Harem Girl: A Harem Girl's Journal

By M. Saalih and Annabeth Albert

Book Overview

HAREM GIRL is, at its heart, an engaging and erotic love story.

Sapphira, beautiful and assured, tells in unblushing and sensuous detail of her journey through life, briefly as an innocent young girl in Tunisia, then as one of eleven slave girls in an Arabian sheikh's harem, where her life changes utterly. Shamelessly, she reveals the sheikh's secrets of exotic lovemaking, and writes down all in her journal, her every thought, fear, and pleasure, with pressing frankness.

There is much to learn before she is "called" to her Master. Eunuchs train and instruct her in every facet of the art of pleasing a man.

..."on one hand, I looked forward to knowing these things, yet on the other, I was aghast at the way I had to show myself and the distasteful things I might have to do. It thoroughly unnerved me to realize that I must know a man in these ways--a man I scarcely knew"...

Her description of life in the harem is compelling and moving, recalling a level of lustful debauchery, submission, and decadence unimaginable today, but completely believable in the era in which it is set...and we are like the "fly on the wall" to watch intriguing, romantic, and sometimes wretched events unfold.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0595313000
• ISBN13: 9780595313006
• Release Date: March 2004
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 1.18 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.1" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

A yummy read

I found this story line exciting. It's a great story with a very sultry, sexy bi-line. I could not put this book down... and I found myself seeking out my husband every time I did. The Arabian flavor was superb.... the characters vivid... and the storytelling was rich and wonderful.

Fantastic!

The author went through an amazing amount of research for this fictional book. The story was so well detailed I could not put it down! You go back in a time where there were so many horrific "laws" and witness the changes that come with cultural influences. The erotic details of the harem secrets were both delicious and shocking in a tasteful way. This is NO sex trash novel. It is a story of a girl into womanhood and her search for both love and a life fulfilled. I will definitely read again and recommend!

Surprise! An erotic book that is actually a well written novel!

This story really got me hooked from the first page. Very enjoyable to read. Lately, I had read a few erotic books that turned out to be utter trash. I enjoy the erotic stories (even the rounchy ones), but they MUST be well written! This book was able to be erotic (even without the cheap sexy words) and so well written. The author fully developed the characters, and her psychological reasonings for how character's behaved. In addition, the author's details really takes the reader right into the story and time setting. What is extra interesting about this novel is the historical and cultural information that the author generously supplies for the reader. You will walk away with new empathies and understandings for people in this world that you have never known! This is one of those novels that keeps the reader thinking about the characters when they are not reading- like you are thinking of a friend and wondering how they are doing. I give this book a SOLID FIVE STARS!

Curl up with this one! A lovely read

I was at first a little concerned about the subject matter and whether the author had fallen into that oh so commom trap of writting pornography as pretense for erotisism. But not in this novel. Saalih has done a masterful job of writing tastefully and titillatingly about what inevitably has very sexy content and context - life in an Arabian harem - and I have no compunction whatsoever in wholeheartedly recommending this book. Read it with someone you want to undress!

A fascinating sexy story. Both warm and disturbing.

I really liked this book because it is a totally believable story with a superb story line. Too often sheik/harem books are premised on unlikely events such as travel back in time or set on some unbelievable planet somewhere else in the universe. Not this story, however, as felt I was reading a true account of life in an Arabian harem in the early 1900's.Mariyah the main character starts her adventure as a fourteen years old girl living in Tunisia and ends it in Arabia when she is forty. In the intervening years she is married, enters the harem of an Arab sheik as his slave Sapphira, falls in love and marries again. Therein lies a small but integral part of the plot-only she knows that she is already married to another man-until her deceit is discovered. How and why, as a married woman, she enters the harem of a sheik as a slave is an intriguing and cleverly woven story in itself, and what follows afterwards is both warm and harrowing. Expect to shed a tear or two.I bought this book as a present for my wife. It was well received-as were the thanks the book inspired!From the back cover:HAREM GIRL is, at its heart, an engaging and erotic love story. Sapphira, beautiful and assured, tells in unblushing and sensuous detail of her journey through life, briefly as an innocent young girl in Tunisia, then as one of eleven slave girls in an Arabian sheikh's harem, where her life changes utterly. Shamelessly, she reveals the sheik's secrets of exotic lovemaking.There is much to learn before she is ready to be "called" to her Master. Eunuchs train and instruct her in every facet of the art of pleasing a man. ..."on one hand, I looked forward to knowing these things, yet on the other, I was aghast at the way I had to show myself and the distasteful things I might have to do. It thoroughly unnerved me to realize that I must know a man in these ways-a man I scarcely knew"...Her story of life in the harem is compelling and moving, revealing a level of lustful debauchery, submission, and decadence unimaginable today, but completely believable in the era in which it is set. And we feel...we imagine...we could be her, sharing her joy and tears, as intriguing, romantic, and sometimes-wretched events unfold.But all is not as it first appears. She uncovers chinks in the sheik's cold and indifferent exterior. Hearts are vulnerable-even the strongest succumb-and gently they enter into the warm world of love between a man and a woman...and she steps across a forbidden boundary she had not imagined doing at the start.Unknown to others, Sapphira harbors a dark and troubling past. Years later, when her unlawful secret is uncovered, her calmed life collapses, leaving her exposed to swift and cruel justice. With heartrending bravery, she climbs from the depths of deplorable anguish and gives us a story guaranteed to excite the senses and arouse emotions-in a pleasing way.If you enjoy sheik/harem slave girl stories you will not be disappointed! However, note the sensible warn