“Sweet Revenge” by Nora Roberts

“Sweet Revenge” by Nora Roberts
1988, Bantam
ISBN: 0-553-10514-0

This was a fascinating story. Adrianne and Phillip, both people who risk much to take much. Both, as adults, are independent and neither have the least thought to be involved with anyone else, but when love hits you don’t always see it coming.

The fascinating part of this story is that much of it is rooted in the Middle East where customs diverge wildly with what we know and accept as normal in the West. There, where women are subservient, where they must go about veiled, where they have no voice, where freedom as we know it does not exist; these ideas were set before me in a way that became all too real in a way I’ve never experienced before.

So, Adrianne’s mother was a starlet in the West. She was talented, she was glamorous, she was a star and King Abdu fell head over heels in love with her. He courted her until he had won her heart. They married and she was never seen again. She disappeared into the harem in King Abdu’s Middle Eastern kingdom.

The problem was the baby she bore him was a daughter. He had expected a son. So, her worth was diminished. Then, he starts thinking because she is a westerner he has fallen afoul of the laws of his religion. It gets really nasty here and their lives become unbearable until they flee.

At the heart of this story is a fantastic necklace called The Sun and The Moon, given to Adrianne’s mother on her marriage day and taken from her by the King when Adrianne and her mother flee to the west. Adrianne vows to have it again.

This story is fast paced. It is thrilling. It is a peek into a culture I never really knew very much about.