Review to come May 10th on blog/goodreads.

I received this book from Netgalley/publisher in exchange of an honest review.


A cute and fun desert romance which at times had me reminded of Ouran High School Host Club. Yep, really. I mean, the sheikh is just 100% Tamaki. Impulsive, likes to spoil the girl he loves, is silly, but also serious at times if he needs to be that, protective. And oh yes, a typical thing I would see Tamaki do is make sure that someone stays with him. Sanagi has told him that she will stay with him until she has paid off her debt (sounds familiar, right), well our prince is making sure of that by adding some extra costs. Yes, it sounds a bit harmful, but I also think it is cute? I mean he really cares about her and wants her to stay. Including making sure she can go to school.
And Sanagi, with her money-savvy-ness and her strictness and her down to earthness is so Haruhi (plus also because of some other things).

There were some things I wasn't sure off. I mean, the proposal was cute, but I found the prince a bit forceful (and also how he just bought the school). The fact that no one got the girl some normal clothes that weren't too expensive. Throughout the volume Sanagi just wanders around in her school uniform and sleeps in a gym outfit. It just stood out and made things very weird. I also thought it was slightly rude of Sanagi to not even do one ounce of an effort to learn the language, instead fully relying on a translator system. I mean, if I was whisked off my feet to a Middle East desert place, I would definitely try to at least learn a handful of words and maybe even more. Because what if, and that does happen in this volume, your translator disappears? You need to make sense. You need to know what HELP is.

We also see that the Queen and the crownprince aren't all that nice (or well, at least the Queen is a bitch). I am kind of curious about that and I am sure we will see more of it in the upcoming volumes. I hope that our prince can stand up and do something about the queen.

There were some cute moments, and I am happy that the prince respects Sanagi's boundaries. Instead of having a wedding night as one often does, they play card games. He does hug her at times, but nothing too much. I do hope that the romance does spark between the two, as I do think they would make a good pair.

Oh, and I hope that Sanagi's strictness will tame the prince a bit, at least in regards to how he throws around his money. I hope she learns him some responsibilities and get him to be a bit more mature and fitting for the prince role.

The art was really fun, though I was surprised when the prince turned out 17 (I thought at least 19) and Sanagi is in high school... but at times looks more like 14. Haha.

All in all, I definitely want more of this one.

<i>With the Sheikh in His Harem</i>'s relationship to the real Middle East is roughly equivalent to Fancy Feast's relationship to human food - there are recognizable bits, but you wouldn't want to eat it for dinner. That said, it's well within its rights as the progeny of Edith Maude Hull's 1919 romance novel <i>The Sheikh</i>, which jump-started the whole so-called "desert romance" subgenre, along with some of romance's less savory elements. So just remember - as problematic as you may find this, Hull's book is roughly 900 times worse.

And actually, both within the romance and shoujo groups, this isn't all that bad. Probably its biggest failing (apart from setting issues) is the use of the insta-love trope, wherein Lui, the eponymous sheikh, falls madly in love with heroine Sanagi minutes after she spurns his money and convinces him not to jump off a roof. (It turns out that that is what he was trying to do, and the late-volume return to that point is a good moment in terms of understanding Lui.) He then proposes to her, saves her family from drowning in debt, and whisks her away to his fictional country, where his (step?)mother decides that Sanagi must die for Reasons.

Honestly? It's kind of fun, and it definitely falls under the heading of "old-fashioned shoujo fluff," which is always a nice kind of book to read. It may strain your credulity, but it's aware of the fact, and somehow that cures a lot of ills, real or imagined, that this volume may have.

I adored this oh my gosh. The marriage for money was kind of a generic plot, but the Arabian vibes and the pretty boys in this were incredible. This is so intriguing and so romantic already, I"m already dying for the next instalment. I'm also weak for royalty and heir drama.

After rescuing a stranger, a girl who is just trying to keep her family out of debt is proposed to.... apparently the stranger she saved is a Sheikh. He offers to help her family and in return she will marry him, and so begins the married life between a highschool girl and the second prince.

Ok, honestly. 2.5 star rating, maybe full 3 stars if I turn off my brain for a while. This manga is super exaggerated and over the top, and just from the cover and title you can see it reproduces some "problematic tropes" very common in Harlequin novels (which the author even mentions in a note lol). But I guess it's the usual "rich handsome prince falls in love with common girl" that we could find in lots of places. So it's not That bad.

Sanagi needs money for her family because of debts, she helps the prince while working as a hotel maid, and of course he proposes to her after falling in love at first sight. The whole "exotic arabian prince" thing is... terrible honestly, and the terrible overused "evil queen" trope just made it worse.

But it's so ridiculous it ends up being Fun, once you... forget everything else. And turn off your brain. And process the prince is actually just 17, thank God, because the main character Sanagi looks like she could be in middle school (which is just the art, really, because she thinks enough like a teen and shows her care for others and grown-up thinking - at least with money - through the chapters).

While I don't think I'll be continuing this series, I think for people who are looking for a quick, OTT romance where nothing is very unexpected, it can be fun!

This is a super fun read. It is a shojo with a Cinderella vibe. Snagit is a high schooler who works multiple jobs in order to provide for her family. One day, while working she runs into a mysterious foreigner and helps him out in a bind. Unknowingly, she makes a lasting impression on him and when he finds her again he proposes marriage and offers to help her family out. This was a great start for this manga series and after finishing the first volume I can't wait till we get another one!

The art was just gorgeous and cute but yeah the plot is just your “run of the mill” high school girl/royalty quickie romance. It shows a girl saving a prince from harm, prince then shows up unannounced to her school, forces her to marry him, marriage is interrupted, kidnaps her to his country, has a group of other “hot” guys who fall for her and undoubtedly marries the prince in the end .

Yeah not my cup of tea tbh but thanks Netgalley and Kodansha for giving me the first volume!