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Fancy Free
Kate thought she had it all
As owner of an adventure tour company, Kate Flannigan had the perfect life--far ranging trave, exotic experiences. She was fancy-free--until she met Adam Cooper.
Adam traveled the world, too, as a hotel executive, but he was the opposite of Kate--conservative, business-oriented, a man who wanted a conventional wife and children. His pursuit of Kate just didn't make sense.
Their hectic schedules left only marginal time for love, but time enough for Kate to know she wanted more than a long-distance love affair, too. She wanted it all!
As owner of an adventure tour company, Kate Flannigan had the perfect life--far ranging trave, exotic experiences. She was fancy-free--until she met Adam Cooper.
Adam traveled the world, too, as a hotel executive, but he was the opposite of Kate--conservative, business-oriented, a man who wanted a conventional wife and children. His pursuit of Kate just didn't make sense.
Their hectic schedules left only marginal time for love, but time enough for Kate to know she wanted more than a long-distance love affair, too. She wanted it all!
188 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1987
39 people want to read
About the author
Karen van der Zee
94 books41 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 - 4 of 4 reviews
December 14, 2019
One of the most boring Harlequins I have read.
Quirky travel agent heroine meets big chain hotelier on a first class international flight. They are instantly attracted, start dating (whenever their erratic travel schedule allows), and fall in love.
Heroine fights him every step of the way because for her, marriage equals giving up all her dreams, all her footloose and fancy free lifestyle. She doesn't want to be relegated to scrubbing kitchen floors and babysitting a passel of kids while her man is pursuing his dreams.
Things come to a head when hero proposes and she takes that proposal and shoves it up his ass.
Then, hero ends up with a couple of orphan kids that he wants to adopt and raise himself. Heroine relents and agrees to marry him so they can make a family for the children.
When he presses her, she admits it's because she loves him and her fancy free life is miserable without him. He tells her he never wanted her to give up her career and wanted to work out a compromise where they could both be happy but she just flew off the handle.
Their HEA is that they will work together creating a new type of vacation resort, more scaled down and less commercial, for the discerning tourist who wants to experience local life. The whole family will move from exotic location to exotic location for months and years at a time, in order to develop each project. I guess they were lucky the hero had a billionaire friend willing to put up the money for this project!
The heroine was way too prickly and selfish. The hero was so good that he was bland. The plot moppets were Tiny Tim caricatures. I was just not emotionally invested in any of this :(
Quirky travel agent heroine meets big chain hotelier on a first class international flight. They are instantly attracted, start dating (whenever their erratic travel schedule allows), and fall in love.
Heroine fights him every step of the way because for her, marriage equals giving up all her dreams, all her footloose and fancy free lifestyle. She doesn't want to be relegated to scrubbing kitchen floors and babysitting a passel of kids while her man is pursuing his dreams.
Things come to a head when hero proposes and she takes that proposal and shoves it up his ass.
Then, hero ends up with a couple of orphan kids that he wants to adopt and raise himself. Heroine relents and agrees to marry him so they can make a family for the children.
When he presses her, she admits it's because she loves him and her fancy free life is miserable without him. He tells her he never wanted her to give up her career and wanted to work out a compromise where they could both be happy but she just flew off the handle.
Their HEA is that they will work together creating a new type of vacation resort, more scaled down and less commercial, for the discerning tourist who wants to experience local life. The whole family will move from exotic location to exotic location for months and years at a time, in order to develop each project. I guess they were lucky the hero had a billionaire friend willing to put up the money for this project!
The heroine was way too prickly and selfish. The hero was so good that he was bland. The plot moppets were Tiny Tim caricatures. I was just not emotionally invested in any of this :(
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 19, 2016
Re Fancy Free- KVDZ has an h who is very much a world traveler free spirit paired with a conservative hotel executive H who is ready to settle down and have a family. This book is the first HP that seriously looks at a woman's choice between the career she loves and the more usual HP path of marriage and motherhood.
In HPlandia, marriage and mumhood usually win hands down - by the end we know the h is going to happily abandon all that she has struggled for and submerse herself into marriage and domesticity because the love of the H is all she needs to keep her happy.
KVDZ doesn't go that route in the usual fashion. She introduces the h and H on a long flight to Amsterdam. While the h is getting ready to board her flight after 3 weeks of very harsh native living in Mongolia including yurts, horse riding and mare's milk with no showers, she notices a very handsome man staring at her. She gets rather annoyed, as handsome, self-centered men aren't high on her favorite list right at the moment. As fate (and the H's charm) would have it, the H and h wind up being seat mates on the flight.
