Love Beyond Reason

by Karen van der Zee

There was a surprised in store for Amy!

Amy had thought nothing could be as perfect as the days she had shared with Vic Hoyt in New York City — before he took off for his Peace Corps assignment in Kenya.

Impulsively, Amy decided to follow. She was shocked to find Vic established in his new life...and interested in a new girl friend.

Amy faced a choice: be smart and go home...or stay and fight for the only man she would ever love.

Genres: Harlequin Romance

188 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1980

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

[Leona · Rating 1 out of 5]

Re-read. My original review is below and still stands. I would categorize this under "horror stories" not "romance".

I've been trying to read this author's back list because I absolutely loved one of her books - An Inconvenient Husband. But it appears that was just a "one hit wonder".

Will avoid this author.

____________________________________

Words cannot describe this book. This being categorized as a romance, was someone's idea of a joke.

This is about a young girl who falls passionately in love with a successful man who has decided to leave all his worldly goods and possessions behind to volunteer in the peace corp in Africa.

The heroine decides to follow him, where surprisingly, she is greeted with a less than warm welcome. She is physically and verbally berated by the hero at every turn. One night he attempts to rape her, but there is a knock at the door and sanity prevails.

The book is mostly about the heroine's internal agonies because she can't find the courage to break away from him and return home. She walks around in a miserable fog and every other page describes how she sinks deeper and deeper into depression. (By the way, so did I)

In the last five pages of the book he asks her out for dinner and then walks her home. His hand reaches out to her, and she suddenly knows that he loves her and he knows that she loves him. "I love you so" she whispered. "I know" Vic said quietly. "I love you too. I always have, I always will"
THE END

Really? How did all that happen?
The only good thing about the book was it's title. There was no reason for either of them to love one another.

[Vanessa · Rating 2 out of 5]

There was a surprise in store for Amy!

Amy had thought nothing could be as perfect as the days she had shared with Vic Hoyt in New York City--before he took off for his Peace Corps assignment in Kenya.

Impulsively, Amy decided to follow. She was shocked to find Vic established in his new life ... and interested in a new girl friend.

Amy faced a choice: be smart and go home ... or stay and fight for the only man she would ever love.

REVIEW: H described as looking like Alan Alda. She follows him to Kenya and manages to land a teaching job while there and making friends. H comes close to raping h but of course doesn't. No real intimacy in story. OW involved and she throws herself at H but he has been in love w/ h but hadn't wanted to pursue it when they were in the states as he was leaving. The story seemed a bit dated but it wasn't a bad read. Not a lot of angst either it was as though the h/H had lives outside one another.

[Wendy Darling · Rating 2 out of 5]

On the dull side, unfortunately. The African village setting is really the only interesting part.

[Nora · Rating 4 out of 5]

Look, I loved this book, I did. But I got sick of the second half. This girl falls in love with a guy, and they both are away from "go" that he's going to be going to Africa. Well, not too happily, he does just that: sells all his possessions and leaves her behind. And she follows, and it's grate, even though he's angry. I really liked the descriptions of Africa. I thought they had decent page time together, even if he was angry a lot.
And then the second half happens, and she moves in with Bunny, a friend, and he has almost no on-page time. 90% of it is him being mentioned and how much she misses him, but he only has appearances here and there and when they DO finally talk substantially nothing gets solved. Time goes by faster, a time skip of a month and later a week. They're almost destroyed by angst, almost becoming too different, despite loving each other, to be together. And the fucking horrible thing is....HE KNOWS SHE LOVES HIM. He couldn't understand WHY she lied about being there "on vacation". Or WHY she kept rejecting his overtures. And it was driving him BATTY. Well, IT WAS DRIVING ME BATTY TOO! (Basically there's an OW whom she convinces herself he's moved on to, and it isn't until the end when OW is like "yes I love him but he doesn't love me" which anyone with eyes (i.e. the reader) could see. Because despite situations of being over at her house all the time (because sometimes a roof is miles away and you crash where you can) to the kiss (Tanya jumped on him and I believe it because there was no chemistry between H and OW) but mostly because he was SO DAMN PREOCCUPIED WITH OUR h. You just KNOW her picture is going to be on his wall in his bedroom (it is). And you know he's going MAD with her so near and avoiding him and you know the lines of depression are caused by the h. And despite opportunities where she could clear it up, like maybe "where's your girlfriend" for an icebreaker, our h stews and stews and makes her life miserable and feels sorry for herself and her lost love. Which wasn't so bad in half 1 where we got to see him around, but got annoying in part 2 when he wasn't around so much except in her musings of "woe is me".
And THEN. After ALL the angst we are put through...THE RESOLUTION DOESNT COME UNTIL THE LAST PAGE and 1/16. And then it's MARRY ME. I LOVE YOU. They had JUST had an angsty "we've both changed" dinner and weren't really still together despite him KNOWING she loved him and didn't actually come on vacation.
Basically, communication would have made things so much easier and would it kill the author to put some happy couple times in the book? Or an epilogue? At least his proposal contained all the things I'd been waiting for the whole book. "I missed you immediately. I was going to write you a letter showing you how important my work is to me and ask you to join and hoped you'd love me enough to join me in a world with no electricity. You came early, I went into a tailspin because I didn't even have a half-decent place for us to live. I love you, now and always. Marry me." (paraphrased).
One thing to note: Rape never really came into it, despite another reviewer's review. They almost had sex twice. Once, when it was more consensually than being hit with the Lurve Mojo and changing her mind-she had woken up from a nightmare and energies were charged and she was wholeheartedly consenting-until H had to leave to take his employee's wife to the labor ward. And then, towards the end when she's drunk, he makes it sound like he will take her against her will, but he says "oh no it's not rape. I'm going to make love to you" and basically even though he wrangled her into the room, he starts being gentle with her and that they were making love the way they should have a long time ago, but he puts his foot in his mouth and she's still freaking out over OW and when she says stop he does, because he's not a rapist or into dubious consent. That one has a little more purple Lurve Mojo but like 5% and 95% sanity. So this is a safe book. And there's no actual sex. Ever. Just a rushed ending that didn't give us enough happy after all the angst we were put through. But.
No cheating.
No REAL OW threat. Just in her head. But he only has eyes for h.
HEA.
No Epilogue.
Could be better with less pointless angst, and a longer HEA, and an epilogue. And more physical H in part 2.

[Naksed · Rating 2 out of 5]

Insipid Pick-Me girl from New Jersey goes in hot pursuit of the rich, handsome man who dated her for a short time then dumped her and moved to Africa to work for the Peace Corps. She shows up on his doorstep in Kenya uninvited and when he reacts angrily, she immediately gets into a weepy tantrum and thinks of killing herself! What????!!!! Guuuuurrrrrlllll. The hero propositions her for a quickie vacation fling and she is half-tempted, half-disgusted at his caveman antics. Even when his local girlfriend shows up on the scene, our Pickmeisha is undeterred. Anyone with a shred of pride would have packed up and left, but this idjeet actually finds a job so she can stay there indefinitely and pine for her man from afar. I was dying of second-hand embarrassment for the entire duration of the story up until the most unbelievable marriage proposal and supposed HEA.

[Miki · Rating 3 out of 5]

The H and H are a little hysterical for my taste but basically a good book.