Πρωτόγονος Κόσμος - Χρυσά Άρλεκιν #23

by Karen van der Zee

Δεν φανταζόταν ποτέ η Τζάκελιν πόσες δυσκολίες θα συναντούσε πηγαίνοντας να δουλέψει στη Γκάνα της Αφρικής. Μα πιο πολύ δε φανταζόταν πως θα συναντούσε έναν τόσο αυστηρό και απαιτητικό προϊστάμενο, τον Ματ Σίμονς.
Κι όμως αυτός ο άνθρωπος κατόρθωνε να ξυπνήσει μέσα της αισθήματα πρωτόγνωρα που ούτε η ίδια δεν μπορούσε να προσδιορίσει. Μήπως ήταν αγάπη; Μόνο που δεν ήξερε που θα την οδηγούσε αυτό το αίσθημα, αφού η μόνη γυναίκα που αγαπούσε ο Ματ ήταν η αρραβωνιαστικιά του η Ντάιαν.

Genres: Harlequin Romance

160 pages, Paperback

First published May 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

[Naksed · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was trying to get away from Lindsay Armstrong and her heroes who are always obsessively in love with the nasty OW while treating the nice Mary Sue heroine as second best.

So what did I get? Karen van der Zee's brand of heroes who are always obsessively in love with the nasty OW while treating the nice Mary Sue heroine as second best.



Too bad. This was a solid four star read of an office romance between a strong, smart, classy heroine with a backbone and her charismatic if unnecessarily rude boss whom she thwarts very satisfyingly at every turn. The two of them are working for an aid and development agency in Africa so we get a very nice travelogue and plenty of interesting secondary characters out of that.

Unfortunately, the whole thing falls apart when hero's fiancee dumps him via letter and he goes into a deep, drunken depression that lasts for months, even taking temporary leave from Africa to go chase after her (she is a jet setting model based in New York).

Heroine undergoes a complete personality change when she realizes she is in love with him. Despite her friend's good advice to wait til the hero at least gets over the fiancee, heroine uncharacteristically throws herself at him and he rejects her brutally.

Then we get a very abrupt ending where the hero confesses his love for the heroine when she threatens to resign.

I never EVER got the feeling that he loved her or that she was anything but second best. He admits he was (still is) obsessed, fascinated, and besotted to the point of insanity with the OW, despite all her selfishness, cruelty and materialism. He keeps comparing the heroine favorably to the OW by saying how much he admires the heroine for her fortitude, intelligence, and kindness. But in my opinion, the heroine is a soothe to his broken pride and shattered ego and he really has not had the time to get over the OW when he proposes to heroine. This is 109% a rebound relationship.

Author wisely keeps OW off the page because she knows that if OW waltzes back into their lives, the hero would drop the heroine like a hot potato. It almost would have been worth it to have gone that route but only if author managed to make us believe that hero once and for all gets over the OW and returns to the heroine out of his own volition and then gives a very necessary grovel. It is a very difficult trope to pull off and I can't even think of an instance in HPlandia where I really 100% believed in such an HEA, and in this particular case, what the hero and heroine have is definitely an HFN.

[StMargarets · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Ghana setting is the most compelling part of this story.

Heroine grew up in Ghana, has an extensive education and language skills, but has had trouble finding a job because of her fragile beauty. Hero, her boss, is disappointed in love since his model girlfriend couldn’t hack life in Africa. Her parting shot was to mock his idealism.

So, hero is not receptive to the heroine when the head office sends the h as his assistant. Heroine is defensive. They bicker constantly yet “fall in love.” How that happened I can’t say. They both did a lot of flouncing off and harboring misunderstandings and hurt feelings.

I’ll guess we’ll have to take the H/h’s word for it that this is an HEA.

[*CJ* · Rating 2 out of 5]

"Sweet Not Always" is the story of Jacqueline and Matt.

Honestly, this was NOT a love story. This was dramatic events that culminated in the possibility of love.

Our h is Jacqueline Donnelly. She has just got a job as an administrative assistant to Matt Simmons, who is the owner of a food providing company to the needful in Africa. She is also excited to return to Ghana, where she had spent her teenage years with her missionary parents.

However, arriving there- not only is no one there to receive her at the airport, Matt Simmons has no idea that she is coming! Her boss is a chauvinistic pig, who does not want a woman assistant, and this is where things are actually good in the story.
The heroine here is strong and cunning, and decides to deceive the hero, pretending to be a college graduate instead of a well experienced and traveled secretary. The H expects the heroine to fail at every turn and hate the place, but our heroine excels, not only at work, but also in her personal life and makes the hero realize her worth.

But once the hero discovers her truth, things get weird. The hero is still reeling from a fiance who abandoned him, the heroine is openly dating OM. They start kissing randomly, but its always followed by the hero pushing the heroine away. The heroine then suddenly finds herself insanely in love with the hero, the hero then pushes her away, we have a running away sequence with ends in an abrupt confession and hope for HEA.

It ends in a romance. It is not one.
It is however, a beautiful representation of Africa & its people, and I adore the love and respect with which the author portrays it in her book.

SWE
2/5

[MissKitty · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't really like this one. It started off well and there seemed to be chemistry between the characters and then suddenly the H was so devastated over his fiancée breaking up w him. What!! First we are all under the impression that he had a girlfriend who left but nothing serious and he seemed to be flirting w the h and kissing her. Then the fiancée break up?! And further misunderstandings after that... It just didn't do it for me. All explained in the end but it felt anti climactic somehow.

[Fizzydrinks · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't buy the HEA atlhough they can make a go of it esp since the h had already lived in Ghana before. The H was still recovering from his previous relationship and not only did he act out his frustrations and assumptions on the h, I'm not entirely sure he truly loved her. St Margarets is right, the actually compelling part of the story was the Ghana setting and the fact that the h politely put down and corrected a caucasian middle aged couple on the flight over, who were very scared to be visiting "Africa" and were disappointed when she told them it wasn't just mud huts, half naked women and the lot.

[Caz · Rating 1 out of 5]

There was barely any romance in this book, but the MMC is such a chauvinistic, cruel and demeaning player it's probably just as well. He's a master at leading the MFC on with flirtation/kissing/groping, but then instantly shuts her down/out ... on one occasion, treating her with humiliating contempt when she begs for a kiss on his return from vacation, whereas she's expected to welcome his sporadic, blink-and-its-over bursts of lust whenever he feels like it. The endless misunderstandings, assumptions and lack of communication between them make them a terrible couple; I didn't buy an HEA for them at all.

[Aswathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

If the Jacqueline had come to me for relationship advice for all her woes then I would have asked her to run the opposite way and never look back . I mean with the way the hero and Heroine of this book was at each others throat I would have told them even if they start a relationship they will be soon be divorced !!! Enjoyable read still... so everyone please give it chance.

[Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great old Harlequin to read. Has all the angst and drama we expect from a Harlequin written in 1979!

[Gracie Lou Freebush · Rating 2 out of 5]

Really wasn’t a love story… all over the place. But the setting was beautiful

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love it when the guys aren't complete arrogant sods and can admit to being the guilty party, as with Matt here.