The h is overtly hostile and the H does his best to be charming. The h's backstory is that she grew up the daughter of a diplomat and has traveled all over the world and lived in various locales. She continued her roaming lifestyle after college, when she and her college friends (all diplomat kids) set up an adventure travel agency that gives people the opportunity to experience native lifestyles in the actual remote locations.
Every man that she has developed a relationship with expects her to drop her career and stay at home and care for him and the h just isn't built that way. She likes to travel and live in remote places for a time, she enjoys getting into the wilds and meeting new people and experiencing a totally different way of life.
The H comes from a small farming community, complete with prize winning cow and he is very conservative - something symbolized by his perpetual tie wearing outfits. The h doesn't want anything to do with a man who always wears a tie and is good looking to boot, she figures they are all self-serving domestic tyrants. Still, after 18 hours on a plane and a lot of conversation, the h can't say she isn't intrigued by the H, but since he doesn't ask for her contact details tho, she figures the point is moot.
The h finally makes it home to NYC, where the H conveniently lives too, and soon gets messages that the H wants to talk to her. He made a note of her contact information by reading the letterhead of a report she dropped when she fell asleep on the plane. The h has her secretary put him off, but the H is waiting for her when she leaves the office and the courtship is on.
He convinces her to go out with him by promising no hints of marriage, commitment or a serious relationship for six months. The h begins dating him and eventually they become lovers, but their meetings are far flung and consist of blocks of time cut out of both their busy schedules.
The H runs a conglomerate of world wide resort hotels and he is always traveling as much as the h is with her adventure tours. Still the H does make time to take out a small boy whose father was inadvertently killed in a car accident the H was involved in.
The H feels guilty that the man died, the other man was speeding on an icy road and the H was jet-lagged and couldn't avoid hitting the man's car when the other car spun out. To make reparations to his conscience, the H starts taking the man's son out for weekend jaunts - even though the man's poor pregnant widow and the police don't hold him in any way responsible for the accident.
The h gradually comes to realize that there is a lot more to the H under the surface than what she initially thought. He really isn't like any man she has met before and yet she just can't see changing her very pleasing lifestyle to shack up with the H - even as he asks her to marry her, she just can't do it, she loves her life and travel to much.
The H calls her immature and they finally part permanently. The h is miserable, she figures out she is in love with the H, but she doesn't see how a relationship can work, she just knows he will expect her to be the domestic engineer while he continues his busy traveling life style and the h thinks that the love will tarnish over the long term because she will grow resentful and bitter.
Then the H shows up with the boy he mentors and his baby sister, their mum is seriously ill and the H is the only resource she has to care for her children. The h and H take on parenting the two together at the h's apartment, and the proximity leads to a somewhat forced seduction (it wouldn't be an HP without one,) which further strains the h's emotions. Eventually the kid's mum dies from a blood disease and the H decides that he will adopt the kids and raise them himself.
The h is initially against the whole idear, she tells the H his guilt is carrying him too far and that the kids deserve a family. The H is adamant that he is going to care for them and adopt them cause he loves them. He loves the h too, but she has to make some compromises. The h won't, the H claims she just won't trust him, and gets ready to leave for an Egyptian tour but when she has to tell the kids goodbye, it is a big struggle for her - they want her to stay, cause she represents part of their security now and they love her.
The h frets a bit but decides she wants the H and the kids more than she wants her lifestyle, she quits her job and seeks out the H to see if they can stay together. The H is happy to take her back, cause he loves her too and when she claims she will abandon her lifestyle for him, he tells her he never meant to make her change everything.
The h had made an earlier suggestion that the H's hotel consortium start a division where people can spend a week or so in native villages in various locations. These villages would be the consortium's permanent properties - like adventure resorts, instead of occasional trips like the h does.
The H found a financial backer that wants to develop the idea on an Indonesian island, the h had met the potential backer before and liked him. The backer had suggested that the H and h be his partners in developing the concept, and the H turned him down cause he and the h had split up.
Now that he and the h are to be married, the H suggests they go ahead with the partnership, the H and h will be able to live the adventure lifestyle in one place, which will provide stability for the kids and everybody gets something they want. The h enthusiastically agrees and tells him she even accepts his ties - even if he wants to wear them in bed and the H responds that he is a bit dull-- not kinky, for the big HEA.
KVDZ did a good job on this one, the romance was good and there wasn't a ton of long internal musings that KVDZ sometimes gets into. There is the inevitable clash between big business resorts destroying the native lifestyle argument but KVDZ gives a good compromise by the end. She also does a nice twist on having the h ready to give up her lifestyle for love and then having the H mature enough to understand that such a sacrifice wasn't going to work in the long term and provides a good alternative solution.
