Arabian Nights

By: Heather Graham

Narrated by: Amy Rubinate

Length: 10 hrs and 19 mins

Publisher's summary

Can a land of exotic enchantment melt the enmity between Alex and Dan before it’s too late?

Days before starting a history-making excavation in a remote sector of the Valley of the Kings, Dr. Alexandria Randall’s father, a fellow Egyptologist, goes missing. Alex will stop at nothing to find her father—a gargantuan task in an ancient land where she doesn’t make the rules—even if she’s also a target. Alex must swallow her pride and ask for protection from an arrogant journalist named Dan. To find her father, Alex must play Dan’s wife—a ruse that both find insufferable. But with her father’s life hanging in the balance, Alex is determined to make their mock marriage work.

©1984 Heather E. Graham (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

Blast from the past, and awesome

I loved this book! Reading Arabian nights, I realized how much in life stays the same. I am glad Heather Graham has not gone back and tweaked her work. Relevant, real, and a great read

Poor story writing

Heather Graham has definitely moved into more of an erotic type writing - not my style. I like a light romance with a good story line. The last three books have been poor. Maybe time to move on to another author. Too bad. I have read her books for years

Arabian Nights... not

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

A better story, and a better narrator.

What was most disappointing about Heather Graham’s story?

The so called professional and educated modern-day heroine "bit her lip" and her nails constantly. She fainted at the prospect of "big strong men" and mummies. She behaved like a child who has no self control, throwing fits almost every time she was upset. Perversely she was frightened of what the author portrayed as "strong masculine men". I am very familiar with the Middle East, so I will also say this: Ms. Graham, please do better research about the food, language and culture of a locale and characters. Stereotypes are boring. Also the narrator clearly had no idea how to pronounce any of the "Arabic" words used in the book (most were used incorrectly). Her vocal tone is also annoyingly pretentious.

Would you be willing to try another one of Amy Rubinate’s performances?

Not knowingly.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Disappointment

Bodice ripper contemporary

This is a prototypical HG story with the characters interchangeable from all of her other early contemporaries and historical romances. While the douchey caveman behavior of heroes may be acceptable in HRs, given the times, it is insulting to read about such male behavior, even if the book was written in the 80s. The heroine who is supposed to be a notable Egyptologist in her own right, falls into the "I Tarzan, you Jane" mode, and basically goes along with whatever the douchey male wants her to do, after a few token shrieks. I drew the line when said douchebag demanded sex in return for protection.

HG uses strange turns of phrases: she loves using mercury analogies. Doesn’t she realize mercury is poisonous? Who wants mercury running through their veins?

I don’t like this narrator. She reads with a lisp or maybe just heavy usage of sibilant s’s. The delivery is flat and the cadence is weird. She also has some sort of an accent which I can't pinpoint.

Altogether, it was hard to get through to the finish.