The Cobra and the Concubine

Leisure, May 2005, $5.99, 352 pp.
ISBN: 0843955295

In the late nineteenth century in the Egyptian desert, Khepri of the Warriors of the Wind learns that he will inherit a dukedom from his English grandfather, Lord Caldwell, who the desert Cobra forgot when his parents died while digging amidst the pyramids. He struggles with leaving behind his family and friends, but knows he must do the right thing. Still to stay connected he asks Badra to marry him, but she refuses.

Badra has a secret that she has hidden from Khepri. As a child of the Sahara, she learned how men behave when Sheikh Fareeq took more than her virginity; he took her trust in men and her passion for life with him. Though her nemesis is dead and the her rescuers, the Khamsin the Warriors of the Wind, have proven honourable, Badra cannot sleep with any man even one she loves like Khepri because the pain of Fareeq's rape lingers. For Khepri, Kenneth Tristan when he returns to the land of his ancestors, all is like the sand in the wind blowing away since he knows he failed to protect Badra and worse failed to win her.

Bonnie Vanak's latest historical romance is a wonderful tale that brings alive a bygone era on the sands of the Sahara at a time when Egyptology was the rage in London. The story line brings back Badra, a victim in THE FALCON & THE DOVE as the female lead, who exasperates the man who cherishes her. Khepri is an intriguing protagonist struggling between his heritage and his lifestyle. Ms. Vanak is at her best with this triumphant tale of second chances.

Harriet Klausner