While I don't agree with the immaturity of the h not wanting to change her life, the h was a bit dramatic in some of her assumptions about the H and KVDZ does pull it all together nicely in the end.
I like this one cause there is the acknowledgement that love alone doesn't make a person happy if it means that they have to give up a lot of what makes them the person they are. KVDZ does a good job of balancing both the wanting to continue a certain way of life and the inevitable changes that marriage and commitment and parenthood demand, so this makes a good story but not the usual rollercoaster ride of HPLandia. These two are really just visiting, but that doesn't mean that it isn't a good book and worth a read if you run into it.
In HPlandia, marriage and mumhood usually win hands down - by the end we know the h is going to happily abandon all that she has struggled for and submerse herself into marriage and domesticity because the love of the H is all she needs to keep her happy.
KVDZ doesn't go that route in the usual fashion. She introduces the h and H on a long flight to Amsterdam. While the h is getting ready to board her flight after 3 weeks of very harsh native living in Mongolia including yurts, horse riding and mare's milk with no showers, she notices a very handsome man staring at her. She gets rather annoyed, as handsome, self-centered men aren't high on her favorite list right at the moment. As fate (and the H's charm) would have it, the H and h wind up being seat mates on the flight.
The h is overtly hostile and the H does his best to be charming. The h's backstory is that she grew up the daughter of a diplomat and has traveled all over the world and lived in various locales. She continued her roaming lifestyle after college, when she and her college friends (all diplomat kids) set up an adventure travel agency that gives people the opportunity to experience native lifestyles in the actual remote locations.
Every man that she has developed a relationship with expects her to drop her career and stay at home and care for him and the h just isn't built that way. She likes to travel and live in remote places for a time, she enjoys getting into the wilds and meeting new people and experiencing a totally different way of life.
The H comes from a small farming community, complete with prize winning cow and he is very conservative - something symbolized by his perpetual tie wearing outfits. The h doesn't want anything to do with a man who always wears a tie and is good looking to boot, she figures they are all self-serving domestic tyrants. Still, after 18 hours on a plane and a lot of conversation, the h can't say she isn't intrigued by the H, but since he doesn't ask for her contact details tho, she figures the point is moot.
The h finally makes it home to NYC, where the H conveniently lives too, and soon gets messages that the H wants to talk to her. He made a note of her contact information by reading the letterhead of a report she dropped when she fell asleep on the plane. The h has her secretary put him off, but the H is waiting for her when she leaves the office and the courtship is on.
He convinces her to go out with him by promising no hints of marriage, commitment or a serious relationship for six months. The h begins dating him and eventually they become lovers, but their meetings are far flung and consist of blocks of time cut out of both their busy schedules.
The H runs a conglomerate of world wide resort hotels and he is always traveling as much as the h is with her adventure tours. Still the H does make time to take out a small boy whose father was inadvertently killed in a car accident the H was involved in.
The H feels guilty that the man died, the other man was speeding on an icy road and the H was jet-lagged and couldn't avoid hitting the man's car when the other car spun out. To make reparations to his conscience, the H starts taking the man's son out for weekend jaunts - even though the man's poor pregnant widow and the police don't hold him in any way responsible for the accident.
The h gradually comes to realize that there is a lot more to the H under the surface than what she initially thought. He really isn't like any man she has met before and yet she just can't see changing her very pleasing lifestyle to shack up with the H - even as he asks her to marry her, she just can't do it, she loves her life and travel to much.
The H calls her immature and they finally part permanently. The h is miserable, she figures out she is in love with the H, but she doesn't see how a relationship can work, she just knows he will expect her to be the domestic engineer while he continues his busy traveling life style and the h thinks that the love will tarnish over the long term because she will grow resentful and bitter.
Then the H shows up with the boy he mentors and his baby sister, their mum is seriously ill and the H is the only resource she has to care for her children. The h and H take on parenting the two together at the h's apartment, and the proximity leads to a somewhat forced seduction (it wouldn't be an HP without one,) which further strains the h's emotions. Eventually the kid's mum dies from a blood disease and the H decides that he will adopt the kids and raise them himself.
The h is initially against the whole idear, she tells the H his guilt is carrying him too far and that the kids deserve a family. The H is adamant that he is going to care for them and adopt them cause he loves them. He loves the h too, but she has to make some compromises. The h won't, the H claims she just won't trust him, and gets ready to leave for an Egyptian tour but when she has to tell the kids goodbye, it is a big struggle for her - they want her to stay, cause she represents part of their security now and they love her.
