Marriage Shy

by Karen van der Zee

Allergic to marriage?

Jack Millard's dark good looks left characteristically cool Christina distinctly flustered, much to the delight of her daughter, who'd decided Jack was the perfect cure for Mom's man allergy!

Finally persuaded that a relationship with a gorgeous man might not be so bad, Christina had hardly agreed to go on a date before Jack proposed! She'd been married once, and it hadn't been a good experience. How could she be sure it would be different with Jack?

Genres: Harlequin Presents

187 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

I always wanted to write, ever since I was a child growing up in Holland. I was a dreamer, reading books and making up my own stories. I had notebooks full of stories which I illustrated with crayon drawings. My brothers burned the notebooks in the attic one day, fortunately not burning down the house. They don’t remember this now, but I do!

I also always wanted to travel. Holland is very flat and I wanted to see mountains and coconut palms and tropical beaches and deserts. I wanted to meet interesting people and learn about different cultures and see how people lived their daily lives. And then I wanted to write adventurous stories set in these exotic places

I got lucky and fell in love with a globetrotting American. I met him in Amsterdam, he asked me to marry him in Rome, and we tied the knot in a ten-minute ceremony in Kenya, East Africa, where he was a Peace Corps Volunteer. Some wedding that was! Not the stuff of romantic dreams, but really good for a laugh.

After Kenya we lived in the States for a while, then four years in Ghana, West Africa where not only our first daughter was born, but my first Mills & Boon romance as well. It took me a year to write, which is three months longer than it takes to have a baby. It was set in Ghana, and I called it SWEET NOT ALWAYS, a slogan found on a big colorfully decorated truck that transported people, goods, and live chickens.

I continued writing romances and loved the creativity of it, although it was, and is, never easy. Later we also lived in Indonesia, Ramallah (Palestine), then another three years in Ghana, and most recently six years in Armenia, which lies east of Turkey and north of Iran. Along the way we acquired a couple more kids, so now we have three.

I’ve written over thirty books now, many set in exotic locations such as Bali, Thailand, Malaysia, Java, Kenya and Ghana, as well as Holland and the US. Writing as Mona van Wieren, I received a RITA for a Silhouette Romance entitled RHAPSODY IN BLOOM.

I love the challenge of living in a foreign country where the food is different, the people interesting and life gives me endless inspiration for my writing. So, I’ll just keep going for a while.

Reviews

[seton]

When I think of KVDZ books, I think of exotic locales and wary heroines. This has the latter but not the former. It's actually set in Pennsylvania which I've been to many times and find decidedly unexciting. Did KVDZ get a memo that she was writing for Harlequin American line?

The H/H are 45/42 which just adds age to the other usual dysfunctions found in a HP. No thanks!

[J · Rating 3 out of 5]

There was a little bit better of a romance than is normally served up but even with the amount of pages that it had it did get tiring for the reader. There was one part that I did believe I had guessed out but I ended up being wrong but not that far off track.

As for the book first of all the characters are actually well-developed, especially the protagonists but most of the secondary characters that we are introduced to. Unfortunately most of the humor found in the book comes because of Christina but after a few pages she gets so annoying that you just want to strangle her and she doesn't really improve even at the end.

Also the book seems like it took forever to get to the point and basically if you wanted any type of true thrills you had to be 2/3 of the way into the book. So if you are looking for an easy romance to chill out and could care less of the plot but want some humor then I suggest this one. Otherwise if you are looking for quick thrills and a fast story then you might want to steer clear.

[Dinou R · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book a lot, maybe because I was more in the mood for a story based on feelings than sex. I loved that both heroes are in their 40s so we didn’t have to deal with the « forever & ever » theme. Recommended if you’re looking for a nice, peaceful reading.

[Priscilla · Rating 2 out of 5]

Da Cor da Paixão

História razoável, o que chama a atenção é o fato que o casal já está acima dos quarenta, quebrando aquela monotonia das idiotices que fazemos ao vinte e do felizes para sempre.