Thirdly, the characters. Man... Zara is a very patronizing person. AND HER HYGIENE, and her behaviour... I couldn't give a shit about her. Her comments about other people, and the whinning all the time about her body. In early 2000, soon after sending the letter, Shamsa appeared at Latifa’s bedroom door and told her that she was leaving. “Will you come with me?” she asked.

Also, I will probably be scarred for life with the kind of erotic scenes that were described in this book *major eye roll* They were all very unpleasant to say the least. Absolutely fantastic yet again from Sophie Gravia. I had been looking forward to reading this book for some time, since discovering and loving a Glasgow kiss. The lead character Zara yet again never fails to make you laugh, and that is testament to the writing from Sophie. I was crying laughing in some places (Luke…) and read the book in 2 days. Haigh and Jauhiainen split into one camp, Stirling and Jaubert into another. In the spring of 2019, with the team splintering, Jauhiainen returned to her parents’ flower farm for a break. Then, late one night, her phone lit up with messages from a new accomplice of Latifa’s. “Hi ms.tiina i hope u respond,” the person wrote. “im scared to help ms.latifa but shes very kind to me.”This pattern was not limited to the U.K. A former bodyguard who travelled with Sheikh Mohammed said that groups of women were brought into the hotel suite where the ruler was sequestered with his entourage almost every night, wherever he stayed. In Dubai, a source close to the royal family recalled seeing Sheikh Mohammed in his private quarters in the Zabeel Palace, reclining with some twenty young women. (Several of the former staffers I spoke to lost their jobs, under conditions that they felt were unfair. Sinobad has filed a wrongful-dismissal suit. Sheikh Mohammed’s attorneys deny that he exploited sex workers.) Maybe I was expecting a different style of book .. more of a love story with a strong female lead who had made some mistakes but who had turned her life around. This wasn’t that …

Also, the title itself is slightly misleading, as the characters spend in Dubai no more than three days and honestly, not that much happens there. I understand it with the plot development, but still. Thank you to Orion Publishing and Netgalley for giving me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.Sheikh Mohammed’s attorneys deny this, but Latifa’s account was supported by two sources close to the royal family. “They had no mercy,” one said. “They killed her because she was a problem for them. She was a strong woman who would stand for her rights.” A former member of the Sheikh’s personal staff told me, “She was killed off. Here one minute, gone the next.” Shamsa came home from prison three years after Latifa. “She’s only a shell of her former self, with all the will power tortured out of her,” Latifa wrote. Shamsa had attempted suicide three times: slashing her wrists, overdosing, and trying to set fire to her cell. She had been released after staging a hunger strike. Now she was given tranquillizers and antidepressants that left her “like a zombie.” At first, Latifa wrote, Shamsa wasn’t comfortable opening her eyes, because she had lain in the dark for so long. She had to be led around by the hand. Bouchra imagined that the exhibition would be thronged by wealthy Emiratis who would pay generously for her paintings. The centerpiece was a jewel-encrusted landscape she called “La Nature,” depicting a mountain stream studded with topazes, aquamarines, and green garnets, beneath diamond stars. But “La Nature” fetched just nine thousand pounds—money that Bouchra had apparently given to her hairdresser’s boyfriend to drive up the bidding. Not one of the Emirati invitees turned up. That, Hewer recalled, was an early sign that Bouchra was in trouble. You can change it for the same destination, in the same booking class for the same fare you paid and within the same cabin, with no extra fees during this period. However, if the same fare is not available or if bookings are restricted on those dates, the cost of the fare difference will apply. Please make sure you cancel your reservation if you are unable to travel to avoid charges. One spring, Latifa hoped she might be allowed to travel to England during racing season, and sent Jaubert Google Earth imagery of the Longcross Estate, to look for an extraction point. The grounds appeared impenetrable, so they planned a fake kidnapping, in which Jaubert would snatch Latifa from her bodyguards while she was out shopping. But when the racing party left for England she was told to stay behind.

The saucy, second instalment of the hilarious series, which features the lead protagonist, Zara, is called What Happens in Dubai.

Summary

After having her heart well and truly broken, Zara Smith is more interested in fun than forever. But she’s starting to wonder if she’s slept with every (somewhat) eligible bachelor in Glasgow… and if there’s such a thing as too much fun?! By the time her absence was noted at Ascot, Princess Haya had been a fugitive for two months. In April, 2019, after her husband discovered that she was having an affair with her bodyguard, she fled to London, settling with her two children in a neo-Georgian mansion on Kensington Palace Gardens. That July, she launched a legal campaign against Sheikh Mohammed, seeking court protection for herself and her children.