The h frets a bit but decides she wants the H and the kids more than she wants her lifestyle, she quits her job and seeks out the H to see if they can stay together. The H is happy to take her back, cause he loves her too and when she claims she will abandon her lifestyle for him, he tells her he never meant to make her change everything.
The h had made an earlier suggestion that the H's hotel consortium start a division where people can spend a week or so in native villages in various locations. These villages would be the consortium's permanent properties - like adventure resorts, instead of occasional trips like the h does.
The H found a financial backer that wants to develop the idea on an Indonesian island, the h had met the potential backer before and liked him. The backer had suggested that the H and h be his partners in developing the concept, and the H turned him down cause he and the h had split up.
Now that he and the h are to be married, the H suggests they go ahead with the partnership, the H and h will be able to live the adventure lifestyle in one place, which will provide stability for the kids and everybody gets something they want. The h enthusiastically agrees and tells him she even accepts his ties - even if he wants to wear them in bed and the H responds that he is a bit dull-- not kinky, for the big HEA.
KVDZ did a good job on this one, the romance was good and there wasn't a ton of long internal musings that KVDZ sometimes gets into. There is the inevitable clash between big business resorts destroying the native lifestyle argument but KVDZ gives a good compromise by the end. She also does a nice twist on having the h ready to give up her lifestyle for love and then having the H mature enough to understand that such a sacrifice wasn't going to work in the long term and provides a good alternative solution.
While I don't agree with the immaturity of the h not wanting to change her life, the h was a bit dramatic in some of her assumptions about the H and KVDZ does pull it all together nicely in the end.
I like this one cause there is the acknowledgement that love alone doesn't make a person happy if it means that they have to give up a lot of what makes them the person they are. KVDZ does a good job of balancing both the wanting to continue a certain way of life and the inevitable changes that marriage and commitment and parenthood demand, so this makes a good story but not the usual rollercoaster ride of HPLandia. These two are really just visiting, but that doesn't mean that it isn't a good book and worth a read if you run into it.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 3, 2019
"Fancy Free" is the story of Kate and Adam.
Our heroine is the owner of the adventure tour company who is bitten by wanderlust and loves travelling, partying and meeting new people. Our hero is a bold yet conservative hotel executive.
They meet on a flight. Both are intrigued by each other, but the heroine pushes the hero away, preferring more adventurous guys. However, the hero pursues her.
After gentle courting, they begin a passionate relationship, and the heroine sees many different sides of the hero.
But while the heroine wants be remain a globe trotter, and not want to be tied down- the hero instead yearns for a home. They are in love with conflicting aims. Will they find their HEA?
Honestly, the best thing about the book is the hero. A gentle, obsessive giant, he cares for the heroine while giving her her much needed space too. His adoration for Nicky and Mellie was heartwarming, and if not for the semi-non-con scene, he would have been a perfect book husband. The heroine comes off as super independent, but shrewd and selfish at times. I have no problem with career and feminism, but I don't like when the characters come off as heartless (i.e. the scene in which the h is forcing the hero to give the kids up) or just seriously commitment phobic, yet wanting the hero to be on a leash.
It had its ups and downs, but overall a very intriguing read. Good amount of passion, love and angst in this one.
Safe
3.5/5
Our heroine is the owner of the adventure tour company who is bitten by wanderlust and loves travelling, partying and meeting new people. Our hero is a bold yet conservative hotel executive.
They meet on a flight. Both are intrigued by each other, but the heroine pushes the hero away, preferring more adventurous guys. However, the hero pursues her.
After gentle courting, they begin a passionate relationship, and the heroine sees many different sides of the hero.
But while the heroine wants be remain a globe trotter, and not want to be tied down- the hero instead yearns for a home. They are in love with conflicting aims. Will they find their HEA?
Honestly, the best thing about the book is the hero. A gentle, obsessive giant, he cares for the heroine while giving her her much needed space too. His adoration for Nicky and Mellie was heartwarming, and if not for the semi-non-con scene, he would have been a perfect book husband. The heroine comes off as super independent, but shrewd and selfish at times. I have no problem with career and feminism, but I don't like when the characters come off as heartless (i.e. the scene in which the h is forcing the hero to give the kids up) or just seriously commitment phobic, yet wanting the hero to be on a leash.
It had its ups and downs, but overall a very intriguing read. Good amount of passion, love and angst in this one.
Safe
3.5/5
May 21, 2016
I'm sorry but what a bunch of bullshit at the end. He says HE wants to kids, doesn't consider the heroine at all, yet they are in a sexual relationship... just a bunch of crap. If my man ever made decisions without me, he's have a permanent reminder to convince him to NEVER do it again. The end of the novel was frustrating.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews