What do you think?
Rate this book
Free to Love
Katrinka Graham tries to find happiness with her second husband Mark, as she attempts to build a relationship with her son, Christian.
- GenresRomance
608 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1993
2 people are currently reading
63 people want to read
About the author
Ivana Trump
11 books14 followersIvana Trump was a Czech-American businesswoman, author, socialite, and former fashion model. She was the first wife of Ex-President Donald Trump. They had three children: Donald John Jr., Ivanka, and Eric Fredrick.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
April 25, 2017
Just before I graduated from high school, and I suppose around the time that her divorce from our current (p)resident was finalizing, Ivana Trump published this book, _Free to Love_. As its yellowing pages and antiquated cover design can attest, it is a relic, and it has stood on our library's bookshelf for decades, waiting to be discovered by me in the normal course of my job. I was supposed to weed this book, and now, because I checked it out, it will stand for three more years - hopefully three years longer than her ex-husband's time in the White House.
500 pages of intrigue, skiing, interior design, gossip and starfuckered parties later, I have finished this albatross of a book, and it's everything I expected and less. Ivana (or, as her contemporary critics supposed, her ghostwriter) spins a perfectly cromulent tale of the rich doing what and who the rich do after the manner of Jackie Collins and Danielle Steel - at least, them in that same period. The three-way presidential race as a backdrop, Ivana pulls from NY society and global events of the period to weave a story that would be epic in scope if it weren't so melosoapoperadramatic in its execution and tone. There's infidelity, risky sports, business machinations, secret homosexuality, gossip columnists, fundraisers, name-dropping, pregnancies, trips to Europe, a kidnapping, a rape, some deaths, lots of crying and plastic surgery; shit, what doesn't this book (that I read so you wouldn't have to) have?
The initial appeal for me, however - the idea that there might be, within these pages, a cartoonishly exaggerated version of 90s era Donald Trump a-lurking - was paid off with dividends and to great effect; he's the fucking villain of the story! He hatches an evil plan or two that drive the story forward and have far-reaching and terrible repercussions! He hits on an 18-year-old foreign girl! He drinks too much and hangs out with hookers while sporting a pointless semi-erection! He's childish and petty and stupid while simultaneously being not entirely without guile! It's everything we've all had decades to come to hate about Donald J. splattered on the page and pushing the story along, like a gold shopping cart full of jars of scotch & bile.
Interesting without being much fun, but fascinating in its way.
500 pages of intrigue, skiing, interior design, gossip and starfuckered parties later, I have finished this albatross of a book, and it's everything I expected and less. Ivana (or, as her contemporary critics supposed, her ghostwriter) spins a perfectly cromulent tale of the rich doing what and who the rich do after the manner of Jackie Collins and Danielle Steel - at least, them in that same period. The three-way presidential race as a backdrop, Ivana pulls from NY society and global events of the period to weave a story that would be epic in scope if it weren't so melosoapoperadramatic in its execution and tone. There's infidelity, risky sports, business machinations, secret homosexuality, gossip columnists, fundraisers, name-dropping, pregnancies, trips to Europe, a kidnapping, a rape, some deaths, lots of crying and plastic surgery; shit, what doesn't this book (that I read so you wouldn't have to) have?
The initial appeal for me, however - the idea that there might be, within these pages, a cartoonishly exaggerated version of 90s era Donald Trump a-lurking - was paid off with dividends and to great effect; he's the fucking villain of the story! He hatches an evil plan or two that drive the story forward and have far-reaching and terrible repercussions! He hits on an 18-year-old foreign girl! He drinks too much and hangs out with hookers while sporting a pointless semi-erection! He's childish and petty and stupid while simultaneously being not entirely without guile! It's everything we've all had decades to come to hate about Donald J. splattered on the page and pushing the story along, like a gold shopping cart full of jars of scotch & bile.
Interesting without being much fun, but fascinating in its way.
September 1, 2020
This novel is certainly not great literature! But it is so foreign to how the rest of us live that it is entertaining in it garishness. The continuation of the story of Katrinka and her world wide friends, houses, hotels, parties, scandals and whatever you can think of. Marrying her second husband, finding her son who turns out to be a real hard case, having another child and keeping everything together. And I certainly wouldn't be surprised if everything wasn't based on Ivana own life! As 'they' say 'write what you know'.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews