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Hot Pursuit
Hot Pursuit by Karen Van Der Zee released on Jan 25, 1989 is available now for purchase.
187 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1988
1 person is currently reading
30 people want to read
About the author
Karen van der Zee
94 books40 followersI 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
December 10, 2016
Re Hot Pursuit -KvdZ is back with an opening that is one of the best in HPlandia - the h is driving home one night and this strange car is following her. She starts to freak out - as you do when weird people are following you - and pulls into a police station. The guy in the car follows her inside and explains that he was chasing her Frisian (Germanic people who live in the Netherlands) bumper sticker.
The h is annoyed that someone would do such a crazy thing and even more annoyed that she is going to miss her plane to get to her 73yr old Chinese grandmother's wedding. She dumps the guy at the police station and rushes home, only to realize that she is going to have to drive her beat up clunker across the state to get the wedding on time. So she starts off and winds up breaking down on a dark back road.
Fortunately her friendly Frisian stalker is still stalking her and gives her a ride to the wedding in his Fiero. There is lots of witty banter and a temporary hotel room stop that comes off really funny when the h relays it to her family later, but we are all reassured that the H is really a nice person. He is just fascinated by the red haired h and wants to get to know her better.
The h is a bit perturbed by the H, but the disturbing of her senses is because the h has a big weakness for the impulsive funny boy type. In fact the h is currently under a vow not to get involved with men for two years and focus on building her antique and furniture restoration business instead.
Our h was engaged to an impulsive fun guy for a long time, she was in love and then he dumped her for a big Amazon adventure three days before the wedding. The h started a business with her cousin, whose husband divorced her to join a Buddhist monastery. (Just to clarify here, you can be married and be a nun or a monk in Buddhism - usually the vows of monkhood or nunhood are for a limited time like a year or so and not for life.) The ladies decided to heal their broken hearts by committing firmly to the business and the h has another Dutch cousin whose husband ran off with his secretary - the h is planning on offering the other cousin a place in the Broken Hearts Commune as well.
But first there is a wedding to get thru and what a wedding it is. The grandma bride was a foster mother to several children and never had time to marry. The h's mother was one of the foster kids and so the whole family shows up to see grandma's big day and the H charms his way into a room for the night. There is more witty banter and the H really wants the h to go out with him, the h sticks to her vow tho and puts the H off.
The h then goes to Holland to help her cousin and see her other grandmother. Her betrayed cousin throws the rest of her cheating spouse's things out and packs up her house to move to the States with the h. The h's great aunt also gives the h all of her antique Dutch furniture - the great aunt is moving into a retirement home and the h is her favorite. The h is excited but now she has to figure out how to get the house full of furniture back to the US. Shipping fees are huge and much more costly than what the h can afford.
Enter the H again, he followed her to Holland and offers the use of his shipping company, (he owns a big one,) if the h will go out with him every other Saturday night for the next six months. That way the H gets to be around her, cause he is fiercely attracted and the h wouldn't be breaking any vows cause it is a business agreement. The h has reservations, mainly cause she can't help but fall for his impulsive personality type and because he makes no secret of the fact that he is with other women. He recently did not call her when he said because he spent three weeks in Hong Kong with another woman.
The h realizes that she can't dictate who he spends his time with because they aren't in any type of exclusive relationship and she really needs the furniture shipped, so she agrees to the bargain. She and the H spend the rest of her time in Holland going around to various places, the h is really shocked one evening when the H runs into a woman who seems to know him and he turns totally angry and cold. The H seems to be a totally different person than the one the h knows, but he soon recovers and we all go back to the States.
The h's soon to be divorced Dutch cousin is settling in nicely, her divorced for a Buddhist monastery cousin meets a new guy and the h has her every other Saturday night dates with the H. They have a lot of fun and we meet the OW - except she really isn't an OW but a long time friend of the H's.
Her husband got very ill and was sick for over a year and the H moved in and help her care for him until he died, they are close friends but it is more like a familial relationship. (Which the h has one of her own with the guy who took her to prom in high school, and he keeps asking her to marry him and she keeps telling him no, she only sees this guy a few times a year on family visits.) Unfortunately the explanations about the relationship don't come from the H, they come from the OW and this is the first hint that this H has some issues.
Eventually the h and H become lovers and we learn that the H has a few acres of remote land that he retreats to when he needs to decompress. This remote area reminds him of when he was a teenager and his father spent tons of time with him and his brother. Their mom died and the H's dad was devoted. Until he met a much younger woman who hated the H and his brother. She broke his father's heart when she ran off after the father lost most of his money and had to cut way back to save his business after a big embezzlement. (This was the woman the H was angry about in Holland.)
This whole experience closed the dad off to the H and his brother and to make things worse, the H was engaged when he first moved to the US to take over that part of the family shipping firm and his fiancee did not love him enough to move with him - she dumped the H instead and he got his heart broken again.
The h is pretty sympathetic to the H's story, but she believes in true love and knows that there are families who stick together, cause look at her own. She is still a bit leery of the H and his motives tho, and yet she and the H have a magical camping weekend when they go to his remote land and the h finally admits to herself that she is majorly in love with the H. Then she doesn't hear from him and their Saturday night date is completely forgotten.
The h calls the H's office and finds out he is in hospital and his lower leg has been amputated. The H found two boys trapped in an old hut that was on fire and he saved them, but his leg got trapped and had to be cut off. The h tries to be supportive and there for the H, but he continually pushes her away. Even to the point of flirting with OW and not letting her know when he gets discharged. The H's brother explains that the stepmother and fiancee experience messed the H up when it came to trusting women and the h just needs to keep trying.
The h finally tracks the H down to the OW's house (the wife of the friend who died,) and tries to get the H to realize that she loves him and isn't going anywhere and will be supportive thru bad times. The H tells her to go and leave him alone. The h is heartbroken and leaves. There is mopey moments but both the h's cousins find love.
The Dutch cousin gets back with her husband, the other cousin moves in with the man she had been seeing and the h is left to be sad alone. Then the H shows up and declares he loves her and is ready to commit for the big HEA, the h takes him back and they lurve it up for the big HEA.
This one starts out great, but the continual rejection by the H when things go south is frustrating and the H's devotion to the h by the end is called into question because he never once explains his actions - that is left to secondary characters like the brother and the OW for the entire book. I doubted the lastingness of the HEA, but the h is pretty self reliant so she will make it through no matter what. Overall this isn't a terrible read and the first part is pretty funny, so if you run into this, give it a chance for an okay HPlandia outing.
The h is annoyed that someone would do such a crazy thing and even more annoyed that she is going to miss her plane to get to her 73yr old Chinese grandmother's wedding. She dumps the guy at the police station and rushes home, only to realize that she is going to have to drive her beat up clunker across the state to get the wedding on time. So she starts off and winds up breaking down on a dark back road.
Fortunately her friendly Frisian stalker is still stalking her and gives her a ride to the wedding in his Fiero. There is lots of witty banter and a temporary hotel room stop that comes off really funny when the h relays it to her family later, but we are all reassured that the H is really a nice person. He is just fascinated by the red haired h and wants to get to know her better.
The h is a bit perturbed by the H, but the disturbing of her senses is because the h has a big weakness for the impulsive funny boy type. In fact the h is currently under a vow not to get involved with men for two years and focus on building her antique and furniture restoration business instead.
Our h was engaged to an impulsive fun guy for a long time, she was in love and then he dumped her for a big Amazon adventure three days before the wedding. The h started a business with her cousin, whose husband divorced her to join a Buddhist monastery. (Just to clarify here, you can be married and be a nun or a monk in Buddhism - usually the vows of monkhood or nunhood are for a limited time like a year or so and not for life.) The ladies decided to heal their broken hearts by committing firmly to the business and the h has another Dutch cousin whose husband ran off with his secretary - the h is planning on offering the other cousin a place in the Broken Hearts Commune as well.
But first there is a wedding to get thru and what a wedding it is. The grandma bride was a foster mother to several children and never had time to marry. The h's mother was one of the foster kids and so the whole family shows up to see grandma's big day and the H charms his way into a room for the night. There is more witty banter and the H really wants the h to go out with him, the h sticks to her vow tho and puts the H off.
The h then goes to Holland to help her cousin and see her other grandmother. Her betrayed cousin throws the rest of her cheating spouse's things out and packs up her house to move to the States with the h. The h's great aunt also gives the h all of her antique Dutch furniture - the great aunt is moving into a retirement home and the h is her favorite. The h is excited but now she has to figure out how to get the house full of furniture back to the US. Shipping fees are huge and much more costly than what the h can afford.
