Diana Khalil

Hadeel was not meant to live. Yet she did. Raised by an adoptive family, she grows into a strong-willed girl in the male-dominated society of pre-Islam Arabia. Upon learning she had been left in the dessert as an infant to die only because she is female, Hadeel seeks to escape the bonds her gender imposes. Disguised as a boy named Assad, she initially finds the freedom she seeks, only to find her heart held captive by the charade when she falls in love. She must choose: the life being Assad affords her, or the man Hadeel has loved all along.

About the author:
Born into a family of story tellers, Diana Khalil was surrounded as a child by the stories told by her family’s elders who were from the Middle East. Diana is now a parent herself and, being a believer in the motto that power is through the pen, it is now time for her to be the one to pass on the stories. A native of southeast Texas, Diana remains there with her husband and their five children.