#BookBlast The Sheik Retold by Victoria Vane

About Victoria:

Victoria Vane is a multiple award-winning romance novelist, cowboy addict, and history junkie whose collective works of fiction range from wildly comedic romps to emotionally compelling erotic romance. Victoria also writes historical fiction as Emery Lee and is the founder of Goodreads Romantic Historical Fiction Lovers and the Romantic Historical Lovers book review blog. Look for Victoria's sexy new contemporary cowboy series coming from Sourcebooks  summer 2014.

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Victoria will be awarding one copy of "A Wild Night's Bride" and one copy of "A Breach of Promise" to randomly drawn commenters at each stop.

 

Blurb:

A haughty young heiress for whom the world is a playground…

A savage son of the Sahara who knows no law but his own…

When pride and passion vie for supremacy…

Blistering desert days are nothing compared to the sizzling Sahara nights…

Excerpt:

My eyes tracked upward to rest on his sun-bronzed and lightly bearded face. Harsh and angular in the lamplight, it was at once the handsomest and cruelest face I had ever seen. He regarded me fiercely with scornful eyes. Those eyes! I had seen them before.

I gasped. It was him! The man from the party who had eyed me with such insolence. Even now he gazed at me as no other man had ever dared to—in a way that made me feel like a slave exposed for sale in a public market.

 "Who are you?" I asked hoarsely, speaking in French without thinking.

He replied in French as well. "I am the Sheik Ahmed Ben Hassan."

The name conveyed nothing. "Is it money that you want? Are you holding me for ransom?"

He regarded me for a long and silent moment with an expression of contempt. "I have no need of your money."

"What then?" I demanded, but deep down I already knew it was not a question of ransom. The way he looked at me was far too revealing and made my stomach churn. "Do you think that you can keep me here, you fool?" I lashed out in growing panic. "Do you suppose I can vanish into the desert and that no notice will be taken of my disappearance? That no inquiries will be made?"

"There will be no inquiries," he answered me calmly.

"There will be inquiries." I choked out. "I am not such a nonentity that nothing will be done when I am missed. The English authorities will make the French Government find out who is responsible, and you will pay for what you have done."

"Pay?" His amused look sent a cold feeling of dread through me. "I have already paid… in gold that matches your hair, my gazelle. Besides," he continued, "the French Government has no jurisdiction over me. There is no authority above my own."

My trepidation was growing more terrible every passing moment. "Why have you brought me here?"

"Why have I brought you here?" He repeated with a slow and heated appraisal that made me acutely, almost painfully, conscious of my sex. "Bon Dieu! Are you not woman enough to know?"

Buy Links:
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Wednesday Regency: Les Miserables and the French Revolution

Technically speaking, the Regency Era lasted a bare 9 years. The era most writers consider Regency really combines the late Georgian and Regency periods: 1795-1837 when the Victorian Era began.

Les Misérables falls squarely in this time frame, taking place from 1815-1832 yet when I think of Les Mis, I think only of the French Revolution and how the lives of those people, who had little to nothing to do with it, changed (or didn't) because of the Revolution.

I've written several stories that take place during the Revolution; my Hellfire Club Erotique Series deals with the aftermath of the Reign of Terror both in France and England.  Les Mis, however, isn't about nobility escaping the guillotine (like The Scarlet Pimpernel) or about stopping the spread of the Revolution, a fear a great many European countries had.

It's about those people the Revolution claimed to want to help and did not.

To be fair, I find the plot of Les Mis tedious after Jean Valjean rescues Collette. I love the music, it's stirring, evocative, and beautiful. But the plot of the second half of the play/movie is just eh to me and I can't explain why I have no interest in it. It may be that I don't really like Collette. Jean Valjean is a wonderful character with reasons for all he does. Collette is...not.

The Revolution had ramifications that were felt through World War II. It's amazing what ripples can be felt when you examine the causes of things. Putting aside a historical political science lesson, and the universal truths found in the story, Les Mis firmly has its roots in the Revolution--all the working poor and student bodies rising up to demand more.

Most interesting is what I read on Wiki about Victor Hugo's sources. This story was (loosely) based on real people:

Valjean's character is loosely based on the life of Eugène François Vidocq, an ex-convict who became a successful businessman widely noted for his social engagement and philanthropy. Vidocq helped Hugo with his research for Claude Gueux and Le Dernier jour d'un condamné (The Last Day of a Condemned Man). In 1828, Vidocq, already pardoned, saved one of the workers in his paper factory by lifting a heavy cart on his shoulders as Valjean does. Hugo's description of Valjean rescuing a sailor on the Orion drew almost word for word on a friend's letter describing such an incident. Hugo used Bienvenu de Miollis (1753–1843), the Bishop of Digne during the time in which Valjean encounters Myriel, as the model for Myriel.


In 1841, Hugo saved a prostitute from arrest for assault. He used a short part of his dialogue with the police when recounting Valjean's rescue of Fantine in the novel. On 22 February 1846, when he had begun work on the novel, Hugo witnessed the arrest of a bread thief while a Duchess and her child watched the scene pitilessly from their coach. During the 1832 revolt, Hugo walked the streets of Paris, saw the barricades blocking his way at points, and had to take shelter from gunfire. He participated more directly in the 1848 Paris insurrection, helping to smash barricades and suppress both the popular revolt and its monarchist allies.

Classic Reads 2013 Blog Gathering

Classic Reads 2013

Dates: Post any date 3-7 January

Theme: What makes a 'classic read'/What will be the 'new classics'

Post about the books you think are great and why. They don't have to be 'classics' as we traditionally know them but anything you think is a fantastic read, in any genre.

$300 in prizes: $200/£130 Amazon gift card (open to hoppers), 2x$50/£35 Amazon gift card (open to everyone)

Sponsored by Terri Giuliano Long, Molly Greene, Rachel Thompson and Christine Nolfi

Visit for more information and to sign up.