This is a real pleasure to read with likeable characters and a nice story.
A great Fantasy / Romance.

Desert Jewel is a quick read that seems to be geared towards young adult audiences interested in fantasy, but it also highlights on some mature topics including consensual and non consensual sexual topics.

Milenda is the Crown Jewel of Natalie, set in a constructed, fantasized Afrika. Jaali is an foreign-born, ex-slave who has endured unimaginable horrors and teaches at the local university where he meets the princess. Despite falling in love, Milenda must choose her husband from a set of contenders that survive a series of brutal, cruel tasks in the desert. And so Jaali, unknown to Milenda, volunteers as a contender. Milenda, when she finds out, will do anything she can to save his life and battle his demons.

It is a quick read with a fast moving plot and a vivid setting and context. However, the novel also pushes through a great deal of material, meaning that time isn't taken to fully flesh out this new fantasy world and the sociopolitical environment that Melinda and Jaali's stories are based upon. Fairly serious and traumatic topics, while discussed in some depth, seem glossed over in the greater emotional sense, and elements of the storyline don't seem particularly realistic. The plot is fairly tunnel-visioned in that the love story is the main focus (which, for those interested, is pretty interesting), meaning the topics of slavery and questions of governmental power as well as the other contenders are largely ignored despite being set up as important elements.

Overall, a quick and easy read in an interesting fantastical world. Some elements of the novel may be troubling or triggering for readers.

Thanks to the publisher for a digital copy.