Enter the H again, he followed her to Holland and offers the use of his shipping company, (he owns a big one,) if the h will go out with him every other Saturday night for the next six months. That way the H gets to be around her, cause he is fiercely attracted and the h wouldn't be breaking any vows cause it is a business agreement. The h has reservations, mainly cause she can't help but fall for his impulsive personality type and because he makes no secret of the fact that he is with other women. He recently did not call her when he said because he spent three weeks in Hong Kong with another woman.
The h realizes that she can't dictate who he spends his time with because they aren't in any type of exclusive relationship and she really needs the furniture shipped, so she agrees to the bargain. She and the H spend the rest of her time in Holland going around to various places, the h is really shocked one evening when the H runs into a woman who seems to know him and he turns totally angry and cold. The H seems to be a totally different person than the one the h knows, but he soon recovers and we all go back to the States.
The h's soon to be divorced Dutch cousin is settling in nicely, her divorced for a Buddhist monastery cousin meets a new guy and the h has her every other Saturday night dates with the H. They have a lot of fun and we meet the OW - except she really isn't an OW but a long time friend of the H's.
Her husband got very ill and was sick for over a year and the H moved in and help her care for him until he died, they are close friends but it is more like a familial relationship. (Which the h has one of her own with the guy who took her to prom in high school, and he keeps asking her to marry him and she keeps telling him no, she only sees this guy a few times a year on family visits.) Unfortunately the explanations about the relationship don't come from the H, they come from the OW and this is the first hint that this H has some issues.
Eventually the h and H become lovers and we learn that the H has a few acres of remote land that he retreats to when he needs to decompress. This remote area reminds him of when he was a teenager and his father spent tons of time with him and his brother. Their mom died and the H's dad was devoted. Until he met a much younger woman who hated the H and his brother. She broke his father's heart when she ran off after the father lost most of his money and had to cut way back to save his business after a big embezzlement. (This was the woman the H was angry about in Holland.)
This whole experience closed the dad off to the H and his brother and to make things worse, the H was engaged when he first moved to the US to take over that part of the family shipping firm and his fiancee did not love him enough to move with him - she dumped the H instead and he got his heart broken again.
The h is pretty sympathetic to the H's story, but she believes in true love and knows that there are families who stick together, cause look at her own. She is still a bit leery of the H and his motives tho, and yet she and the H have a magical camping weekend when they go to his remote land and the h finally admits to herself that she is majorly in love with the H. Then she doesn't hear from him and their Saturday night date is completely forgotten.
The h calls the H's office and finds out he is in hospital and his lower leg has been amputated. The H found two boys trapped in an old hut that was on fire and he saved them, but his leg got trapped and had to be cut off. The h tries to be supportive and there for the H, but he continually pushes her away. Even to the point of flirting with OW and not letting her know when he gets discharged. The H's brother explains that the stepmother and fiancee experience messed the H up when it came to trusting women and the h just needs to keep trying.
The h finally tracks the H down to the OW's house (the wife of the friend who died,) and tries to get the H to realize that she loves him and isn't going anywhere and will be supportive thru bad times. The H tells her to go and leave him alone. The h is heartbroken and leaves. There is mopey moments but both the h's cousins find love.
The Dutch cousin gets back with her husband, the other cousin moves in with the man she had been seeing and the h is left to be sad alone. Then the H shows up and declares he loves her and is ready to commit for the big HEA, the h takes him back and they lurve it up for the big HEA.
This one starts out great, but the continual rejection by the H when things go south is frustrating and the H's devotion to the h by the end is called into question because he never once explains his actions - that is left to secondary characters like the brother and the OW for the entire book. I doubted the lastingness of the HEA, but the h is pretty self reliant so she will make it through no matter what. Overall this isn't a terrible read and the first part is pretty funny, so if you run into this, give it a chance for an okay HPlandia outing.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 8, 2014
Started out really strong; ended okay too but for me the quotes/ quips made the book.
July 21, 2016
Merely ok. The book started out Ok with the Hero in "hot pursuit" but then just as their relationship starts to get deeper and the heroine gives in, then it sort of fell to pieces.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews