...but the end seemed just that an end.

[C.M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Instead of a Sheik, a Sheika?

This is the first book I read about an Arab woman.
Does the security fellow have to be a billionaire? Never knew those existed, but it is convenient. The pages were a mess, with many consisting of parts of sentences only. Noted at least 2 typos.

[Mitzi]

Won a copy

[Stefany · Rating 5 out of 5]

First book i ever read by Lucy Monroe and i've loved her books since then!

[Kobie · Rating 2 out of 5]

wow. the end did NOT work for me.

[Priyamvadha]

couldnot find the content

[Sahara · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book. Good for some spine tingling romantic light read if you have like an hour or two to kill

[Anabel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Five stars!

As always, Lucy Monroe does it again. The reluctant H had no chance against the h clever plan to wheel him in. I loved every minute of the story