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Escape by Belle Ami is a romance thriller novel based in the middle eastern environment of the 21st century. With the threat of a nuclear holocaust looming over the world, nations in the middle east find extreme measures to beat the odds and come up on top of their neighborly enemies. Cyrus a secret Mossad agent in Iran’s secretive Intel organization and Layla a Jewish American college student on a vacation find themselves having to rely on each other for survival.

After her kidnapping in Dubai while on vacation with her boyfriend, Layla encounters Cyrus the man who manages to save her from the dangers in an Iranian prison. The two find themselves on a race to get out of Iran without being detected, while being chased down by adversaries who will not rest until they are dead or worse.

Layla was a hard character to relate to and she seemed a little too helpless and childish in her thoughts, most of the times even in times of great peril she did not seem to be worried or bothered with saving herself and seemed to depend on Cyrus to save her. The way she becomes infatuated with Cyrus seconds after being rescued seems too unbelievable, most people in that situation need days to recover. Her character seemed very conflicting with how the author portrays her in the beginning.

Cyrus with being a secret agent for Mossad in Iran also seemed to not fulfill his character’s purpose, being derailed by sexual thoughts and forgetting to be alert. The character could have used more development, the promise the author makes of his character as an undercover badass agent isn’t fulfilled. Likewise, the sex scenes seemed too forced there was no leading up tension and the sexy conversation seemed too straight forward, there was too much talking and thinking. The thoughts of both characters seemed a bit too forced also, like a person reading from a script.

The novel had some strong opinions on the religious conflict between the middle eastern nations, although I believe the author could have spent more time developing the historical nature of the conflict between these nations. The book gave me an interest to find out more about the conflicts in the middle east. I liked the highlight the author made on the Islamic religious beliefs, I would have loved to see the same for the Jewish religion.

I rate this novel 2 out of 4 stars. I was a little put off by some of the common phrases the author used because they seemed to not be smoothly inserted into the writing which led to them being non humorous and rather uncomfortable and tacky. I would recommend to someone who is an avid romance reader because they would not mind the amateurish sex scenes and be interested in the story.

Salaam alaikum! This is one of the word's I learned from this novel as the novel describe the Middle East culture regarding their spiritual and the female status as well. I like that they elaborated and explained some of the culture and differences regarding the Muslim's and the Jewish. Their similarities and their differences in their political prowess or laws as well as the Jewish.

Reading this novel made me explore the middle eastern side of Asia and It also revealed some of the things that should be done when your on those countries, what are their laws regarding tourist and how they treat law breakers. I don't know if this novel information about those countries are 100% true but if it is then it is very helpful.

Regarding the novels pace I admit at first I was a bit notice it's more on technicality regarding nuclear bombs and the terrorist and so on, and since I'm quite not understand some of those things I've read the novel much slower than I had. When the characters are in the move that's when it gets interesting that I was nervous what will happen with Layla stubbornness.

The characters Layla is a bit childish for her age though she is also a very strong woman when she is seriously focus. When Cyrus character is good that even I might fall for him, a desirable character that gives an adventurous vibe to a woman that makes his character more sexy.

And the erotic part it is well explained and good cause it affects me for some time as well as the maniac characters that gives me chills and fear if those kind of guys are existing. Though I think there's a limited part of that erotic moments from the main characters.

The plots of the novel is good and the characters too, I just wish they meet Cyrus mom and half sister.

Overall I rate this novel 3 out of 4 stars I love Layla and Cyrus story as well as their characters. But I hope in the first parts of the novel was not that too technical that sometimes the reader may forgot they are reading a romance erotic novel not a full sci-fi fiction novel but all in all I love the story.